Some of those people on the other boards throw around acronyms and make it sound like keeping fish is this huge undertaking. I belong to a few fish forums and even though I have been doing this for years, I still get lost in some of the posts.
Saltwater tanks are no harder to maintain than a freshwater one. IMO, once they are established, they take less time to maintain.
It's the fact that SW fish are more delicate that FW and you can't get away with swings in the tanks stability like you might be able to with a FW tank.
Don't get discouraged.
If you go the SW route, just decide on the fish before you buy them. A lot more SW fish than FW fish are not compatible and can't be kept together.
Heck, try a reef tank. Now you are really limited on the fish since a lot of SW fish eat corals.
The last thing you want to do is add a nice colored fish and have it proceed to eat hundreds of dollars of coral on you as soon as it gets put in the tank.
