Direction...

[info_sponge]

hi!
I am COMPLETELY new to saltwater setups. I have a few freshwater tanks and have fallen in love with fish. I always become entranced when walking the isles of the local pet stores passing all these amazing tanks. I have read SWF.com's pages a few times on setup and am impressed with all the info there, but I need to know a little more. sheesh... I've become longwinded.
To the point...
What is a good beginner tank size? I was looking at about a 55G...
Where else can I find info that will help me in my endeavor? I don't want to learn the hard way by losing $500 worth of stuff.
sorry so long and thanks in advance for your patience.

 

[whipple]

To start, the bigger the better! Its lots easier to control waters parameters cause they dont change as drastically as fast as smaller tanks. Also get a QT !!!!!! Lots of fish DIE from bad decisions to put fish straight into a tank with no QT. And the rest of the info is here on the board just do searches or ask more specific questions and youll get plenty of answers.
Good luck and keep us posted

 

[volitan]

55 gal. is nice, but I went with a 75 gal. It has the same width and height as a 55, but is several inches deeper from front to back. It made it easier for me to build my lr. Basically what I was told when I got into this hobby, purchase the largest tank you can afford, and that you have plenty of room for. The larger the tank, the more margin for error. As far as information goes, just start reading everything you can get your hands on, and take notes on anything you're not quite sure of. Ask questions on this board, and at your lfs. Good luck

 

[fshhub]

i like the 55 rects, up to and including the 125 rects, those are the BEST beginner tanks(you are best to stay with arectangular and not a hex)
a good book IMO is the new marine aquqrium, by michael paletta, it is an easy ot follow book that will guide you step by step through everything, even fish selection, and explain alot of things too, IMO it is a very good 30$ investment, to start off with, and iagree, i did start off by losing 300$(due to bad advice from my lfs, which he did pay for, but it was the point), tha t is not the way to learn
and lastly if you need a question answered, just come back and ask
WELCOME ABOARD you're gonna love it

 

[y2says]

Welcome to this wonderful hobby. And yes, this can be expensive. I wish I knew this site when I started. It would have save me a lot of $$$$$$. Six months into it, I'm still learning. First thing is to move slowly and be patient. Read as much as possible from this site and others. Don't short-cut. Find out if you want to do fish only or reef and go from there. Good luck.

 

[javajoe]

If you can do it, go with the 75 over the 55. I wanted to go with 75, but we got a great deal on a 55 ($20 at a garage sale). Careful with used tanks though- gotta clean them- and do a search about the best way to celan for a reef first.
Check the swap sheet- and also try the buffalonews.com classifieds- you can do a serach for tank or aquarium and saves you time looking thru pages and pages of ads
The thing is- it really is not the cost of the actual tank that gets prohibitive when you get larger, its all the other stuff. You need more LS for a DSB (southdown IS obtainable here in Buffalo, let me know if you need to know where). More lighting is needed, more LR, etc. But if i coudl do it over, i would DEFINATELY go with the 75- just for having more room front to back for positioning live rock.
Good luck-- have fun reaseaching-- it is SOOOOO hard to wait!