here is a list of things you will need
1 chose how big of a tank you want
2 you need a filter for that size of tank
3 2-4 inches of sandbed should be about 1 pound a gallon and if not deep enough more
4 one pound of live rock per gallon for fish only and 1.5 pounds up to 2 pounds per gallon for reef
5 sea salt make shure you premix your sea salt in a five gallon bucket and airate before
adding to the tank.
6 next you will need a protin skimmer that will handel how big the tank is
7 now you will need enough watter movment so check how many gph your filter does and your
protin skimmer. you will need 10 gph for every gallon of watter. If your filter and protin skimmer
does not provide enough gph you can add on a power head that will be big enough to make up
the rest of the gph you need.
8 next chose a lighting fluorescent, power compact fluorescent, mercury vapor,metal halide, for
fish only you only need a white acent light but can use the blue acent light with it as well, but
for the reef you will need to make shure your lighting has all three lighting systems in it the
white acent light, the blue acent light, and a luner light as well.
9 you will need 2-3 watts per gallon for fish only and 4-5 watts per gallon for reef tank so when
chosing your lighting be shure it has enough watts for the type of tank you want.
10 you will need testing suplies for amonia, nitrite, nitrate, sg or salinity {spacific gravity or
salinity} to meshure the amount of salt, calcium, magnisum, and phosphate.
11 you will need ro watter to mix the salt in so i suggest buying a ro unit to make your own.
12 and not a must but a air pump with a controll valve on it so you can do a slow flow of bubles
helping the gas exchange between the carbon dioxide and the oxygen. Not manditory but tanks
using air to help the gas exchange show better watter quality.
13 the last step is alot of patients
14 you will also need a uv sterilizer i would recomend 9 watts per 50 gallons
so there you have it my 14 steeps to setting up an aquarium if you have any questions on any steps or about anything else let me know also let me know if i left anything out. take care and hope you have fun again ask any questions you need help with k