New tank and new to hobby

[shayne88]

Folks,
A few questions to begin with, Although I do currently have a tank (100 US gallon fresh water) more about that later, I live in china and will buy a 500 + gallon tank for my office with a 50 gallon thrown in free,Price including everything 10,000 RMB or about 1000 USD , by everything I mean everything fish, reef, anenomes (sp?) sump, lighting a supply of diffrent food etc. I know what all the online advise says "wait add slowly it takes time. but its just not how it is done here.
ok now for the questions
1- am I insane is it possible to run a nice tank having been set up like this?
2- is the overall price good for two tanks?
3- what are some major pitfalls I should look out for?
4-does anyone else live in china? if so can you point out some fish markets in shanghai other then the one in jing an district.
5-any other question's i should be asking?
ok a little more on my freshwater tank it was set up in one day plants fish etc. 6 months on and everything is going swimmingly well and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, seems to defy all tank advice and logic.
Any and all comments and advice is much appreciated as I only get my information off the web its impossible to get books on the subject here at least in english.
Cheers

[BangkokMatt]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>
You are certainly jumping in at the deep end. The price is seems real good but do you know about the quality of the equipment. For a 500 you will need a huge skimmer, some really powerful lights (for anemones / certain corals etc).
You will neeed to do a ton of research before you stock. Keeping a reef (particularly 500g) is a totally different game to keeping a freshwater.
How are you going to keep the temperature stable. Its hot in areas of china so you will need a big chiller (unless you aircon 24/7.
I would check exactly what you are getting and list it on RC before you go any further.

[Krewlor]

Read as much as you can on these boards. Read, Read Read. Learn as much as you can about this hobby before it sucks you in!

I can caution you about the equipmet you purchase for your system. I read on here about someone in China who purchased lots of items and had them shipped over there. I believe they were not properly wired to run on China's electrical service. You should make sure everything you purchase will work for you over there.

Good luck!

[steven_dean17]

I assure you that if you do not add slowly to a new saltwater tank, most of what you put in there will die, I dont care what part of the world you live in. It does not seem that a fully stocked tank is new though, but when moved a tank that large will cycle again to some degree. What degree is anybodies guess. You will be taking your chances from the sound of it. Good luck. Oh, and by the way, dont for one moment assume that your luck with freshwater will translate over to saltwater they are two totally different animals. Again, I wish you and your fish all the luck in the world.

[ahullsb]

I would post in the large tank forum. Maybe some of those guys could tell you how long it will take a 500 gallons system to stabilize and what equipment you may need.