Is SW more difficult than FW or simply more expensive?

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To some degree FW can be just as costly as SW and just as complex if you go into the planted tank setup and go beyond just putting on higher output lights and putting some plants in. Having to deal with CO2 and ozone for large planted setups can be quite complex IMO.

I do feel for a standard FW setup vs a standard SW setup the SW setup will have more upfront costs and to some degree some higher ongoing costs but you also have more of a cost the more complex you want either setup.
 
In my prelim reasearch on SW I think it's both a little more expensive upfront and a little more complicated than FW. If you're doing a reef it's WAY more expensive than say a FOWLR, but what makes the diff to me in the complexity is that all us freshies have to do to do a PWC is usually just dechlor our tap water and add. For SW, I don't think most use tap water....RO must mixed with the salt to get the correct specific gravity and added very carefully. This would require a little more complication I would think.

Also, most SW fish cost quite a bit more on average than FW fish, but they are undeniably gorgeous. I might go over to the dark one of these days. As soon as I find me a sugar daddy. LOL
 
SWA are so much more better. But they require a fat wallet to keep them happy. And yes it is harder but depending on how many years and experiences youve had w/ FW will prepare you for SW.
 
crazyred said:
For SW, I don't think most use tap water....RO must mixed with the salt to get the correct specific gravity and added very carefully.
Think of it this way. You know how much dechlor and how much water to use in your PWC bucket. SW is the same. After a few times I knew how much salt to put in the water, for the right salinity. I know nothing about FW so that is all Greek to me.
I do admire the decorations and the different aquascaping you folks come up with. They are just AWESOME! Actually, that is about the only place in the FW that I like to look at (tank shots). Each time I see really cool ones, I'm like, man I need to get me one of those! Unfortuantely, my imagination is somewhat lacking...LOL!
I can't compare cost, since I have not attempted FW, and don't know the cost involved.
 
Well, interesting thing about that is, I don't use buckets, and neither do most freshies with large tanks. Lots of use Pythons that hook up straight to the tap. We suck the water out in one direction and add straight back in the other adding the required number of dechlor drops while the new water goes in from the tap. No mixing, no measuring, no buckets. That, to me, is the biggest advantage to FW. I doubt that most SW folks can do that.
 
I agree, lots of us like to premix our SW to get our parameter as close to the tank's as possible.
This is my schedule:
Friday-add salt, water(I'm on on well water, so I don't have to use dechlor), heater, ph.
Sat-test salinity, adjust, if needed
Sunday-watch football, do tank maint, pull water into room, siphon out and pump new water in. So, for me, it's not super hard or time consuming. Probably takes about 15-20 minutes, total.
Thanks for clarifying the python PWC, I kind of wondered if you folks pre mixed or anything....
 
roka64 said:
crazyred said:
For SW, I don't think most use tap water....RO must mixed with the salt to get the correct specific gravity and added very carefully.
I know nothing about FW so that is all Greek to me.

:D I hope it was all Greek to me too !! You see, I´m Greek... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Kostonia, sorry if you know this already and I'm really sounding like a dork, but the saying "that's greek to me" simply means "I don't have a darn clue". Like trying to read a different language. But hey, I think you are the only Greek person on this board, so welcome! :)

I do not think sw tanks are harder to maintain than fw tanks at all. Once you figure out what you are doing, and if you do it right the first time, sw tanks are a nice self contained habitat. They require simply a water change atleast monthly to replace trace elements and lower nitrates, but the equipment is expensive. Where I dropped about $400 on my 55 fw tank, I've spent probably close to $1,500 on my 29 gallon sw tank. I also did things the expensive way, which I learned was not needed. I used live sand, bought the most expensive live rock, and corals are not cheap. A FOWLR tank can be done with little money and can be just as rewarding as a full reef tank.

Just my opinion of course. The people that have it worst are those planted tank people. With the measurments and the CO2 and all the monitoring that needs done. No thanks. :)
 
Now that I think of it, LR can be a very expensive, and might be the one thing that wold shoot the cost up over FW. Think, you need about 1.5-2Lbs of rock per gallon. My LFS sells LR for $8.99/Lbs. So a 100 G tank=$1348, just for rock. Of course, you could use a mixture of base rock for about $2-3/Lbs....
 
