The Puffer Forum

I have been hearing that it is cheaper to maintain a full marine tank than a brackish water tank. Could someone please explain this to me? right now I have 2 small GSPs in light brackish water (1.005). But they are soon upgrading to a 75 gal.

With the proper saltwater filteration of 1 1/2 - 2 lbs pre gallon live rock a good skimmer and flow you would be doing less water changes than on a brackish tank. Less water changes means less salt equal cheaper to run.

Initial set up costs more but the $$$ you save on water changes throughout the years is tremendous.

Right now im doing 50% once a week. How often would it need to be done I a fully set up 75gal marine tank with just 2 GSPs? And you said 1.5-2 pounds of salt per gallon? So thats about 112 ponds of salt?! thats seems like way more salt than in using now.

not salt... live rock...

J-P wrote:not salt... live rock...

Oh, ok. So about 112lbs of live rock in a 75 gal?

That is correct.... you could get by with 94 lbs of live rock or go dry rock with seeding it for much less than that.

That option is a separate question.

What about the water changes? How often in a fully set up marine tank?

still weekly, just less volume. I change 5 gallons weekly in my 29 which works out to about 17%. I could probably do 1/2 of that but I have 5 gallon buckets so its easier for me to just do a 1 for 1 swap on buckets.

I do 30% monthly on my reef tanks but probably have about 3lbs LR/g in there, along with a 20g sump & 20g refugium added onto a 90g system.