how to keep 5 fish in 10 gallon saltwater tank

I have a 10 gallon saltwater tank with 5 fish in it
3 Clownfish (one is black)
A Damsel and one other fish.
I have a 20 gallon filter and a heater. i dont have a skimmer.
I know 5 fish is too many for a ten gallon but I want to keep the five fish all in my ten gallon.
Im just looking for an answer as to how would i be able to attempt this and keep all five. how big of filter would i need.
If i have to get rid of some fish i will but thats not what im really asking about right now.

 

Get a skimmer, do weekly water changes, get rid of three fishes. You can almost always trade fish in to the fish store for store credit.


Never keep 3 clowns together in a small tank

 

the odds aren't very good sorry

 

Alright, a few questions:
1. How old is that tank?
2. Is the 20 gal filter a fuge/sump or a HOB rated for 20gal?
3. Have you done any research regarding the fish you have?

 

+1 looks very young. Has it cycled?

 

The Tank is only about 2 weeks old.
The Heater is says submersible heater Calentador sumergible. HT 30. up to 30 gallons.
The only thing i know about the fish are that the damsels can get mean. The three clownfish seem to stick together alot. ALot...

 

two weeks in total? so that means that your tank is not even cycled yet.. you should have waited until the cycle was complete before adding any fish at all..
did you add all of those fish at once??
( i might say even in the 2 weeks lapse it is way to fast as well for your system making it worse since your tank was probably not cycled)

10g is kinda small for a clownfish, let alone 3. since you already have them in there i would really check my water parameters and do frequent water changes to prevent high levels of ammonia. a skimmer would be a nice idea if your not willing to take those fish back to the lfs.

i personally would recommend you to take some of your fish back to the lfs if you dont want to risk them dieing. ( can leave the damsel but definitely not the clowns)

 

KLStokes

your problems have not yet begun IMHO you will probably lose some of those fish over the next couple of weeks, if you dont remove them.
the tank is not cycled, your ammonia levels will be to high for all those fish to tolerate

my opinion, take everything back except for 2 clown fish and hope that those 2 clown fish make it through the cycle

even better, take everying back except 1 damsel, as IME the one damsel will make it through the cycle

Steve

 

IMO, without proper knowledge in how to maintain overstocked tanks (few in this world know how), it's cruel to keep all those fish. Please send them back to the LFS till your tank has cycled and you've read up a bit more.

Do you have test kits to measure nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, ph, and alkalinity? Do you know the salinity of your water? How are you measuring the temp?

I don't mean to sound harsh, but the reality for those fish is.

 

I don't have 5 fish in my 30g set up.....
started at about 2 weeks with a damsel, waited.....waited some more, added a bit of a clean up crew (a couple of snails and hermits) - waited some more and THEN added another fish, praying that everything went well.

If you read my "Progress" thread in "Show Off Your Tanks" you can see that my tank was not the norm. Short cycle, hardly any algae issues......that doesn't happen often at all. At 4 fish in a 30g I still feel like my tank teeters on he edge of overstock.

At two weeks it's just way too early to have so many fish. Think of it like this: 5 of you in one shower all fighting for the bar of soap. You can always add more as you go but it doesn't even look like live rock or live sand is in there to assist with the cycling....