Starting Saltwater Tank

[jimbo_gk]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this site and am here to learn all i can about starting a saltwater tank. I already have one semi-aggressive 25 gallon tank with Tiger Barbs, Neon Tetras, a clown loach, a small plecastomous, two angelfish and some kind of striped black and white catfish. On top of that i have a 50 gallon African Cichlid which is only about 6 weeks old. In my cichlid tank I also have a synodontis catfish as well as 2 plecastomous.
My biggest questions are:
1. How big of a tank should I start out with?
2. What are your thoughts on starting with "plants" i.e. anemones, coral, live rock, etc. and adding fish later?
3. Do I only need to add salt when i start my tank?
4. I saw some posts about Mandrin Fishes, which I think are really pretty, and they were talking about having to farm copepods for it to eat. If I could get more information on that I'd be very grateful for that
now personally I dont have a ton of money to do this. So I will be nickel and diming it the entire way. I figure probably about 100-150 dollars a month. Any information from websites or personal experience would be greatly appreciated. Also if you have any questions, comments, or concerns reguarding my freshwater tanks, feel free to ask

 

[KahluaZzZ]

1- The bigger the better ( less sudden params change )
2- Those aren't plants but animals and anemones are tough to handle. I don't think a beginner should go with anemones.
Anyways you must let the tank cycle at first for a while
3- No, every water change you must.
4- Mandarin are pretty but they are finicky eaters and can starve to death.
If you have plenty of live rock, you may have a huge colony of pods included. Pods hate lights so the mandarin eats in the dark usualy.

You seek links : www.wetwebmedia.com , http://ozreef.org/ , www.reefkeeping.com , http://www.fishbase.org/search.cfm ,http://www.saltwaterfish.com/ , http://www.fishprofiles.com/

got more but wetwebmedia should be the best

 

[KahluaZzZ]

and yeah the most important thing before starting : read a lot.
Or you'll learn the hard way. Sometimes i skipped this part and it costed me.

 

[jimbo_gk]

what makes animals, such as anemones tough to handle? Also, what other anemone type animals are there to put in a tank?
What to you mean let the tank cycle before putting in sed animals?
How often must you change water?
how do pods grow? I read a post about having a refugium or even a seperate tank to grow pods. What are your thoughts on that?
I think if I do enough reading I could go with anemone type animals, am I setting myself up for faliure with that?
Also, do I need to let the tank "cycle" before i put live rock in?
thanks for all the help please give me all the opinions and advice you can

 

[aresgod]

ok...so here we go
1. these are all good questions...that are answered in any basic salt water book, go buy one.
2. Inverts are very tough and you would be setting your self up for failure with starting with an anemone, get some fish, learn the ropes of salt water, then get into inverts, this is a VERY expensive hobby and mistakes are costly.I
3. I do a water change every week, roughly 10%, some do more, some do less
4. pods are animals, they are the second teir in the foodchain of the ocean, phytoplankton, zooplankton,then small fish, large fish, and larger fish, they are one of the most common animals in the ocean, and it takes a very large number of them to feed a very small fish, the Live rock will help the tank cycle,
5 some books to start with might be mike Paletta's "new marine aquarium"
buy the book before you buy anything, and wander around you LFS and see how much SW costs, its very different from FW, make sure this is an investment you want to make, if you want to keep inverts (anemones, corals ect...) then you will spend a ton of money, i have spent easily over 1000$ on my 40 gallon tank,
lastly
welcome to the tank
Brahm

 

[jimbo_gk]

I will go buy a saltwater book I promise!
would it be ok to put live rock in to start my tank?
what does it mean for the tank to cycle?
what type of filtration system would you suggest??

 

[jimbo_gk]

also what are your thoughts on refugiums and seperate tanks to grow live food for my fish?

 

[aresgod]

a little advanced right now, but yea they are great, help with phos, provide place for pods to multiply, but if your installing a fuge then I assume you want a reef, which means serious cash..

 

[jimbo_gk]

like I said in the first place, I'll be nickel and diming it. But I definately understand that its an expensive hobby.
BTW, what are pho's?
also what types of filtration systems are good?
I read something on protein skimmers...any thoughts on those?
Are live rocks something I should put in before/at the same time as fish?

 

[aresgod]

ok, as i said before all these questions will be answered in your books,
but phos is phosphate, skimmers are essential , a bunch of live rock and a good skimmer is all you need, and no you should be adding the rock a month+ to when you plan to add your first fish