Mini Reef Tank Protein Skimmer

Saltwater fish tank?

I have a 12 gallon salt water fish tank for about a year not and I can keep everything in the norm for chemicals. I think its time to advance to something bigger. I was given a 46 gallon bow front all glass brand new tank w/ the standard halogen bulb hood so I need to buy it all, a filtration system im thinking canister, larger protein skimmer, overflow system, w/o drilling holes, light bulb what size and type? My small tank has only 2 damsels, a chocolate chip starfish, and 2 hermit crabs. But I want to go to a mini reef style. Live rock, and coral; hard and soft, annonime, fish invertebrate, im willing to take a year or 2 to do it right but im not sure on what type of equipment to buy. Now im not looking to spent 2 grand on getting it up and running

A second thing where is the best place to buy this stuff. EBay local store, and live rock one big piece lots of small ones? What else can I use to replicate live rock and give to look that is in a traditional mini reef system?

i cna’t really tanlk now but email me and i can answer more quetions….

the choco chip star has to go. they eat corals.
you should have at LEAST PC lighting depending of the type of corals you want.
read as much as you can, the conscientios marine aquarist by robert fenner is a great book to have/read.

EDIT:
ok apparently my class doen’t start yet, lol, sorry…

you’re a very smart person for knowing that this can take some time. i’ll try to make this as simple and simple sounding, lol as i can.
live rock is the best single thing you can do for your tank. (followed closely by skimming) if you’re worried about costs and since i know you’re already willing to take the time, try doing half live rock and half base rock, anything calcium based…sandstone, limestone…. and livesand you can also mix live with base, but i wouldn’t skimp on hte live sand.
i did this for my 29 reef and it was ready and fully cycled within a month and a half, scince you already have a tank you can add the sand and rock from there and and just add some base rock to get the ammounts you need.
now, since you want to eventually do an all-out reef (soft and hard and anemones and such) you can skimp on the initial ro somewhat, all the live rock chunks that you’ll get when you start buying corals is going to add to what you have already. i didn’t think about this when i started and now have about 35+ pounds of rock in a 29 agllon tank. for you i would start with about 25-30 of rock (base and live, including what you already have) and about 20-30 pounds more sand.
for a skimmer i would recomend the SeaClone 150, at petsmart you should be able to get it for about $120-140, and will be fine for the size tank you have, you always want to over skim a little. overflow filters, wet dry, and trickle filters are all overrated, if you prevent the nitrates from forming you wont have to remove them so much with filters, enough live rock in a tank and a skimmer could really be all you need. i have a small external filter on my tank cause i have alot of floating debris from all my algea (calerpa, cheato, and such) but that is usually all you need, an HOB or canister filter and a few powerheads (maybe with some sponges on the intake.)
to keep hard corals you’ll pretty much need metal halide bulbs, or at least 4 T5 bulbs. i think your tank may be 36” long? if so i know that Corallife makes a halide unit that size i think it’s like $550 or so but i have the 24” unit and let me tell you that it works great, i have awesome growth in my stony corals and great colors in my softer ones. i think it’s 1×250 watt 10,000K halide bulb and 2×65 watt PC actinics but i could be wrong.
also keep in mind that the more fish there are in a tank the harder is is to keep the water quality up. so keep to smaller reef safe fish.
personally i would put in a 46 bowfront probably something like this:
1- royal gramma
2-percula clowns
1- flame or cherub angel (be careful, dwarf clowns aren’t 100% reef safe and may nip at certain corals, but these 2 are the least likely to do so, it also depends so much on the individual fish some won’t touch corals some destroy them.)
1 twin spot goby pair or a diamond watchman goby and a pistiol shrimp.
and some kind of dartfish, like a firefish, scissortail goby or zebra dartfish, or some kind of cardinal fish…..but that’s just me.
as for inverts you really just want to watch out and make sure you don’t get anything that’s NOT reef safe otherwise the sky’s pretty much the limit. you’ll want to add more hermits and maybe a few snails too. probably like 15-20 total hermits and 20-35 snails st the max but if your tank stays clean without them, then by no means do you need them.

Robbie’s 30 Gallon Reef Tank