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I maintain and love both freshwater and saltwater tanks. My saltwater tanks have been much more expensive and a little more work to keep up with than the FW ones.

I shopped around and tried to be as conservative as possible when starting my 55 gallon FOWLR saltwater tank. Here are some estimates on the basic stuff I purchased.

Tank, Stand, Canopy, & Light - $200
Wet/dry filter with skimmer - $200
Live Sand - $50
55 lbs. Live Fiji Rock - $400
Heater - $40
Powerhead - $20
Return Pump - $20
Salt - $30 for large bucket
Hydrometer - $20
Saltwater Test Kit - $30
Fish & Inverts - $200

Plus I spend a good bit on spring water for water changes. This will change once I receive my RO/DI machine next week.

There are several factors mainly $$$$ and experience. Also the way things are going it is going to be hard to obtain good healthy stock with apprently many new regulations trying to stop the trade in wild SW fish.

Keith

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I actually find saltwater fish to be really boring... The only thing they have going for them is their color.

Most of them don't do anything besides swim back and forth around the tank, and there's only a few commonly available species that you can keep in a school.

Also, all that color makes it hard to focus on just one or two things. Too much color makes the tank look plain and unfocused. But a heavily planted tank with a large school of cardinal tetras is striking because you have so few but highly contrasting colors - green, red, and blue.

And the reef rocks just look like pieces of cement that somone barfed on.

Just my $0.02... Even though I have more than enough money to set up reef tank, it just doesn't interest me. I'll take my huge variety of fish, driftwood and plants over boring fish, barf-colored rocks and corals any day.


Last edited by Cory Addict at 29-Nov-2004 22:39

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

how much more would it be to make it a SW?

As several people have already noted, it can become quite expensive to try your hand at a saltwater tank.. However, if you start out slowly with something like a Fish Only (FO) or perhaps a Fish Only With Liverock (FOWLR) setup you can ease into salt with only a little extra expenditure.. Liverock itself can become pricey, but if you're lucky you can find good deals.. It's also something that you can build up over time, so there's no need to feel that you MUST buy all of your liverock all at one time..

Also, fish (with the exception of the more commonly collected varieties) can definately be on the more "expensive" side.. While some of the common damsels will run you about the same as a lot of FW fish (less than 5 bucks a pop), it's not unusual to spend around $15-$20 for any one saltwater specimen, and even more for some of the more exotic or hard to collect species.. Add to that total the snails, shrimp, crabs and other assorted creepers that SW folks enjoy and you've got a pretty good chunk of change invested into just the animal stock.. But, as with most things, how much you spend in this area is really dependant on the keeper and which fish interest you.. In FW you can spend just as much for your fish if you've a yen for the exotic or hard to find..

Where the big money really starts coming into play is when you decide to upgrade to a Reef tank.. Money for the lighting alone is enough to make alot of people decide against going reef.. Also, corals themselves, depending on the type you want, can also become quite expensive..

is it worth it?

Depends on you, I suppose.. I find it worth it, and have enjoyed having marine aquariums quite a bit.. There's always something fun to watch.. You probably won't find many marine aquarists who won't tell you that they didn't spend hours just staring at their liverock, trying to catch a glimpse of some strange critter creeping around.. IMO, when even the rock is interesting to stare at, that's saying a lot..

However, FW and SW tanks both have their own specific charms and I don't feel that you can really compare them to each other.. A fully planted Takashi Amano-esque aquarium is as breathtaking as a full scale reef tank, but for different reasons..

