Lots of newbie questions

[williamsejames]

okay, so i'm starting my first SW tank and wanted to get a few questions out of the way, just to start off with. I don't know a ton about coral but certainly would like to be able to house them after i'm sufficiently educated. right now i have a 65g breeder w/ a 29g sump to start off with. here's what i'm looking at:

lighting: Seems like T5HO is the cheapest route. I won't be hindered too much by choosing T5HO over more expensive options like halide or LED, correct?

skimmer: Don't know a ton about skimmers. I figured a quality in sump rated at 100g, any suggestions?

LR: I'm wondering if i can pinch a few pennies here. Can I buy cheap base rock and seed it with rubble rock? shooting for around 100lbs total.

substrate: what's the minimum sand bed depth I should use? planning on using aragonite but don't know which grain is correct.

sump: Not sure where to place chambers and in which order. I want to have macroalgea, DSB maybe, refugium, skimmer, etc.

water: Is it okay to use treated tapwater in a fowlr? I would invest in an RO/DI before adding corals.

livestock: right now I'm pretty far from planning livestock but here's some stuff i'd like and wondering what works and what doesn't. A pair of clowns, anemone host, cleaner shrimp, snowflake eel, foxface, lemonpeel angel, mandarin, sixline, brain coral, birdsnest, polyps, feather duster, etc. Any suggestions for beginners are appreciated.

heater: 2 dependable heaters @ 78 degrees?

flow: how many powerheads? how much flow to sump?

Sorry for the disorganization. Trying to learn everything at once. Any help is TRULY appreciated.

[rmalone]

Light, T5ho would be fine.

Skimmer I would go with a rating of 2x water volume. Make sure it will fit the sump.

Sure you can use base rock and seed with rubble or a little live rock.

Substrate you really don't need more than 2", I prefer pretty fine (not sugar sand) and stay away from crushed coral, pain to keep clean.

Sump how you set up baffles will depend on your skimmer and the other things you want to do. Pretty small sump for a DSB. Million ways to go for sump layout.

Livestock, I'll mostly leave that alone, but a fox face will get too big for a 60g. And if you do an eel you better have a very well sealed lid, or it WILL go carpet surfing.

In tank flow will depend on what you end up with for coral. Flow through the sump need not be high, don't rely on your return pump for in tank flow.

Take your time and enjoy the process, don't rush to make the tank look complete all at once. And avoid impulse purchases.

[redemer123]

you should choose the grain of the sand based on what kind of critters your keeping, for example if you want things that are sand sifters your gonna want a smaller grain but not to small, mainly its personal preference in my opinion, go with the T5HO lights...as for skimmers i haven't heard anything bad about reef octopus skimmers and SWC skimmers so look into those. flow will depend on the kind of corals you get but most people choose a high flow anyway.

[Chelle's Ocean]

:) Welcome aboard to this wondeful hobby!
It truly is a great ride - keep us posted on your journey :)

Glad to meet you :)