New to here and new to saltwater aquarium

[midnight112x]

So my fiance and i have decided to start a saltwater tank. We can not get a huge one but our space is limited to 36 inches in length. First question would be, is that long enough? i think that would be enough space for a 30 gallon (maybe 40 but i dont think so unless its taller). I did see a few taller 56 gallon tanks that may fit.
she likes clown fish (nemo). has anyone had a clown fish here? Any advice?
I would like to have some coral or anemonies in the tank also.
I do like the look of shrimp or some type of bottom dweller, or anything that can hide in coral would be cool.
My experience in fish raising: I have a goldfish tank now (55 gallon) and when i was younger i had a freshwater tank with random fish in it, cant remember breeds. I have zero experience with saltwater fish. I am going to barnes and noble today do research with books. i want to do this the right way, when i started with goldfish, i was given terrible advice and lost a few fish because of it.
I know Saltwater is more expensive but does it require more effort and time than goldfish tanks? i measure my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph in my GF tank often and it doesnt bother me, is there a lot more of other levels i have to monitor? (i think you monitor salt? educated guess)
How long do clown fish or some of the other fish i mentioned live? Any other fish compatable with clownfish?
I am sure i will have more questions but thats all for now. We are going to start this slow and do it the right way. Thank you in advance
-Midnight

 

[1guydude]

Hello midnight and welcome to the site and the world of saltwater!

This is a great hobby and a slight addiction imo! So with any addiction comes a lose of $ LOL
I think most of us have owned a clownfish or currently do YES!
(many diff types of clowns)!
Good job on reading up on SW! Buy a good book if u can!
read it read it read it!
Ive never done FW tanks but im sure SW is nothing like a gold fish tank!
We test for those and than some such as phosphates, dkh (carbo hardness), and salt yes!
Some fish have been known to live for 20yrs in a home aquarium with proper conditions!
Welcome again!

 

[swisswiss]

hello and welcome, get some books and search on line, that's how most of us started informing ourselves.
the one golden rule you need to always keep in mind with saltwater is be patient!!!
its very hard to wait months before your tank has done "cycling" and can be very tempting to add fish right away but for the love of God don't!
it would be;
A) a waste of money if the fish die (and they probably will)
B) its is cruel enough to have taken a beautiful fish away from its natural home let alone letting it die in a "poisoned" tank slowly.
if your really starting off from the base of bases you need to first decide a couple things.
- the place where you're going to put your tank, is it strong enough to hold the weight (tank + water + rock + sand), is it in directly sun light (not always a good idea as this promotes algae)
- the system your going to use, will you have everything in the tank or do you plan to set up a sump? if so how?
- finally the most important question: what kind of saltwater aquarium do you want? a fish only, a FOWLR or a reef tank? i would suggest the FOWLR (fish only with live rock) this is because the organisms in the live rock and sand will act as an extra filtering system for the tank and make it alot more stable, the advantage of this is also that you can easily then move to a reef tank as you gain experience in the hobby.
finally keep in mind the smaller the tank the shorter your reaction margin to correct water levels.
my advice to you is get the biggest tank place and money allows. as has been correctly pointed out to me and is generally a good life rule, spend a little more if you have to it will be cheaper in the long run.

 

[midnight112x]

thanks for the tips. i went to the bookstore and read for an hour or so. I will look into a clown fish because that is what the lady wants and it was suggested in the readings that i should pick a creature and build from there. Eventually i would like to have anemone/coral in the tank also but i hear it has a lot more responabilities involved. I also read that clowns are hardy and friendly fish. I am going to do some reading on this website and go from there. The plan is to start the tank soon but add living creatures after our honeymoon mid september or so, depending on the cycle...
Thaks again