Is germanium based life possible?

To put it simply germanium is too rare. In the Earths crust its concentration is three orders of magnitude lower than carbon. This means that odds of germanium based life on the surface of an Earth-like planet are remote.

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Then, could there be metal based life?

Perhaps. In a lab in Glasgow, UK, one man is intent on proving that metal-based life is possible. He has managed to build cell-like bubbles from giant metal-containing molecules and has given them some life-like properties. He now hopes to induce them to evolve into fully inorganic self-replicating entities. Can there be life without oxygen? Scientists have found the first multicellular animals that apparently live entirely without oxygen. The creatures reside deep in one of the harshest environments on earth: the Mediterranean Ocean's L'Atalante basin, which contains salt brine so dense that it doesn't mix with the oxygen-containing waters above.

What would silicon based life drink?

Liquid N2 (Nitrogen)could be THE solvent for Silicon life. Some speculate a Liquid Nitrogen ocean is beneath the Triton's surface. Also,Methane-ethane lakes could work,as Titan is frequently seen as a place that could be friendly to Silicon based microorganisms. Is it possible for life to exist without water? All living things, from tiny cyanobacteria to giant blue whales , need water to survive. Without water, life as we know it would not exist. And life exists wherever there is water. All organisms, like animals and plants, use water: salty or fresh, hot or cold, plenty of water or almost no water at all.

Then, would there be life if elements did not form compounds?

When elements combine to form compounds, their properties only change slightly. The properties of a compound are an average of the properties of the individual elements. Life could not exist with just 91 elements if they did not combine to form compounds. Can life go on without hydrogen? "Without hydrogen, nothing happens at all, because hydrogen is required to get carbon from CO2 incorporated into metabolism in the first place," says Wimmer. So the energy needed to ignite that initial spark of life is really quite simple.

Silicon can grow into a number of lifelike structures, but its chemistry makes it unlikely that it could be the basis for alien life-forms. The fact that silicon oxidizes to a solid is one basic reason as to why it cannot support life.