Should I ever attempt a saltwater?

[Nikita706]

We're obsessed with our fish tank. We spend a lot of time caring, researching and admiring it. But the other day, I was talking to my Uncle (who's had freshwater tanks for over 20 years) and mentioned that we might be interested in a saltwater, and he immediately began talking down the saltwater tanks, saying they were too much work. I'm wondering what all it entails to care for a saltwater tank and if we should ever attempt one.

Thanks so much!

[Drumachine09]

The best advice I can give you, is to do a TON of reasearch. Think about what kind of setup you want to do, reasearch prices, reasearch maintence and other costs, and then make an educated decision on whether or not you are ready for it.

[squirt_12]

The best advice I can give you, is to do a TON of reasearch. Think about what kind of setup you want to do, reasearch prices, reasearch maintence and other costs, and then make an educated decision on whether or not you are ready for it.
yeah like i have been in the same boat as you nikita for about 1-2 years now. I have been researching it (like said above^^^^) and well i think that in maybe another year or less i will try and set up a salt water tank. And i have had freshwater for about....5 years now.

EDIT- Drum says it all aswell.

[Dave66]

Interesting that your friend called marine tanks too much work, Nikita. I've never viewed freshwater or marine aquarium keeping 'work'.

Dave

[Nikita706]

Interesting that your friend called marine tanks too much work, Nikita. I've never viewed freshwater or marine aquarium keeping 'work'.

Dave

Yeah, I feel the same way. In fact, I wouldn't mind having a little more interaction with our tank. I always feel bad, like I'm over-cleaning, or changing the water too often. I can't seem to keep my scruffy little paws out of the tank, lol.

[Dave66]

Other than the learning curve is a good deal steeper and the start-up costs are exponetially more expensive, really, once you get the hang of it, marine keeping is no more difficult than freshwater.

Dave

[2manyfish]

It depends too on what kind of marine tank you keep and how it's set up.

You can have tanks on the freshwater side which take more work too. For example, a heavily planted Amano style tank will take more effort than a normally planted tank. If you are keeping a large aggressive fish like a wolf cichlid you will not be able to keep any snails or plecos in the tank (most likely) and so keeping the tank clean may provide a challenge. Especially if the cichlid decides it doesn't want your hand in the tank either!

You can have a relatively simple marine set up with live rock, clean up crew and a few fish and it can be so very easy to care for.
You could do a SPS dominated reef with all the dosing this requires, testing too - or maybe you can have the whole thing automated which will make the work minimal.
You could do an aggressive marine tank, maybe you like triggers, which will require more maintance on your part since (again like the freshwater tank) no clean up crew will be tolerated.
A softie tank (mushrooms, button polyps, etc) can be much easier to handle than a SPS reef.

It really depends on what you plan on doing with the tank....
:c12:

[CAF]

I had been keeping FW planted tanks for years always wanted a SW tank but I was always frightened by the amount of "work" you supposedly had to do...

I finally got my SW set up around a year ago... I spend far more time and "work" individually in my FW planted than I do in my SW... I could probably have 4 more tanks of SW before the "work" became equal to one FW planted tank...

A lot of the rules are the same for FW as they are for SW. However there is 5 times less oxygen in SW than FW so you have to have less fish. The other issue is the samller the tank, the harder any changes to water chemistry affect it. This doesn't make it any harder, it just means you have to be more careful.