# Planted Tanks vs Reef Tanks



## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Planted tanks are serene and relaxing. Reef tanks are dynamic and exciting.

I love the sight of a school of cardinal tetras gliding through a forest of vallisneria. I love to see a herd of cherry shrimps all busily grazing on rocks and leaves. I love the fact that I can breed an entire colony of cherry shrimps in my tank.

I love the stability of the planted tank, I love the idea that I am creating this balanced ecosystem.

I loved starting my saltwater tank from scratch. Cycling a freshwater tank is a chore. Cycling a saltwater tank is an exciting process of discovering new microfauna and flora almost everyday.

Unless you have a gigantic tank, there aren't a lot of options for schooling fish in saltwater. You'll never have the equivalent of a school of 50 cardinal tetras, but the SW fish make up for this with their brighter colors and more interesting personality.

I'm currently running a reef tank with 9 damsels, and they are constantly chasing each other, diving in and out of rocks. Occasionally, I hear them clicking and croaking to each other. The skunk cleaner shrimps are also awesome, even though they keep walking all over my corals.

The corals are the best part of the reef tank though. I get such a weird sense of pride seeing them do well. My favorite piece is a digitata frag that is doing superbly well even though my tank is probably not ideal for SPS. Unfortunately, there are also the occasional disappointments when a coral doesn't work out.

I can sort of understand people who say they get bored with planted tanks. It's easy to set up a planted tank and just let it do its thing. You only need to feed the livestock and do the occasional water changes.

A reef tank, on the other hand, is a constant bag of surprises. Several times I've thought of taking down the reef tank and going back to a planted tank, and something new would happen to renew my interest. It could be something as simple as seeing less algae!

I get excited about the weirdest things in my reef tank. For example, I have this lone trochus snail in the tank. He's the only survivor of several attempts to introduce trochus snails to my tank. Just last night, after lights out, I was thinking that I hadn't seen it in a while. So I took a flashlight to the tank, and there it was, happily munching on a piece of rock! That just made my night.

Still, I do miss my planted tank. If I had the space, I would have both.


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## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

I am actually getting more interested in planted tanks.. I think they are beautiful. 

I love my SW tanks, but, they take a lot of time. 

What is the initial investment to get into a small counter top planted tank?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ruckuss said:


> I am actually getting more interested in planted tanks.. I think they are beautiful.
> 
> I love my SW tanks, but, they take a lot of time.
> 
> What is the initial investment to get into a small counter top planted tank?


Hmmm... if starting from scratch, a regular 10-gallon tank costs about 20$, and an HOB would be 20$ as well. If you want a starfire tank, the 12" cubes go for around 60$ iirc.

Light will probably be your biggest expense. You'll want something nice looking for a counter top, so it will probably need to be LED. I think that's about 100$?

Then there's the heater, around 20$. So in total, I'd say a nice, small setup would be around 200$.

For substrate, you can use dirt + sand, or you can spend money on aquasoil.


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## Windowlicka (Mar 5, 2008)

I loved our couple of attempts at reef tanks for all the reasons you mention. I disliked them because of all of the complexity, the costs (both initial setup, and longer term operational), the time investment, and the fear that we were constantly living "on a knife edge" - the smallest change in parameters from the most (relatively) innocuous source could detrimentally affect the whole tank's equilibrium.

I'm happy now to live vicariously through you reefers with your build threads and your online diaries - sharing in your experiences, but selfishly leaving the dosing, water changes, costs & risks squarely down to you!

If I ~were~ to venture back into the world of aquaria, it would be either with another larger (+6ft long x +2ft wide) African cichlid tank again, or possibly even a 75/90G lower-tech planted aquarium - I find some of these equally as stunning as a reef, and again, for similar reasons to those that you've already mentioned.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

Having done both sides of the hobby, in both large and small aquariums, I can share some of my experiences in comparing or relating.

First, I think it needs to be clarified what a "planted" tank is, the term is thrown around very often - so is "high tech" and "heavily planted" - this is important as some people consider planted aquariums simply tanks with some plants in it, whether they actually took the time to plant it or even keeping the plants in the pots they came in. Truth is, that's like putting a couple polyp heads into any SW tank and calling it a reef tank. Planted tanks are usually more flora over fauna, of course fauna is important, but the priority is still more plant based while the fauna compliments the overall layout. (keep in mind this rule is not applicable every time, as some planted tanks are created around certain species of livestock)

When you get into the premium and artsy side of planted tanks, it's completely beyond what most people can imagine, with some experience in 'Nature' and/or 'Dutch' style tanks, they can easily be the same or more complicated than reef tanks. The knowledge to properly utilize hardscapes and plants together while balancing fertilization, co2 injection, and light intensity together is usually achieved through years of practice - and until you perfect it, there's no way the planted hobby can get anywhere near boring. Now, if you're someone who likes to invest 3-5 hours a day into maintaining your aquariums, then the planted side may get slower for you, but this is the same no matter which side of the hobby you're in, as having easy plants = less work, same as having easy corals = less work, Both hobbies are about pushing yourself further and improving, while enjoying every step of the way, so try more difficult species and layouts.

