Is Marine Really That Difficult?

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wellbeloved747

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Hi, i have fish all my life really from goldfish to tropical but never marine or ''saltwater''

i had a 65 liture fluval tank about 2 years ago but had to give it up when i started secondary school due to not having the time to care for them as i was out taking part in activities. i am now in year 10 and schooling has started getting serious but i am taking part in less activities and have more free time. so i have decided i want a tank again i have a 65cm cube area in my room where i would like to put it and i originally decided to get a tropical freshwater tank but i thought what about a marine tank but i then had a reality heck and thought i don't know anything about marine i looked around around but i got very confused.

i really would like to get a marine tank but don't know anything about them. i managed to keep a tropical tank well and keep all my fish happy so i believe i would be able to keep a marine tank. i have come here to ask for advise in what way they are different to a tropical tank and what is needed, do different checks need to be made, is it expensive to maintain and to start.

if you have any help or articles or videos or anything that may help me i will be happy to hear it
 
If you have kept a well running community aquarium then you can keep a marine one. although some things are a bit more tempermental than others. just a few days ago had my 5 month old tank crash. by crash i mean everything in it died. a tank can crash due to bacteria, algae, contamination, etc. but if you do things right then it shouldnt happen.now all that aside keeping a saltwater aquarium has so far been my favorite fish keeping experience. and bigger is better they are easier to maintain that way. but im not the one to give proffesional advice :lol:. there are far more experienced salties on this site :rolleyes:
 
It's not nearly as hard as many people make it out to be.
Take it slow, read A LOT, learn people to trust for advice and take that advice. You'll be fine if you follow that.
It is a lot more money on the saltie side to do things properly, so do be prepared for that.

Otherwise, start reading up and seeing what you want to keep, ask questions and go from there :)
 
I honestly don't find it any harder than my high tech planted tanks were.

Speaking of reading. I just compiled this, so maybe it'll help some. :D Yes, shameless plug time!

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/369718-marine-aquarium-resource-centre-marc/
 
I get this question several times a day... :) my answer is always:

"No, nearly anyone can keep marines, as it is only as difficult as you decide to make it, there is however, much much higher start up costs for a first marine tank and you cant just leave them while you go on holiday, they would need to be checked daily".

Its not difficult at all, but you might struggle with the start up costs...

You will need a fair bit of equipment, new filtration, powerheads, protein skimmer (some here dont use them but possibly not ideal for first marine tank), liverock is pretty expensive... then there is the Salt and RO water or you can buy it premixed. You cant safely use tap water so you will need regular access to your LFS to get water or buy a Reverse Osmosis unit to purify the water and a load of salt to mix it yourself.

I think my biggest worry in your situation would be regular acces to the shop for salt water (as im assuming you dont drive as you are in school!) and do you have the money to buy all this.

I think for a new setup, you are looking at about £500-£700 to buy everything you need including tank, water, salt, rock, sand, test kit, refractometer, powerhead and so on.

If you dont have a tank already, the Kent Marine Bio Reef is a really fun little tank! Its easy to use and comes as a kit with tank, stand, filter and skimmer in the back panel, heater and powerhead. Around £380 plus about £25 for a test kit, about £30 for a refractomer, about £8 for sand, around £150-£200 for liverock at a shop..... adds up fast!!

There are a lot of corners cut when people know more of what they are doing, buying second hand and equipment laying around. But its a huge risk buying equipment you dont know much about second hand.
 
is it expensive to maintain and to start.

That is highly dependent on what you consider expensive and what you want to keep. It's best to figure out what you want, examine the costs*, and then adjust what you want into something feasible accordingly. There was a time when eating at a fast food place was expensive for me, and that procedure left me with tanks for just snails and hermit crabs as financially-workable options, but you can do some cool stuff even on that kind of a budget.


* EDIT: based on research and lots of it, the most important step. Always worth reading about things even if you ultimately decide you can't have them for one reason or another.
 

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