Planted tanks don't have to be hard. I use liquid ferts and if you can understand how much dechlor to put in, you can understan how much Flourish to put in. As for CO2, yeah, I guess the high-tech pressurized can be complicated, but it's not really an absolute must. I know people that have fabulous planted tanks with high light and Flourish Excel only.

I guess it's all in perception on tank difficulty. I think that a reef tank would be next to near impossible. I think I'd kill everything in there. Those corals sound sensitive to the least little thing, and needing MH lights, chillers, and all that other stuff 8O 8O....I'll stick with my planted tank and my DIY CO2.
 
My 10 gallon FOWLR is a piece of cake to maintain (even with mixing salt) compared to my 55 gallon high-light planted. I was nervous to start my first SW tank but once i did I was amazed how easy it was, compared to the planted tank. I add 5 or 6 different nutrients to my planted tank several times weekly.

Really, though you can make your tanks as simple or complex as you want, it just depends what you want. A high light FW planted tank or a reef tank are going to be more expensive and more work. A low light planted or FOWLR tank is going to be easier and less expensive. I do think the initial outlay on any SW tank that has live rock is going to be more, though.
 
I don't believe sw is any more difficult than fw, but rather different aspects to consider in regards to husbandry efforts. The general cost of sw is much higher than fw, though.
 
as someone who kept fw tanks since i was 7, and just started a few weeks ago for my 19th birthday a sw fowlr tank, i can tell you a few things newbie sw people go through, the most prevenant being:

If you have a smaller tank, warm water evaporates really quickly, and even a tiny bit of evap will change your salinity. SW fish need their salt levels to be between 1.020-1.024

so you can see it flucuates when water evaps, and salt doesnt

if you can get past that (and the mass money involved) its not much harder. PWCs are more complicated, i'll admit though
 
Hmmm. When I kept a small nano reef, I did'nt do any pwcs or use a protein skimmer. I had a 10 gallon hex with 2 Coralife fixtures yielding 6 wpg to a depth of alomst 15". The best investment I made thru the whole thing was buying a canister filter, a fluval which kinda made things pricey up front but it did the work of a filter and skimmer...

Beyond buying supplements, which were'nt much more expensive than the similar live plant nutrient mixes, I would say the costs were a little higher, but were absolutely marvelous to behold. Watching the tongue coral grow and see its tentacles dance in the current was amazing and very rewarding. So, if someone is willing to put some thought, research and some hard work into it, sw can be easily more rewarding and involving than freshwater imo.
 
kostasonia said:
roka64 said:
crazyred said:
For SW, I don't think most use tap water....RO must mixed with the salt to get the correct specific gravity and added very carefully.
I know nothing about FW so that is all Greek to me.

:D I hope it was all Greek to me too !! You see, I´m Greek... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:



the only Greek I know is:

gyros
Acropolis
malaka

one day I may expand on my linguistic skills...
 
mmmmmmm, gyros....they have AWESOME grapes and olives, there!
 
it really depends if you mean 'plain FW' or 'high tech planted FW'. a basic 20gal FW fish only tank is going to be cheaper and easier to setup and maintain. there's no salt water to mix and test salinity on, and FW fish are generally less sensitive to nitrites and nitrates (nitrites are still bad, but SW fish tend to tolerate them much less).

a FW planted tank can be more expensive and more maintenance than a basic SW tank.
a reef tank with corals and live rock will be more expensive than FW planted, and a little more maintenance mostly in terms of testing more water chemistry (calcium, alkalinity, magnesium)
 
malkore said:
a FW planted tank can be more expensive and more maintenance than a basic SW tank.
a reef tank with corals and live rock will be more expensive than FW planted, and a little more maintenance

hold up, ive done somewhat planted, and a basic SW FOWLR. the cost of a planted tank doesnt compare to the cost of LR.

fw was easy, sw is more work (more work doesnt mean it's harder though) doing a water change (premixing salt, airating new water) daily salinity test and top offs

sw isn't impossible like people say, personally, i bet any freshie could do a marine tank given 10 days to read up about it
 
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