first salt tank and scat help

[Ellie_A]

I'm new to this site, so I wanted to introduce myself and ask a few questions too. I'm from Olds, Alberta and I have been keeping freshwater aquariums for about 3 years now. I have a wide range of fish from guppies and mollies to angels, tetras, clown loaches and gouramis to african cichlids. I currently have 13 tanks ranging from 4 gallons to 90 gallons.

One of my tanks (brackish) is currently housing 3 small green scats. I know that they will need salt water when they grow up, so I'm looking into what I will need to do as I have never had a saltwater tank before.
I'm thinking of a 77 gallon tank. I want more fish than just the 3 scats in it though. I'm not sure how aggressive scats get and there's not much info
on suitable tankmates for saltwater. A lot of places talk about brackish tankmates and say they need saltwater when mature, but give no more details, not really helpful to me. Anyone know of any good websites?

I really like clown fish and was wondering if one or two would be ok with the scats. I want to have live sand and live rock in my tank, as well as some corals, although I don't have a clue what kind. I also like the look of shrimp, crabs and starfish. I want to do a lot of research before buying anything, but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Thanks
Ellie

[Quinn]

Hi Ellie. You could start by checking out sites like http://www.reefcentral.com, http://www.reefs.org, as well as http://www.wetwebmedia.com, which has a section on brackish fish and scats in particular. Careful with scats as they do get fairly large. However a pair of clownfish work in just about any tank.

I'm not sure what type of filtration you are running, but you will probably want to go with the modified Berlin system that is so popular these days - skimmer and live rock. You will also need to look into lighting, which will depend on what you want to keep.

[Doug]

Hi Ellie Welcome to Canreef

[fishfogg]

Try FishPlofiles.com, they have some info on Brackish set up's. they say there going to have a forum for it down the road, soon do to interest.
Good Luck