Roughly, what does it cost to set-up and maintain a salt water tank?

In time?

“Maintenance of your tank system will require adequate time and dedication. Think about how much time it will take weekly to do this. Although this doesn’t take a great deal of time, it does require daily and weekly care. Roughly expect to spend about 20 to 30 minutes a day and then about three to four hours a week maintaining the tank. On top of that, expect to spend an additional three to four hours every few months for a full tank cleaning.” Source

In money?
“A properly set up and maintained saltwater aquarium can cost hundreds of dollars, not including the monthly operating costs.” Source

“It is a rather expensive hobby (I probably spent $1000 in 5 years) but I found it well worth the effort.” Source

The size of the tank is going to be an important variable here. Larger tanks are easier to maintain the proper levels of salt, waste, temperature, etc. because there is a bigger margin of error. It’s also a lot more work to clean and much more expensive. So by “starter aquarium”, are you referring to the cheapest setup? Or the one that is the most forgiving to mistakes?

Depends greatly on what your trying to do. Do you want just fish or do you want coral too? Fish only is much cheaper and you can use filter and everything else from a fresh water tank with no extra equipment. Set up is always the expensive part but keeping it running isnt bad just electricty and then buying salt.

If however your doing coral its going to be much more expensive. Youll need a better filtration system, a protein skimmer and far stronger lights. Depending on tank size and thus lighting requirements, this could considerably raise your monthly electric bill.

Sorry I didnt give any real figures, but its hard to say without knowing really what you want to do and how big of a tank.

Also side note on inhabitants if you decide to get a Moray Eel be careful, they are amazing escape artists. Poor “Eli” was found frozen in an “S” shape under the drapes behind the tank after “disappearing” for several days. Tragic. lol