Ready To Take The Plunge!

[Andrew G]

I'm expecting the delivery of a 55gal tank soon and thought this would be a good time to dive into the salt water experience.
I've been keeping freahwater fish for about 4 years now, (I originally started when I was a teen).

Where do I begin and what equipment would I need? I'm sort of a minimalist, so I don't want every piece of equipment on the market.... Just enough to get started and successfully keep a few Yellowtailed Blue Damsel fish.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks to all,
Andrew

 

[SkiFletch]

to the dark side of the hobby Andrew, hope you enjoy your stay. TBH, your best bet is to start researching. Read the stickies here, poke through some major retailers like liveaquaria.com or saltwaterfish.com and see what kinds of things are out there. Once you've decided a little more clearly on what livestock you want to keep, then you can start researching hardware. There are 3 basic types of saltwater tanks; FO (fish only) FOWLR (fish only with live rock) and reef tanks (FOWLR plus corals and photosynthetic inverts). Each offers its own degree of complexity and livestock.

One word on damselfish since you're considering them. They're exceptionally aggressive little buggers and really should not be housed with any other fish an a small tank (30gal or less). Even in bigger tanks, care needs to be taken with their aggressive nature, so keep that in mind

 

[Lynden]

Younger damselfish tend not to be so bad, and yellowtaileds tend to be the better bunch. Damsels are sort of analogous to, say, Malawi cichlids, except that damsels musn't be overstocked.

 

[Andrew G]

to the dark side of the hobby Andrew, hope you enjoy your stay. TBH, your best bet is to start researching. Read the stickies here, poke through some major retailers like liveaquaria.com or saltwaterfish.com and see what kinds of things are out there. Once you've decided a little more clearly on what livestock you want to keep, then you can start researching hardware. There are 3 basic types of saltwater tanks; FO (fish only) FOWLR (fish only with live rock) and reef tanks (FOWLR plus corals and photosynthetic inverts). Each offers its own degree of complexity and livestock.

One word on damselfish since you're considering them. They're exceptionally aggressive little buggers and really should not be housed with any other fish an a small tank (30gal or less). Even in bigger tanks, care needs to be taken with their aggressive nature, so keep that in mind

Ski,
Thanks for the advice. Your tanks are fantastic.
Andrew