I started with a 12g not long ago running all Acropora and had no issues. I then moved onto a 29g Biocube with Kalkwasser in the ATO -- Pretty simple! No issues personally.
I think people put far too much emphasis on how hard SPS is. After over 1 year keeping SPS with zero prior experience I just recently had my first death -- And it was because a snail knocked a mini colony onto an Acan in the night.
SPS isn't that hard to keep alive. It isn't that hard to color up. But it is exceedingly hard to master. A novice should have zero issues getting an SPS coral to around 75-80% of it's color potential. A seasoned keeper should easily get 90% of it's color potential, but it takes someone with a lot of understanding and a finely tuned system to get 95+% color.
When you look at a pics of tanks and say "That's a Garf Bonsai", "That's a Garf", "Thats a garf" and suddenly "WOW, what on earth is that SUPER purple coral with neon green polyps?!" -- That's the Garf in the hands of someone whose experienced and has a finely tuned system
