HELP- Fist tank- Many Equiptment ?'s

[its fry]

New here. New to Cincy. New to hobby.
Already wrote off nano's... no thanks.

TANK:
30 Gallon 36 1/4 x 12 5/8 x 16 3/4

LIVESTOCK INTENTIONS:
Fish- (4) midas blenny, 6 line, tru perc, firefish
Inverts- (3) anemone crab, sally lightfoot, cleaner shrimp, may try 1BTA
Coral- beginner stuff zoas, shrooms, rics, yellow fiji, may try 1 stony and 1 SPS
CUC turbo, scarlett hermits, 1 emerald

PROBLEM--I hate shopping specs or online. I need help here. I got some recommendations from a freind, but am looking for more help.
I'd love to get links so that there's no confusion in your recommendation.

I'm not sure if I even need all of these components...

SKIMMER
recommended Aqua C Remora w/ maxijet 1200

PUMP/POWERHEAD


Mech. FILTER
recommended Penguin 350

LIGHTING
Pretty sure I want to go t5 on this shallow of a tank. Brand? Link?

There's no question I need some guidance.
I'll have plenty of time to maintain the tank, I just hate shopping specs.
Thanks in advance guys...

Steven

[Frogfish]

I would look at the Seio power heads made by Rio pumps.

Forget about mechanical filtration. Use live rock and live sand for your biologic filtration and your clean up crew for the mechanical filtration.

As for lighting I would go with T5 or Power Compacts.

The following link is to a page on my website where I have collected a ton of links. On the right side is a list of links for manufacturers.

http://home.cinci.rr.com/srumberg/Misce ... 0Links.htm (http://home.cinci.rr.com/srumberg/Miscellaneous%20Links.htm)

[CinciCobra]

A thought about lighting for ya. If you ever plan on keeping anything beyond sofites and lps, you may want to think about some form of metal halide lighting - once you get the desire to keep new coral and don't have the lighting required it gets frustrating and you spend more money upgrading. I did it, and I think alot of people do it as well w/ their equipment. Are you going to retro-fit lighting into a hood or use a prebuilt setup?
Here is a link from champion lighting of a great t5 set-up
http://www.championlighting.com/product ... 633&page=1 (http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=20301&cat=633&page=1)

Are you going to use a sump or not w/ this system?

The mechanical filtration is worthless and creates more problems than it prevents.

And as recommended above, Seio pumps are great deals. You can get them used ALL THE TIME on reef central.

The skimmer is probably the most important part to a system that small, so get the best skimmer you can afford, and overskim the tank. If you go sumpless alot of people are using the coralife super skimmer and liking them. Aqua C's are great as well from what I have read ...... but using a sump opens up ALOT of possiblities and can be done for under $100.00 w/ some labor on your part.

Hope this helps, and hopefully some other people give some better perspectives and thoughts as well. I wish I had searched around on these forums when I built my first system - it would have saved me TONS of time and money. Good luck!

[its fry]

Thanks guys..

It appears a 'mechanical filter' is out.

I'm open to finding a 29g on a cabinet so I can get a sump going...

[WholesaleMarine]

Get rid of the Salley Light Foot

[mdog3000]

That seems like to many fish to me. I would maybe tone back a midas blenny or two. Dont get an anenome. I have a 30 with a LTA in it and its taken over. Takes up half the tank. Could become a problem for your other fish (chomp, chomp, chomp) :lol: