Smaug21
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Been mulling over this for about a week now, and I don't think there is a better forum on here for this so I’ll go ahead and put it in here.
For quite awhile now I’ve been a college student with no income. This semester I was finally able to get a work study job going and will come into a little bit of loose cash. I won't have a lot over the course of everything, I have a new computer to pay off and I want to save some of it. So I’m thinking I will have about 25-50$ a month, and I don't plan on starting till I have about 100$ or so saved up, maybe around Christmas time.
The purpose for that long intro is that I have a 10g tank right now that I want to setup with...something . Presently, the tank has nothing in it (I’m soaking a driftwood piece in it, just to save the Tupperware I’d normally use). On the flip side, it also has very little in the way of the normal accessories, most of them being cannibalized over the years to help my main 15g tank, most notably the fuse for the light and various filters. So I’m going to have to buy everything that I need new.
I took all my parents random aquarium things when they stopped doing fish a few years ago so I have a lot of random extra stuff, like 5 or 6 different air pumps, 2 extra filters (motor is busted on them I think), about 90 ft of various ages of airlines and tubes (not sure of the safety of them, some of them are very very old), 3 or 4 under gravel filters (nearly useless in my mind) and lots of various other items.
My question comes down to this, I’m thinking off either doing a small planted tank (probably no CO2, and low lighting), a small more "normal" tank with invertebrates as the main theme (don't really like fish very much lol!), or a Small Nano Saltwater tank with just live rock and sand, with a focus on inverts and possible not even any fish. My question to you, the Varied and Aged Wisdom of these Forums, is...which would you suggest?
If it's any help, I don't have extensive knowledge of aquariums, and some of my knowledge is either out-dated or miss-informed, but I have successfully had fish, frogs, Newts and one crayfish for approaching 10 years.
Which is easier and which is more expensive? I originally shied away from saltwater because it appeared to be more expensive and much harder, but my experience of the last couple of days on here says that it might not be as hard as I thought, especially if you stay away from things like Anemones and Mantis shrimp. On the flip side, I thought planted tanks would be fairly easy. While I had originally planed on doing CO2, the complexity and problems people have with it are making me worried, not to mention the ever-present danger of algae blooms and unseen chemicals killing all my plants. And in the end I’m not even sure if the planted tank would be as interesting as the minutia of the saltwater.
At any rate, I’d love if people would give some opinions on the differences between small planted and small saltwater tanks. I'd really appreciate it!
For quite awhile now I’ve been a college student with no income. This semester I was finally able to get a work study job going and will come into a little bit of loose cash. I won't have a lot over the course of everything, I have a new computer to pay off and I want to save some of it. So I’m thinking I will have about 25-50$ a month, and I don't plan on starting till I have about 100$ or so saved up, maybe around Christmas time.
The purpose for that long intro is that I have a 10g tank right now that I want to setup with...something . Presently, the tank has nothing in it (I’m soaking a driftwood piece in it, just to save the Tupperware I’d normally use). On the flip side, it also has very little in the way of the normal accessories, most of them being cannibalized over the years to help my main 15g tank, most notably the fuse for the light and various filters. So I’m going to have to buy everything that I need new.
I took all my parents random aquarium things when they stopped doing fish a few years ago so I have a lot of random extra stuff, like 5 or 6 different air pumps, 2 extra filters (motor is busted on them I think), about 90 ft of various ages of airlines and tubes (not sure of the safety of them, some of them are very very old), 3 or 4 under gravel filters (nearly useless in my mind) and lots of various other items.
My question comes down to this, I’m thinking off either doing a small planted tank (probably no CO2, and low lighting), a small more "normal" tank with invertebrates as the main theme (don't really like fish very much lol!), or a Small Nano Saltwater tank with just live rock and sand, with a focus on inverts and possible not even any fish. My question to you, the Varied and Aged Wisdom of these Forums, is...which would you suggest?
If it's any help, I don't have extensive knowledge of aquariums, and some of my knowledge is either out-dated or miss-informed, but I have successfully had fish, frogs, Newts and one crayfish for approaching 10 years.
Which is easier and which is more expensive? I originally shied away from saltwater because it appeared to be more expensive and much harder, but my experience of the last couple of days on here says that it might not be as hard as I thought, especially if you stay away from things like Anemones and Mantis shrimp. On the flip side, I thought planted tanks would be fairly easy. While I had originally planed on doing CO2, the complexity and problems people have with it are making me worried, not to mention the ever-present danger of algae blooms and unseen chemicals killing all my plants. And in the end I’m not even sure if the planted tank would be as interesting as the minutia of the saltwater.
At any rate, I’d love if people would give some opinions on the differences between small planted and small saltwater tanks. I'd really appreciate it!