completly new to salt water tanks

...salt water is a bit more complicated...you need RO water to start with...then you mix your salt water...water quality is much more finnicky than freshwater tanks...less room for error...

Then you have to decide if you want a fish only tank or a reef tank...

...then you have to add your substrate or your live rock...

For a reef tank you need special lights, or your corals won't grow...

...you also need a protein skimmer and all your stuff should be housed in a sump...

...and there's much more...but I'll let one of the SW pros answer...

I agree that you need to start slow. Check out some books at the library, read Tropical Fish Monthly and Coral magazine. Go back and just start reading the numerous posts about salt water before you got here. You'll see the many ways to set up a tank and the various equipment. Read the stickies for suggestions as to the types of setups you might wish to try.

The larger the tank the better. This is fact. It is not a fact that you cannot make a gorgeous mini tank. It is more difficult and requires more discipline to not over stock it. A larger tank allows for errors. 75g is a great starting point. Musho was very close in his recommendations in that cheap equipment is only that, cheap. Good equipment does not have to be expensive to work, but generally it is way more expensive then the Chinese knockoff junk you see floating around. Think of it this way, if most of the good skimmers sell for $200 or more, then it should be obvious the $30 you just found on that amazing website probably is to good to be true.