On fence about going salt water & need honest opinions

[CWO4GUNNER]

Everyone who has seen my large freshwater tanks and how well they are kept ask me why I don't have saltwater tanks & fish. I always give the answer, that from what I gather keeping large saltwater tanks and fish are far more complicated and require far more maintenance and AUX equipment if you want them to look good and thrive. Of course I don't actually know becasue I only have a few clues as to the difficulty of premixing required water changes in the bathtub with chemicals and salt, exc, exc.

So here is my question, is it far easier to maintain and get into salt water using one of those small 8-14 gallon bio-cubes with like one sea anemone's and one clown fish then jumping into a large salty tank? Unlike fresh water where to me the larger the fresh water tank the easier it is to maintain, do you think if I get the hang of a small saltwater tank it will give me a good idea how difficult a large 200 gallon salty tank would be to maintain?

 

[rainbowcharmer]

I have no idea on the answer here, but am curious to find out what others think, so I'll be tuning in later. I have been afraid to jump into saltwater for very similar reasons. I can't claim big beautiful freshwater tanks (I have a few, but none that I'd consider showpieces), but I still love the look of saltwater, and am sorely tempted (but terrified of the price and maintenance).

 

[Smok3o3]

I am in the same boat as both of you. Ive done freshwater my whold life and I got it down. I want to start in salt water but not enough knowledge on it yet..

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

Hmmm. It really depends.

I don't find saltwater to be more maintenance. Or that much more expensive (even for the tank to thrive and look good), though you can spend a massive amount if you want to.

Personally I think starting with a medium sized tank, especially for a reef, is probably easiest. A nano is really kind of small and you're limited to very few species. A 40-50g breeder would be a good size to start with, and they're shallow so you don't need massive lighting. There's a lot of options as far as what you can keep in that size, but you're not spending a lot changing out water or anything.

I'm not sure what kind of saltwater tank you're referring to though. Reef? Fish only? Fowlr?

With a fish only or FOWLR, really you could go big and it's going to pretty much be like freshwater, the only difference being the addition of salt to the water (which yes, will make it somewhat more expensive right off the bat).

 

[ChrisK]

I just started my 1st salty, after being on the fence just like you. I decided to start out small (standard 29 gallon) to make sure I could do it. So far so good 2 months in journal in my sig. Basically I read as much as I could, and asked lots of questions. My fears were similar to yours, I was worried about the "more maintenance" thing, but honestly is seems to me there is actually less maintenance than keeping a freshwater tank (especially planted). Cost may be concern for many, to give you an idea, I'm $870 into my 29 gallon not including livestock (i've got more than twice that in my 75 gallon planted). To sum it up I think if your experienced in freshwater, are pretty patient, and are willing to spend the money to do it right, you will have no problem setting a saltwater tank up. Check out the journal in my sig for more details on my setup, and some of the questions i've had..

 

[KLelle]

the bigger the tank, the more water therefore the less likely that something will outbreak and destroy all of your livestock. it's much easier to maintain proper salinity, ph, calcium etc with more water than it is in a small tank, a lot of people have started small then wish that they had just started big because they end up going big anyways! like myself hah you get addicted to saltwater tanks and just need something bigger plus the more pretty fish are only for big tanks just like chrisk said it's more money than maintenance! so be prepared

 

[redfishblewfish]

I have both fresh and saltwater tanks. One point that needs to be clarified when talking salt is whether or not it is FOWLR /FO or Reef. If it is FOWLR / FO, the maintenance, time, and costs would be fairly similar to freshwater….maybe slightly more costs for saltwater, if anything, because of the purchasing of salt. Now, if your interests are a reef tank, your maintenance, time and costs would definitely be higher for the saltwater tank. Equipment costs such as RO/DI water purifier, high-end lights, chiller, reactors, etc.; Maintenance items such as calcium, alkalinity, salt; increase costs in electricity; increased time in maintenance.

With my freshwater tank, it is lucky if I do a water change every two months (I know, I’m lazy). With my salt tank, 10% water change every week.

When I just had the freshwater tank, my electric bill was less than 100 USD. Now I’m well into the 200’s every month, and sometimes into 300 USD.

With my freshwater tank, I’d go on vacation for a week and come home with no problems but slightly hungry fish. With the saltwater tank, I need to find someone to do the daily maintenance….water topoff, alk and calc additions, mag dosing, feeding the tangs.

So I would have to say that a reef tank requires more work and money to maintain when compared to freshwater or FOWLR/FO tanks.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

It sound like your saying most of the high maintenance tweaking is for reef tanks, I have also heard stories of live rock killing off all fish with toxins if disturbed like accidentally hitting a live rock with a another rock.

