Re-entering the hobby need direction

[TriggerHappyDude]

Hey all,

My first post here, new to the site, got some great reads from threads, and stickies...wanted to pop in and say hi, and tell you why I'm here.

Been out of the "aquarium" hobby since the late 90's, and I'm missing it.
I had a 55 gallon back in those days, and was very "amature" with the tank, the internet wasnt what it is today, to help me learn about all this stuff.

So now I'm thinking of coming back to the hobby.

I know its not a decision you all can make for me, on what kind of a tank I should attempt to start up now, getting back into the hobby, but your advice is welcome.

I need to make up my mind on if I want to start an agressive fish tank (with my love of triggers), or a nano...I am not sure which path to go.

If I go nano, I'm thinking of buying an Aquapod 24 gallon to start with and see what I can do with that.

If I go for a trigger tank, I'm guessing I need something 30/40 gallon + ?

This is just the start of my questions, to help me decide my tank size to start with.

I guess the question is do I want to do some work and relearn all the stuff with a nano, or take it a bit less complicated and do my trigger tank?

I'm sure both are equally complicated, but either way, I'm going to try to learn and have fun with it.

 

[Lorna]

For the nano if you are going with a reef tank even though a smaller size could be costlier due to lighting and heavier skimming necessary for most reefs which are more demanding than fish only. I am thinking that you would need a larger tank for triggers in the 75g range no? Though the lighting would't be an issue getting live rock and skimmer necessary on that size may be, even for a fish only tank. The amount of live rock could be reduced with a wet/dry system as fish are more tolerable of higher nitrates than a reef. Welcome back to the hobby and we are here to help......

 

[TriggerHappyDude]

Thanks so much for the welcome!

So if I'm on a budget, need to start smaller, then I'm probably going to need to avoid the bigger tanks and bigger fish...so I should probably wait to do my all fish tank?

If I start small, I found shift_9k had this thread:

http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/nano-saltwater-discussion/46308-24g-aquapod-w-150w-mh-no-mayo.html

This is about how I want to restart.

 

[TRe]

which ever way u decide to go be ready to spend around $500 to get everything up and running the correct way ..... i agree with lorna that a bigger tank would be needed to keep triggers...just keep reading and im sure youll find all the answers also if u have any questions everyone here would be more than happy to help u out
btw welcome to the site!

 

[Lorna]

shift_9K has a great thread for a aquapod. Remember though that her aquapod is equipped with metal halide lighting which allows her to keep most of the things she has in her tank. She was very thorough and went through the setup prepared and it shows. You could easily set up a 24g aquapod with about 30 lbs of live rock and the stock lighting with this you could easily keep some smaller fish such as clowns and wrasses, gobies, etc. making a nice community tank. You could also maintain some soft corals such as some leathers, and most polyps such as xenia, clove, zoas mushrooms and ricordeas. You may even be able to have some lps such as frogspawn, hammer, brains etc depending on where you place them. Inverts such as snails, crabs and shrimp also. Good luck and first figure out what you would really like to have, figure out your budget, then decide if you want to wait until you have everything or if you are wanting to start right away smaller and then upgrade.....which in the long run probably costs more.....