Tank Building - From Planning to Stocking

[Saltynewbie1]

Hi all!
So I'm a college student, and right now my budget is mostly limited to saving for rent and my utilities, along with a few well planned extras. Right now, all of this is preliminary. However, I wanted to start a thread and ask you guys for as much advise as possible!
I'm interested in starting a varied community tank. There are a number of species I'm interested in and I wanted to get your guys advice on what would be best for me as a complete beginner.
I'm thinking as far as corals go, I'd be really interested in some bubble corals and some mushroom anemones. I read these are both fairly easy to care for an enjoy gentle movement. I was also interested in some branching corals for variety but I know they require stronger currents. Is there a solution to this with placement or types of pumps used?
Next, I was interested in some snails, a few hermit crabs, and some shrimp. I don't want to overwhelm the bioload once I add fish, so I wanted advice on these species as well as some advice on how many types of invertebrates I should actually have in the tank. I wanted to have some astraea snails, 2 cleaner and 2 peppermint shrimps, and eventually a candy stripe pistol shrimp paired with a shrimp goby. And some blue knuckled hermits.
For the fish, I've already mentioned a goby. Apart from that I was thinking about 2 or 3 clowns, 2 or 3 blue forktail (assessor macneilli), and some kind of fairy wrasse.

Looking back that looks massive, so I'm going to ask what would be best to cut and how big a tank you would reccomend to keep most of the species I've got on the list currently. This project is going to be a long one, so be sure to tell me exactly what you think is appropriate! I'm excited at the prospect of aquascaping with the live rock, and I think having a burrowing goby and shrimp would be really cool!

[Saltynewbie1]

I was also thinking about keeping a few scooter blennies.

[chefbill]

As a general rule, lighting will be your biggest expense. Once you figure out exactly what kind of corals you want to do, that will dictate which lighting to use. Once you've figured out what kind of lighting, you need to figure out how many lights to cover the tank size you need.
You could get away with one LED on a 40 breeder. 40b is a very popular size and shape tank in the reefing community. It's liked for its shallowness and distance front to back. It makes for some interesting aquascapes do a quick search for that size tank and you will see some beautiful aquariums.
Your stock list looks fine except you can generally only keep two clowns together. Also two clowns will claim the entire tank probably and not allow for any other peaceful additions.
Also if you go to the build section , I'm sure you can find a couple of write-ups on 40 breeder builds to give you an idea of the equipment involved and all the costs.

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[chefbill]

Also check out Duncan corals and the Euphyllias (hammer, frogspawn and torch). Both types are easy to care for with torches being the least easy. All will have the gentle motion you mentioned and Duncan's grow FAST.

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[Saltynewbie1]

I think as far as corals it's between frogspawn and duncan now that I've looked those up. They both look beautiful - would I still be cool to keep the mushroom corals with those? Because both have beautiful coloration, and the movement of the frogspawn/torch look great.

As far as fish go, I'd be interested in clowns but honestly I'd prefer the orange spotted goby. I'd eliminate clowns for it just because I think their pairing behavior is fascinating. Would the goby and the forktail work as a combo? I'd like more than one fish in it. I'm willing to get a bigger tank but I understand parameters get tricky, and 40 does sound like a great place to start from. Let me know what you think of those!

[crabbydan]

Also keep in mind petco or petsmart not sure which has a dollar per gallon sale twice a year so a 40b tank is 40 bucks. Might even be cheaper on Craigslist. After that the above posts are right lighting is the next biggest cost.

[GilliganReef]

I would recommend start reading people build threads on this site. Worry more about if you want a fish only tank or corals. Once you figure that out do tons of research on what works for people and what doesn't. Research on every coral or fish you want to make sure you have the best tank setup for them.

Make sure you have LFS near by that sell RODI water or be prepared to spend money on a RODI unit. Thing I can not stress enough is read, read, and more reading. This is a hobby where I notice people do not do their research before getting into this. It took me over 2 years to plan my current system I have. I have been in the hobby for over 10 years and there is always something new I learn everyday from people on here. Don't look for people to build a tank for yourself. Plan on what you want then ask us for advice on equipment.

If your looking into a coral tank start off with a 40B DT and 20L sump. Look on craiglist for people jumping ship. There is always people selling lights, PH, pumps, and tanks. Since your starting to look into it now. I would give yourself 6 months of reading before jumping into this expensive hobby.

[Saltynewbie1]

I read you loud and clear and I really appreciate the advice!
I actually started learning about this all in middle school, I used to get Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine and I'd pour over their articles for days, and I have Philip Hunt's The Marine Reef Aquarium, a great read by the way. I've been very interested for many years but I've never had the money to really get a system going.
I do think I've been out of reading long enough that I agree with what your saying, and I'd already planned to wait a long time but I'm trying to get back involved in the community, and I wanted to get personal advice.

I think the biggest thing with corals would be the difficulty. I want to have them for sure, but since I haven't ever actually had any type of marine set up, I feel a little nervous about trying them on my first set up.

[Saltynewbie1]

I was thinking as far as the goby goes, I'd be interested either in the orange spot goby or the Amblyeleotris fasciata, both are really interesting to me and provide both the coloration I'm looking for and the relationship with the pistol shrimp.

As far as the tank goes, I'll be looking at sales till I can buy it, seeing where pricing can go.
So as far as equipment goes -
Tank, protein skimmer, LED lighting, sump? (can someone explain this indepth? I don't think I've ever actually gotten a full explanation on exactly what they are). I'm not sure that there are any other mechanical requirements so please let me know what else I'd need! As I said, this is going to be a slow build up, I'll be waiting a long long time to even begin purchasing things but I like planning things and discussing with you guys makes me excited about it!

[yakk]

start here

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074

it will change your life

[yakk]

and in particular, here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=239848