[Blom]

Your best bet is to keep an eye out for used stuff then. $1000 bucks is not going to go all that far buying new stuff. There are lots of tanks that come up on the old auction block all the time, sometimes full setups. Take your time and look into different references on the web, Canreef has a great reference library. Look through some tank journals and I would certainly recommend a book or two on fish/inverts/corals (I use the pocket express guides and find them very helpful). That way you will get an idea of what it is you want to keep, then build a system based on that. As someone already noted the lfs you mentioned are not great places to "learn" from. Stop by Red Coral and see Kevin, he's the man who steered me in the right direction when I started.