How much harder is saltwater fishkeeping?

This might be a better question for the Marine Newbie Forum, although I expect some of our FW folks keep both, too.

Jim

I kept saltwater fish for 5 years succesfully. I quit because of the strain on my wallet. Keeo in mind this was when I was fresh out of college.

Saltwater fish keeping isn't that much harder than freshwater...if you become a knowledgable, experienced FW fishkeeper than saltwater will be easy too.

The down fall is the cost of everything. If you aren't well off, or are young, or are wanting a new house/car/college degree...than saltwater isn't for you!

Moving to SWN. OG

Saltwater is a bit more expensive, but it depends on what setup you want. A few fish wouldn't cost that much more than a planted FW tank--way less work, as well. A full reef setup will put you back some, but not too much more than a planted tank. Setup, as in FW, is the most expensive part. If you are patient and make the effort to maintain your tank properly, though, SW is not any harder than FW. The biggest difference (other than cost) is probably how fast things can go bad. In FW, there's a bit more 'slop', if you will, for parameters. in SW, a little shift can crash the entire tank over night. Nothing that you can't prevent, just something to be aware of.

In my oh-so-limited experience reefkeeping is very stressful!

Right now I have a little over $3500 in this new 90g and just got the rocks in. It is endlessly fascinating, but the initial learning curve is very, very high. It took me from April '03 to October just to learn enough to begin making equipment choices that I hope won't be second guessed in 6 months.
Once that first hurdle is beginning to be overcome you have to learn a whole new set of water parameters (ORP, TDS, calcuim, etc), and begin learning the species under consideration.

The "creature" field is wide open and it's hard to know where to start in planning how you will stock. And knowing which direction you are taking is essential before you add that first creature.

I'd say go for it, but scope everything out well in advance and don't overstep your budget when deciding what to do- because you'll need plenty of leftover $$ to buy creatures.
Realize that reefkeeping is a process that you will never be finished with and that includes forking over cash.

I heard a really good analogy the other day- reefkeeping is to freshwater as piloting an airplane is to driving a car.
The methods are very similar but there are just many more things to be aware of.

While you're thinking about it is an excellent time to do a little reading. It will give you a chance to determine whether it sounds interesting enough, and the background info will help tremendously if you decide to start. What I've found is that once I start reading, I can't help but get started.

Some books that people around here recommend:
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist, R Fenner
Natural Reef Aquariums, J Tullock
The Simple Guide to Marine Aquariums, J Kurtz

Well- I found that once I started reading I was so intimidated that I decided that reefs were not for me.
Then I read some more, bought a book, and again decided that it was too much to deal with in an already hectic life.

Then I went back for the third time- decided that thousands of other folks have learned how to do this and by golly gee I'm at least average in intelligence...

You do have to invest the time though- there is just no getting around that.