Harley

I have saved up a fair bit of money to get a new tank. I have a 10 gal. and 2 5 gal. tanks. I have kept guppies, barbs, danios, cichlids , bettas and a variety of different plants. Now im debating if I should get a larger fresh water tank or get a saltwater tank. Just wandering what you think? Also what should I know about saltwater? What types of coral or fish should i use, what filters, skimmers...etc. Also what would be a good tank size?

au01st

Well, the first thing you should know is it will cost more. I set my budget for my 75 at $1000, and that includes getting the tank and stand for $150. Yeah...that budget flew out the window a long time ago.

Look around and see what kind of corals you want to keep, and that will determine your budget for lighting. If you want a fish only tank, the setup will only cost more than freshwater in the form of salt, the lights would be standard fluorescent and no corals or anything could survive on that little light, and a HOB filter will be fine. The next is fish only with live rock, and that would require a minimal lighting upgrade to keep the stuff on the rock healthy, and you could probably grow some mushrooms, and again, a skimmer is not needed. Then there's the reef, which will require a major lighting upgrade (my current light is 216 watts, but I'll need to double that before adding hard corals, and the lights alone will probably run about $400 at least). I'm planning to keep soft corals with my current light, and next summer upgrade to a bigger light setup and move this light over to a "fish only with live rock" setup for some aggressive fish. A reef will also need a skimmer to remove organics to keep nitrates at or near 0.

Also, you'll have to get all new test kits for saltwater, a refractometer, decide if you want a sump, etc. Search around and decide on what kind of fish or corals you WANT and we can help you from there.

Harley

kind of a fan of the clown fish!!

sirdarksol

Good info above.
To answer the one question I didn't hear answered: The bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain your water chemistry. In particular, if you have corals and the like, they can be very touchy to changes in the chemistry.
I wouldn't start with anything smaller than a 20g, and go with bigger if you can afford it.

You may want to look at things that way. Decide if you want: Fish only, fish only with live rock, or full reef setup. Decide the size of tank you want to work with (remember that lighting and filtration costs will jump as the tank size gets bigger, especially if you're going to have corals). After that, as au01st said, we can get more into specific advice.

Oh, yeah, and there's one extra expenditure he forgot to mention on the fish-only tank: The fish themselves. Most marine fish are much more expensive than your typical freshwater fish, at least around here.

Harley

Not going to lie I would ideally like a full reef, I love the colours. not sure what size yet what do you think would be a good size? And right now I'm leaning toward clown fish!

sirdarksol

You could easily do a clown in a 20g tank, I believe. As I said above, the bigger, the better. It all comes down to "what are you willing/able to spend?"

To give you an idea, here's a page that has a 24g setup
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...6&pcatid=13976
The compact fluorescent version can handle the lower-light corals (mostly soft corals, but there are some exceptions)
The metal halide version can handle almost any of the corals, I believe.

In a 24g, you're limited on space. There's only so much live rock you can put in, and there's only so much coral you can put in (especially if you get aggressive corals). On the other hand, you've got to spend that much less to fully stock the tank.

Edit: To give you an idea on stocking costs, I've gone to Liveaquaria and pulled together a very rough list of livestock.

Liverock-20lbs (I can't remember the live rock per gallon guideline, but 20lbs is the smallest amount they sell) Fiji Cultured (meaning it's not harvested from the reef itself), $150 (non-cultured is $100, but is harvested directly from a reef).
Corals-Soft coral nano pack $70
Ocellaris Clownfish (tank-bred) $17 (other types of clowns can be much more expensive)
If you want an anenome for the clown, prices start at around $25.
Of course, you don't have to get all of this at once, and there are ways to cut costs.

caseyholland

I always reccomend saltwater to friend, I just think they are more fun, and, in my opinion the fish just have a special personality. I completely agree that a larger tank is the best way. I currently run 2 reef tanks, and a frag tank. one is only 40 gal and requires alot more time and money in maintenance than my 72 with a refugium, in the long run a larger tank with a proper sump/refugium type filter will save money, in maintenance, and in fish and coral health. Its always dissapointing when something dies, and in a larger more stable system you wont have to deal with that as often, plus some salt water fish have very long lifespans.

Harley

well I have around $1500 and I'm going to the city next week end to see what they say and to see what they have!! I'll keep looking into stuff too!

caseyholland

I have gotten alot of really good used equipment from people who are getting rid of their stuff. I always like to look around to see if people in the area are selling off their old equipment. You might be surprised to see how cheap some people will sell their nice stuff for.Some people just lose patience in the hobby and just want to get rid of their stuff nomatter what

au01st

Keep an eye on Craigslist. I got my 75 with stand and heater for $150. It also came with a bunch of other freshwater stuff like 2 HOB filters, chemicals, food, etc, that I hung on to for my other tanks (my 10 gallon betta tank has a Whisper 60 on it, lol). All the time down here I see people selling their full reef setups - tank, stand, lights, refugium, live rock, fish, etc - for less than $1k. I thought about getting one of those, but the whole point was to have a fun project that I could show and say "I made that", not "I bought that".

travie

Another recommendation is to start out with fish only with live rock before jumping into a full reef setup. This will allow you to get the hang of water changes, keeping salinity levels in check, and overall how maintenance is more tedious in saltwater tanks.

Once you start adding coral you will need to keep track of more levels in the tank besides salinity.

Buy the best quality equipment you can, you will be more happy later.

Best advice that can be given when you are just starting a SW tank for the first time is to research, research, and research some more.

I would start with reading one or both of these books before you even start thinking about buying equipment: the new marine aquarium; Step-by-Step Setup and Stocking Guide, by Michael S. Paletta or The conscientious marine aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists, by Bob Fenner are about the best two books to buy on how to setup and maintain saltwater tanks. They will teach you a lot.