Shrimpy

how hard is it to own/keep/ maintane a saltwater fish tank. use the scale of 1-10 and 10 being the hardest

atmmachine816

Uh 1, just like freshwater. If you have patience and do your research it's pretty simple. Sure you will run into a few problems along the way but if you did your research or get some help here it's no problem. My SW tank is no more maintence than my FW tank.

armadillo

SW feels so scary, though. Isn't it more expensive than FW?

Callum The Cat

atmmachine816

All depends on what type of tank your comparing it too. Reef to a heavily planted tank they aren't going to be that much different in price when you figure in special substrate, light, co2 etc. for the planted tank. If you just talking about a basic fish tank with a little live rock it could be fairly cheap. All you need is the basic equipment and you can make your own live rock to save money and regular stock lights would be fine. Could get a nice tank up for a couple hundred at most.


Ya like in freshwater, I"m no expert in saltwater but some tanks will be harder based on the fish's need, though I think lion fish are pretty easy to keep, don't know about eels

giordanopg

How can I make my own live rock?

atmmachine816

I haven't done it myself but my friend did, I think it's something with a type of cement and water. If you do a google search on it you'll probably find something on it. I know you can do it, just not the way and it's cheaper unless you can get cheap live rock. You can do it for base rock and get some real live rock since you can get live critters and corals with it, maybe agansoo or mike would know how to make it.

giordanopg

Thanks!
I found some info:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/liv...d_Projects.htm

chris2

Interesting project. The only issue I have with it is for $7.99/lb of live rock, will the mats for making it yourself add up to more or less? You gotta figure you're really lucky if you do this right the first time.

Regarding maintaining a SW tank over a FW tank, really similar as long as you care for the tank. SW seems scary for most people because of the cost of some of the fish. If you're looking to put big tangs in your SW right away, you're going to put a beautiful fish in the grave right away. Damselfish and fire shrimp are great in a starter SW tank and last a long time.

Hope this helps.