Which System To Choose

[Mugshot]

Hello, new to the site and a total novice at fishkeeping too, very pleased to meet you all, any help and advice you give now or in the future I can assure you will be gratefully received. I must apologise in advance for all the stupid questions I'm sure I'm going to ask, starting........NOW!
As I said I am an absolute novice at fishkeeping, but I am very keen to start. I've chosen my spot for the tank, am going to plump for a 180 or 240ltr tank (240 is looking favourite at the moment), have visited my local aquatic centres and sussed them out and have started to read as many books, articles, websites and forums I can find. But I have a problem, I'm not sure which system to choose. I prefer the look and idea of a reef system, however, the information I can find seems to conflict so much. On the one hand the suggestion is that keeping a reef system is nigh on impossible for a complete novice, whereas others seem to suggest that it's not that much different or difficult than a freshwater system. I would rather not make a very frustrating and potentially expensive mistake this early on, so which is it to be, do I go with the marine or learn the ropes with the freshwater?
I'm sure there is no defintive answer to this but honest and constructive pros, cons and opinions would be very much appreciated.

P.S. apologies if I haven't posted this in the right section

 

[Tasha89]

Hey!

I'm a novice too!

But as far as i'm aware, marine tanks are easy enough to look after, maintain, etc. But they're a lot more susceptible to change. For example, PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia levels have to be pretty much spot on in a marine tank. You've got much more leeway with a tropical tank. And you can get some pretty groovy fish for a tropical tank as well.

I might be wrong anyway! Someone more experienced will be able to give a better answer!

Tasha

 

[OldMan47]

I have been a freshwater person all my life. That's over 50 years of keeping fish. I have never had a saltwater tank and don't know how to maintain one. For freshwater, once you learn how to cycle a tank and how much to feed your fish you will be well on the way to having some success. The chemical testing we do in freshwater is fairly easy to understand and the fish are not too expensive to keep. If you are willing to put in the work and money that it takes, a saltwater can look really awesome. The hardest part that I know of is that water conditions in a slaty are much more narrowly controlled than we do with fresh water. In essence when I figure that things are close enough in my freshwater tank, the salties will be stressing because their water is just not right.

 

[Mugshot]

Thank you for the replies so far. From whats been said it sounds acheivable so long as you're prepared to put the work in. However, how much can you enjoy the fish if you're constantly stressing about the water, maybe thats part of the enjoyment too.

 

[andywg]

If you read beforehand then keeping SW is just as easy as FW. Keeping a high tech SPS acro-farm will take up a lot of expense and time, but that is pretty much the hardest type of SW tank you can choose to do.

For ideas on what people do maintenance wise, throw a post out in the SW section further down the board.

 

[petertr]

SW is certainly more expensive to set up. IMO

 

[Tasha89]

Thank you for the replies so far. From whats been said it sounds acheivable so long as you're prepared to put the work in. However, how much can you enjoy the fish if you're constantly stressing about the water, maybe thats part of the enjoyment too.

All tanks need a lot of work. Even in a freshwater tank, if something goes wrong it's a lot of hard work getting it right again. I had a problem last week with my nitrite (NO2) levels and all my fish kept perishing. It's taken about 4 days for it all to settle down after doing 20%-50% water changes every day or two. I'm left with hardly any fish now. At least they're ok though!

So in theory, a saltwater tank isn't really more difficult to maintain, but you've just got a bit more leeway in a freshwater tank. And the fish are way more expensive when it comes to SW! I was in our LFS the other day and some guy in front of me bought some live red algae. It cost him £23!! For a bit of weed! lol! His whole total came to something like £430 as he'd bough some live rock, and two aquarium lights. Each totaling at about £173 EACH!! Not that I was being nosey at all!

So my conclusion is, yeah, they look more interesting (although you should see some of the FW tank set ups on here! They're mental! And I though mine was good!!) but they're gonna need a lot of money investing in them (I've already spent about £100 in the past 2 months on my FW tank inc fish, accessories, etc!!) and you've gotta be able to test the water a heck of a lot more often than you would in a FW tank as it's more susceptible to change.

That's it really, oh and don't rush into it. They say not to with FW tanks; but just think of all the hard earned cash that you'll be putting into the SW set up. Could you imagine if it all went tits up?! Do LOTS of research as well! Knowledge is power!!

Tasha