Freshwater vs Saltwater Aquarium

You still haven't mention whether you want a reef or fish only tank, that is important.

maintenance time is really only marginally more, assuming your not a guy that loves testing his water.

Also I recommend aquacave.com as a store, they have good prices.

 

One other thing I recommend taking that link out of your signature, people may think your attempting to poach.

 

I haven't seen anyone mention that a bigger tank is much more forgiving than a tank under 55 gallons. More stable water quality, more forgiving of water trouble.

 

Thats true..But I have only had tanks under 55g for over a year now and i have never had water trouble or large scale tank crashes..As long as you keep up on yourr water changes and have a good filtration source your water should be great IME.

 

IMO i think he would do good with a 29 gal biocube. its got the basics covered, if he wants to uprgade lights he can. but its got most things needed to start and a relatively fair price, espcially a used one. thats what i did (mine was an 8 and i got it for free though )

 

my six gallon setup costs $600! $20 a pound for LR!

 

Jeez!!! Where did you get that LR?

 

When I changed my 29g bowfront over to a 40g breeder. I built the stand myself, I bought the tanks and protein skimmer used, 20lbs of LR came out of my tank, everything else was new. All together I have over $1,200 in the system.

 

Well, he asked what would be more forgiving, and more water volume is way more forgiving.

My first reef tank was a 3 gallon Eclipse back when people said it couldn't be done. My second was a 10 gallon FOWLR (one damsel and a huge hermit LOL). My 3rd was a 38 gallon. The 38 gallon was by far easier to take care of the first year. The 10 gallon was the worst with just the damsel and the hermit. After hitting the year mark, they all required minimum maintenance. It's that first 6 months to a year that takes a LOT of work and money, though.

 

Def true, unless you have crap equipment and stuff and dont really watch over the stability of the tank then its rough for a while lmao..

Another reason thats good about a biocube is that is have VERY little to no evaporation which is also a huge plus, topping off manually stinks!