"Just starting out" is a time of high excitement and sometimes a time of choices you don't know you're making, until you're quite a way up a creek with a lot of branches.
Consider this: get as large a tank as is reasonable and practical. In the salt water hobby, particularly if you aim for fish, long and big is better. If you want to go to corals, lighting is a huge consideration, and lighting is expensive, so long and big may need to be 'zoned,' ie, the bright light at one spot and the rest not. Or just a smaller tank. Also consider how you're going to service this tank---because they do require access into the tank, and into the sump, if you have one.
Another piece of advice: start with basic, hardier fish until you've made your beginner mistakes---and most of us do make them. Big ones. Don't spring for spendy fish until you've done research on them, including Adult Size. Most fish (other than gobies and blennies) are sold as minnows, and some head for 'whale' real fast. Seriously. Little 'Dory''s adult size is a foot long. And some fish that aren't that big have 'swimming requirements' to thrive---sort of like housing a greyhound in your bathroom. Tangs fall into that category in general. A few are far more sedentary, like the kole and orange-shoulder, but many need quite a bit of room.
A caution on rabbitfish: they do get 10" long, 8" easy, and they are venomous. They also are freakout fish, and in too small a tank may start getting freaky and doing in their tankmates. I recommend leather gloves UNDER your heavyduty 'handling rock' rubber gloves if you have to move a lot of rock with one of these guys gone missing. They plaster themselves to the underside of rocks when panicked. Not good news if you grab them.
As a general rule, for tanks under 50 gallons, blennies, gobies, royal gramma, clowns are all good choices.
Angels: some grow big. The dwarfs that stay small MAY eat corals---some individuals do, some don't ever, or just pick on a few species. Not good for a tank destined for corals.
For a future reef: lighting is a big issue. Softie corals (leathers, mushrooms, etc) don't take as much. Stony large polyp (lps) is moderate, and the branching colored sticks (small-polyp, or sps) takes strong light AND superclear water, so you need very good light AND a killer skimmer for sps.
The big divide is whether or not you will do corals, and if so, what type. They're not hard (except sps) at all, and grow fairly fast; but certain fish WILL eat them, and you need to know that before you get fish. Blennies and gobies and clowns are safe: note: don't put them with giant mushrooms---mushrooms will trap and smother them. Angels are a 'no' to 'iffy'. Tangs are generally ok with them.
In general, ASK before you commit to a fish choice. Ask here in this forum for people with expertise. 'Reef safe' means it won't eat corals. For me, a 'reef safe' ghost eel did in 300.00 worth of fish before I could get him out. That was MY beginner mistake. He truly didn't eat corals. And being a night hunter, you wouldn't see him do it. But he did.
Nothing hard and fast here, just personal experience. There's nothing right or better about a particular type of tank, but it's a pain when your favorite fish turns out to be a no-go with the coral you want. And the time to think about that is during planning and before you've spent your money.
HTH.
Consider this: get as large a tank as is reasonable and practical. In the salt water hobby, particularly if you aim for fish, long and big is better. If you want to go to corals, lighting is a huge consideration, and lighting is expensive, so long and big may need to be 'zoned,' ie, the bright light at one spot and the rest not. Or just a smaller tank. Also consider how you're going to service this tank---because they do require access into the tank, and into the sump, if you have one.
Another piece of advice: start with basic, hardier fish until you've made your beginner mistakes---and most of us do make them. Big ones. Don't spring for spendy fish until you've done research on them, including Adult Size. Most fish (other than gobies and blennies) are sold as minnows, and some head for 'whale' real fast. Seriously. Little 'Dory''s adult size is a foot long. And some fish that aren't that big have 'swimming requirements' to thrive---sort of like housing a greyhound in your bathroom. Tangs fall into that category in general. A few are far more sedentary, like the kole and orange-shoulder, but many need quite a bit of room.
A caution on rabbitfish: they do get 10" long, 8" easy, and they are venomous. They also are freakout fish, and in too small a tank may start getting freaky and doing in their tankmates. I recommend leather gloves UNDER your heavyduty 'handling rock' rubber gloves if you have to move a lot of rock with one of these guys gone missing. They plaster themselves to the underside of rocks when panicked. Not good news if you grab them.
As a general rule, for tanks under 50 gallons, blennies, gobies, royal gramma, clowns are all good choices.
Angels: some grow big. The dwarfs that stay small MAY eat corals---some individuals do, some don't ever, or just pick on a few species. Not good for a tank destined for corals.
For a future reef: lighting is a big issue. Softie corals (leathers, mushrooms, etc) don't take as much. Stony large polyp (lps) is moderate, and the branching colored sticks (small-polyp, or sps) takes strong light AND superclear water, so you need very good light AND a killer skimmer for sps.
The big divide is whether or not you will do corals, and if so, what type. They're not hard (except sps) at all, and grow fairly fast; but certain fish WILL eat them, and you need to know that before you get fish. Blennies and gobies and clowns are safe: note: don't put them with giant mushrooms---mushrooms will trap and smother them. Angels are a 'no' to 'iffy'. Tangs are generally ok with them.
In general, ASK before you commit to a fish choice. Ask here in this forum for people with expertise. 'Reef safe' means it won't eat corals. For me, a 'reef safe' ghost eel did in 300.00 worth of fish before I could get him out. That was MY beginner mistake. He truly didn't eat corals. And being a night hunter, you wouldn't see him do it. But he did.
Nothing hard and fast here, just personal experience. There's nothing right or better about a particular type of tank, but it's a pain when your favorite fish turns out to be a no-go with the coral you want. And the time to think about that is during planning and before you've spent your money.
HTH.
