Slightly Discouraged!

[RicePaddy]

I have only been in the salt water game for about three months. I purchased a 72 gal tank and have about 90 lbs of live rock, devil damsel, two clowns, yellow tank and a bubble tip. The costs have been enormous, however I am lucky enough to be able to support my hobby. Over the last three months I have learned alot from trial and error, reading, and posting on this very forum. Knowing what I know now, by set up would be alot different.

My suggestion for someone starting out is to start with a nano. This way you can get your feet wet and will be able to gauge the cost, do your research and still enjoy the sault water experience. Once our out grow the nano, you can transfer you new friends into a larger set up and use the old tank as a quarantine set.

I love the complexities of this hobby and the life that I am responsible for. They way the fish and inverts interact. And the "Wow what is that" expression when I find something new, good or bad.

This is just my opinion and is what I would have done if I was to do it all over again. However I am sure I would not have even listened to my advise. I mean, everyone wants a BIGGER tank. Must be a male thing.

Will

[Ruth]

This hobby can be very expensive and within that "very expensive" realm there is definately a lot of variance. You can go with all the bells, whistles and gadgets or you can go relatively low tech.
I do not agree with going with a smaller system. They can be very discouraging for someone starting out in the hobby as they are more difficult to maintain and things can and do go wrong in a hurry. A larger tank is a lot more forgiving than a smaller one.
You would do well to look at the type of system that Beverly has set up. It is labour intensive but also low tech. I am sure that she would give you some pointers. You should also research the types of corals/fish that you keep. If your goal is to keep corals and such that require pristine water quality you are probably going to be discouraged because it is difficult to do without proper skimming, lighting, flow etc.
If you go slowly and introduce the animals that are appropriate to your system you should be able to keep your costs down significantly.
As mentioned look at Bev's system (past and present), go slowly, and do a lot of research.