How big is too big?
by
, 04-28-2010 at 07:12 PM (1560 Views)
About a month ago I found myself getting interested in starting an aquarium. I don't know what caused me to decide that now was the time to do it. At first I thought I'd like a freshwater tank with some Cichlids. So I started doing some research. I don't know how, but I stumbled onto David Saxby's TOTM feature on ultimatereef.com. I was completely floored. Obviously David's tank is in the top 0.001%, but after some more Googling I found my way to reefcentral.com and melevsreef.com. After reading a bunch of posts on reefcentral I decided what I wanted was a full blown reef setup.
At this point I'm still in the research phase. I have a mind map made of some of the pieces of kit I've identified that might be appropriate for what I want to do. Some point soon I will do one for inhabitants, but I feel like at this point that is a bit premature. Why? Well, I honestly don't know what size I should start with. Responsibly husbandry is something that is important to me. I'd like for the creatures living in my tank to be as happy as possible. Would starting with a 200 gallon tank, as my first salt water tank, be a bad idea? I think that I have a handle on what it will cost to buy all of the equipment that I need to get it up and running. From a maintenance stand point I think that I have a good idea as to the amount of time it's going to take to keep my mini-ecosystem stable. Is there something that I am missing?
Lastly, do any of you DFWMAS people know of a good fish shop in Killeen, TX?