First, nobody's trying to bash Lynn here. I'm sure we're all impressed with her attempt to bounce the ideas off this community prior to getting the tank. But if she's asking for our opinions, I think she needs to hear all sides.
Generally speaking, all corals are "endangered". Far be if from me to discourage anyone from getting into this hobby, as any attention we can call to the issue of the world's coral reefs and the amazing creatures that inhabit it is good.
I think a 55g is a perfectly good size for a reef - I don't know any problem with it being too narrow - maybe if you have a particular LR setup that causes problems, but I don't have that.
The problem with the LFS guy is that he's likely more motivated by selling you equipment than anything else. He's going to make the big bucks on the initial sale, and any service thereafter won't be as lucrative or desireable. As a result, the more the LFS does for you, the less capable you may be when problems arise and they need to be dealt with quickly or else bad things happen. Have you seen any established tanks these people have put up? Have you talked with anybody who has a similar setup from them? Do they have the type of tank you're hoping to have in their store? What gives you confidence in this guy's ability to get this tank set up properly for what you want? (Beyond the 200-gallon water tank in his vehicle)
I applaud you for researching things. That's the right way to go. I don't like the idea of paying a LFS to do all the work, but then again, I think that's part of the fun and an important to do yourself to understand how things work.
My feeling on a scenario is this: if you spend all your money in one pop, one of several things is likely to happen: a) everything works out and you're totally happy, b) it doesn't work and you've spent a fortune and now you'll either get discouraged because things didn't work out how you wanted or it's more "work" than you thought, c) you'll end up spending a lot more money replacing, changing and adding things that were not part of the deal. The bottom line here is that you haven't done a reef tank before. You don't really know what you'll want/need in terms of tank, lighting, substrate, etc. You're letting the ONLY LFS in the area that does this stuff guide you. You may find you want to raise certain kinds of fish or creatures and the configuration you have won't work. You may decide that the maintenance required complicates issues such as being able to travel or depend upon others to maintain things. You may find the tank configuration, regardless of its size, just doesn't work for what you want to do, and the bigger the setup, the bigger the problems; the less money you may have to correct things in the future.
Do you know what fish or corals you want to keep? Do you know if among those, they can coexist peacefully? Are you prepared to automatically top-off evaporated water? How is that managed? Are you going to dose Kalk or add a calcium reactor? What about powerheads and water movement? Timers for the lights? Appropriate test kits? An uninterruptable power supply? What about temperature control? Do you have any idea whether the tank will require cooling or how much heating? If you have power or temperature problems, you can kill a lot more creatures and money with a larger tank. Has the LFS or you anticipated all these things?
I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. It's best to "phase in" to the hobby and not blow too much money initially, because of the simple fact that most people do end up changing their minds and/or learning better ways to do things. Going from 0 to 60, and having someone else pick the car and put their foot on the gas pedal isn't something I can wholly endorse, but that's just my opinion - your mileage may vary : )
[ November 11, 2001: Message edited by: Mabu ]</p>
