Salt or not - a tough decision.

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exodus

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
293
Location
Redding, CT
Right now I have a freshwater planted 55g tank. Everything is up and running, and I feel something lacking. I really want to buy a 2nd 55g to put on the 2nd floor of the house to house a saltwater tank, but I'm not sure that's going to happen due to floor construction.

With the freshwater, I'm at a crossroads right now. I could use a co2 regulator and fancy canister but I'm not sure that when I get the tank 100% grown in that that's going to be enough. I like having things to fiddle with, and I can see that coming mostly to an end with the current setup. I could either 100% optimize the freshwater tank with expensive equipment, or turn and convert it to salt.

Which leaves me with a difficult decision to make. Saltwater (reef, in particular) tanks have always absolutely fascinated me, originally 2-3 years ago I was going to try to set one up but didnt have any experience with tanks of any kind other than the one I had as a kid. Now I have most of the equipment to get me started on saltwater (minus skimmer and sump [LR too, of course], but I love a good DIY project!), and a pretty good handle on freshwater as well. I also have many 250mh fixtures kicking around in the garage. So I'm thinking of converting my 55.

Only problem is that its fully stocked right now with freshwater fish. I personally would love to get into saltwater, but does anyone think its worth unloading my tank and starting over?

Other than the cost of fish, I only have about $70 or so worth of goodies in the tank at this point, most things done DIY and running very smoothly so I'm not worried about losing a huge invesetment at this point, hence the crossroads.

I work at my LFS, so getting rid of the fish I dont think would be a problem if I decide to.



Oh - I'm sure someone's going to ask if I want to spend all the money on a saltwater setup. Well, when I bought my 55 i was unemployed. Now I get great pay working at an LFS, I get everything @ distributor price plus 10% off too :D


Any thoughts on the matter would be great, I'm basically looking for someone to convince me either way, because I'm really on the fence with this one.

Thanks!
 
Well....

..........

Its entirely up to you what you want to do. Theres pros and cons of both sides. I love the ocean, thats one of the bigger reasons Im into SW.
 
Go for it. I live to have somehting to deal with myself jsut liek you and saltwater offers numerous problems to solve and fun things to see and experience. IT is nto cheap but you will enjoy it.
 
the only thing that strikes me is that you said you love to fiddle with things. There's not a lot of fiddling in SW. At least not for me. I find that the tank is much happier the less I play with stuff.
 
There is a lot of fiddeling durign setup, configuration and when addign to the system (lifestock, equipment, salt) . But yo uare right when you reach the poitn where you ae happy with what is in the tank and you have things where you want them the fiddeling slows down. But f you get coral that grows quick the next fiddeling comes when you have to prune your corals and then you can start to frag thigns and sell them to get some cash in return.
 
jasno999 said:
There is a lot of fiddeling durign setup, configuration and when addign to the system (lifestock, equipment, salt) . But yo uare right when you reach the poitn where you ae happy with what is in the tank and you have things where you want them the fiddeling slows down. But f you get coral that grows quick the next fiddeling comes when you have to prune your corals and then you can start to frag thigns and sell them to get some cash in return.

Thats exactly what I'm looking for - with a reef tank it seems like theres always something to do, with my freshwater it just kinda sits there.It seems too easy at this point.
 
Well...If you dont want easy give it a try. It can be quite the uphill battle for some people.

Are you planning on full reef or fowlr?
 
I would do a lot of research and reading. I myself am new at this and did not realize the expense of it all. That I think is the biggest surprise to me. I knew the fish were expensive but just maintaining it can also be. You get addicted real quick so beware. I wish I would have read a whole lot more before I jumped in and got my feet wet but too late now. Try and find a local fish club in your area that helps a lot. Just beware that you have to take it real slow to experience success with SW. I am finding that out the hard way since my tank crashed this past weekend. If it wasn't for friends in my local reef club I probably would have lost all of my fish but a friend is now fish sitting for me until my water gets straightened out.
 
i say go for it, like you i always had a facination for it. had fw tanks for years. finally set up a sw, and theres always something new, something that needs to be done, and its just fun to go to the lfs just to look at it all that may have a future home in my tank!! (well you work at one so, maybe not for you, lol) ever since having sw, im especially bored with fw, its seems really blah to me now. no color, barely any movement, no personality. i still have a fw tank, but its becuase i love my fw dwarf puffer, he has an amazing personality.... with sw, theres always something to look at, always something that you could tinker with, always something to research or read up on, at least thats my .02....
 
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