General Equipment ?

[roka64]

Hello All,
I have a 55 gal. I am doing fish only. I see a lot of stuff on reverse osmosis and all kind of other equipment. How important is all that? The reason I am asking is, I don't' want to invest a ton of $ in my tank, here. I am planning on moving to TX in a few years and buying a 200 gallon tank. I don't plan on adding too many more fish. I have 5 various damsels, 1 pincushion and pencil urchin, maroon clown (no anenome yet). I plan on adding a loinfish and a small puffer. I am on well water, so I have pretty good H2O, a little low on the PH, but I have been correcting that.
I guess, my real question is, is all the other equip that important for a 55Gal, fish only tank. I will definitely look further into the other equipment for my larger tank....

Thanks

[dskidmore]

Depending on your area, the quality of well water can vary alot. I suggest you invest in a cheap TDS meter, and find out just how many ionic disovled solids you have in your water. If your area has any natural copper deposits, you definately want to get an RO unit. Copper is toxic to invertabrates, and stressful to fish.

Corals and other invertabrates can be very sensitive to water quality. If you were going truely fish only, I wouldn't worry about it, but with the urchin and the possiblity of an anenome, you want really high water quality. High water quality starts with pure RO/DI water, and is maintained with a protien skimmer. Many inverts (like the anenome) also need very intense lighting. If you're going to stick with fish only though, all you need is any old filter rated for your tank size, any old lighting, and a heater.

Are you sure you want to mix agressives like the lionfish and puffer in with the clown and damsels?

[greenmaji]

I dont know if I would do SW without at least RO.. ebay has some good deals.

Copper is a consern for inverts.