Fish vs. Corals

[Phlppt]

I have a chance to buy a 200 gallon reef tank (300lbs of live rock, 300 lbs of live sand, a mated pair of maroon clownfish, 2 refugiums, metal halides lights and T-5′s, a clam the size of a watermelon, a few starfish, some coral). I am somewhat experienced with freshwater tanks, but have never had a saltwater.

If I buy the tank, I think I want to put more fish in it. However, I have read that when considering a saltwater setup, it is best to go either mostly fish or mostly corals (see below for the fish vs corals comment). Anybody have any advice?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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“You have to decide before hand if you want a fish tank or a reef tank. Don’t try to both in the same tank. The more fish you have have, the harder it will be to properly balance the nutrient equation. Add too many fish and you will most likely have either an algea problem or end up starving everything in order to keep the algea at bay.”

[Cliff]

When I set-up my first SW tank, I had corals in it within 2 months of setting it up. Nothing bad happen to me

IMO, if your willing to take the time to research first, you will be fine. There is more to learn in a reef tank, but in my experiance it's not very hard to learn nor did I find it difficult.

I would suggest doing some resarch first and decide which is best for you

Edit, if you have too many fish, you will have problems reguardless if you have corals or not

[smaug]

If you have no experiance with sw or reef systems then do that tank a favor and dont buy it. Let it go to someone with the experiance to give it justice. Reefkeeping is nothing like fw,the pitfalls are many and mostly unseen unless you have been there. There are many here who will tell you its "easier" then fw,nothing could be further from the truth.

[Phlppt]

Just kidding...It is true that I am a little intimidated by such a dramtic change in responsibility, but I thought that I would use a service for a few months to get me through my learning curve.

I am not too worried about the day to day maintenance tasks. What concerns me is that I may not recognize when things are going south and then have too much damage before I am able to correct it.

Any further thoughts?

BTW, thanks to both of you and Cliff for your feedback.

[smaug]

Consider me the voice of reasonable caution. Grump,,,,why not that is why I chose my user name a while back. Your right about the not seeing what's goin wrong til its too late,nothing happens fast with a reef unless its bad then its too late. If you can afford the service to get you started then that would be the way to go. My thoughts on it still say you should pass and let it go to someone who knows what there doing.

[Cliff]

Which ever path you choose to take, research and not cutting corners will be key to your success.

I would like to echo Smaug's comments not to feel pressured to take this deal. Other deals will come along if you feel your not ready right now.

Just my $0.02

[aplusbiomarine]

I say, the price is a factor!

As other said you don't want to jump into something and then realize its not what you expected (for any reason)

if its a VERY good deal and you are CONFIDANCE you like SW then read some reviews and buy it, you can spent more time research as you go (also sometimes you can't just research, you need hand on experiences as well)

if the deal is not that great, regardless wait for more studies about salt water keeping.


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As wether to keep more of fish or coral.
Many consider corals to offer more beauty! I would say its a personal choice! Spent a good care and careful selection either way looks gorgeous. (ie you might see amazing fish only tank compared to less carefully created Coral tank, and vise versa)


P.S since corals are more delicate you may want to avoid buying them (or try to sell them) and start over with fish only which is easier to keep.
But bare in mind selling tank system is not easy so if you buy it you are kind of stuck into it!