what is the best way for a fifteen yer old to start a salt water fish tank?

Answer 1

Saltwater vs. Freshwater:
Saltwater all the way dude!! Just kidding! There are many good reasons to start your hobby with freshwater first. Here are a few of them:

1. It is much cheaper to start with freshwater. Equipment, supplies and livestock are all significantly cheaper.

2. Freshwater is more forgiving, you don't have to pay as close of attention to water quality than saltwater and the system recovers more quickly from mistakes.

3. Mistakes are less costly. Screwing up in freshwater is typically a lot less expensive than saltwater.

4. Doing freshwater is a cheaper option to finding out if you really want to have this as a long term hobby. Taking care of a tank is more time consuming than most people think and you test your patience and resolve cheaper by doing freshwater first. Remember if you do switch to saltwater your maintenance time will be at least twice that of a freshwater tank, sometimes more.

5. There are some freshwater fish that are pretty. People often say saltwater fish are very pretty, and they are, but not all freshwater fish are drab, you just need to pay more for the colorful ones and they are typically still less expensive than the prettiest saltwater fish.

Answer 2

The best way to start a salt water fish tank would be to get a fresh water tank first. You can figure out if having a tank is something that you really want to have. By the way, there are some really neat freshwater fish that you can get. I would recommend getting a 10-20 gal tank with some gourami's and a few other community fish. Get some bottom feeders to clean out the uneaten food and you're good to go. If you ever do decide to move to the next level, then you'll have all of the experience of owning a freshwater tank to fall back on.

If you want to see a really neat freshwater fish then google Ropefish. I just got one the other day and it's one of the coolest looking fish I have ever seen. Good luck with your tank decisions!

Answer 3

The best way for anyone to start saltwater is with lots of background research! It is more expensive than freshwater, but most of the cost is in the initial setup and the fish. This is why you want to have a good idea beforehand where you want to go. You can't stock a marine tqank as heavily as a freshwater, so you really need to think about what kinds of fish/animals you want first. This will help you decide things you'll need (lighting, tank size, filtration, live rock). If you just want a couple of fish (clownfish, damsels, tang, cardinals) you'll need less than if you decide to go with corals and invertebrates. Not to say you can't eventually add these. Also, try to get the biggest tank you can - not only will this let you add to your tank later, a bigger tank is easier to care for and the water chemisrty and temperature will be more stable.

If you want to keep your costs down, after doing some initial research, you can always put the word out to your relatives what kinds of things you're interested in for your birthday, Christmas, etc. If you're really interested, I'd bet they'd help you with your initial setup.

Here's some links where you can start looking for info:
http://www.fishlore.com/SaltwaterBeginners.htm
http://www.peteducation.com/category_summary.cfm?cat=1987
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/fish.html

I'd also suggest getting a good book for beginning a marine tank. Both of these are excellent: The New Marine Aquarium – Michael S. Paletta. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-52-1
and The Conscientious Marine Aquarist – Robert M. Fenner. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-02-5

Good luck!

Answer 4

Stephen, if I were you I would learn about the hobby and convince a wealthier person to let you run and manage a tank for them. They could give you a budget for water, livestock, food, and you could do all the maintenance.

It's an expensive hobby. If you get a big allowance or have a job, you can do it. Otherwise, I would just offer to look after someone else's tank. You could look for ads in the paper, or take out an ad.

If you are just starting out in the hobby, you have to start at 50 gallons or so. Smaller is harder to care for, harder to keep stable. The ocean is vast and stable. Small aquariums cannot easily duplicate the stable conditions that marine wildlife requires, and larger tanks are costly -- skimmers, lighting, water changes, food, livestock, electricity bills, live rock.

I don't think it's a realistic hobby for you by yourself unless you have a lot more money than the average teenager.

If you can't find a tank owner that will let you maintain the tank, you could start by volunteering at a college that has marine biology department or something.

It's great fun, though. Wish I'd started at your age.

Answer 5

Get a book on how to keep a salt water tank and do your homework before you begin.

Answer 6

Research, research, research. Learn all you can before you start. Marine tanks are really expensive and you don't want to mess it all up just because you didn't do your homework first. Get recent books and read up, do plenty of websearching, join a knowledgeable online forum (I really like www.aquahobby.com and they have a whole section for saltwater tanks.)

Answer 7

Get used equipment from craigslist.

Find a hobbiest group in your area. They share costs for purchases of supplies wholesale, which makes things cheaper.

Get 2 jobs & save all your money. Its best to do it right, rather than trying to bolt onto a cheap initial setup.

Answer 8

Gold fish are the least expensive, and easiest way to go.... read books, and ask the people at the pet store. You can getsome really fancy goldfish! Then as soon as you feel confident with that...move on to the more difficult fish.

good luck!