How intensive would it be?

[Spartanhockey89]

This is a question from my family, whose on the fence about supporting SW. How much work, day to day, would a 75g FOWLR be, with a small number of fish, maybe a radiata lion or some community fish. The naysayers say that itd be too much work, but I already maintain an arowana in the 75. The tank would be sump-less, but I plan on re-using my magnum 350 (bad idea?), and maybe a HOB? A typical maintenance schedule would be sufficient for them.

[Cliff]

The answer can depend on how you set-up your SW tank. I find that neither of my two reef tanks are not any more work than my lightly planted 90 gallon FW tank. You can take a look at my tank journals to see how I set-up both of my reef tanks.

Some weeks the planted FW is more work.

If you use a HOB or canister filter for bio filtration on your SW tank, it will be more work than a FW as you will be cleaning that filter at least every week (most people have to do this twice a week) or you'll get a lot of nitrates and will have to clean algae every week (IMO).

If you just stick to live rock and maybe use a HOB filter to run carbon and/or phosphate remover you will cut down on the maintenance and have a better set-up in the long run.

A FOWLR tank can be no more work than a FW set-up

[hockeyhead019]

Like Cliff has mentioned it depends on your tank setup and preparation. If you rush things you'll end up having to fight problems all the time. However if you have a solid set up with the correct measures taken to make sure you don't have nitrates (really the killer of SW tanks since they lead to nasty algae growth in the DT)

If you do know what you're doing and have had a little trial and error under your belt it can be just as easy as maintaining any other type of tank. Weekly water changes and you'll have to dump out the skimmer cup when it needs it. Nothing too crazy