What is the realistic difference between SW&FW

[charles-n-charge]

I'm not going to lie. I know nothing about saltwater. And all my research is not helping me at all.
Basically, I'm wanting to set up a 55 gallon tank up in my livingroom as a saltwater show tank.
The tank is brand new, never used. I'm also planning on building my own filter for the tank which is the least of my issues.

The main things I need to know are:

• What equipment do I need to set it up?
• How much do you think the start-up cost will be?
• How much does it cost to maintain VS freshwater cost?
• How do I maintain it properly?
• What are all th major differences between freshwater and saltwater?
• And anything else you can throw in that could be useful

Also, If you could answer these questions twice for both plain sw and a reef tank that would be great.

If I didn't make sense on anything, or you have any questions about my questions, then feel free to throw that out there too

Thanks

 

[Aqualoon]

Lighting - are you doing fish only or want some corals? If you want to try corals then you need to research what types and what their lighting requirements are.
Water Changes - You can't just use tap water with a bit of conditioner. You will need to get RO water and then add the marine salt and let it age before changing out water. Also you need to measure the salinity so it matches your tank's salinity. Also note in this you need to account for evaporation.

As far as extra equipment you need to have a protein skimmer and powerheads/etc. to keep water movement. I mentioned the lighting above and an RO unit.
As far as how much - depends on the lighting
Cost wise after setup isn't all that much over fresh, just whatever the cost of marine salt is and to buy new membranes for the RO unit.

I had a little 29g reef setup a few years back and it was a beautiful setup, but the water changes were a bit more work then my fresh tanks. And after two major power outages (I don't have a generator) and lost everything I just said forget it. I've talked to other salt guys and the general consensus seems to be the larger tanks are easier to maintain. But call me lazy, I just don't want to do the extra work for a salt tank so staying fresh.

 

[lsgraulau]

For one water chemistry is a big difference. In freshwater you have different streams, rivers and lakes with varying levels of acidity, nitrites, dissolved oxygen, temperature and light among other things. Most of the fish sold for saltwater aquariums come from reefs. Coral reefs themselves are fairly sensitive to water chemistry, light and temperature which means there's not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to those factors. The fish sold as stated before are mainly reef dwelling species which have adapted to live in those conditions that rarely change. This makes saltwater fish technically more sensitive to water conditions than freshwater fish though personally I haven't seen much difference between the two.