Lighting is one of the most important pieces of equipment in a reef tank, it can decide whether you will be successful or not.  A lot of light is not always importand, for instance if you only wish to have a mushroom tank, you will only need NO (normal output), PC (power compacts) or VHO (very high output) bulbs.  In my case I want to grow anything and everything so I chose a two 250 watt 14KK CoralVue halides running on Blueline E-Ballasts.  I wanted something that pulled less energy, had great output and also ran cool...but couldn't find anything to match the outputs of halides, not even T5's.  So to handle the heat from the halides I installed three 4.75" CoralLife fans.

This is also a very important aspect of a reef tank.  Most hobbiest are using skimmers as there primary filtration and it is usually housed in a sump below the tank and they are also using refugiums.  I am using a EuroReef RS5-2 skimmer as my filtration.  I have run refugiums in the past but don't feel they work unless you can build one that is at least 50% of the tank volume.  I use 100% base rock from Capt Jer as he has some of the best base and live rock around.

The reason I chose not to use live rock is because it can cause more problems than it is worth and in time, the base rock will look as good as the live rock and will cost you about 60% less.  I also run bare bottom...no sand!  The reason is sand can trap a lot of detritus and as many have found, the sand requires a lot of time, money and attention so that it does not work against you.  Now, I ran sand for years and the only problems I had were when the sand hardened into cement, but I think that was because of a calcium reactor.

Circulation is very important in a reef tanks.  I run a MD9.5 as my main return and two SEIO 1100's in the tank.  Since I am growing sps, I need a ton of flow.  And having a bare bottom tank requires high flow to keep the detritus into suspension.

I used to run a calcium reactor, but to be honest, I think they involve more work than they are worth.  So, I plan to use a Part A & B by EW.  I have found this to be very stable and doesn't have any extra, unecessary chemicals that other companies use.

I also mix kalk into my top-off water and this helps to keep levels stable.