Easy novice-level reef critters for various size tanks

[Sk8r]

10-20 gallon, no sump, T-5 light or reef LED: soft corals, shrimp, snails, hermits. Fish that will fit in this size are often too delicate to succeed well for an absolute novice. Get that soft coral reef going really well and growing, and THEN it will be a good environment for tiny gobies and blennies, who can be really entertaining. Use the time to study the small gobies and blennies, so you'll be ready. Do NOT get a scooter 'blenny' or a mandarin 'goby.' Neither is a blenny or a goby: they're specialty feeders and cannot live in a tank this size.

30 gallon All-in-one. You can up the game to blennies, gobies, fairy wrasses, maybe one chrysiptera damsel, not a dascyllus. Or one chromis. Or a basslet or two, or dartfish. Zoas, buttons, mushrooms, most softies. You can also go to clownfish of the smaller species, and nix the corals in favor ultimately of an anemone (keeping softies with an anemone has a lot of problems, including the chance of tank wipeout as the two get into chemical warfare.) Also possible as a 'species' tank, as for lions, eels, which need their own space and maybe a whole lot of filtering! A very good learning tank, and absolutely enough tank for many households.

50-75 with sump, skimmer, reef-capable lighting, autotopoff with reservoir. You can get into the larger gobies and blennies, wrasses, cardinals, dartfish (jump-screen a must: they do jump!), maybe a dwarf angel, and you can support (with kalk in the ato reservoir) stony corals such as hammer, torch, bubble---but if you go to stony coral, nix the angel and go with wrasses or maybe a fiji blue damsel for color. Stay away from dascyllus damsels: they get too big.

100 gallon with the above equipment: above fishes and corals with restrictions. This tank can support a community of damsels, (one of a kind), and maybe a pair of clowns with other damsels (clowns are damsels, too)---with anemone, plus above cautions. For this tank, the smallest species of tangs, the tomini, yellow, kole, etc, not the big species like the blue hippo. Small angels, not the big ones. A rabbit is ok.

And from this size tank, you inch your way up to 150, 200, etc. If you want the big tangs, go for the 300 jobs, and go for length and swimming room. Or you can create zones and territories for the smaller species, so as you move along the tank you see the residences of numerous small fishes, who in the wild reef may never move more than the length of this tank from their natural homes. Some fish are quiet homebodies. Others wander huge distances in a day. The 'real long reef' can accommodate both, so long as they don't eat each other. You can also zone the corals, to a certain extent, but alas, goes-around-comes-around is the rule of the reef, so if you're mixing stonies and softies or (brave soul) have a nem in with corals, be sure you've got experience and chemical 'situation' precautions. Experience in placement and setup really counts...I include this size tank as kind of 'where you can go in the future', because very few people dive into this end of the pool for their very first try.

Hope this gives you kind of an overview of where you can start (I'd say most anywhere but the 300 gallon and up is a good starting place) and what thrives easily and what is a problem. When you get into this hobby joining a reef club is a good idea: phone numbers of friends you can call and ask for help in a crisis. Don't 'push' a tank to do more than is appropriate for that size tank: that way lies chemical meltdown and tank death. Figure that over a lifetime you'll work your way up to larger tanks, and find your niche, the tank size you can both afford, and like maintaining. Remember that a 50 gallon tank evaporates a gallon a day, which you make up with freshwater from topoff reservoir, and it also needs a weekly five gallon water change with salt water. Salt ain't cheap! So pick a tank size that's affordable upkeep, and do it by the numbers and the book for your first try. Don't experiment until you know what you're tweaking.