Time for upkeep of SW vs. FW

[cplawrence]

I have been keeping FW fish for about a year and I have been considering giving SW a try. I have a 29 gallon tank that I would start with and see if this is something I want to continue with. (This is actually the 29 I got when I decided to try FW--now I have a 75....) My first question is how much time do you typically spend on upkeep for your SW tank (especially to those of you who keep both so I can put this in context). Before I get too serious about this, I want to be sure that I'm not getting over my head in terms of maintainence.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[HoopsGuru]

I do similar bi-weekly water changes on both my 55g saltwater and 120g oscar tank. The only extra time for my saltwater tank is that I remove the powerheads and clean the main pump on my saltwater tank more frequently because I am more concerned about peak water flow in that tank. In addition, I have to add about 1/2 gallon of makeup water to my sw tank every day. This becomes an issue on vacation because I don't do auto-topoff, which is annoying over the "set it and forget it" aspect of my oscar tank, but other than that they are comparable.

IMO, the startup of a saltwater tank is what consumes most of the time and money. There is much more frequent testing (speaking of reef tanks) involved to achieve various balances, etc. To be honest though, I "tweak" a lot in my tanks rearranging, propagating corals, etc. but that is because I want to. If you can appreciate the time in the first 6 months it may take (extra water changes, etc.) I don't think you will be disappointed.

 

[flamingonhot]

i agree....it takes a lot of time and money to start them up.

in my case i only spend about 20 mins a week on my sw while my fw tankes about 2 or 3 hours a week. it kinda depends what type of tank you have.if yopu have a reef its definitely gonna take a lot more time than if you only had some fish.