You can spend the big bucks on salt water tanks but you can also go with a lot smaller budget and if you are going reef, you can build it slowly. You don't have to buy all the live rock at the same time. If you have diy skills you can make your own led lighting system as well as your own protein skimmer and sump/refigium. You can spend as much or little as you want and still have a great looking salt water tank. Craigslist is a great place to find complete sw system for pennies on the dollar--even free.
fresh vs salt
- Thread starter kamikaziechameleon
- Start date
I'll further asses the cost when the time comes. This has been an extremely encouraging thread. What all is in that 30 gallon vid I posted is what I'd love to do.
The tank video you posted has nice coral, but is otherwise poorly stocked for its size. The maroon clown can get over 6", the sea hare can get over 8", and the green brittle star is a predatory species that gets over a foot in diameter (specifically Ophiarachna incrassata). One day it will eat his shrimp and possibly his wrasse.
If you want to go Reef initially you are going to spend a lot of money just stocking it with live rock and coral. Lighting will be a investment on its own. Depending on how big you go will determine how much you'll spend. Coral die too just like fish most times faster until you gain some experience and find which ones do best in your setup. Coral selling at $25.00-50.00+ ea you can see how this can begin to add up fast. But once you got it all going and not buying more fish and coral just maintaining it is not really that expensive but there is an expense that you would not have with just a salt fish only tank.
Will basically mean I have to wait till I have money. Maybe late spring but I'm game to do this.
I ran freshwater in my 75 gallon for 2+ years. It was fun. Grew out a very large Jack Dempsey and a few Featherfin cats. I donated them back to the LFS few weeks ago and turned the tank into non-reef (fish only) salt. My motivation was believe it or not, a small Congo Puffer that I had placed in a 10 gallon salt for the kids. He is now in the 75 along with a Niger Trigger and Foxface.
Changing over the 75 was not $ nor difficult. Replaced the rocks with playground sand from Home Depot was the only overhead, along with some Instant Ocean mix. The sand was 15 bucks and the salt mix was 25 dollars.
I am enjoying the salt a lot. My wife LOVES it. She prefers the colors of the fish etc.
For newcomers, the ease of use all depends on your fish/tank size and your filter setup. My Jack was 8+ inches, the cats were foot total. And when you house fish that large, it's like taking care of dogs - lol. They splash, they move piles of substrait (rocks) every night, and they become moody. Water changes were done every week, they had to be. Large fish eat and crap a lot, and when your water turns to garbage, they will let you know by not eating for sure.
Changing over the 75 was not $ nor difficult. Replaced the rocks with playground sand from Home Depot was the only overhead, along with some Instant Ocean mix. The sand was 15 bucks and the salt mix was 25 dollars.
I am enjoying the salt a lot. My wife LOVES it. She prefers the colors of the fish etc.
For newcomers, the ease of use all depends on your fish/tank size and your filter setup. My Jack was 8+ inches, the cats were foot total. And when you house fish that large, it's like taking care of dogs - lol. They splash, they move piles of substrait (rocks) every night, and they become moody. Water changes were done every week, they had to be. Large fish eat and crap a lot, and when your water turns to garbage, they will let you know by not eating for sure.
Was visiting a neighbor of my parents who has salt water... was not encouraged to get into it 
So much money and such... bland tanks. Part of it I'm sure is his amateur nature, he feeds his fish metro + with every meal so they'll die soon enough of kidney failure he didn't believe me when I told him. He thinks a fish that lives more than 12 months is a long lived fish 
then he was saying he wants to get out of fish because of the cost and overhead and upkeep. Its like common dude you are clearly doing something wrong.
So much money and such... bland tanks. Part of it I'm sure is his amateur nature, he feeds his fish metro + with every meal so they'll die soon enough of kidney failure he didn't believe me when I told him. He thinks a fish that lives more than 12 months is a long lived fish then he was saying he wants to get out of fish because of the cost and overhead and upkeep. Its like common dude you are clearly doing something wrong.