Hmmm... what to do... what to do.?.
 

So I just finished a 4 month fallow after ich domintated and won in my tank. In the time the tank has had no fish I've become a little gunshy and I'm undecided on which way to go with my tank... I have always had reef tanks. I really do enjoy them. BUT... For some reason lately I've become fascinated with large colourful predatory fish... ie puffers, groupers, etc... I'll get to the point. I'm trying to decide on whether to go with some large colourful character fish and ditch the reef idea. Or stick with the reef... I've never had a large tank before so a lot of the fish I'm now looking at would never have even been an option. Whats your opinion?

It sounds like you are leaning to a FOWLR. You can always get the fish you want, then start adding coral and see what they don't eat. You may end up with some sort of mixed reef.

Mixed reef is always more relaxing than watching big fish swimming in circles among rocks, 300 g display would be beautiful as a reef. My 2 cents.

yeah just buy the fish you want and then add other corals they wont eat . Thats what I did with my 4ft cube mind you all I ended up with is a bunch of softies as my puffer eats anything half cool . Keep in mind if you end up not liking the mostly FOWLR set up you can always re sell the fish and make a reef again