which is better saltwater or freshwater for aquariums?
I have 120 gallon tank.
limited budget.
I am a beginner for fish care.
I have a limited knowledge in fish care.
Which is best for me?
Most will suggest freshwater and only few will say you can do saltwater. They said it’s hard to start on saltwater but if you have all the knowledge then it will be easy. When you started with freshwater and soon decided to change to saltwater because of colorfull fishes and corals then what you going to do with your freshwater fishes? How about freshwater equipments? I started my 135 gallons saltwater tank last May 1st and I have 15 fishes already on it with 45 lbs of live rocks and 125 lbs live sand. I have a nice decor castle with lots of hiding place. All the fishes are active.
You can start on this if you have limited budget and it will take a while anyway before you can have an established saltwater aquarium so you can use that time to search about Saltwater Aquariums, fishes, corals, water parameters, foods and additional equipments.
So now you have a tank. I’m not sure if you have a filter but if not then you need to buy one. I used Fluval FX5 Canister and it works good on me. By the way, I have 2 of it but 1 will works fine because it support 400 Gallons Tank. That canister is around $200 on which you can get it on Ebay. Then you need to get the media on which it will be Fluval Pre-Filter and Fluval Bio-Max. What I did is I put Fluval Bio-Filter on Top Basket then a little quantity on the lower part of the Middle Basket and Buttom Basket and filled with Eheim Substrat pro media. By the way, Eheim is expensive compare to Fluval Bio-Max but Eheim is washable and Bio-Max needs to be replaced every 3 months. It will cost you let say around $100 or less for the media. Then you can setup your tank. Now you also need to buy a Salt Mix from your LFS and started mixing water on your tank or you can buy the Ocean water from Petco but this one gets really expensive. After your tank is filled up then you can also add sand on it on which around 125 lbs too. Live Sand will cost around $25 per 20 lbs. Now your water will be not clear so you have to wait for 8 hours for everything to go down. Then you can start your filter. Make sure you have space at the back at least 6 inches away from the wall.
So now your filter is running and then wait 1 week before adding live rocks. If you are planning to have a reef tank then you will need to have lots of live rocks. If it’s only FOWLR then you can have at least 50 lbs of live rocks but you need to arrange the live rocks like with caves for the fishes to hide and sleep. Live rocks will vary from $5 – $8 per pound. Fiji rocks are one of the expensive rocks and it’s one of the best to use. I would say if your out of budget then add live rocks slowly like 20 lbs per week so you can work for the money to buy live rocks. Your live rocks and live sand will help your filtration system. Once everything is all set, let say your running your tank for 3 weeks already then you can get let say 5 Blue/Green Chromis. They are hardy and I used them when I cycles my tank. You can just get frozen Blood worms and frozen Mysis Shrimp for their food. Chromis are cheaper, they are like $3-$4 a piece. Now depends on you budget your budget then you can hold off now and let say wait a month before introducing another fish. By the way, you have to decide now on whether you like to have reef tank or just Fish only because if your planning to have corals then you need to get fishes that are reef safe.
You can buy Fritz Turbo Start to put in your tank when you added the chromis to make sure that there will be some live bacteria that is going to your system. They cost around $30 for 8 oz. (for your tank size) but you have to pay aroun $50+ for overnight delivery since the product needs to be cold so the bacteria will live. Do not freeze it or leave it on room temperature. Put it on the fridge once you receive it from mail.
Now add up the cost for this and you can have an initial setup for your saltwater aquarium. Soon you can built up your Saltwater Empire. Again, you need to research a lot and have patience. Goodluck!
It depends on the type of fish. Some live better in salt water and some live better in fresh.
References :
if your a beginner, go fresh. saltwater fish are hard. take a look at this site.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=830&pcatid=830
make sure you don’t put any saltwater fish in a fresh tank. duh.
References :
A beginner with limited budget – stick to freshwater for sure.
With saltwater you will need to buy much more equipment, and the fish and live rock are more expensive than freshwater.
You probably have everything you need now to get started with freshwater (Tank, heater, filter and light) Fill the tank, cycle it and add some fish.
If you want saltwater, pull out your wallet
Ian
References :
as a beginner with budget you do need to stick to freshwater. Do not be tempted by dazzling colours of sea fish – they will die on you in a week if not sooner.
References :
While saltwater care is more complicated than freshwater care it is still a good choice if your willing to spend more time and effort to care for your fish. However, since you are on a limited budget I would recommend that you go with freshwater because just replacing the salt water for water changes will become expensive over time. With freshwater you’ll still be able to have a beautiful aquarium with fish just as colorful as saltwater ones, check out african cichlids, at a lower price. Either choice, good luck.
