First Saltwater tank

wumpus

Is it necessary to get 20 lbs. of sand?

Pasfur

Ok, the first thing to realize is that you have extremely limited space. Saltwater fish are very territorial, and most small fish require copepods and amphipods to graze on during the day. Without live rock, you will not have the benefits of this natural food source. This limits you to an extremely small fish selection. So, rule #1 pertains to the fish. You can only select one of the following fish "combinations".
1) 1 Yellow Tail Damsel or Blue Damsel. No other fish.
2) 1 Ocellaris Clownfish and 1 Falco Hawkfish. Hawkfish
3) 1 Dottyback of the Pseudochromis genus Pseudochromis (Dottybacks). No other fish.
4) 3 Kaudern Cardinalfish or 3 Pajami Cardinalfish.

There are no other fish in the hobby which have shown the ability to be successfully kept in small aquariums without live rock, in my opinion. Feel free to throw some fish ideas out there, it is possible I have overlooked some choices and I am happy to comment on possible selections.

So, are you comfortable doing all this work when the fish selections are this limited?

wumpus

I think so, but I'd like to build some experience in just normal salt water tank keeping so if this is a different approach than normally taken I may just save money until I have enough for a 30 gallon or bigger. Would I be able to mix and match on the two types of cardinal fish(two Kaudern and one Pajama)? and what about the sand?

Pasfur

You may only need 15 pounds of the sand, but 20 pound bags are generally the smallest available.

You should not try to mix Kaudern and Pajama Cardinals in a 10 gallon tank.

This is not at all the "normal" way to set up a marine tank. A normal marine system is set up with live rock, aragonite sand, and a protein skimmer. The costs add up very quickly. However, there is nothing wrong with gaining a little experience on a simple tank.

Remember when you set up your first freshwater tank. You probably kept a pair of Guppies or maybe just a Betta bowl. This is kind of like that. You get used to some simple concepts, get your hands wet, and learn a little. In the mean time you read, read, read, read everything you can on these threads. You also save for your "real" tank. Then, we convert the 10 gallon into a quarantine.

wumpus

Ok sure that sounds good I'll start getting my hands on the materials in the links you sent me.

wumpus

By the way, I think I'm gonna go for one of the Cardinal fish probably the Pajama.

Pasfur

The Pajama also have the advantage of being extremely inexpensive, and hardy.