BRAND NEW TO THIS!

[asylumdown]

Just want to chime in as a recent newbie myself and say that if this is your first entry to the hobby and all you're keeping is fish to start out with, you don't *need* to spend lots of money on R/O water or an R/O system. It's better, obviously, but if you're looking for a way to contain costs and workload as you start out, conditioned tap water is fine to use until you can get an R/O system running.

I used tap water on an SPS dominated reef tank with no major ill effects (save for seasonal fluctuations in algae types), and there are plenty of people on here who have incredible reef tanks using only tap water.

When you get to the bare bones of it, if all you're keeping is fish or basic soft corals, all you really "need" is a water tight box, some salt water, a way to process nitrogenous waste (be that a canister filter or live rock), a way to keep the water moving, a heater, a container to mix new saltwater in (and the hydrometer to test), the basic three water tests (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), and a light. Everything else is a "should" or a "want" to have. Unless you're one of the lucky few for whom cost really is no object, the seasoned reefers list of "needs" can be a prohibitive barrier to entry if you think that you can't start until you've crossed them all off your shopping list. Most stuff can be added as you go, or when you decide to get in to an element of the hobby that requires more serious equipment. Your tank will be a very different looking piece of equipment one year from now. I wish I had taken as many pictures of my sump cabinet over the 1.5 years my 90 was running as I had of my display. When It started it was a simple sump with a skimmer, when I took it down it looked like it could probably have done my taxes if I had asked it to.

The key is to future proof your purchases as best you can by making sure you're buying things that can be added to later, or are useful in more applications than what you currently need it for.

For example: If you're thinking about buying another powerhead for flow, think about whether or not you one day want a bigger tank, or whether you think you might ever want a controller, or if you ever want the option to keep higher flow corals. There are brands like the Vortech that have a hard-to-swallow initial cost, but they have an adjustable max speed, can be linked wirelessly down the road to more pumps as well as to the Apex brand controller. Also, if you're buying one extra pump now but think one day you might want two on a wave maker (the most common of which switches power between two pumps at a set interval), you might want to buy something other than the numbered Koralia line right now, as they make a horrible noise every time they start up and aren't appropriate for wave-makers. Even if you never use the extra potential, you have the option if you need it and the added initial cost pays for itself when you can 'upgrade' as opposed to re-purchase everything later. I've never met a reefer who didn't have a closet full of old Koralia's collecting dust at some point.

Is your tank drilled? If not, is it drill-able? If I had one piece of advice for my 2 year ago self, it would have been to have started with a tank that could have had a sump added to it. On a 30 gallon tank you don't "need" one, but not having one means that any equipment you have will need to hang on the back of your display tank. Having the option to add a sump later to keep larger and less attractive equipment tucked away is gold.