Omg!

[Esfa]

You may not agree, but that is your option. The fact remains that many people happily repeat that SW is too hard/expensive without ever having got near to setting up such a tank. Particularly, many people have problems comprehending that SW does not always equal reef.

I was planning a 10gal saltwater invert tank, and i didnt go through with it because of the expence... the live rock alone would have been £40.

I know that's not loads to you , but for me who gets £25 a month, its quite a bit.

but saying that, I spent over £100 on plant things for my freshwater tanks, so i agree that the saltanity of the water doesn't effect the cost.

 

[andywg]

I was planning a 10gal saltwater invert tank, and i didnt go through with it because of the expence... the live rock alone would have been £40.

Go buy some portland cement, some crushed oyster shells and a couple of plastic bowls (one large with sand in, one smaller to mix in). Mix 5 parts crushed oyster shell to 1 part cement. Add water until it has the consistency of cottage cheese. Place in shapes you want in the sand (you can use inflated rubber gloves for moulds and to make caves).

After a day or so take out the set pieces and place them in a bowl of water. About once a week or so takes out the water and replace. After about 4-6 weeks the rock should stop sending the pH sky high ((edit - The cistern of your toilet is great for this, so long as you don't have too much in the way of chemicals up there)). You now have DIY live rock. Use as a base rock for between half and 3/4 of the rockwork and you have massively reduced the cost of live rock. I bought a largish bag of crushed oyster shell, but I can make live rock for between 50 and 75p per kilo.

And all the above is without approaching the prospect of just doing a FO, and therefore not needing LR (the fact that you don't need live rock can be quite hard to get across at times...).

 

[Esfa]

Go buy some portland cement, some crushed oyster shells and a couple of plastic bowls (one large with sand in, one smaller to mix in). Mix 5 parts crushed oyster shell to 1 part cement. Add water until it has the consistency of cottage cheese. Place in shapes you want in the sand (you can use inflated rubber gloves for moulds and to make caves).

After a day or so take out the set pieces and place them in a bowl of water. About once a week or so takes out the water and replace. After about 4-6 weeks the rock should stop sending the pH sky high. You now have DIY live rock. Use as a base rock for between half and 3/4 of the rockwork and you have massively reduced the cost of live rock. I bought a largish bag of crushed oyster shell, but I can make live rock for between 50 and 75p per kilo.

And all the above is without approaching the prospect of just doing a FO, and therefore not needing LR (the fact that you don't need live rock can be quite hard to get across at times...).

ah wicked! thanks for that mate, i'll have a think about that

Yeah, i know you dont need live rock, but i like the look of it lol.

 

[ALEXF]

Im not trying to put you down kid, but if your going to tell people things and ask for advice your gonna have to be honest otherwise the info you may get may not mean much....if you had only missed one water change in a weeks time period i doubt it would have killed off your whole tank.


Proud Texan
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Find Member's Posts Re:hey , Yesterday, 10:21 PM


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i figured that with the texas symbol, and what we had spoke about. but what happened to your fish?


i was lazy on the water changes and one of my neons died if only i could get a test kit that actually work mine doesn't read anything!


im not trying to be mean but dont you think if you loved them that much you would have done the water changes. I hate doing the water changes but i do 40% weekly just becuase i dont want to waste more money on replacing the fish.


ya ur right i just thought that since its a 30 gal with 7 neons and thats it that i would only need to do monthly changes but i guess im wrong.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

This is not a dig at the above quoted posters, but FO and FOWLR is no harder than a FW tank in both my opinion, and experience. Many of the people who tell people SW is too hard/expensive up in the FW section of the board are those who have never kept a SW tank, many of whom use those reasons either to justify why they don't do it, or to try and stop someone else doing a tank they don't think they can.

I agree. I kept a fowlr a while back and it was no more difficult than my current fw tanks. However he must have slacked off a lot on water changes to kill his fw fish. ime, what will kill an average fw fish will certainly kill similar sw fish. The impression I got from this topice was (I may be wrong) that he is a little irresponsible so he might repeat his mistakes. Also, the running costs are much greater than a fw tank. That is the main thing that made me leave the sw side of the hobby. Everything seemed much more expensive.

Ryan

 

[ALEXF]

The impression I got from this topice was (I may be wrong) that he is a little irresponsible so he might repeat his mistakes. Also, the running costs are much greater than a fw tank.

Ryan

That was might point as well. I am in no way trying to bash him but trying to make him aware of the likely out come of the situation.

 

[CentricOregon]

I agree with basically everybody on the saltwater tank suggestion, there unbelievably expensive, i saw the smallest live coral plant in a shop going for £50 lol i couldnt believe it, not to mention the price for the marine fish. a marine fish at about 5 inch can easily cost you about £30 (probs somewhere around $50 for americans) or more.if you can't be assed doing a water change for 7 neons then try having a cichlid tank! 18 buckets of water i take out my tank every week and as much as i despise doing ( and i mean REALLY despise doing it) it has to be done.my advice would be if you can't do tropical tanks then forget saltwater.succeed in tropical tanks then feel free to upgrade.

