Choosing Your Aquarium Set Up

What's it gonna be - salt water or fresh water? Ifcheaper. A fresh water tank can end up being
you're hooked on the aquarium hobby, that's thevery expensive indeed. If you have lots of plants,
question you'll end up asking yourself sooner oryou'll likely require special lighting and fertilizers.
later.Tanks housing African cichlids will often need rock
The general pattern calls for a person to start outthat just as expensive as the live rock and
with a fresh water aquarium set up and move toaquarium corals required in a salt water
salt water once he or she has enough experience.configuration. Price, therefore, is relative. Marine
But while it is generally true that salt water fishtanks are usually more expensive, but that's only
tanks require more care than their fresh waterusually.
cousins, a careful and committed hobbyist can stillBy the same token, freshwater tanks are
go to salt water right off the bat.generally easier to maintain. This tends to make
For argument's sake, let's say you want to gothem the preferred choice for home aquariums,
the salt water route. There are three main typesparticularly when comparing them to reef set ups.
of salt water tropical fish tanks - fish-only, fishAgain, this is not always true. Heavily planted
with live rock and reef tanks. If you're looking tofresh water tanks that also contain fancy
keep your costs in line with what you'd normallyaquarium ornaments can easily cost as much to
pay for a good fresh water tank, you'll want aset up as many marine aquariums.
fish-only, all glass aquarium.Of course the outstanding characteristic of a salt
To be sure, a marine fish tank set up is likelywater aquarium set up is the wide variety of
going to cost you more. It will require morebrilliantly colored aquarium pets - fish, snails, etc. -
equipment and some of the decorations - corals,to choose from. There is simply nothing like that
plants and marine substrates for example - arein freshwater fish tanks. Aquariums with African
significantly more expensive than they are forcichlids come close, but even they do not have
fresh water set ups. On the other hand, thesethe striking color contrasts that characterize salt
accessories are more exotic-looking and comewater denizens.
from all parts of the globe, so you should expectI'll continue to discuss this topic in future articles
to pay more. But if it's to your taste, it's truly abecause it comes up every time you set out to
worthwhile investment.buy. Aquarium shopping can be a complicated
That's not to say a fresh water set up is alwaysprocess but that's all part of the fun.