Severum mama, I certainly appreciate your posts and I do value your opinion and information, we are communicating through a world of emotionless text - so it's difficult to understand exactly what you were trying to get across to me. I'm positive if you could visit and talk with my LFS, you would be looking for a home here ASAP. It's a great place, you can rest assured they wouldn't let me do something detrimental to the success of my tank.
Trust me, it's killing me to not have this 90g set up yet - I know many people say the larger the tank, the easier it is - not from a labor stand point. I'd much rather be doing a 15% water change in a 36g tank because of my mistakes, rather than mixing a 15% water change for a 90g tank. I just don't have that time to dedicate towards fixing my boo-boo's on such a large tank. I think this 36g is going to be a good crash course for getting into this reef keeping hobby.
I need to get a grasp on what I'm doing with this 36g that I only need to dedicate a couple hours to a week, before I end up going the sump/refugium/96gal route. The Tang has almost completely cleaned the tank
I think when people say larger is easyer than small is not about maintenance per say.
My analogy i use is cup of water vs ocean...spit in a cup vs the ocean...the cup paramaters go out of wack fast...ocean no impact..Thats like small vs large tanks. One little mistake in a small can impact it greatly vs a small mistake in a larger tank.
Now your current situation is the addiction =). You want more but the tank you have is holding you back =)... slow down
My opinion on going the larger tank route. If you really want to do things correct... You are learning from the small already and I think thats a good plan. I did the same ..learning from screwing up first =p before joining a reef site.
My suggestion to make life easy on the larger tank: Since maintenance is something I am very lazy about to.
I suggest getting your parts bought you really desire a little at a time ...so your budget doesnt get pinched and take your time.
I would suggest also do prepare for a refuge sump set up...a very large best you can afford skimmer..and may as well retro that canopy on that tank for some awsome lights...why go budget and have to replace it later is how i look at it...
So basically:
Refuge with chaeto + Sump+Kick butt skimmer+Killer lights+purchasing an RO unit+Phosban reactor= less hassles with changing water or water parameter problems.
Refuge eats the bad nutrients like Nitrates and phosphates+Pods population
Phosban reactor = Stuffed with RoPhos to keep phosphates at 0 (algae will hate you =p )
KickbuttSkimmer= removing DOC's means less pollution in the water
RO-Unit = Less hauling around water and travel to pick it up
This in turn in the end will really make maintenance not such a pain in the tush. I am extremely lazy and I have all those things but Fuge I had to remove it ..(building a new one later).
But still without the fuge...I change 5g a week on a 72 and 10g every 4th week sometimes 15..depending on parameters...
I have sps and lps tank to...everyone is happy and growing like weeds.
. I'll just wish you luck and tell you to take a look at those 2 books I gave links to. They are great books. They were recommended by my LFS owner who also has a commercial aquarium service he takes care of.
I've spent a few years working for a LFS and have noticed that this attitude is one that seems prevalent in the hobby. It's not something I personally agree with, and again, I'm entitled to my opinion. It seemed from the post that the OP's LFS may not have told him the whole truth about their recommendations... he has since clarified that they did. Sounds like a pretty good shop. 
