Convince me to stay fresh water on my 400g

[h0ckeyfreek20]

Moving soon and I'm going to have to sell my current fresh water stock (don't want to risk them during the move) and start from scratch with an 8x3 footprint.

Seeing some of the salt water tanks makes it hard to not want a Marine tank. But a salt tank with no corals and just live rock is dark and really doesn't look any better than say, a fresh water ray tank.

Corals make the tank look amazing. but they add more money and maintenance as well as limitations to only coral-friendly fish. plus supplements and new lighting

My current filtration is easily enough for salt water, just have to add a couple protein skimmers. My cycle rate is above 10x and it blows the sand around in my current FW set-up. This is something I wouldn't want to happen in a marine tank.

Also my RO/DI auto drip system at 50gpd will be rendered useless i assume? because the incoming RO water will throw off the salinity and other tank parameters. So back to water changes if I choose the salt water route.

Anyone had similar thoughts? or reasons as to why you did/didn't convert your tank to salt water?

 

[fishhead0103666]

You can't keep as many fish as you could in freshwater.
Everything is more expensive.
You have to buy salt for each water change.
Everything alive is more delicate.
You might be able to find 10 species of saltwater fish that can be bred vs thousands in freshwater.
Live rock costs a lot.
You have experience with freshwater, you'd be completly new to saltwater and make expensive mistakes possibly.

 

[Lawton C]

Personally, I would stick to fresh water. If this isn't your fish SW tank though it could be a awesome tank, if it is though id stay away from SW

 

[mattison187]

8x3 could be an insane reef setup.. But would cost soo much. I say if you have money like that to play around with, go for it. I probably would if i could.

 

[fishhead0103666]

He would be completly new to saltwater from what I understand so wouldn't a reef be too much for a beginner? He could make it a fowlr in the beginning and slowly turn it into a reef over once he has experience I suppose.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Do a cold water tank with cutthroat trout and grayling

 

[h0ckeyfreek20]

You can't keep as many fish as you could in freshwater.
Everything is more expensive.
You have to buy salt for each water change.
Everything alive is more delicate.
You might be able to find 10 species of saltwater fish that can be bred vs thousands in freshwater.
Live rock costs a lot.
You have experience with freshwater, you'd be completly new to saltwater and make expensive mistakes possibly.

All very true but once the initial cost of setup, water changes wouldn't be nearly as frequent as fresh water?

Personally, I would stick to fresh water. If this isn't your fish SW tank though it could be a awesome tank, if it is though id stay away from SW

Some salt water experience but never close to this size. And fish only

8x3 could be an insane reef setup.. But would cost soo much. I say if you have money like that to play around with, go for it. I probably would if i could.

Not talking a full blown reef tank. Mainly fowlr with hardy corals. my main concern is how much maintenance. hard to vacuum the sand on this tank

He would be completly new to saltwater from what I understand so wouldn't a reef be too much for a beginner? He could make it a fowlr in the beginning and slowly turn it into a reef over once he has experience I suppose.

Definitely wouldn't be full blown reef. Couple pieces of live rock and some stronger corals to start. and add from there. introducing live rock scares me though because it can carry good and bad hitchhikers. have to learn to differentiate the good from the bad.

Do a cold water tank with cutthroat trout and grayling

sorry thats about the furthest thing to what I'm looking for right now haha!

 

[appleton71]

Funny seeing this thread. I posted one recently on R2R asking them to convince me to come back to saltwater. I learned a lot from my last venture into it and I'm looking forward to setting up a 210 FOWLR sometime next year.

Regular water changes aren't as large or frequent. If you have good water movement (which is vital) vacuuming the sand can be all but eliminated. Bad hitchhikers on live rock isn't as common as you may think. If you're really concerned about it, start with dry rock and cure it yourself. It's also a lot cheaper. I picked up 300 lbs on Craigslist for just over $200.

 

[Warborg]

Pros for Freshwater: It's freshwater.

Cons for non freshwater: It's not freshwater.

 

[fishhead0103666]

If you don't want to do water changes often then I'd understock the tank. Understocked tanks can go longer between water changes and require less water changed as everyone know.