I've maintained a 55 gall fresh water tank for over 15 years and have had to break it down and set it up a few times for moves and other reasons, so I feel very comfortable with what it takes to maintain a fresh water tank.

Can I get a lot of opinions on how much more difficult it would be to maintain a 125 gall salt water tank? Is it about the same, slightly more difficult, a tremendous amount more effort, etc.?

I recently got a 125 gallon tank and am considering attempting a salt water tank when I get around to setting it up but don't know the first thing about salt water tanks yet, so I thought I'd ask here.

All replies will definitely be appreciated.

The water quality parameters for Salt Water are much tighter than for fresh. You should keep the number of fish about half what you would for fresh. Many Marine Animals, especially the expensive and pretty ones, are very sensative to nitrates. A 125G tank will not go bad as fast as a 20G but once it does its a major operation to get its water changed. Mnay of the Salt Water fish are very expensive and Discus level prices are quite common.

Maintaining the water would depend on what you have on the tank. I don't vacuum my Crushed Coral. I use a Skimmer, have 3 powerheads for water movement, and have metal halides for coral lighting. I clean the glass 2 times per week, test the water parameters once a week and Dose Vodka for Trates twice a day. Nothing to it. Oh and feed the fish twice a day, Mysis Shrimp and Romaine Lettuce. Clean the Skimmer once a week and dump the skim mate once a week.

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