How do you answer "What do I need to do to set up a saltwater tank?"

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by kien

I am personally starting to hate this question! Ya, pretty much anyone who comes over that has never seen the tank asks this question. Mostly these days its service people which is extra annoying because they are supposed to be busy fixing my AC/Stove/Internet/TV/etc.. but I digress..

I give it to them straight up. It can be (and probably will be) a lot of work, very expensive and the learning curve is steep especially if they don't have a background with freshwater. It is often frustrating and depressing (when things go wrong and die). It requires an infinite amount of patience. If it was easy everyone would have a saltwater tank in their house. I don't mean to sound discouraging, but rather realistic.

After that preface I then tell them to go read a book or ask google

My gas hookup guy (who was also a close-talker) was here for nearly an hour after he connected my bbq! I had to tolerate his stories about mollies etc too it was brutal. Sometimes I'm too dang polite I tell ya.