To reef or not to reef?

[wartooth]

I'm still stuck on how I want to go about my first aquarium. Although I have been interested in a reef setup, it seems to be really expensive to start out with. I was hoping to start something decent for under a grand, but all the fish stores in my area seem to be charging a premium for setups (they've all told me its impossible to have a basic reef setup for under 2K). There's craigslist, but I'm aprehensive over forking over hundreds of dollars and either risk getting ripped off or having no recourse if any of the parts go bad.
Atleast from the store if any of the equipment is defective I can get a refund or exchange the item...
So I suppose the third option is to not go with a reef setup and to be honest, as much as I like seeing corals, I'm more interested in looking at fish and inverts... so I'm willing to let the corals go if it means a more affordable startup... besides, if I do want corals later down the line I can always upgrade I suppose.
If I went with fish and inverts and no corals, which pieces of equipment will I no longer need? I know lighting is less important without corals... is there anything else I can pass on? Filter type? Skimmer? If I can get away with a nice setup using only what is necessary that would be a good start

 

[gemmy]

IMO, the only thing you can afford to scale back is the lighting and probably the skimmer (at least for the first 6months to a year). What type of filtration do you plan on running?

 

[wartooth]

Well... if I went with a reef setup I was thinking a refugium sump... but maybe a canister filter if I didn't go reef.

 

[gemmy]

Honestly, I would just go sump. It would be beneficial in a FO setup and then if you decide to go reef then you will have no regrets.

 

[1guydude]

More money in the long run if u do fowlr and switch to reef....i say go for it and do reef...
u can get a tank and stand on CL but i prob would get new equipment!