I could write something but I'll shamelessly plug Sk8r instead
Here's a reply to why saltwater is better than freshwater. Kind of sums up what we all enjoy about the hobby. (Sk8r have you figured out what frags you are sending me yet?) haha
"Color. A broad spectrum of life forms. Essentially a polyp is a polyp, but they come shaped like anemones, mushrooms, building stony skeletons as lps, sps. A marine tank is capable of feeding fish based on a chain of life from algae to micro-crustaceans to larger crustaceans to fish to worms to corals and so on...the chain of life available in a freshwater tank requires much more water volume.
Plus we're not green and brown, the predominant colors of a freshwater tank. Our fish come in brilliant yellow, pink, purple, etc, and require you to know at least operational biochemistry [as opposed to the theoretical sort] to keep them healthy. So they educate the reefer, amuse the children, delight the artists, and get oohs and ahs from casual visitors who only see the color. They require us to hold jobs and budget our money, so we learn finance; the occasion trades and a swap-type economy, so we learn more about finance. They require us to know the structural soundness of a floor we're putting the tank on, so we learn a little about engineering. They require us to know plumbing, so we don't siphon all that water onto our living room floors. And they require us to learn patience, because corals grow half an inch a month, and require planning and attention to detail. They teach us good habits, because you cannot neglect a marine tank. They teach us the interrelation of species and the way the food chain works. They teach us humililty, because there's always a more dazzling tank. They teach us courage, because you're going to have accidents that break your heart, and you have to suck it up and rebuild with more knowledge than you had last time. They let us take coral species and break one potentially immortal coral into a thousand pieces, that other reefers will break in pieces, so that thousands of reefers around the country and even around the world are growing pieces of the same coral and actually contributing to science---they learn what it wants, how much light it needs, and how to make it grow better. Fish-keepers are learning to breed in captivity species that we once couldn't even keep successfully, and increasing our knowledge of marine biology. We know certain species very well, and we can parlay that knowledge into handling still others that are related, until we can keep a balance in our reefs that teaches us all a lot about the way the ocean works. And it's happening in single lifetimes. I've seen the hobby go from simple filters to wet-dry filters, to protein skimmers that clean water the way the surf does, and chemical dosers that use the chemical properties of filtered water to dissolve the very dose the corals demand. We understand the heat budget of the planet better because we know the heat budget of our reefs, and we're willing to share that knowlege to the benefit of the planet---because we do have a planetary heat budget, and goes-around/comes-around in a fishtank and in a planet. So reefers are among the smartest people on earth when it comes to the way nature works.
How's that?
Sk8r"
