Once you get the water correct, saltwater is easier to maintain. I haven’t had a tank in a while though, so I won’t be much help on time. The most important thing is to make sure your set up is stable prior to adding fish. Salt water fish are expensive compared to most fresh water.
I know my brother was looking into this a while ago, and it is important to buy the best filtration set up. That makes the maintainance much less time consuming.
We miss our small cubic yard of ocean. Nothing is as beautiful as a saltwater aquarium. They are some work to maintain, and expensive too, but it’s worth it. Live rocks are the best. Seems everytime we looked into the tank, we saw something new. We’d like to get another one someday.
Wal-Mart has NOTHING for a real aquarium enthusiast.
I still have no cell phone.
My wife and I visited several aquarium stores today.
I’m debating whether to even get a fresh water aquarium with the most colorful fish I can find, and see if they all get along.
Or maybe get a reef tank, because once set up they require less maintenance. However, although I can do an 85 or even 110 gallon tank, 48 long, I can’t go much more than 12 or 13" wide with the space I have. That means going taller and taller to increase the gallons, and then there’s the problem of getting the right light powerful enough to keep the reef alive, able to reach down thru that depth of water.
You can get some pretty good colorful freshwater fish, but they do not always mix well. African cichlids are quite colorful, but they are agressive, so you can create a tank with all agressive fish. Or you can go with tetras which are also colorful, but not compatible with cichlids.
I’d recommend having a heavily planted tank. These are very beautiful tanks and the plants helps sustain good quality water.
Go for a cold water salt-water tank. You have all the sea water you need out in the Atlantic and you can hunt for your own specimens.
When I was in High School some upper classmen started one for our biology lab. Had two big display tanks and a big refrigerated tank to keep the temp down. Some others and I took it over when they graduated. It was cool to get out of class to drive to the local beach or the Seattle Aquarium for salt water. Had to do our snorkeling and SCUBA on our own time though.
I would get a big tank, and get a few big fish. We had some oscars, and we taught them to eat out of our hands. Get them young, they will grow. Little fish are cool at first, then they just turn into furniture like paintings. Having a fish that is smart is sooo cool! Having an oscar with plants is not possible though, they eat it and rip it up. Also, if u get a fresh water tank, a lot of the clean up work can be done by certain fish. Ask about those, they are really cool.
Don’t get colored gravel, it looks like shit. It’s like DISCO WORLD planet thing. Not cool. Go with the fresh water, it is soo much cheaper and easier to maintain.
After years of keeping cold fresh water (i.e. goldfish) i’ve recently set-up a 20 gallon tropical aquarium. I’ve got 10 neon tetras and 6 red plattys currently with two veil angels going in when i get back home from uni for xmas. I considered going saltwater but the additional complication and cost of it disuaded me, even though the reef tanks in my local aquarium store are magnificent.
kington: I had tanks like that for awhile. You should know that (I just found out) reef tanks are easier than saltwater FISH tanks, but you must keep the fish to aminimum and never add antibiotics, even if the fish require it.
also,those corals MOVE at night when you’re not watching them!!!
Unfortunately keeping fish to aminimum in a 20gall tank means very few, I’m up to the max for tropical and the setup still seems quite sparse. Also my parents have to look after my fish 2 months at a time 3 times a year and i’l be leaving home in two years so i decided a simple setup with minimal stuff to go wrong would be best. Still, a marine tank’s on the cards one day…
I had a 90 gallon tank of African cichlids for a while. They’re beautiful, and always active. The Malawi fish (Zebra cichlids and such) are generally more agressive then the Tanganyikans and I had the best luck sticking to one or the other, but not both.
I had some Neolamprologus leleupi:
I even inadvertantly bred some Julidochromis marlieri:
Since these cichlids like slightly salty, alkaline water, one can use coral gravel and this gets the pH right in the range you want AND acts as a buffer to keep it there. If the tank is not over-stocked and has a good filtration system there is truly almost no maintenance.