IMO the biggest problem with the Under Gravel Filters (UGF's)is after a few years the plates gunk up on the bottom and need to be torn down and cleaned. If not a bacterial bloom is usually the case. There are still a number of people who use them and claim they have no troubles. There was a post here a while back, I'd say august-september, the post was an opinion on UGF's. The poster deffended his UGF stating it never had problems. Then later in the thread stated that all that was done besides good vacuuming was adding a liquid water clarifyer to clear the water when it clouded up. To me that is a problem. Anaerobic bacteria grows on almost any surface submerged in the water (gravel,decor,rocks,etc.) where it is dark and has a little water flow. The only problem with just using a UGF wont give you much surface area that is also dark, has good flow and air for aerobic bacteria to grow. The inside of an external filter (excluding canisters without a Bio-wheel) is a great place for this. It is often said that when there is an unbalance of aerobic and anaerobic bacterias that the bacteria blooms occur. This clouds water, poses possible infection to fish and could all together crash the biofilter. At least thats the way I understand it. IME using UGF's solely and along with hang on the tank filters is that the water would get somewhat cloudy after a while. I never new at that time to remove the plates once a year to clean them. It seems that since not using them I have had cleaner water then before. This could also be because todays filters are better quality then ones of old. With all this said, UGF is better than no filtration at all. I wouldn't use one ever again because of the maintainance involved compared to an external filter. To add they are not compatible with live plants either, rooting problems.

reefcentral.com is a great suggestion. Since you want to start with fish only I would go with a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock). For a FOWLR you don't need a ton of live rock like a reef or live corals, so it is less expensive. Live rock has a good amount of benificial bacterias on it already and will host alot more as it "matures". The thing with any aquarium is to have as much surface area as possible for these detoxiying bacterias to grow. A 1" sandbed is fine to start, use a quality aragonite sand. The sand and the live rock have a good amount of surface area. Most aquarium lights that are sold with the tank aren't good for a reef but will be fine for a FOWLR. However you may have to add an extra fixture, it depends on the wattage of you current setup. A good idea for a larger tank is a sump type filter, they are not that expensive to make but if you buy a commercial one it can be very expensive. It all depends on budget, but 2 hang on power filters would be ok. Just get enough to turn the water over 7-10 times per hour, meaning you have a 60G tank so the combined GPH of the filters should be 420-600 GPH (gallon per hour). If a "quality" protien skimmer is in your budget it is a great addition. Not a necessity now but would be a good future investment. A 250-300W heater, or 2 smaller ones is needed. So if you are going to eventually go with a Reef I would get a few quality pieces of live rock along with some base rock (or dead rock) to keep that cost down. At least 3 watts per gallon of fluorescent light(preferably 67000-10000K). The filters and heater. Go to reefcentral.com and there is a pretty good book published by TFK at petstores, can't remember the title but it has a cardinal fish on the cover, good basic info and more. Also drsfostersmith.com has good deals on sand,filters and heaters. AHSupply.com has good lighting kits for cheap to start.

The other saying is, "could be your upper lip" my GF used to say that and I would get so upset, hehehehe I'm glad you got your lawn fertilized Lindseyrose Hehehe, PJ, Haven't heard that forever, lol The joke concerns twin boys of five or six. Worried that the boys had developed extreme personalities -- one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist -- their parents took them to a psychiatrist. First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. "What's the matter?" the psychiatrist asked, baffled. "Don't you want to play with any of the toys?" "Yes," the little boy bawled, "but if I did I'd only break them." Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his out look, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. "What do you think you're doing?" the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. "With all this manure," the little boy replied, beaming, "there must be a pony in here somewhere!"

I would rearrange the furniture to make it more inviting. The fish tank is not the biggest problem there, and I think that even someone who doesn't like aquariums will see that as an easy way to remember your home at the end of a mind-numbing day of house hunting. You want the "big fish tank house" to be a positive image. I agree with setting up the sofa on the other side of the room. Create a space where people can visit and look at the fish instead of a wall. I thinkthe reading area is fine forthe side where the sofa is now, or you could use that desk and find a chair to create a workspace where you could gaze at the fish while contemplating your work or taking a break. Clear the clutter -- everything needs a place to be put away or to be removed from the area. Don't create the impression that your home doesn't have room to store the things a buyer would need. Open the shutters when your are showing -- if the view is bad, turn them to let in light but not much view. Our RA doesn't like allowances. She says the mental impact can often be to have a buyer discount the house for the full allowance (you might have gotten it done for less), adjust further because they figure it will cost more to do the work and then take more off an offer because they still want to make a deal. She said her experience was to either do the repair or sell as is at your designated asking price. Good luck selling.