 

[ALEXF]

I agree with basically everybody on the saltwater tank suggestion, there unbelievably expensive, i saw the smallest live coral plant in a shop going for £50 lol i couldnt believe it, not to mention the price for the marine fish. a marine fish at about 5 inch can easily cost you about £30 (probs somewhere around $50 for americans) or more.if you can't be assed doing a water change for 7 neons then try having a cichlid tank! 18 buckets of water i take out my tank every week and as much as i despise doing ( and i mean REALLY despise doing it) it has to be done.my advice would be if you can't do tropical tanks then forget saltwater.succeed in tropical tanks then feel free to upgrade.

wow you either have really really small buckets of really really big tank. Either way that would not be fun. I mean i change 5 buckets weekly and its a pain, but its rewarding knowing im taking the best care possible of my fish.

 

[LauraFrog]

Proud Texan, I am absolutely not flaming you but I think this needs to be pointed out.

As everybody has said, the cost of saltwater tanks is a lot higher than tropical or coldwater. It looks like you've done the same as me and saved up for ages to collect enough money. I'm 14 and like krib my parents won't pay for my fish obsession either.
But if you really are in your early teens like us, I think one of your main problems is going to be time. I think you've got brains - so if you want to do well in school, you have to put the time in. There are bad weeks when I struggle to keep on top of my commitments and still look after my fish tanks. The fish come first - they are living creatures and I will not neglect them because I'm busy - but I have cut it rather fine several times. Saltwater tanks need more monitoring, more time and more money put in than freshwater tanks do. A 75 gallon tank is enormous, and whether it's a fresh or salt water tank you have to make sure you've got time to maintain it.

Also, we are trying to help you. You've flamed me personally once (ignoring, by the way, most of what I had written) and I believe quite a few other people as well. We want to help people but nobody is too inclined to help somebody who goes off and flames us in other threads. Most of us know what we're doing. Those of us who don't are trying to learn (or else they're trolls).

 

[Ace Of Spades]

Proud Texan, I am absolutely not flaming you but I think this needs to be pointed out.

As everybody has said, the cost of saltwater tanks is a lot higher than tropical or coldwater. It looks like you've done the same as me and saved up for ages to collect enough money. I'm 14 and like krib my parents won't pay for my fish obsession either.
But if you really are in your early teens like us, I think one of your main problems is going to be time. I think you've got brains - so if you want to do well in school, you have to put the time in. There are bad weeks when I struggle to keep on top of my commitments and still look after my fish tanks. The fish come first - they are living creatures and I will not neglect them because I'm busy - but I have cut it rather fine several times. Saltwater tanks need more monitoring, more time and more money put in than freshwater tanks do. A 75 gallon tank is enormous, and whether it's a fresh or salt water tank you have to make sure you've got time to maintain it.

Also, we are trying to help you. You've flamed me personally once (ignoring, by the way, most of what I had written) and I believe quite a few other people as well. We want to help people but nobody is too inclined to help somebody who goes off and flames us in other threads. Most of us know what we're doing. Those of us who don't are trying to learn (or else they're trolls).

Or spams online chat hmmm...

I wouldnt be afraid to go SW, the only thing that is setting me back is the cost at the moment which I cannot afford, Due to not only getting 90£ a week and ive kind of got no clothes left where ive been spending so much on fishies .....

 

[kribensis12]

Laura that is too true. Also, i think a 75 tank is waayyyy to big. If i were you i'd convert that 30g, as i know i personally oculd never keep up with the W/C and just plain money to keep a 75 g tank.

 

[Proud Texan]

i dont even know if it was nitrate that killed that 1 fish anyways i just assumed because i didnt change the water in a while non of my fish hide in corners/have inflamed gills/ or clamped fins and are very active and alert.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

After reading your posts, I guess I got the wrong impression. Sorry. Neons are not very hardy and I've had some to just die for no reason. It may not be your fault. As long as you do you research, I'd say go for your sw tank!

Ryan

 

[andywg]

Also, the running costs are much greater than a fw tank. That is the main thing that made me leave the sw side of the hobby. Everything seemed much more expensive.

What running costs? If you don't have a reef the only extra running cost is the salt for water changes.

I agree with basically everybody on the saltwater tank suggestion, there unbelievably expensive, i saw the smallest live coral plant in a shop going for £50 lol

And this echoes my point above about people not realising that a SW tank does not have to have corals in it (which are actually animals, not plants as described above). Some of the fish are more expensive, but you stock to a much lower density than FW, so it evens out not that bad in the end.

As everybody has said, the cost of saltwater tanks is a lot higher than tropical or coldwater.

Not everyone. I have set up SW tanks for the identical cost that a FW one would have cost barring the cost of salt. You will notice that the most vociferous support here for SW being really expensive comes from those who don't have a SW set up.

Saltwater tanks need more monitoring, more time and more money put in than freshwater tanks do. A 75 gallon tank is enormous, and whether it's a fresh or salt water tank you have to make sure you've got time to maintain it.

The only extra monitoring of a FOWLR or a FO in SW than FW is the salt level. This I only ever check when I do water changes which is only once every two to three weeks except on my large pred tank. If you can advise someone to do a FW tank then you can advise them to do SW, the differences do not have to be that great at all.

 

[Esfa]

Hmm... i've just worked it out.

and it will cost about £15 for the live rock and a hydrometer... i already have a huge bag of salt... hmm..

but where would i put the tank?