Common Sence

[happytreestump]

Sadly, many humans lack this essential trait. I am one of them and while in the shower it occured to me that I don't know jack about saltwater tanks. Maybe I should just start with an easier damsel tank and AFTER (key word here folks) maybe move onto cooler fish including sharks, and even octopuses (cool eh?). This makes more sence... but can anybody give me some heads ups on major differences between freshwater (what I have now) and saltwater. People say its more work and such, but HOW?

 

[wayne]

Saltwater seems more work as the tank sizes used, and often the fish are generally larger, and small tanks need a lot more hands on care. Frankly once they're up and running though I remember my salt tank as being a lot less work (in terms of water changes) than my current big fresh tank.
Salts have high initial startup costs, and don't tolerate screwups as well as fresh tanks with most freshwater fish. They also generally require much more water flow, and normally more intense lighting. Stock loads must be lower and overstocking always ends in disaster. Filtration methods between fresh and salt are very , very different, with most salt filtration techniques involving more recycling of water and less water changing.
Do you need more? Get a good book (see recs in other post), get a 55 and 20 kilos of live rock, and see if you can keep a pair of clowns and a dwarf angel alive for a year. Then consider yourself well 'apprenticed' and move on to tougher species. For the responsible marine owner even the death of a damsel should be like a kick in the butt.