New to FOWLR

[srblan]

Good day all! I'm new to the hobby - been keeping freshies for years with some success and wanted to give a nice saltwater aquarium a try. I've been reading and planning as best as I can but wanted some expert advice.

I want somewhere between a 90-120 gallon FOWLR tank, probably won't be converting to a reef tank (if I want one I'll do a nano) I won't have the space to keep my dream Lionfish and/or Puffer tank so the "wish list" is rather limited to just a good schooling fish and a Green Mandarin down the road once everything settles in.

Is there that big off a difference between the sizes at this time? Most of the fish I'm looking at are under 8 inches full grown - largest being Auriga Butterfly and Kole Yellow Eye Tang. The rest are various Gobbies, Cardinalfish, and Wrasse along with a pair of clownfish.

Tank won't be running for probably another 3-6 months so there is time to draw up another plan if needed.

Any suggestions and/or advise for me?

Thanks all!

[rluix]

Good day all! I'm new to the hobby - been keeping freshies for years with some success and wanted to give a nice saltwater aquarium a try. I've been reading and planning as best as I can but wanted some expert advice.

I want somewhere between a 90-120 gallon FOWLR tank, probably won't be converting to a reef tank (if I want one I'll do a nano) I won't have the space to keep my dream Lionfish and/or Puffer tank so the "wish list" is rather limited to just a good schooling fish and a Green Mandarin down the road once everything settles in.

Is there that big off a difference between the sizes at this time? Most of the fish I'm looking at are under 8 inches full grown - largest being Auriga Butterfly and Kole Yellow Eye Tang. The rest are various Gobbies, Cardinalfish, and Wrasse along with a pair of clownfish.

Tank won't be running for probably another 3-6 months so there is time to draw up another plan if needed.

Any suggestions and/or advise for me?

Thanks all!

Thats a pretty good size tank for beginning, id suggest reading the stickys on this forum, they will teach you all you need to know 'bout all this hobby!
Your tank is big enought to support a mandarine, but id wait at least 1 year before buying it.
Hope you don't have problems with having to buy it on 2012

[leebca]

You need to read this post closely:
Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR


In the above post, it should be clear that the following fishes are not suitable for either of those two sizes of tanks:
Tangs (over 3" in length)
Large Angels (when they are into their adult patterns)
Any fish that gets beyond 6" of which some in this group fits: Puffers, Eels, Boxfishes, etc.

The two sizes won't matter much as to the kind/kinds of fishes you can keep. The largest (system/tank) you can afford to acquire and maintain is usually the best in the old sense of water stability. But the smaller one is still fine.