Reef tanks are fun, as they're full of surprises - that includes both good and bad, but the micro fauna that reside in the rocks are amazingly interesting and diverse. However, these are personally two of the biggest issues with reef tanks:
- Lighting: The lighting is just way too blue/purple, it makes the corals pop and really is preferred as too much of green or red can result in algae issues. However, blue light is just way to straining for our eyes, also not the best for us, personal opinion though, I'm sure some people would be more sensitive to the light and others less.
- Stability: Although reef tanks get easier over time as it matures and it's not the case with planted aquariums, reef tanks can be hit really hard and fast by even small changes in parameters, it's honestly keeping the tank on life support and the littlest change can cripple or alter the whole tank. (this does add a bonus of success when it does go right however, feels good that you didn't wipe out a whole tank I guess..)

Now, if anyone from the salty side has considered trying a small nano or larger sized planted tank, I would highly recommend it, a lot of aquarist would consider SW tanks next steps after planted tanks, but they're really not, they are two very different and specialized areas of the hobby, but the skills can be used interchangeably to perfect each other!


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

default said:


> When you get into the premium and artsy side of planted tanks, it's completely beyond what most people can imagine, with some experience in 'Nature' and/or 'Dutch' style tanks, they can easily be the same or more complicated than reef tanks. The knowledge to properly utilize hardscapes and plants together while balancing fertilization, co2 injection, and light intensity together is usually achieved through years of practice - and until you perfect it, there's no way the planted hobby can get anywhere near boring.


I completely agree with this.

Unfortunately, the only way to get experience in creating beautiful aquascapes is to try out different layouts, which is probably why everytime my planted tank gets settled, I get the itch to tear it down and try something new!


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## Aqua Hero (Mar 20, 2016)

After getting into aquascaping I can never be bored with planted tanks. You can create anything you want. 




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

I'd like to give SW a go someday. When I have the space, time and money. For now my planted tank is rewarding enough


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

The hobby is what you make it. Both fresh and salt are rewarding for the same reasons. I was a big reef guy for years, but I've returned to FW setups. High tech planted setups can be every bit as complicated as high tech reefs. Its more about what you put into the hobby as opposed to the medium.


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## Greg_o (Mar 4, 2010)

I too do both, and each style has their pros and cons. 

Great topic. There is a certain elitism amongst some parts of the sw community that grows old very quick. It's very refreshing to see some balance expressed between these two styles here.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I'm curious as to what some of the reef-only members have to say. It's too bad that there's no joint SW/FW area.


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## Aqua Hero (Mar 20, 2016)

solarz said:


> I'm curious as to what some of the reef-only members have to say. It's too bad that there's no joint SW/FW area.


Brakish setups?


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## cb1021 (Sep 21, 2009)

SW is out of my mind because it's out of my price range (initial setup cost + maintenance cost). It's the same reason why I never debate which is better: my Toyota or a Maserati....


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

cb1021 said:


> SW is out of my mind because it's out of my price range (initial setup cost + maintenance cost). It's the same reason why I never debate which is better: my Toyota or a Maserati....


Oh, I don't know about that, you can do reef tanks on the cheap as well. Obviously, the cheapest reef tank is going to be more expensive than the cheapest planted tank, but I would say a low tech reef tank will still be less expensive and less maintenance than a high tech planted tank.


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## CoralConnoisseur (Mar 5, 2014)

I tried to run a low tech 35g salty tank. Large aquaclear, couple koralia nano powerheads, heater, 40lbs live rock. The time required to maintain it was crazy. It only lasted 6 months or so. It is do able, the tank never crashed, I just got fed up with the amount time required. My 90g reef with sump is easy to maintain, but clearly cost a boat load more initial setup.

I have never tried a planted tank, but kept many different cichlid tanks quite a few years ago.


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

Foam fractionation makes SW life a lot easier. That ability to remove waste products before they break down is very hard to appreciate without experiencing first hand.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

CoralConnoisseur said:


> I tried to run a low tech 35g salty tank. Large aquaclear, couple koralia nano powerheads, heater, 40lbs live rock. The time required to maintain it was crazy. It only lasted 6 months or so. It is do able, the tank never crashed, I just got fed up with the amount time required. My 90g reef with sump is easy to maintain, but clearly cost a boat load more initial setup.
> 
> I have never tried a planted tank, but kept many different cichlid tanks quite a few years ago.


It doesn't sound like your 35g had any form of nutrient export?

The greatest advantage of a planted tank is that it has a built-in form of nutrient export, and something that is not easily replicable in SW tanks.

The easiest form of nutrient export for SW, the skimmer, is a big ugly piece of equipment. Now if only they could build an efficient, HOB skimmer, then SW would be a lot more accessible!


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## skylane (Sep 7, 2015)

If you really look at it, the world is covered by oceans, SW, and on land FW. IMO the FW the one that supplies the oceans with clean water and the Amazon river is a true testament to this. I keep FW tanks and fish, but love the SW side as well and would love to try this someday. No.FW no ocean , it all connects, but the biotopes of the FW systems are my favorite systems as there are many types of systems that can be done with this.
It's still amazing how fish and plants live in a SW environment and some fish can live in both environments! Like most of us here the money for running these systems SW can be discouraging, but FW is not cheap depending on your preferred tank style and fish. I'm a big fan of FW and it's a popular choice for most hobbyist, but I'm sure we all like them both as we are all fish nerds anyways!!!

Clem


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