I've been out of the game for a few years now. I'm getting a 180gallon tank and need to brush up on some basics in order to plan some equipment purchases. I've forgotton some of the rule of thumb type knowlege, and may be a little rusty as far as what kind of equipment is preferred. So I'm asking for some help.

I had an swc skimmer in the past. thought it was a great skimmer for the money and was thinking of getting an extreme 160. Are there better skimmers for around the same money?

How big of a sump should I get, and what kind of flow rate should be going through it? Recommend a good for the money return pump. Had a mag 950 in the past, but thought it was kinda loud and sucked alot of power.

I liked koralia powerheads, but they seem to have a ton of new models... for a 180gallon tank 6x2x2, which ones should I be looking at and how many?

My plan is to setup a mixed reef with primarily easy corals... zoas polys shrooms, I'd like to have a couple bta's, frogspawn/hammer corals that sort of thing... maybe some of the easier sps such as birdsnest and montis. I'd like a pair of captive bred clowns, sailfin tang, maybe some chromis.

Lighting will probably be t5.. is the vue660 really the new icecap660?

What kind of sandbed is preferred these days ssb, dsb, bb? I'm hoping ssb is still a good option. Any good deals for aragonite sand for cheap? I remember sand being expensive.

anyone still running refugiums?

Answering a few of these questions would really help me out. thanks

Mike