New Tank from Family Member - Lots of questions!

[mschario]

Hello,

I have inherited a 36 gallon bowfront tank from a friend of the family who had to move out of state. It worked out great as I have always wanted a tank, my wife did not, and my two year old did so I won the battle and we are excited to start the hobby, I just want to be sure I am going down the right path.

I have read the the saltwater aquariums for dummies, and a few threads but I am hoping to get a little personal guidance.

I basically just pumped out the tank, brought it to our house and set it up the exact same way. Few questions:

1. The system has a canister filter below - Would I be better off ditching the canister and moving to a protein skimmer if I do corals in the future?

2. I have one powerhead in the unit, is this enough?

3. I have roughly 30 lbs of liverock in the aquarium, is that too much or not enough?

4. My current list of species in the tank are below. The sailfin tang from what I have read is to much fish for the tank. Should I wait until it grows a bit and sell it to someone who has a bigger tank? I apologize for my inexperience on this issue. Also, from what I have read the fish in a tank should be stocked between 2-4 inches per gallon, is this correct? Also, do inverts count towards my fish count or bioload?
2 x small clownfish (1 in each)
1 x stars and stripes puffer (2 inches)
1 x neon dottyback (1 inch)
1 x cleaner shrimp
1 x peppermint shrimp
1 x sailfin tang (3-4 inches)
1 x urchin

5. Pellots vs frozen food?

6. I am planning to do 10% water changes every two weeks, and the canister cleaning every 4 weeks. Would a protein skimmer help delay the changes?

7. Moving to coral, is this possible in my tank and would just buying a protein skimmer with better lighting and hearty corals be a good start?


Thanks to anyone who responds to this to help!

It is much appreciated

-Matt

 

[lmforbis]

Welcome to the hobby.
I'd add at least one more power head on the opposite side of the tank.
Next I'd re-home the tang. Your tank is way too small for any tang but definitely not a sailfin. Salt water fish are aggressive/territorial. A large fish like a tang needs a large territory. As it matures it will stress because of the lack of territory and eventually either get sick or beat up on your other fish. This personality change can happen over night.
As for filtration. A canister is fine. Not ideal but it will work. The caveat is that it needs weekly maintenance not monthly. You can likely do without the filter. Your live rock is your biological filter. The only thing the canister is giving you is mechanical filtration. I have a 120 gallon and no mechanical filtration. I do have a skimmer and that is all. I have reactors I can use if they are needed but generally I don't have them running.