rough estimate of monthly cost and time

[trido]

Hi,
I have been a fish tank fan for nearly 20 years. I have always had fresh water tank due to fear of high cost and extreme maintanance involved in saltwater tanks. My tank is broke down now due to a cross country move in the future and I am toying with the idea of converting to saltwater.
Due to the length of time i have before the next tank set up i have i want to do as much research as possible. I know already that i will have to change some of my filtration and lighting.That is easy to estimate pricing of. Pricing of fish is also not a concern because i am very understanding of slow introductions due to compatability and tank overload. My biggest concern is time involved in regular maintance. Im wondering how often the average saltwater aquariest honestly does partial water changes and how much roughly it costs for the water to do that .I have a 90 gallon tank. Also I am concerned about leaving on weekend trips. Will the fish be ok without care for a few days? Also, is it necessary to do a total break down a couple time a year for seroius gravel cleaning?

 

[LA-Lawman]

I used to worry about time.... and money .

Now i worry about not taking the time to do it right. and spending the money right the first time.

research the setup you want
research all the equip... is it the best product for your situation....
research the lighting.... get the best you can afford.... you will need it.
research the skimmer ... get one for 100g over your tank rew... if a nano get one 50g over your req...

i have a 180g in wall. i spend about 10mins a day.... feeding, lookingat the tank, wanting to buy more corals..... out of that ten mins... it takes 2 or 3 to make sure things are running right....

about every two weeks... i do a 30g water change....


not too much time... but i like this hobby! 8) 8)

 

[gatorracer]

LA said it very well.

I'll let you know what I think

Buy the best skimmer you can afford it is worth it.

Buy the best light you can afford. Go metal halide if you can swing it. I went PC with the most wattage I could get and 2 years later I wish I would have spent the extra to get the best.

And the part I thought was backwards when I started is you should buy as much live rock as you can. I started with 50 pounds in a hundred gallon and it looked empty. So i ended up with about 120 over 2 years. And some of the most intersting stuff comes out of nowhere on these rocks. I turned over a piece about a month ago and found a bunch of zooanthids that werent getting much light growing. Not to mention all the little critters that will appear when you least expect it.

Don't!!!! impulse buy. Research everything you are gonna stick in the tank because at the prices for fish and coral which aren't always high you be suprised how much money you will throw down the toilet because it looked pretty at the LFS.

I do a 20 gallon water change every 3-4 weeks. When I clean the tank I get a power head and a tooth brush and follow the suction hose. Use the power head to blow out crevaces where detirius builds up and use the tooth brush to scrub algae or what ever off the rocks. I scrape the glass about every 3 days just to keep it looking good though.

Oh and I almost forgot unless you have a LFS or grocery store to get RO water from you should try to get an RO/DI water filter and some kind of storage container. I had algae blooms everytime I added water when I was using tap water.

Hope I helped.

 

[ChrisRD]

Hi Trido and :welcome:

My biggest concern is time involved in regular maintance. Im wondering how often the average saltwater aquariest honestly does partial water changes and how much roughly it costs for the water to do that.

The amount of maintenance your tank requires will vary considerably depending on the setup. If it's a fish-only saltwater tank you can set it up to be very low maintenance. My preference is to set them up much like a reef (although without corals you don't need the strong lighting - just regular fluorescents will do) with live rock, sand and a good protein skimmer. With a setup like this and a low fish load, IME you really don't have to perform many water changes. I've gone six months or more between water changes in a FOWLR (fish only w/live rock) setup with no problems. The other benefit to setting-up the system this way is that if you choose to convert it to a reef later (inevitable IMO :wink: ), all you need to do is add good lighting.

Also I am concerned about leaving on weekend trips. Will the fish be ok without care for a few days?

Yes, they should be fine. If you're going to be gone for more than a few days it's a good idea to have someone drop in and check the tank, topoff evaporation, feed the fish, etc. IMO it would be best to avoid fish species that require frequent feedings if this will be a regular occurrence.

Also, is it necessary to do a total break down a couple time a year for seroius gravel cleaning?

No. In general these days we tend to avoid course substrates because they trap crud that will ultimately lead to water quality and algae problems without frequent cleaning/vaccuming. Most choose to go with finer aragonite sand to avoid this problem.

Some links from our library that might be helpful:

Recommended books

Beginner's Guide

HTH

 

[trido]

thank you all...im lookin forward to setting up and slowly building my reef aquarium..unfortunartely my wife does not share my joy of the hobby so it will probably be quite a while before i can get the full reef going... i can simply start with a FOWLR and build up to the reef.
Thanks again!

 

[Anonymous]

Yes you can. Just plan the fish you get to be coral friendly.