suggestions for new tank

[mbbowman]

Hi there,
I'm new (obviously) and planning on building a small reef tank for my home. It will be quite a while before I save enough money, but I want to be very prepared to start right away as soon as my little jar hits $600. I've done quite a bit of research already and figured that this was a decent amount to start with. I know I'll end up spending tons more, but I figure it's a good start. Anyways, here are my ideas:

Tank:
Right now I have a 38 gallon long tank that's currently housing 3 fancy goldfish. Their ultimate destination is an indoor pond (too cold here in WI for fancy goldfish to live in an outside pond IMO), but right now they're just babies and have plenty of room to swim and tease the cats. Current filtration is a BIO-Wheel filter that's rated to 50 gallons, I think it circulates 200gph.

For my future reef system I thought that I might use this as my main tank and buy another tank of about the same size to use as a sump and hide it under the main tank, putting my filters, protein skimmers, heaters, etc in there, so that I dont see so much junk in my main tank. Is this ok? Suggestions? Would it be better to buy a second, larger BIO-wheel filter or to just sell the one I have and buy one big one? Do I need a wave maker/powerhead with these? Even the one I currently have makes quite a good currant in my tank and provides lots of air circuation.

Oh, and about the tank, it is all glass, but I started reading about tanks that are reef ready and have holes drilled in them for overflow and stuff. Would it be better for me to buy one of these and then use the one I currently have as the sump, or should I ditch it all together and get two new ones? Even if I do I doubt we'd get a much larger tank; this size was a compromise between my husband, who wanted no tank at all, and me, who wanted a 75 gallon .

Fish:
Want:
clown fish pair (A. ocellaris),
shrimp: maybe the sexy shrimp types? I read that they do best in groups of 3...is this your experience? I'm way open on this, and I'm not too picky.
Wouldnt mind having:
One of those Brazilian Grammas. They dont get very big and I think they're pretty, but I also heard that they can be aggressive so I'd love someone's opinion on their compatibility with the other fish.
Whatever tank janitors you'd suggest.

Live Rock and Coral:
A must! And here's the part that I still know very little about. I've looked on mostly Dr. Fosters&Smith website and they have some neat "coral packs", which I persume are geared to people me who dont know much about them. I dont need anything too fancy but I would like to have a good mix of some nice colorful ones that arent too difficult to keep. The only type of coral that I know by name that I would like is a Hammer coral. I've seen clownfish in several different pet stores adopt them as hosts and I hear they're a lot easier to keep than an anenome. Of course, I'm also open on this one too, but I would like the clownfish pair to have something that they can bond with . Oh, a small barrel sponge would be cool too, but I dont know how they'd be with my current vision, and judging by the ones I saw while diving in Cozumel, they get quite large! So, please give me input!

Ultimately, with the coral, live rock, and fish, I want them to be as happy as possible. So any input on a good mix would be very helpful to me. How much live rock and coral should I use? Which kinds would work well for a beginner? Which do I add first, corals or fish? And how do people attach the corals to the rock? What about my current idea for tank set up?

If you had a tank aprox my size and wanted some live rock, coral, clownfish, shrimp, and maybe one or two other small fish, what would you choose and why?

Thanks ahead of time for being patient with a beginner!
Mel Bowman

[grimmjohn]

Don't buy a bigger bio-wheel () : )

If you want clownfish then you might want an anemone..if you want an anemone then start researching their lighting/feeding needs.

Cheers,

grimmjohn

[mbbowman]

I was told that anenomes are extremely difficult to keep so I'd rather not have one, at least not right away, in such a small tank. That's why I've been researching other things that clowns may host in. Hammer coral came up a lot, as did something else whose scientific name starts with an S, is long, and that I dont remember :P.

[kau_cinta_ku]

[welcome]

as for the anemone i would pass on as they will host alot of other things. as for the bio wheel part i would skip that as if you have 1-2lbs per gal. of LR in your tank that will be enough filtration you will need. i would go with fiji rock it is good looking rock and fairly on the cheaper side. as for attacing corals to your tank most ppl glue them down with super glue gel.

[mbbowman]

cool, thanks! anyone have any suggestions on any of my other questions?