Setting up a salt water tank

[FishKeeper72]

Hello all,
I have wanted a salt water tank for a very long time now. But I just decided to do my research about them. I need to know your opinions on what to have in the tank, and things required for all the chemistry, just all the information. Please start from the beginning, I know nothing about salt water tank set ups or the fish and chemistry.
I do already have a 75 gal freshwater tank with goldfish and a loach, I've been in the freshwater tank business for about 6 years now. Time to add another underwater world but of different species. I am planning on getting a different tank for the salt water aquarium, I love my freshwater fish too much.

 

[Donya]

First place to start is tank size and general stocking category. That will dictate a lot. A 100gal sw tank is a very different beast than a 20gal, and fish-only is pretty different from reef. So how big will the sw tank be and reef or not? It's usually best to start with the biggest volume you can fit/afford in sw (within reason anyway). Bigger is more expensive of course but smaller is frequently harder and also can put some pretty harsh limits on fish stocking compared to the way it works in a lot of the fw world.

 

[jaylach]

One of the biggest mistakes a new person to salt water makes is to add salt to new water that is just to cover evaporation. Water evaporates, salt does not. Only add salt to new water when actually doing a water change, not just replacing water lost due to evaporation.