| For what it's worth, most of the "kits" sold by the fish stores, will be worthless for reefs, and barely acceptable for salt water fish. You should look at a reef ready tank, a good sump, in-sump protein skimmer & a good return pump. Most of us use a 5" to 6" deep dand bed (DSB) and about 1 to 2 lbs of live rock. Almost no one uses canister filters or hang on power filters, except for the occasional carbon filtration use.
If that's gonna be too expensive to start out, you can go with one of the better hang-on protein skimmers, and for-go the sump until you are ready, then use one of the hang-on overflows to connect your tank to a sump.
Hope this gives you some of the information you're looking for.
As was mentioned already, a lot of the recommendations will depend on what you're trying to accomplish,(reef, fish only, etc.) and how big of a tank you're going to have. |