fish only vs reef tank

[connieyvonne]

I am new to the hobby and am really loving it!!! I have learned alot reading posts of this forum. Thanks everyone! I currently have a 50 gallon set up as a reef tank. In it I also have a marroon clown with a bta- a small blue tang- my cleaner crew a couple of mushrooms and a few zoos. (Going slow....little bits at a time) someone is giving me a really nice looking 30 gallon tank. I would like to set up a "fish only" tank. My question is which tank would be better to use as the reef tank? The 50 or the 30? ALso what is the difference is lighting requirements for the fish only tank? I would still have live sand and live rock in with the fish. This is a great hobby, but there sure is alot to learn. LOL Someday I want to get a much bigger tank, but right now my husband has said no way!!:eek2: Thanks

[markandkristen]

fish only tanks dont really require much lighting you can use regular flourscent lights or normal output as they call it.

the thing with fish only is your limited on a 30 gallon most quote "cool fish" need a bigger tank. not saying that thiers not cool fish that will fit in a 30 gallon but the limitations are their.

but live rock itself doesnt need any special lighting unless you want coraline algae to grow.

[ChrisKil]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10549095#post10549095 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by markandkristen
...but live rock itself doesnt need any special lighting unless you want coraline algae to grow.
How sure are you of this? I hear a lot of different views (which can be expected in this hobby) on whether coralline really need much light. My tank is FOWLR for now, but I expect my corallne to grow under my normal outputs.

[hensleyrobw]

keep your 50 as your reef, more water less chance of a problem, besides its already set up, the 30 is big enough for plenty of varieties of small fish, and it wont require lighting filtration etc that the reef does, so it would be fairly cheap to set up as fish only tank.