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There are several very important things that need to be addressed in setting up a tank:
1.Tank Size
2.Substrate
3.Water Quality
4.Filtration
5.Fish Selection
6.Lighting
7.Maintenance
8.Safety
Tank Size
The most important choice in your setup will be how large your tank is. Saltwater tanks vary from other situations in that the larger the tank you have, usually the easier it is to maintain, although more expensive. The reasoning for this is that the larger the volume of water, the more stable the water quality is. If you accidently over feed or add too many chemicals, the tank can take the "overdose" a bit better.
For a starter, I'd suggest a tank in the range of 30 to 90 gallons. Any smaller than 30 gallons and it becomes difficult to stabilize your water conditions.
Substrate
The substrate is what you put on the bottom of your tank, such as gravel in fresh water tanks. Saltwater is extremely different however.
The best substrate you can use is a fine aragonite sand. At the local fish stores (LFS) you can find brand names such as ESV, Aragamax, and CaribSea. These are all pretty decent choices, but can be expensive. For a less expensive route, check out your nearest Home Depot. Look for Southdown Play Sand. It is a very good aragonite sand and has fine particle size. It will cost about $4 for 50lbs. as opposed to the stuff sold in the pet stores for $30 for 30lb bags! Below is a picture of two different types of sand that are calcium based for aquariums.
Water Quality
Water quality is another big problem for many saltwater aquariums. The water that comes out of our faucets is usually for the most part pretty horrible. It is high in phosphates. Phosphates are what algaes live off of and if you have phosphates in your water, chances are you will sooner or later get a bad outbreak of undesirable algae in your aquarium. Another thing to worry about, is copper. While copper in small amounts is not detrimental to fish, even small amounts will kill snails, shrimp, starfish and all other invertebraes.
One of the best investments you can make in a saltwater aquarium is buying an RO/DI water filter. RO stands for reverse osmosis and DI stands for distilled. Most RO/DI filters are similar, they have 2-4 chambers and an adapter that screws onto your sink faucet. You then turn the sink water on luke warm (77 degrees) and the water runs through the filter, exiting from two lines; the waste water line and the pure water line. The pure water comes out very pure at 0ppm (parts per million) meaning that there are no chemicals, metals, etc in the water. This is the best water that you can use for ANY aquarium. One of the best brands of RO/DI filters can be bought from AquaFX . The filters are also good for drinking water and cooking. Pasta and boiled vegetables will taste much better using cleaner water. Also, it makes crystal clear ice cubes!
Filtration
Another large source of filtration is called Live Rock. This is rock that has been collected from the ocean and shipped to you to be placed in your tank. It contains a lot of the pods, worms and bacteria also and should be placed in EVERY saltwater aquarium. You should aim for 1/2-2 lbs of Live Rock per gallon of aquarium. This will not only provide your tank with very needed bacteria, but also protection for your fish to hide in and make them feel safe. This will keep them less stressed and therefor healthier.
Fish Selection
The advice that I can give you is no matter how pretty or nice a fish looks, if it is going to get larger than 8" do not buy it. Only the largest of the aquariums can keep fish this big happy and healthy. Unless your tank is 6 feet long you should not buy a tang of any type either. Also, no matter what you hear, a mandarin should be placed in aquariums no smaller than 55 gallons and only after the tank has been setup for over a year! They will starve otherwise.
Please be sure not to add too many fish to your tank either. For every 3 gallons of water your tank has, you should only have a max of 1" of fish. For instance in a 30 gallon tank you could have 3 3" fish. More than this and you will begin to have trouble keeping your tank healthy.
Lighting
Lighting in a saltwater fish only aquarium is pretty easy. Most people use flourescent lights. However, if you want a very brightly lit tank that makes it much more beautiful and easier to see the fish, look into buying PCs (power compacts) or VHO (Very High Output flourescents). They can be found online at most of the stores I have listed in this article. (For aquariums with corals, I advocate using nothing less than Metal Halides..... email me for further details).
Maintenance
This is the only bad part about keeping a pet of any type... you have to clean up after it. If you follow my directions in this article though, your mainenance will be kept to a minimum.
The most important part of maintenance is the water change. A 20% water change should be done at least once a month. Once every two weeks would be even better. When you do a water change, the new water you add should be saltwater....
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