Beginner needs your help

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Stab_Master_Arson

What I did was read and google...google google google.

My first tank was a 20 gal with 2 damsels. Over the course of a year and a few months, I slowly upgraded. It has now been 3 years since I started and I can safely say I am about 1 percent knowledgeable in the saltwater hobby. I am not exaggerating when I say there will ALWAYS be something to learn.

One piece of advice I can give you that "beginners articles" usually won't is: don't be cheap.

If you get the smallest and cheapest this and that, you will want to upgrade shortly (and I mean shortly) after that and the money will be spent in vain. the problem comes into play when you say "I was a 10 gallon system" and you buy a filter, skimmer, lighting all around this. 2 months down the road, you learn more and you want..more. Now you are upgrading to a 70 gallon system and you wasted 600 bucks on nano reef equipment. Be very SURE that you will be satisfied for a while with your initial purchase. I know I wasn't. I upgraded everything several times.

Trust me, you will enter the phase of "i want a _____" and it will not fit in your current tank even if you crammed it in with a plunger. You will find yourself blowing twice as much as you had to to get that "______".

I couldn't agree more. I started with a 60g and a 15g shortly after that. Upgraded to a 120g and a 30g cube. Then went to a 230g and I just set up a 28g. Now I want to add 300g, which hopefully will happen by Christmas .

Ultimately I don't think I'd be happy until I had a tank that was at least 1000g, but until I find a way to make more money I'll have to sick with what I got.

[kwirky]

just jump in and do it. No knowledge like first hand experience . You can read and read and google and google and you'll get confused by conflicting methodologies and difference in opinions. Learning for yourself is one of the best ways to learn how to do things. Don't be afraid of mistakes; have faith and just leap in.

That could be life advice too

[dsaundry]

There is no perfect science here...Fact: you will make mistakes,,we all have, you will lose both corals and fish..we all have. you will spend way more money than you thought you would, but it is still so fantastic you will enjoy it more than you thought you would..as per other suggestions, asking on forums like this is great and look at other salt tanks and see how they are running and ask for advise.....have fun