Freshwater vs Saltwater Aquarium

I am thinking of getting into saltwater aquariums (I currently have freshwater only).

How much more expensive is it? If I were to get a 30-gallon tank, what would my costs be, roughly?

How much time would I need to spend on maintenance? Right now I barely spend any time on freshwater setup.

 

Saltwater is a much more expensive hobbie than freshwater.

The major cost are as follows:
Lighting;$200 and up depending on type and brand (unless your doing fish only FOWLR)
Filtration:$70 up and up depending on you if do sump or HOB
Live rock. average $5.99 pound and 30 Ibs youll need. $180
Livestock:cuc $40 up. Fish are generally more expensive than freshwater fish. Corals $10 a frag and up (unless your doing fish only FOWLR)
Supplies, test kits, heater, salt, live sand, hydrometer,supplements, food. expect a a few hundred.

Other things that you may want but not neccessarily need to get started; Phosban reactor $50 up, Sump, refugium varing costs, Protein Skimmer $150 up.

If you already got the tank and stand expect to pay $600 to $1000 to get started depending on your initial wants and budgeting as far as equipment, livestock, and supplies.

 

What would you say the initial costs are?
What about ongoing costs?

Are we talking thousands of $$$?

 

You are talking thousands. I just got into it last summer and it's very different. Overall, it's an overpriced PITA!!!! It can be rewarding though.

 

There are many levels of SW keeping. You can have:

FO = Fish only
FOWLR = Fish Only With Live Rock
Reef - corals, live rock, & fish

A reef is absolutely more expensive as you'll need good lights and most likely dose additives to keep your corals happy. You'll def want to buy lots of corals too, which can be very expensive.

If you can get past the initial expense of buying good Live Rock, a FOWLR is really not too hard to maintain. You don't need powerful lights, you will just need a skimmer for the tank and some powerheads to keep circulation. It's really not too expensive.

My advice is to look at local reef clubs to see if you can get some cheap Live Rock, equipment to start the tank with & go from there.

 

thank you guys for the advice. so, what is the most basic setup, not as far as costs but more forgiving towards beginners?

 

Start off right, if you need to save money to buy the right stuff.... do it. Don't rush into a tank and cheap out on anything. For example, if you think a fuge is in order, don't put it off until later, do it when you build the system.
Other than that, I'm a newb and only have experience with reef systems over the past 9 months. (I'm actually due for new bulbs which is another 50$ out of my pocket.)

 

Something really important too is to know where you can cut costs and where you can't. Atleast, it's something I've learned as I am still new to the saltwater world.

For example: you can cut a lot of costs by getting base rock instead of live rock. However, you probably dont wanna cut any costs when it comes to picking a skimmer.

Also, I would highly recommend using RODI water, even though you'll either need to buy RO water from the grocery store or buy a RODI unit.

 

IMO a FOWLR. Here is what you'll need to get a 30g tank up an running:

- 25-30lbs of good Live Rock (you can use Live and seed Base rock with say a ratio of 20lbs of base rock to 10lbs of live rock, which would be cheaper, but again you could look at local reef clubs to find good deals when people break down their tanks)

- 20-30lbs of aragonite sand, IMO it's the best type of substrate for a SW tank

- 2 Koralia Evolution 750gph powerheads, that would be more than enough flow for a 30g tank

- 200-250w heater, I would recommend an Ebo Jager

- Protein skimmer, I would imagine you'd want a hang on back if you don't want the extra expense of a sump. You can look into AquaC Remora, they are decent to start with.

- Salt, I recommend Instant Ocean or IO Reef Crystals. You will want a 5g bucket to pre-mix you water in prior to water changes. Also maybe a cheap heater to heat the pre-mixed water.

- Refractometer to test your salinity level & maybe have a LFS test your initial cycle.

- RO/DI water unit, you can maybe get away with using tap water in a FOWLR depending on how good/bad the quality of it is. You would need to dechlorinate it too of course. However, getting an RO/DI unit to make pure water is the way to go to not have algae headaches down the line. Most LFS sell RO water or even some supermarkets too, look into it.

Those are like the bare bones IMO if you wanted to start up a FOWLR.

 

thank you. Let me see what this will cost me