salt water aquariums are a bit of work, but you can boil it down to the same tank maintenance for a planted fresh water tank except you will need consistent weekly water changes. If you use a high quality salt mix then you don't have to does chemicals.
I would like having a saltwater aquarium, but I am not sure what to do with it when I fuck off for 3-4 weeks a year or if the power goes out for days on end.
If you are prone to power outages in you area I don't recommend a reef tank. but if you were to get one there are small emergency power supplies you can buy or if you jus have fish and no coral you could just use a bubbler and do a 20% water change daily until the power comes back, but if you just want an aquarium for your kid to look at just put together a cheap planted tank with dirt pellet substraight in a window and add some snails and maybe some shrimp with alot of plants and that tank basically takes care of itself. look into keeping cherry shrimp.
Well for average setup for the aquarium you need to ask yourself what size you want. Things tend to get more expensive the larger you go. If you want a freshwater planted aquarium you need to worry about these main things filter, tank, heater, substrate, light and an aquarium siphon for water changes. Getting everything separate may seem like a lot but you will save some money this way. These days in the the hobby you can buy a kit with everything but your substraight and water for about 100-200 dollars. the cheap 10 gallon aquariums are nice for bare bones but you will have to upgrade it. For a decent salt kit you are looking at anywhere from 200-400 depending on size and what you want to keep.
For an all in one like a bio cube its only like 400 bucks and then like another hundred for rock sand etc. but if your doing a nano setup you dont need a skimmer an ro system or a uv sterilizer. Most fish shops will sell you rodi water for pennies and you can mix it yorself.
