How big? Well, I would go for a 40 gallon tank if this is your first attempt. A larger tank 55 or 75 gallons would be great but it will cost you more for your lighting and the salt you need for water changes. But bigger is better in the end.

What shape? There are many shapes but I believe a straight forward rectangle is the best option. Having got a bow front tank for the corner and a rectangle tank the rectangle shape is easier to arrange stuff in, its up to you but my vote goes for the rectangle tank.

Lighting for the tank. When you buy a tank for marines a major consideration will be the lights you use. If your a beginner then I would use tube lighting for now its a lot easier and cheaper.Later on if you want to keep hard corals that reguire stronger lighting you can move up to metal halide lighting but for now stick with tube lighting and soft corals.You can now buy tube lights called T5s which are very good 3T5 lights above a 40 or 50 gallon tank will give you more then enough light for you needs.

I would go for a rectangle tank 40 or 55 gallons with a good stand and a good tube lighting system to start you off.

Here is a Juwel bow front tank great for the corner and next to it a Juwel Rio 240. More sophisticated tanks will be drilled with a sump underneath but if your just starting out you don't need to go that far to get started.

This is one bit of equipment that you don't want to skimp on (I did) as it will be doing a great job at keeping your tank clean. There are lots of models to chose from and you will get what you pay for but don't go mad a small air driven skimmer for 20.00 will be good enough to begin with if money is scarce. When we started off I bought a Sea clone Skimmer for about 90.00 there not the greatest skimmer out there but mine has done a reasonable job on my 40 gallon tank for the last year. It hangs on the pack of the tank and if your going to have a tank with out a sump you need a hang on the back model. Heres a pic of the skimmer we bought. Looking back now and reading the reef forums the sea clone does not rate highly among reef keepers and they recommend others like the aquac remora skimmer so I think I would chose a different model. but having said that if you have sea clone skimmer use it until you can upgrade because having any skimmer is better then no skimmer at all.

The sea clone skimmer could be better, if you are given one use it  but there are better models out there.

I am recommending a canister filter to start you off with a marine tank but later on when you have some experience you might like to install a sump (a smaller tank under your main one) but we found the canister filter worked very well and was easy to setup. We bought an Aqua Pro 3 which works well and was a good price, but again second hand bargain are always in the adverts.

 The main advantage with an external filter like this is that it will increase water flow in your tank and will give you a convenient place to put filter media like carbon and filter wool. They don't take up much space and they are easy to install.

Dont get confused by all the filter systems available such as trickle filters sponge filters keep it simple for now and just use a cannister filter for now.When your cannister filter is working you can take your time and go through the many different types of filter systems that you can use untill you fully understand them all.But in short a cannister filter will do the job nicely for now.Hey stop wondering what a trickle filter does put down that book and get a cannister filter!

Let me point out that you don't have to have one of these but since I fitted one I have not had any problems with the dreaded ITCH or White spot its a pig to deal with and looks like someone sprinkled salt grains over your fish.( I lied I got white spot with a the uv fitted but that was because I moved up to a much bigger tank and the small uv was not big enough for my 130 gallon tank they are worth having) Fitting a UV unit will keep your tank itch free if you quarantine all your new stock, and I would not be without it. They cost about 60.00 you can get them second hand and they are dead easy to fit and maintain. The bulbs for them are cheap to buy and you have to replace them once every 6 months. If you keep soft coral later on you will not want to have to deal with the dreaded white spot believe me the corals cant stand the treatment for it and the fish are a nightmare to catch so I would suggest if you can stretch the wallet a bit then fit one of these units as soon as you can. Prevention is better then cure as they say.And I would add to that and say using a quarantine tank with uv is the best policy to prevent break out  of marine white spot.

This is where I was most confused when started off so I will try to steer you clear of the pitfalls. Live Rock is expensive 25kg could cost you over 100.00 pounds and it will become the main biological filter system of your tank but it can be done a lot cheaper please go here to the Rock Page for the low down on rock for your tank.

A bag of coral sand for the sand bed can be got at your fish store you will use this for your substrate  I go for 1inc of substrate no more but its up to you if you want a deep sand bed.

AND DON'T FORGET THE SALT. As a rough guide  you need about 14IB of salt for a 40 gallon tank to start off then a small 2IB box for top ups.

Tropic Marine sea salt great stuff..

A heater and thermometer and a hydrometer for testing the salt level you will also  need 3 test kits for Ammonia Nitrite and Nitrate you can add others later on but you must have these to start off with. A timer for your lights I chose two marine white lights and one blue actinic light the timers switch them on in the morning and off in the evenings. A scraper for removing algae from the glass and the incredibly useful 50p turkey baster. I use it all the time for feeding fish, blowing away muck from the rocks and adding reef supplements, also a pair of long sleeve gloves comes in very handy and some tweezers. Also buy two power heads for water movement in your tank they are just pumps that provide water movement but there important get a least 1 but two is better Maxi jet pumps are good ones.

Ok I think that about covers it, lets go on to the nuts and bolts of getting it set up click here

A heater and power head      Glass hydrometer and thermometer