I recently set up a 135 gal reef tank (formerly fish only for several years) with only a tank mounted protein skimmer live sand and live rock with a 1in plenum and two tank mounted filters with the biowheels removed. It is very stable now after 6 months and added fish after only 2 weeks. The live rock was taken from a 55 Gal I had and I added some more ( not too much and it has worked well. I have purple tang (med), Yellow Eyed Tang (med), clown tang (med), pair of clarkii clowns (med, lg), copperband (med), lawnmower blenny, Firefish, snowflake eel, coral banded shrimp, several hermits and snails, not to mention the coral. I have read alot and have found that the best way to have a stable system is to to try and mimic the reef, LR, sand and lots of criters. I also have three patches of macro algae that is rinsed and trimmed monthly that the fish love to munch on and help with nitrate and other excess nutrients. I removed the bio wheels because they work too well and didnt allow the LR to do their job. Good luck and dont think that you need all kinds of expensive eqp. to have a clean stable reef. Also visit
www.garf.org and see how they have been doing it since 1977.