References :
"limited budget.
I am a beginner for fish care.
I have a limited knowledge in fish care."
fresh water for sure…
get your feet wet (pardon the bad pun) with freshwater before you start taking on saltwater
References :
I would start with freshwater, not only its cheaper but alot easier. Saltwater keeping will require extra research and time. Wellcome to the fishkeeping hobby and good luck!!
References :
tropical is pretty easy but personally i find them a bit boring. i have 2 marine tanks and there are so many different lifeforms big and small with better variety of fish and crustaceans but its a bit more work than other tanks and more expensive but i think its worth it.
shop around the Internet and see what you like the look of. please do some research before setting up your tank and putting fish in its not as basic as some think. dont be afraid to ask the shop keeper as many stupid questions as you like they are there to help you and have probably had thousands of people asking them to help setup a new tank. good luck
References :
if you are limited and no fish experience start with freshwater, saltwater is not hard but it is expensive LR, salt, Live sand, saltwater heater and filters, that close to a grand easy.
start with fresh, save your money read for a while and when the time is right, go for saltwater.
References :
Most will suggest freshwater and only few will say you can do saltwater. They said it’s hard to start on saltwater but if you have all the knowledge then it will be easy. When you started with freshwater and soon decided to change to saltwater because of colorfull fishes and corals then what you going to do with your freshwater fishes? How about freshwater equipments? I started my 135 gallons saltwater tank last May 1st and I have 15 fishes already on it with 45 lbs of live rocks and 125 lbs live sand. I have a nice decor castle with lots of hiding place. All the fishes are active.
You can start on this if you have limited budget and it will take a while anyway before you can have an established saltwater aquarium so you can use that time to search about saltwater aquariums, fishes, corals, water parameters, foods and additional equipments.
So now you have a tank. I’m not sure if you have a filter but if not then you need to buy one. I used Fluval FX5 Canister and it works good on me. By the way, I have 2 of it but 1 will works fine because it support 400 Gallons Tank. That canister is around $200 on which you can get it on Ebay. Then you need to get the media on which it will be Fluval Pre-Filter and Fluval Bio-Max. What I did is I put Fluval Bio-Filter on Top Basket then a little quantity on the lower part of the Middle Basket and Buttom Basket and filled with Eheim Substrat pro media. By the way, Eheim is expensive compare to Fluval Bio-Max but Eheim is washable and Bio-Max needs to be replaced every 3 months. It will cost you let say around $100 or less for the media. Then you can setup your tank. Now you also need to buy a Salt Mix from your LFS and started mixing water on your tank or you can buy the Ocean water from Petco but this one gets really expensive. After your tank is filled up then you can also add sand on it on which around 125 lbs too. Live Sand will cost around $25 per 20 lbs. Now your water will be not clear so you have to wait for 8 hours for everything to go down. Then you can start your filter. Make sure you have space at the back at least 6 inches away from the wall.
So now your filter is running and then wait 1 week before adding live rocks. If you are planning to have a reef tank then you will need to have lots of live rocks. If it’s only FOWLR then you can have at least 50 lbs of live rocks but you need to arrange the live rocks like with caves for the fishes to hide and sleep. Live rocks will vary from $5 – $8 per pound. Fiji rocks are one of the expensive rocks and it’s one of the best to use. I would say if your out of budget then add live rocks slowly like 20 lbs per week so you can work for the money to buy live rocks. Your live rocks and live sand will help your filtration system. Once everything is all set, let say your running your tank for 3 weeks already then you can get let say 5 Blue/Green Chromis. They are hardy and I used them when I cycles my tank. You can just get frozen Blood worms and frozen Mysis Shrimp for their food. Chromis are cheaper, they are like $3-$4 a piece. Now depends on you budget your budget then you can hold off now and let say wait a month before introducing another fish. By the way, you have to decide now on whether you like to have reef tank or just Fish only because if your planning to have corals then you need to get fishes that are reef safe.
You can buy Fritz Turbo Start to put in your tank when you added the chromis to make sure that there will be some live bacteria that is going to your system. They cost around $30 for 8 oz. (for your tank size) but you have to pay aroun $50+ for overnight delivery since the product needs to be cold so the bacteria will live. Do not freeze it or leave it on room temperature. Put it on the fridge once you receive it from mail.
Now add up the cost for this and you can have an initial setup for your saltwater aquarium. Soon you can built up your Saltwater Empire. Again, you need to research a lot and have patience. Goodluck!
References :