Hey I thought I would add some general rules of thumb for a reef system to help you understand what you will eventually pay for and add to your tank.  If I know all of this before I started it would have helped me avoid a few worthless purchases.

To clarify I am no expert and there are tons of different opinions out there.

You'll want to have a shallow 1" sand bed or a deep sand bed 4" (recommended by some for reef systems) a 1" sand bed is about 1-1.5 lbs live sand (LS) per gallon.  Approximately $2.00/lb

For the live rock (LR) you'll want 1.50-2 lbs per gallon.  Make sure you know how to “cure” this because it can cause problems.  Approximately $5.00/lb, curing takes weeks and is basically allowing the dead stuff on the rock to be removed.

Lighting should be 3-5 watts per gallon.  Your choices are metal halide (MH $$$), Very High Output Fluorescents (VHO $$), or Normal Output fluorescents (NO $).  They determine what corals you can grow.

The total circulation of the tank should be 12-6 times per hour.  To determine this add up the filter and the powerhead ratings they are list in gallons per hour.  Ideally you'll want a turbulent flow in your tank, for example two powerheads opposes each others flow.  

Lastly are the water parameters.  The temperature should be around 76-80 degrees, salinity (amount of salt) 1.023-1.026, and pH should be around 8.0 to 8.3.  The most important thing is to try and create a stable environment.  Having a bigger tank helps this.

Don't get lazy and acclimate your livestock (slowly introduce them to the tank).

Sorry for long post but like I said I wish I knew this stuff to avoid my mistakes and sometimes the local fish store (LFS) isn’t helpful.

I would visit as many tanks as possible, and ask those who care for them the best and worst things they did.  There are always simple little things that would make a huge difference later on.  I wish I had made my canopy 3" taller so adding Metal Halides later on would have been so easy.  The more tanks you vist the better of an idea what you want in the end and plan with that end in mind.  A fish only tank can be pretty inexpensive, and you can add rock and lights and calcium dosing and everything else a little at a time if you want to end with a reef, as long as you have that end in mind from the beginning.  When you have to re-buy stuff it is very frustrasting (spending $250 on lights to replace them in a year with a $300 light you could have bought the first time).

Fax

I would suggest that you do a  Search for keywords like setup or new orthings like that. There have been several threads where people put in their suggestions to new hobbiests.

You can also try to PM Travis. He lives up there and is around occassionally. he has done REALLY well and is quite knowledgeable.

I live in Evanston, Wyoming. Its about 1 1/2 hours away from Salt Lake.I lived in SLC for 25 years.I moved up here 7 years ago.I am down in SLC about twice a month or so.

I just dont know were to even start with this tank. I love learning new things about fish and such so if you guys could give me all the info you have that would be great. By the way my name is Scotty

Where are you located?

We're all glad to help (maybe even overly eager to help)

Hey guys and gals.

I wasnt sure where to post this but........This is my first post on here and I have a few Q's for how to start a salt water tank.First, Is there a place on this forum that explains the tank set up process ?second,What are frags ? are they coral or the live plant thingies,(I am very new to this salt water stuff  )third,any info to get me started in the right direction would be greatly welcomed and appreciated(sp ?)

Thanks in advance for all your help