BTW - I'm not sure how much research you've already done but here are some key areas to look into before taking the plunge :
- Water movement (ie. powerheads and lots of 'em !! )
- Heaters (get good quality heaters right from the start, eg. EBO-JAGER and it's better to have 2 instead of just one for redundancy)
- Food (feeding small amounts of high quality food is important - no flakes if possible)
- Test kits (you need to test for various water chems such as Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate,
PH, Specific Gravity, and possibly Calcium, Magnesium and
ALK if you intend to have a reef tank (ie. some corals))
- Lighting (only important if keeping any corals or if you want good coralline growth on
LR in a
FOWLR)
- Salt (a lot of people have a lot of differing opinions on what salts are good so do some reading and make up your own mind. It's useful to start with a good salt as switching later is a bit of a pain)
- Water (Not a simple as turning on the tap unfortunately. Do some reading about
RO/
DI water. If you can start with that right from the first fill you will have less problems down the road)
- Safety (be sure to connect all electrical equipment through GFCI outlets so you don't get electrocuted !)
Finally - if a lot of the terms above are confusing try moving your mouse pointer over the ones highlighted in red - it will give you a little popup with the full term.
Finally Finally - get a copy of "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Bob Fenner and read it cover to cover before setting up
Good luck !
Brendan.