Some advice needed for newbie

Hi found your site while browsing for reef related topics and after hours of surfing (The Web) My head was getting in a spin with all the over complicated answers and finally found your website then your forum.
cheers for that

I was just wondering what advice you's guys would give to me regarding im thinking of getting into marines and have no idea of costs or what I need or dont need and where do I start as there seems to be so much to learn
cheers

its all down to what you want to do,
what size of tank ......what you want in it...... will you have a sump or not.

my first set up was a 1.5ft nano tank with sump.
small tanks are very cheap,you can pick tanks up on gumtree or even new clearseal
ones are very cheap....around £30
then next you will need sand and liverock.
you can buy live sand or buy standard sand from your LFS (local fish shop)
and get someone with a marine tank to mix some sand in with yours which
will seed it and make it livesand.for liverock its best to check the web
for people breaking there tanks down as its usually £10 per
kilo at your LFS.the general rule is 1kg of rock per 2 gallons of water.
then is a case of cycling the tank until you are ready to add livestock/corals.


if you look at the 3ft build thread it doing atm so far it has cost £110
and that's a new tank,silicone,glass cutters,sand(not livesand) and pipework.
goes to show its only as expensive as you want to make it..........
reminds me of a thread I once read about ppl giving off about
why you shouldn't get into marines unless you are prepared to
spend large amounts of cash rubbish

any more questions just fire away

Marines aren't that expensive but you'll find yourself being dragged into it big time as its highly addictive.
I would recommend get yourself a 3ft and small sump and start with a set of T5's, You can pick up a 4 tube unit for around £80-£100.
As a newbie I would be thinking of nothing more than starting with good rock (No Pests i.e Aiptasias, Check out the Help Section on main website) Then when you have done the cycle period add a few softie Leather frags which most reefers will give you for free and a few hermits crabs and see how they do. This will give you something to keep you interested while you read read read about other aspects of the hobby.
Most Newbies make the big mistake of adding fish way to soon and this often leads to disaster and this is when most give up and blame other things for their mistakes!
After having your tank running around 6 weeks after the cycle has ended you could add a fish as long as the test show everything is fine and have been stable for a few weeks.

The main things your looking to get you started are :
Tank
Sump ( You could start without one but trust me you'll regret not doing it right the first time)
Liverock
Sand
heater
powerheads
return pump
lights
Test kits
A refractometer
1.025 Sg Salt Water and Ro water for topping up the evaporation cause from the lights and general home heating (you could mix your own but its worth buying it from your local fish shop mixed already as to mix your own you'll need some more equipment and more time to do it)
and a half decent skimmer ( I swear by Deltec Equipment )
That should be you ready to go.
You should follow Phantoms 3ft build in the DIY section as this is going to be a good system when finished