You should have a 4 deep sand bed with your life rock placed on top.The LR
will go though a cycle where your ammonia levels will spike, this is normal.
Keep the water circulating and wait until your Ammonia and Nitrites are zero
before you add any fish/ corals to your tank. (This may take several weeks).
A canister filter is fine just make sure its big enough for your tank. You
want a filter that will turn the water at least 3X the tank size. (50 gal
tank you want a filtration of 150 GPH minimal) A refugium is nice but is
not essential at first.
Before you begin, get a book and read up on a reef tank so you dont make too
many mistakes and kill your stock.
"ONJ" wrote in message
...
Ok...I have narrowed down some pieces of equipment to set up my new 55
gallon reef tank.

The things I do know I need and will be getting a

60 to 70lbs live rock
Precision Marine HOT-1 protein skimmer
2 Hydor Koralia circulating units
Proper lighting level for corals and maybe one anemone

Now for the part I don't know. I was considering a canister
filter...someone advised against that.

I thought about a refugium, but my only reason for doing so would be algae
control, but I don't know if I want to mess with all of that.

So besides the live rock, the skimmer, lighting and calcium based
sand...is there anything else?

Would someone recommend a canister filter? Is a refugium a must?

Or will the things I have settled on so far do the trick?