1 gallon saltwater tank?

could I set up a 1 gallon or maybe a 5 gallon saltwater tank with a piece of live rock and maybe a snail or small invert and a small fish (not sure what kind of invert or fish would work in this small a tank any ideas?)
do saltwater tanks with live rock/inverts/fish/ annename/coral need a special light to grow or not?I have a tiny filter that works by airflow and uses carbon filter pads but I use cut up cleaning pads for more bateria growth would this work or could I use just a bubbler and let the rock do the rest?

I don't know much about saltwater but id like to learn.

ps:how in the world do saltwater tank owners deside what kind of fish/coral/invert/snail/(and who knows what else) to get for there tank with all the pretty things out there?

 

Sorey but I think a 1 gallon would be much too small for a salt water nano tank.

 

ok so lets make it a 5

 

Nope. Unless you are extremely experienced with marine, I've never heard of it going well. Besides, no fish could be kept in it.

I keep getting from seasoned aquarists that a 28 gallon is the absolute minimum for a beginner.

 

ok so could I keep just live rock in a small tank with a snail or some sort of tiny invert and a bubbler?there was a post before that said you can keep a snail in a 1 gallon saltwater....btw if you can do it with rcs why not saltwater?

 

Allow me to interject, having had a fair amount of experience with nano reef tanks (<30 gallons, but as little as 5)

You can have a pico reef of 5 gallons, I wouldn't recommend going smaller than that since you would have a lot of drastic salinity swings which would harm the fish. Evaporation is something you need to account for with a nano tank.

In a 5 gallon reef, you could have about 4lb of live rock, 5lb of live sand. As for the stock, you could have something like a cleaner shrimp and a yellow clown goby. A yellow clown goby is the only fish I would recommend in a tank this small, you want something that isn't going to swim around much and instead perches on the rock.

You can go with hardy corals as well to bring some extra color to the tank, zoanthids, mushrooms, button polyps and some other soft corals come to mind. You won't need to worry about dosing since you can do large water changes of around 50% every week easily to keep the parameters in check. You will have to make sure to top off any evaporated water daily, and make sure the top off water is fresh, RODI water.

 

hmmm ok but about my lighting thing do I need a special light for coral or inverts?
also do I need a filter with the live rock or just some water movment like a bubbler?
can I use tap water and do I need to buy a saltwater test kit?

the only way id do it is if I could do it cheaper.

 

From experience I went with a ten gallon Saltwater tank... It went so horrible... Just don't try it
expense=time
and a small lower budget tank= low amount of time for tank to run

 

it probably won't ever happen but I was looking at the options.
I still want to know about lighting for corals/inverts
and if post #7 might work?

 

From experience I went with a ten gallon Saltwater tank... It went so horrible... Just don't try it
expense=time
and a small lower budget tank= low amount of time for tank to run

I haven't personally had a problem starting out with a small tank. I started with a 10 gallon as well and it went pretty smoothly. As long as you are selective about what you put in with it and use quality equipment there shouldn't be a problem.

And to #7, your water movement would be with powerheads, an airstone would cause bubbles to pop at the surface causing a ton of salt spray. It would be a huge mess to clean. You absolutely should not use tap water unless the TDS is very low, which is very rare. Tap water has a lot of dissolved organics which would cause a few huge algae problems. An RO/DI unit is a must for long term success in saltwater aquariums.

And yes, corals will need fairly intense light to survive and grow, corals host an algae, zooxanthellae, which are photosynthetic and have a symbiotic relationship with the corals to give them energy. In a small tank, I would just do LEDs so there isn't a lot of temperature fluctuation.

And you will also need a test kit, a refractometer to test the salinity and high end test kits such as Red Sea or Salifert to test your low range nitrates, phosphates, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium and pH.

 

what is tds?and a high end test kit probably cost a lot right?

 

Tds ate total dosolved solids as for a test I'm not sure on the prices

 

what is tds?and a high end test kit probably cost a lot right?

I got my API saltwater master test kit for $50 at Petsmart when I had a 28gal bowfront reef.

 

TDS meters can be found quite cheaply on eBay & Amazon, ApI saltwater test kits are around the same price as the freshwater kit

 

I advise against the use of an API test kit for reef tanks if only because they can't test low range nitrates, which is an issue if you start to include LPS and/or SPS corals.