First tank, any reccomendations?

[projectmayhem16]

I'm setting up my first personal saltwater tank this summer. I've worked with them before, but never had one to call my own. It's going to be a 20g, and I'm going to have mostly corals, but probably a pair of either ocellaris clowns or yellow headed jawfish.

Any suggestions as to what corals I should give a shot? I know that mushroom rock and polyps are nice and hardy. Anything with a little more color, or a little cooler looking, that anyone can reccomend?

 

[IkevinI]

in my opinion the bigger the better, especially if you plan to keep corals, the problem with smaller systems is that is hard to maintain stable water parameters which is essential to good coral growth.
if you plan on sticking with the 20 gallon mushrooms and polyps are pretty much fool proof as long as you do water changes and watch your water quality. and you can find some nice colors amoung those. some of the best colored mushrooms are ricordeas (though sometimes expensive). just browse around some vndors before you set up and see what you would like. then find out what they need as far as care.
welcome to the hobby.

 

[six.line]

Welcome to ReefCentral.

I agree with IkevinI.

You *will* want a bigger tank, there's just no doubt about it. I have a 15 gallon right now with a 55 in the works... It's so addicting. I agree with Ricordeas. Green star polyps are cool. Zoanthids are pretty hardy and can have dazzling colors. Don't settle for the ugly brown ones-- I've seen bright green, yellow, red and blue zoos. I have some orange ones that are kinda cool.

Go to www.melevsreef.com and scroll through his stuff-- that's help me get an idea of what I want in my tank.

Good luck.

 

[Sk8r]

It's a hard balance on tank size: big tank, more expensive, more expensive to fill with specimens, can take larger specimens and allow full growth/equipment about the same for big or little, easier to maintain, less sensitive to mistakes, equipment comes scaled to fit easily, easy to get enough distance between specimens and lights.
Little tank: cheaper, cheaper to stock, easier to place/hard to maintain, unforgiving of mistakes, sometimes hard to get equipment to fit, only tiniest of fish and smallest coral frags will fit, lighting can be problem: tank shallowness doesn't let you use some lights.
I have a 52, which is kind of inbetween large and small, and combines advantages and problems...but I'd say if you need to go 20, plan on mushrooms and buttons as your principle corals, and some of the bright very small fishes, plus the little hermits---that would make a nice tank. We had a stretch thirty that was quite nice, with firefish and fun little gobies, and mushrooms and buttons, and just a Penguin filter---it was a great tank and ran with minimal trouble until we moved.

 

[projectmayhem16]

I'm not really concerned with the maintenence the tank is going to cost. We have several small tanks at work with some cool stuff in them, for example a five gallon with Acropora frags. They're doing fine. I know that I'm going to have to do consistent water changes and stay on top of the nitrate levels. I've done a ten gallon tank for a semester in my Marine Bio class, I know how fast they can crash.

If there's anything relatively cool looking but not as difficult as something like a goniopora that's actually worth taking care of, let me know.

 

[cerolost]

I second the 20 gallon. I started with a 29 gallon which is 30" inches long so I'm kinda restricted with what lighting I can do because most light are either 24" or 36". You could do the pc quad, that is 96 watts of light. If I could do it again it would be either a 20 or a 55 because of how cheap the tanks are.

 

[bjonesjr1]

I bought my 55 gallon tank with stand and a bunch of misc. other things for $150 then found a guy on RC (robthorn) who sold me a CustomSeaLife moonlight fixture for $25, I could n't got a better deal anywhere else... check out my little red house for my thread on the whole project if you like....