The Great Debate

[fantasticaqua]

Some people prefer the dramatic colors of a salt water tank while others prefer the more natural feel of a freshwater tank. What do you like better?

 

[Stuart]

I have to admit I chose freshwater - though I rarely drink from my tank. (Anyone who is unsure of why I used the word "rarely" as opposed to "never" has never siphoned.)

 

[ReefRaff]

Me thinks there should be a vote for Both. Besides, Why doesn'y a SW tank feel natural?

 

[FMJnaX]

I chose Fresh strictly because it fits my budget and the budget of a larger percentage of people. In the cichlid world, you can get nearly as colorful fish and it's all just a matter of opinion about personalities. I do like the coral, inverts, and other stuff like that in SW, but there are a few options in the FW realm to make up for it (shrimp, cray's, etc). Increase my salary by about $2,000 a month and perhaps I'll vote Salty for ya.

Oh, and just for you Stuart.... I siphon once (sometimes twice) a week and have "NEVER" drank my tank water. Oh the joys of the Python. Best $40 I've spent to date.

 

[FMJnaX]

Me thinks there should be a vote for Both. Besides, Why doesn'y a SW tank feel natural?

Sorry for the double post but I agree. I would have voted BOTH for sure. And I also agree about the "natural" bit. In fact, more often I feel that Salties are more natural than Fresh... what's up with the glow-in-the-dark stuff and the neon colored substrate? How is that natural?

 

[fishfreek]

The both option has been added.

 

[deli_conker]

Oh the joys of the Python. Best $40 I've spent to date. Wink

I just got one last month. If you have one of these, there is no reason to put off any water changes.

Freshwater for me. A lot less things to go wrong in my opinion.

 

[QTOFFER]

Freshwater vs saltwater
Mac vs PC
Automatic vs stick
Windows vs UNIX

Two closely related choices; one a bit more technically difficult than the other, but not impossible to pick up.

It's freshwater for me, partly because of the start-up and maintenance costs. Also, I just prefer a superbly-done planted tank to a superbly-done reef tank.

 

[talloulou]

I picked freshwater because everything you need for freshwater is more readily available where I live. Also your options for stocking a freshwater tank are endless while their is a limited selection for stocking my saltwater tank.

 

[Zagz]

I love both but am not able to do SW yet as I haven't done enough research and wouldn't go into it until I felt I had a real grasp on it.

 

[Meredith]

I have had both and I am still trying to sell my sw set up. It was just too much for me. I even found that I payed less attention to my sw fish than my fw. I enjoy looking at sw tanks, but not the process.

 

[Todd2]

I choose fresh because I'm a high school student with limited time and money, but...

I believe both fresh and salt have their strong points. Fresh is good for people who don't have a TON of time to spend on their tanks and don't have TONS of money. Salt is cool because there are so many aspects to keeping salt water fish and the fish by themselves are simply fascinating to watch, but I think a lot of people love that 'stream' look or 'natural' look. Not to say that salt isn't natural, its just more exotic than fresh.

Whatever floats your boat basically.

 

[Jchillin]

I find that I'm fascinated by SW tanks. So many different types of critters can be found living in and around the rocks and sand beds. When you toss in a couple of fish, it can be really exciting to see. I recall seeing a pic of a cleaner shrimp doing his cleaning thing on a large fish.

That being said, I have an equal fascination with planted FW tanks. The fact that you can keep aquatic plants in a tank is really cool.

So, for me, though I keep a FW planted tank, I like SW tanks just as much.