Either way you choose to go, I wish you Good Luck and have fun with the process..

a few words:

first of all there is no way that fresh water is more intresting than salt. i love fw tanks but there are some amazing things that happen in a sw tank like thousands of inverts. when you buy live rock you should end up with new cratures that live in the rock where when you buy plants in fw you only ever get free snails.


sw is very expensive, but it can be done. first start off with used equipment, if your lucky you might even get the persons LR, if not and you can't afford cured lr, then buy it uncured. it's a little more work for you and a bad smell but sometimes it's half the price, plus you have a few weeks of curing before you buy anything. the cool thing about sw is you don't need everything at once, buy the tank and equip., set it up, wait a few weeks, buy some live rock, wait a few weeks, buy some fish and wait a few months. At this point you did not have to buy those expensive lights yet because there is not coral yet. all i am saying is that if you really want sw then you could spread the tank cost out over a year.

good luck


chris

[font color="#000080"]Marine fish are difiantly more beautiful and have more character in my opinion. i.e The Emperor Angelfish, outstanding colours, great personalities, beautiful shape.
Yes I'll love to have a marine tank one day, but then again I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to afford one or have the time to manage and look after one. So i'm saying if you have the money, time and the commitment to manage a marine tank go for it. If not Freshwater tanks are still great, as they offer more Variate and are alot cheaper






Last edited by PJ at 29-Nov-2004 02:23

Generally speaking, marine fishes are more beautiful than freshwater species. But anyway, not every people have the amount of time and money to spend in a saltwater setup.

After 2.5 years with my 55g, I've been spending about $10 per month, obviously having all the equipment previously. Every water change I just replace the floss at the canister and quickfilter every 15 days, rinse the sponges and even changing the active carbon it would be rougly $15 dlls every month.

Saltwater aquariums are very care demanding, at least checking the aquarium twice a day to ensure everything is ok, while every water change sets you back some dollars from the salt wasted in the process (if you don't have much live rock).

Stick with fresh water
sw tank set ups are very costly

and the fish are twice the price as (fw) fish and the (fw)
can be just as colourful.

i guess it would be best just to wait till i get a bigger place and a bigger wallet.

i think ill make it a palnt tank with some small tropicals.

thanks

I've never had a SW tank , but at one point I wanted to have a SW tank , but after doing some research its cost a crap load to setup and maintain.

if i were to get another 55usg,

how much more would it be to make it a SW?
is it worth it?:88)

i've estimated an FOWLR tank i and it wasn't more than 600

I'd have to disagree-if done right, SW tanks are proabbly the prettiest tanks out there. But between the live rocks, the inverts/corals, lighting, and the fish, you're looking at over 1 grand for a 55 gallon (maybe I'm exaggerating, I don't know). On top of that, you'll need to care for your corals probably even moreso than you will for your fish. Fish only tanks are another way to go. They can be nearly as beautiful (the fish being the focal point of the tank, not the aquascaping), and much cheaper. SW fish only gets my vote.

then there is allways a refugium heheh just double all your initial costs with out more fish lol. after you fill the mian tank with live rock and live sand and whatever other critters that are going in there you got ooooh 10 gallons left for a fish lol. Thats why most SW tanks are so huge. for every 50 gallons of tank you get to have A fish lol.

Last edited by Sin in Style at 28-Nov-2004 15:14

Freshwater. Save you the trouble of converting back to freshwater when you decide live rock isn't really as aesthetically pleasing as a planted tank. That's my opinion/experience anyway.

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most LR cost $5 - 6 any more money is a ripoff.

It's gonna cost you $500 alone for live rock to fill up that tank (They suggest 1 - 1.75 lb of LR per gallon)

Im gonna say around $1000 all togerther.

If you include the tank setup - $1500 - $2000

How much money do you have?? 55 pounds of live rock alon is going to cost at least 500 then there a protien skimmer, filter, fish, sand, coral, lighting get the idea?? if you have a 1000$ to spend then go with saltwater if you odnt stick with fw.!

I would stay with freshwater... A lot more interesting than saltwater in my opinion.

There's a better selection of better fish with freshwater, and also plants.

Even the best reef tanks look like crap compared to Takashi Amano's tanks.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

SW is more expensive, if it's a matter of cost go with FW . You'd have to take into account your Live rock (LR) which from what I know around $10/lb, then there are fish and any corals that you'd want

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....I dont know about you but i am burning a hole in my pocket with just FW!