HELP!!! NEWBIE ALERT!!!

The best advice I can give is take it slow and buy everything used if possible. It can be an overwhelming if you try to buy everything new. Also dont put fish in your tank that aren't in the long term plans. I had three four bar Damsels in my tank for cycling and when I wanted to catch them I had to remove every last peice of rock to catch them. over 250lbs (that was a fun day).

What do you have for equipment? you would be amazed at the equipment people have on this site collecting dust.

[DOMINATOR]

All of that equipment sounds amazing? Do i need all of that?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by DOMINATOR

All of that equipment sounds amazing? Do i need all of that?

Depends on what you want to keep and how easy you want your life to be
Skimmer helps clean water, frequent water changes do the same thing. skimmer is probably cheaper long term.
Lights grow corals, so your choice of coral type will determine what you need for light.
You may or may not need a lot of water movement (pumps/power heads) depending on the coral choice.
Fish also depend on this, as some fish eat some corals/clams/inverts.
As corals grow, they need calcium and associated chemistry. Water changes again, manual addition of supplements, dosing, reactors, all cover the need, so how easy do you want it to be?

Look through the tank journal forum, see what tanks you like and how the people set them up. Then ask more questions.

[DOMINATOR]

thanks for the tip!!!

[DOMINATOR]

Do you really need this?

[Bloodasp]

RO/DI units. Kind of an iffy one. Some swear by it, others say they don't use it. Both seasoned and starters. The idea is to start with pure water so you actually know what you are adding to your tank, specially a lot of livestocks are sensitive to sertain chemicals or elements naturally found in most tap water and also some nutrients that promote nuisance growth, like algae, which you don't want in your tank.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Welcome to Canreef
check out under photo forum if you are not sure what kind of setup you interested in.
there is a big selection of setups.
do allot of reading on the ones you like under journals.
(which reminds me i need to make a journal of my own setup,lol)
do it slow as it will payoff with minimal over cost.

[abcha0s]

This is a research intensive hobby. Read, read and read.

This is an expensive hobby. Spend, spend and spend.

[Bloodasp]

List all the potential livestock you want. Doesn't matter how many, eventually by your research and by asking you will weed out a lot and will be left with what will work with your tank. Corals are quite light demanding depending on what type you want so try to list the ones you want to. liveaquaria.net was the first site I found that had a good list of livestock that I looked into before.