Im perfectly willing to go all artificial and FO especially since the fish are the prime attraction, if FO can thrive just as well in a FO tank with artificial reefs and plants. I know that sounds pretty spineless but I don't mine accepting my limitations. I have a 50 Lbs container of aquarium salt (Oceanic sea-salt mix) I got free with a CL tank purchase that has been sitting in a unopened sealed container for 3 years, do you think its still good? I keep envisioning a small 14 gallon cube with lava rocks 2 clown fish. ??

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

the bigger the tank, the more water therefore the less likely that something will outbreak and destroy all of your livestock.

I'm gonna have to disagree on that. I have seen people crash huge tanks (220g+), and when you do that you lose a lot more than in a smaller tank.

It depends on what you're keeping and your stocking level. You can overstock a large tank just as you can overstock a smaller tank.

For some complete newcomers to fishkeeping in general I think they may be less likely to overstock a large system than a smaller, just because of monetary restraints, and because they may be likely to buy fish that will outgrow their small system quickly due to lack of research.
But I've also seen people that had the money to spend overstock their large aquarium right off the bat and kill everything.

And I think this rule, either way, is possibly not applicable to an experienced fishkeeper that knows to do the research on what they buy and not overstock.

it's much easier to maintain proper salinity, ph, calcium etc with more water than it is in a small tank, a lot of people have started small then wish that they had just started big because they end up going big anyways!

It is not the amount of water you have. It is the amount of water you have compared to what is stocked and how much is stocked. As far as salinity it depends on how much evap you have and how often you are topping off with fresh water (or whether you have an ATO).

By your logic a 220g aquarium heavily stocked with hard corals and inverts is easier to keep stable than a lightly stocked 50 gallon with only soft corals. That really is not the case.

So I would have to say that a reef tank requires more work and money to maintain when compared to freshwater or FOWLR/FO tanks.

I don't know. Look at some of the freshwater planted setups. My reef setup was no more expensive than some of the planted freshwater setups I've seen.

As far as a plain old freshwater tank with just fish, I agree.

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

It sound like your saying most of the high maintenance tweaking is for reef tanks, I have also heard stories of live rock killing off all fish with toxins if disturbed like accidentally hitting a live rock with a another rock.

Not likely. You may have heard stories, but I have never heard anything like that, that wasn't explained by the person screwing up in some other way.

Most people have to move some of their live rock periodically and they don't kill their whole tank.

Im perfectly willing to go all artificial and FO especially since the fish are the prime attraction, if FO can thrive just as well in a FO tank with artificial reefs and plants. I know that sounds pretty spineless but I don't mine accepting my limitations.

It's not spineless. If you're looking at getting into saltwater due to mainly being interested in the fish, then by all means, there's nothing wrong with that setup. You will have to siphon and do water changes just as you would in freshwater, and keep the nitrates low enough for whatever species you choose, but other than that it won't really be any different than maintaining freshwater other than the addition of salt.
Saltwater fish don't need to the additional nutrients that a lot of corals (mainly hard corals) and inverts need. You also don't have to keep the salinity quite as high as on a reef tank for most fish species.

What I can suggest for fish only though, is to definitely invest in a really good skimmer. You want something that's going to remove a lot of that waste before it starts turning into nitrates, because otherwise your maintenance is going to be higher due to having to do a lot more siphoning and water changes to keep up with the nitrates.

You can also use plants/algae for nutrient export. If you have a lot of fish putting off waste there are some macro algaes that will do really well at removing nitrates and don't need much light or additional dosing of nutrients.
You can either put them in a sump/refugium, or put them in your main tank as long as your fish won't eat them.

I have a 50 Lbs container of aquarium salt I got free with a CL tank purchase that has been sitting in a unopened sealed container for 3 years, do you think its still good? I keep envisioning a small 14 gallon cube with lave rocks 2 clown fish. ??

If it's sealed it should be good. Unless it's gotten moisture in it somehow and is now hard as a rock. In which case you'd have some trouble using it.

I keep envisioning a small 14 gallon cube with lava rocks 2 clown fish. ??

I still think you'd be better off with something at least in the 40-50g range. A 14g is kind of small for two clowns of most species, not to mention just two clowns with lava rock might get kind of boring (maybe not - it would for me).

Either way I'd suggest some kind of calcareous rock over lava rocks. Or just purchase fully cured live rock (it's not going to crash your system like you've heard, it will help).