Freshwater aquarist thinking of getting a saltwater tank in the future.

[seangee]

My first reef tank was a 4 foot aquarium with an inch of beach sand on the bottom. A heap of live rock I got from the beach, along with the sand and seawater.

Ha my first reef tank was 20 metres.
Ok not mine exclusively. My high school biology teacher was a marine nut and also lived next to the sea (literally, you could step out of the garden into the surf and we all used to store our surfboards in her shed). The school was also a 5 minute run from the beach so when we set up an aquatic society the back wall of the lab was turned into a giant aquarium.

I bet not many people can say they looked forward to double biology on a Friday afternoon, or that a mask, snorkel, gloves and net were required equipment for being in the class

 

[seangee]

I bet not many people can say they looked forward to double biology on a Friday afternoon, or that a mask, snorkel, gloves and net were required equipment for being in the class

No we did not swim in it. We all jogged down to the beach to collect coral and livestock

 

[Colin_T]

I bet not many people can say they looked forward to double biology on a Friday afternoon, or that a mask, snorkel, gloves and net were required equipment for being in the class

I used to like Biology at high school, but only because the teacher was hot

 

[ChefAlex]

Yeah but you are running a reef tank with a trickle filter, protein skimmer and algae scrubber. You also have a heap of stuff that is not needed for a basic tank with a couple of fish in. Yes if you want to go nuts and spend thousands of dollars on gear, but you can do it a lot cheaper.

My first reef tank was a 4 foot aquarium with an inch of beach sand on the bottom. A heap of live rock I got from the beach, along with the sand and seawater. I had a Fluval 303 external canister filter running on the tank. I had an Aquaclear powerhead on a timer, a heater and two x 4 foot long fluorescent globes above the tank. I bought a plastic chamber hydrometer and stuck some fish and corals in it. The tank went great for a couple of years before I changed it to rainbowfish.

Yes, of course a fish only system will have considerably less costs and equipment associated. I’m specifically talking about a reef system, with corals, not a fish only system. A person looking to dabble in saltwater clearly does not need all the costs listed above.

I’ve successfully kept dwarf seahorses for years with only a sponge filter and a heater. It’s a lot more work and failure than freshwater comparatively. The problem with going “bare-bones” in a fish only system is being prepared to do much more daily work and frequent water changes. Keeping basic parameters stable like salinity, temperature, N03 is a lot more difficult with minimal equipment. It also limits you to only hardy species. Clearly you do not need all the equipment for a reef tank in a fish only system but generally things like a protein skimmer are going to make you much more successful, your parameters will be more stable and fish less likely of dying. I would never run a fish only and especially a reef system today with canister filters after 23+ years of engaging and following the saltwater hobby. Many things have advanced to the point that what where certain ways of doing things are completely obsolete. Similar to the way I wouldn’t buy an iMac 98 today, I wouldn’t use a canister filter on a reef tank today.

As far as reefs go, nothing I have listed is considered frivolous. Not sure what you mean by trickle filter filter but I am not using one. There are many ways to cook an egg but the cheapest way is also the hardest and most failure prone. Just my 2 cents.