LordP

small tank are just more maintenance intense ans are susceptible to large parameter swings due to the lower water volume. If you can be diligent at your upkeep they are a rewarding as a large tank. Mushroom,ricordia,zoa;s,star and clove polyps are a few easy corals to start with.

I started with a 12 gallon nano reef and if you can keep one of those going anything larger is easier, but they are not that bad. Just remember while you are running a simple water test and doing a one gallon water change some of us are running several 5 gallon buckets full of water over to our tank just to get ready for our water change. When you have to move it will possibly take you 2 hours and a friend, we have to move it takes a couple days and several really good friends. It all balances out.

Yes, I believe small tanks are more difficult to keep in regard to stable water parameters. Something as simple as daily evaporation can cause noticable swings in salinity. The temperature is also likely to fluctuate wildly day to day. A few things can help the stability. A sump and auto top off. While a sump can add extra water volume (and thus extra stability), it may push you out of budget. I was a long-time nano reefer, and the primary thing I wish I did differently with those tanks was to put on a sump.

Good luck! There are plenty of fellow reef addicts here that can help when needed.

-James

I'd probably recommend something like a 29 or 37 gallon to start with. The 29 might even be easy to locate used at a garage sale. Just make sure as with all aquariums LEVEL and CHECK for Leaks. You might start with mushrooms, zoa polyps, and softies and or maybe some simple long polyped stonies like frogspawn or hammer corals (make sure to leave some room between them and softies) Good luck to you. It's a fantastic hobby. Take a look at the album posted on my page for some pictures posted of a very simple reef loaded with softies, polyps and some easier lps corals. Simple can be beautiful.

I wouldn't say small tanks are inherently harder. They're less stable, so things can get out of whack faster, but they can be fixed faster too. Picking hair algae out of a nano takes a few minutes each day, compared to hours for a large tank with a similar outbreak. Small tanks tend to be less automated, which means more daily attention. I've had Nano's in the past, and considering another one due to financial issues. Here's some of the things I consider necessities:

Auto top off for evaporation (nano's can change salinity really quick due to evaporation)
two part dosing system alk/Ca/Mg (Bulk reef Supply sells a handy kit)
Algae scrubber or sump w/ large refugium for nutrient export
Friends with larger tanks to get a cup of live sand, some live rock rubble and corals frags from to start out.

I went from zero aquarium experience to a 15g nano reef 6 months ago, so I don't have a point of comparison. I don't say that smaller tanks are necessarily harder to keep, it's just that if they go wrong, they can go wrong a lot faster and bigger 'cause there's less water volume to dilute the problem. My 15 gallons is not challenging to me, but I've taken steps to insure a stable tank. One thing that helps is that my bioload is very low 'cause I only have some corals (small but growing), other inverts, and no fish. I plan on one fish, but low-to-no fish can make this easier since it's less waste to cause water quality issues. I'm also diligent in my 10% water changes every week to insure stability. Leaning towards the larger end of the small-tank scale is not be a bad idea.

Ditto on the Auto Top Off System to counter evaporation, makes day-to-day easier and I can take long weekends and vacations. I only have to glance at my tank occasionally to check the system and fill the top off resevoir once or every other week.

If you're on a budget, look for local reef clubs and events. My equipment has been moderately expensive, but my corals have been almost free because of frag swaps, Don't Break the Chain programs, and the occasional need for someone to free up room in their tank

My opinion, as a relative noob, is that my first tank was not hard to keep. That being said, I tried to drill into it to add a sump and that story is cronicled on here (I'm too lazy to link it right now, but you can click on my avatar and you could find it fairly easily if you wanted...). It's a sad tale and it's left me without a tank. I had a BioCube 14 with about 16 lbs of live rock, two clowns, a BEAUTIFUL sea urchin (by far my favorite critter), two small cleaner shrimp (they would've grown too large for the tank), a couple snails, some hermit crabs, and a Kenya Tree coral that was doing well.

As far as evaporation goes... in my BioCube 14 I had to watch to make sure it didn't go too low, but if I made sure that the top was closed securely I could get away with about a half gallon of top off water each week (a little bit every day or two). One time when I left the feeding lid up I lost almost a fourth of a gallon in a day though so you have to make sure the lid is closed on a small tank!!

In my relatively short time in the hobby I have not found saltwater fish care to be difficult at all. Just be PATIENT, DILLIGENT, and remember how much FUN the hobby is. The only real difference is price. Right now I am setting up a 75 gal. tank and so far it has been VERY expensive. I still need a return pump, lights, and some recirculating pumps. Doesn't sound like much, but when I figured it up I need about $2000 more to get the equipment I want. But then, going small I still had about $800 in my small tank by the time I got it set up and all my livestock in the tank. In my opinion it's worth every penny. I hope you decide to go all in, you won't regret it, I started small and now I'm building.

This is the best hobby I have ever found and the absolute best site on the web for the hobby. Marc (Melev) is the founder and largest contributer on here. His other website is http://www.melevsreef.com/ and between this website and that website you can find TONS of information on how to do just about everything you could ever imagine with an aquarium (and a few things you would've never thought of ). I also have never found a site where people respond as quickly and accurately. I hope you enjoy the site as much as I do!!