Totally new

[kartgirlsmom]

As I love to scuba dive, I have always wanted to have a marine aquarium, but the cost and amount of maintainence has always scared me away. I think that I am now ready to give it a try.

In scanning through the faq and the guide to info sections of this forum I can see that I have a lot of reading to do before I start shopping for a tank.

My question is, should a true beginner (I've never even had a gold fish) start with a reef tank or am I better off with a FOWLR tank?

We are gone many weekends (probably 48-60 hours). Will the lack of food for this period be a problem?

 

[ChrisRD]

Hello and welcome.

Starting the tank as a FOWLR first will be an easier introduction and a bit less money upfront. I think that's a great way to go. You can always add stronger lighting when you're ready to try corals. If you're pretty sure you want to make it a reef down-the-road, it would be better to stick with reef safe fish species so you don't have to deal with trying to remove certain fish later.

As for the weekend thing, well fed, healthy fish should be fine without a feeding for a couple of days.

 

[psiico]

It might even help not feeding for two days, reduces the chance of overfeeding. Go ahead and start up a tank, it's not as hard as it seems from the outside. Just spend a lot of time reading as much as you can before you spend any money, that way you'll be informed enough to buy the right stuff.

 

[Bobzarry]

I would also suggest if your intent on eventualy going reef, then purchase your equipment, lights, rock etc. with that in mind. No sense buying twice.


Bob

 

[Len]

I'd personally start with a full reef tank. A lot of corals are actually hardier then fish in my experience, granted you have the proper equipment to house them. Like bobzarry suggested, buying reef-capable lights and filtration (skimmer) will save you some money, not much harder, and is much more fascinating in my opinion