I've been humoring the idea of starting a salt water tank, and although it will be a few months down the road if I even do it, I wanted to ask a few questions for you salt water guru's out there.

I know I want to purchase a coralife 192 watt twin tube strip light for my tank, so that puts me at almost 5 watts per gallon. I want to go with about 60 pounds of live rock and 30 pounds of live sand. I want to add corals at some point down the road, so I figured the 5 watts per gallon would be adequate.

What are the best reef safe fish for my size tank? I was thinking of adding some clowns and anemonoes as well as a goby or two. Not really sure what all can fit in a 40 gallon safely, though.

Any ideas on how to start a perfect FOWLR and future reef tank?

I'll be adding an appropriate skimmer.

Here are a couple recent pics of my 55g. Crushed coral substrate,coralife skimmer,esdw 100 sump, five fish, three anemones assorted crabs and snails with three shrimp.
I am not an expert on SW by any means but have learned alot from this and other forums.
One is dont use fish to cycle your tank.
Two use a QT or hospital tank when adding fish.
Three take it slow. Nothing good happens fast in a SW tank.
Use RO/DI water if u can. And try to avoid chemicals. Only use what u really need to.
There are lot of other things also but if and when u get started maybe this will help.
Good Luck

Are you not worried about your fish jumping out?

No. The fish i have will not jump out. And i have read in other forums that it is best not to have a cover over the top. Has to do with gas being released and oxygen getting into the tank.

That would be 4.8wpg which would be enough light for softies, and a few LPS although around 6wpg would be better to keep LPS. 60 pounds of live rock is more than enough for a 40g. What are the dimensions of the 40 gallon?

There are many reef safe fish that can be housed in a 40 gallon. With 4.8wpg of PC lighting you can't keep a anemone, but Clownfish do not need an anemone to host in they will host in various coral.

Take things slow, don't rush anything.
Research before buying and livestock for your tank
Get a few good books. The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta is a great book.

What brand of skimmer are you thinking of using? also is it a hang on the back or in-sump protein skimmer?

Also have you thought about either drilling the tank or attaching a overflow box and running a refugium? Any more questions just ask. :)

Seems like you have more questions than I do! :lol:

As far as the skimmer goes, I've had several people recommend a certain brand, but for the life of me, I can't remember. The 40 gallon is a 36x18x16. I don't want to drill the tank, so I'm going to purchase a CSO from petsolutions.com or drsfostersmith.com and buy a sump. It may be a year or two before I go saltwater though. By this time next year I want to have some sort of sump and the CSO, as well as an RO filter and the 192 wpg lighting. I may forgo the lighting for a little while if it gets too costly.

I think the 192 wpg lighting is around $175, the continuous siphon overflow will probably run me $150, and the RO filter around $125. Hopefully I can build my own sump. Is a 10 gallon big enough to make a good sump for a 40?

Well imo a 10 gallon is kinda small for a 40 gallon tank, but a 20g long would be much better and give you more water volume. Were you thinking of having the skimmer in the sump along with a refugium area? What corals do you want to keep in this tank? or are you not sure yet?

Also yeah I needed to ask those questions to help you. :)

I could always hang the skimmer off of the back of the tank, no problem. It would be nice if it could go in the sump, but not completely necessary. Not sure what kind of corals... haven't really looked into them much.

Well it depends on the size of the in-sump skimmer and how large you want the skimmer area to be. You could always use a HOB skimmer and hang it on the side of the fuge.