Which Pico tank generally looks better, Freshwater or Saltwater?

[ShrimpDemolisher]

Sometimes I think about building a pico tank for myself, could be FW or SW. But whenever I look up SW pico, especially Reef Jars, they all look kinda messy and maybe... chaotic? There's no actual layout and structure to it, like someone dumped a bunch of different candy in there. I think part of the reason is because corals are harder to build layouts and most of them grow big, while FW has plenty of tiny plants and they grow very nicely for a pico. Even for nano tanks I still think FW mostly look better. In my opinion SW only looks better in bigger aquariums. But I could be wrong. Anyway I'd love to hear your opinion.


Just some stupid post you can find every weekend.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

I feel like the FW one would be easier to maintain and manage live stock. I have a couple Neocaridina tanks out of Fluval Spec III's and they work perfectly for me. SW would be a pain with coraline growing on the glass and trying to scrape that out. I have to believe that it looks great once you start and then I'm sure it just goes down hill from there.

 

[Tired]

Saltwater has more fish options. There are very few freshwater fish species that should actually be kept in a 5gal or less. Male endlers, maybe sparkling gouramis or scarlet badis, anchor/moth catfish, maybe a long-tailed male betta, and... that's about it. Even chili rasboras, tiny as they are, do better with more room. Whereas in saltwater, you have, what, a dozen tiny goby species to pick from? Yes, they're all gobies, but at least there's some variety. The difference is that the gobies perch, whereas most tiny freshwater fish you see available dart around. Freshwater shrimp tanks can look really nice, though.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Extremely low maintenance, I have Neocaridina and a Thai Micro Crab in there. I also sell the babies to pay for my SW tank additions.... Win Win for me

 

[SMSREEF]

Of these pics the fresh look better. But I bet if you find a pico covered in Green algae’s, gorgonians, and some nice red macro algae the salt would give FW a run for its money.
Like this...

 

[brandon429]

Sealed reef. Did not require topoff, gas exchange via refugium rear