What do you think?

[FrAnK3333]

I dont know which one to do. Feed back would be great.

 

[J-Money]

I clicked saltwater. But then again i'm finally finishing mine up . Also, I might be more appreciative if I had more room in my apt. and didn't have to put my freshwater tank in my bedroom, out of normal viewing

 

[parker313]

It depends. What size tank are you wanting and do you have the extra money needed that a SW tank would take? If you have the resources and the space available, I would choose a larger tank and make it a nice SW reef tank. If finances or space are tight, then I would choose a smaller tank and make it a FW tank.

 

[yvez9]

saltwater tanks are nice, but freshwater can be awesome too with lotsa plants and aquascaping!

reefs cost a fortune though....

if you have the money, go for marine, otherwise just go with freshwater

 

[Navarre]

Its a bit of a loaded question isnt it? Asking in a marine forum what would be better a freshwater or a salt water


I have kept both and all i can say is that for sheer enjoyment alone i would choose the saltwater. I kept dwarf cichlids for many years and even though the tank was heavily planetd and the aquascaping looked great, i still felt something was lacking. I have started up marines for the 3rd time and all i can say is that i would not turn back now. There is something new each and every day to look at in a reef setup.

Each person to their own though, i prefer reefs but im sure if you asked this question in the freshwater sections you would get a suitable biased opinion there also

 

[Fishy411]

That question is probly impossible to answer correctly. Sw is Way more expensive and requires way more work but the fish are cooler and probly Have more enjoyment.
fw the fish are much cheaper and you can fit a lot more in a tank. It is also much Cheaper and easier to care for. I will say Freshweater because unless you Know exactly What yur Doing and Have hundreds Of dollars on Hand It would not work out.

 

[hyrookin]

I'm surprised there's any freshwater votes at all!

I guess the simple answer would be it all comes down to
how much time, money, and commitment you can afford.

although marines are not as hard as they seem at first glance,
they require more attention than freshwater.

 

[FrAnK3333]

After posting this I did think to myself what the point there will be no freshwater votes. But all I have is a 20L gallon, I want a bigger tank but my mom wont let me right now for some odd reason. I talked about with my dad and we even went to the lfs and looked at the SW fish. He thinks it would be cool but he said why waste all the money on equiment for larger tanks when in a year or so I can just get a larger tank and in turn have more room for more fish. Im still thining about it but whatever tank I get next it will be salt if not I might convert my current tank. Its just hard because all my fish have to go to my friedns house, I have to strip the tank down, its a lot of work just not sure about it.

 

[ste2k3]

I don't think any of us can choose what you go for, that has to be your choice. I like both equally and so I keep both freshwater and marine . The only thing I will say is that you will only be put off if you don't get good equipment first time round, which will cost £££ especialy if you go for a reef. As for to keeping marines, I don't think there any harder than your average tropical fish, more sensative- yes, but as long as you keep on top of mantanence, then there no harder.

ste

 

[andrew catling]

I previously had a 150 gallon reef tank then moved home.
Taking everything with me just wasn't visable so I sold everything.
Once settled I set up a 40 gallon Discus tank heavilly planted with some stunning fish and although it looked impressive I always felt it was always missing something.
3 years later and some serious grovelling to the wife the Discus tank is gone and I now have a 45 gallon reef tank, just wish it could have been bigger.
The fact that reef tanks are forever changing with new things growing all the time is something fresh water can never match.
Reef tanks win hands down for me.

 

[DannyBoy17]

Kinda biased putting this poll in the Marine section, don't you think?

DB

 

[superman]

It always ticks me off when people say that saltwater tanks are "SO EXPENSIVE!!" I think that the people that say this are people that are not thinking of the possibilities. If you don't want to spend a ton of money on a saltwater tank, then go fish only, or just stick to a smaller tank with a minimal amount of inhabitants. You can definitely do a saltwater tank with a very small amount of money, it is slightly more expensive if you directly compare a freshwater fish only to a saltwater fish only, but that is because of the synthetic salt you need to use in the saltwater tank. A properly maintained saltwater tank can be nearly the same price to keep compared to freshwater.
When you go with a reef tank then the sky is the limit on price, but if you get plugged into a local reef club you can get tons of different corals, inverts, and fish for prices that can't be touched by your lfs.
I definitely voted for saltwater, the diversity of life is much more interesting to view and maintain compared to a freshwater tank that just has some mildly colorful fish, plants, and maybe a couple of inverts.

 

[Fishy411]

Well Fish Only Would still cost a lot becuase without Live rock you Need an Excellent Skimmer. Plus if you compare the ongoing Price I am sure That you will Notice a margin that gets ever bigger between the salt and freshwater tanks. I too Enjoy saltwater Tanks And am Switching to salt in the Future but If you arent Very COmmitted You preobly Wont be successfull

 

[Navarre]

I agree with Superman (although i have been laughed at and ridiculed in the chat room ).
Many scream out that you need to be a millionair to run shuch tanks but this simply is not true. I argued that a freshwater tank with CO2, decent lights/rockwork and plant can be alot more expensive also, i was then told that this was only if you wanted to have "real" plants as platic can be far cheaper. Well the same applies to marines.
Although i would not setup without liverock etc It is possible to get a marine setup running alot cheaper than people are willing to admit. I to agree that the costs are slightly higher than a freshwater setup but i cannot say that its a hobby for only the rich or elite.

 

[superman]

Well Fish Only Would still cost a lot becuase without Live rock you Need an Excellent Skimmer. Plus if you compare the ongoing Price I am sure That you will Notice a margin that gets ever bigger between the salt and freshwater tanks. I too Enjoy saltwater Tanks And am Switching to salt in the Future but If you arent Very COmmitted You preobly Wont be successfull

WHy do you think that there is such a need for live rock? Live rock does a good job of denitrification, but so does a DSB. There are many people that are simply uninformed, as you have stated that a skimmer does the same work as live rock...this is totally wrong. A skimmer takes out organic matter from the water column, the live rock is simply a place where denitrification can take place. Proper tank vaccuming and water changes can elilminate the need for a skimmer (though I would still recommend one, I have seen quite a few successful tanks without one) A fish only tank can handle high nitrates a lot better than a reef tank, so you can even get away with being a little bit lazy on the water changes. If you put a cheaply priced hang on back refugium on the back of the tank with macoralgae and mangroves, you can even go longer between water changes because of the exportation of nitrates taking place in teh refugium. There are very cheap ways of going about fish only saltwater, and even reef tanks, you just have to be willing to study the different ways of going about setting up one in an inexpensive manner, and then be willing to execute the correct steps in taking care of it.