# marine or tropical??



## LittleMissSunshine

I currently have a large tropical tank which we love but we also have a very large family bathroom which I would love to have a marine tank in.

I was just wondering how much more expensive is it to have marine, are the start up costs and upkeep a lot more than tropical??


----------



## Guest

You need to be very careful with bathrooms, they aren't the best places to put a tank especially if you use deoderants or other aerosols such as hairsprays. 

Generally marine fishkeeping can be very expensive, especially if you went for a high tech system using a lot of electricity consuming equipment such as metal halide lighting and stocked the tank with difficult SPS corals such as Acropora and Montipora species. However it can also be quite cheap if you went down the low-tech route using more simple methods such as the Leng sy eco-system method which uses macroalgae planted into a special mineral-rich substrate called miracle mud to remove nutrients from the water, you don't need a skimmer or fluidised reactors on systems run on this technique. Assuming you have never kept marine organisms such as corals before it would be best if you went for hardier soft corals, zoanthids, ricordeas and mushroom polyps. These corals and invertebrates also have lower demands for light and calcium, which means they are the perfect candidates for low-tech systems. There is so much on the subject you could easily fill the average book with information.

The secret to success in marine fishkeeping is to read as much as possible on the subject before buying anything. Marine organisms such as fish and corals come from an environment that hardly ever changes chemically. This means these creatures aren't very tolerant of rapid changes in parameters such as temperature, pH and salinity. In the aquarium it is harder to keep these parameters stable, especially in smaller systems.


----------



## carol

oh i would love to have marine fish tank, they are so lovely 
good luck


----------



## scosha37

...Pleccys got advise there for you there...

My bro had one it was lovly but very very expensive to keep up..


----------



## Guest

Setting the tank up is what breaks the bank, maintenance isn't too bad but it can get costly. I spent around £40 a month on my old system which was 120 x 60 x 60 with a sump. :eek6:


----------



## Superpettoysrus.com

Hi,

I love marine tanks, i wanted to keep marine but as i have never kept fish before i thought it best to start with tropical just to get the basics of fish keeping. It is a very expensive route to take marine fish keeping as a tiny error could cost a lot of money.

I was going to start with a couple of clown fish as they were real hardy and priced it all up at pets at home...i got to £600 pounds and decided to try the tropical fish first just encase.

I assume you have kept fish before as you have a tropical tank so im sure you know the basics....just do some research and if you feel you can do it then why not as im sure it will be very rewarding.......and im sure your bathroom would look stunning witha marine tank in:thumbup:

But with the set up costs im sure it is into the hundreds so much more then a tropical tank and then the costs of water as you have to buy special treated water for the tank too and change it quite regular.....but it will def be worht it


----------



## Guest

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> the costs of water as you have to buy special treated water for the tank too and change it quite regular.....but it will def be worht it


I think you mean reverse osmosis water, this is definitely a necessity as reverse osmosis removes all the nasties from tapwater (including organics such as nitrate and phosphate) which can harm corals and prevent their polyps from extending. Production is costly as RO units produce a lot of waste water, for example for every 5 gallons of water put into the unit, only 1 gallon of pure RO water is produced, the other 4 gallons goes to waste (these aren't exact figures but it gives you a rough idea). You can either purchase your own unit and produce your own RO water or you can purchase it in 10, 15 or 25 litre containers from some aquatic stores, you can even get it pre-mixed with salt if you like. 

Many fishkeepers also couple their RO units to what are known as De-ionization units (or DI for short) to obtain extemely pure water.

One word of warning with RO, never use it pure, during the reverse osmosis process almost everything is removed including the hardness, which causes the pH to plummet to critically low levels and by using it pure it will send fish into osmotic shock which eventually results in death. You can buy special products which come in a powder or liquid form to re-ionize the RO water and raise the pH and hardness to a safe level (the resultant pH depends on how much powder or liquid you add to the water), these products also put the essential trace elements and minerals back into the water. In the case of marine tanks you won't need these products as the salt does it for you, choose a good reef-grade salt such as Reef crystals or D-D H2Ocean reef salt.


----------



## shortbackandsides

And with that im sure hannahs decided on tropical


----------



## PoisonGirl

I wpuld love to have a marine tank, but ive been told you have to be VERY precise, they take alot of time and care.. And I want fish to be relaxing.. Lol!

I go with easy to look after, pretty tropical fish.. male guppies, plattys, mollies, neons. 
I did use to have my goldfish in my bathroom, but this bathroom has hardly got enough room for a loo let alone a fish! 

Plus, I prefer to have my tank where I can see it lots  In the bathroom my fish tank used to steam up and make the shelf wet 

x


----------



## LittleMissSunshine

shortbackandsides said:


> And with that im sure hannahs decided on tropical


Thank You for all your advice, The bathroom downstairs isn't the mainly used one, we tend tpo use the en'suite where aerosols etc are concerned and I know I'd have to get the electrician in to make sure I have a safe power source.

It really is in the thought stage and might not even get done this year but I will do my homework thoroughly.

I have to admit, tropical is MUCH easier by the sounds of things!!!!!!


----------



## Guest

LittleMissSunshine said:


> Thank You for all your advice, The bathroom downstairs isn't the mainly used one, we tend tpo use the en'suite where aerosols etc are concerned and I know I'd have to get the electrician in to make sure I have a safe power source.
> 
> It really is in the thought stage and might not even get done this year but I will do my homework thoroughly.
> 
> I have to admit, tropical is MUCH easier by the sounds of things!!!!!!


It does sound complicated however the maintenance regime for marines is pretty much the same as it is for tropicals, feed the fish around 2-3 times a day (some fish such as Anthias require several, small feeds during the day), scrape the glass when necessary, test the water every week and carry out water changes every 7-10 days.


----------



## LittleMissSunshine

Ta, I appreciate it. I will put a heck of a lot of thoght into it before I do anything!x


----------

