[mseepman]

First thing first...cannister filters are really not for the saltwater tank side of things. If you do plan on using one, remove the bio-balls or other biological filters as they are just traps for bad things. Cannisters can be used to push water and for carbon or phosphate removal, you just have to clean them regularly or they become a problem.

I think the basic way to describe water quality in a small nano marine tank is either do water changes or have a good skimmer (preferably both) otherwise what you put in there will eventually encounter trouble.

Adding more live rock is a good thing....just make sure that it's done prior to adding livestock as you might cause a mini "cycle" which would kill everything.

I'm a protein skimmer fan.

I couldn't tell you if there is a diff between reef and marine tank. There are words related to what type of tank you're doing like FOWLR (fish only with live rock), Mixed (Fish and coral), BB (bare bottom -- no sand), etc. If you're confused by some acronym on here just ask and someone will let you know what it means.

Read the TOTM from this site, RC and Nano-reef.com as combined they will tell you a lot about what successful people have done. There are some great starter articles on here by Myka that you should look at as well.

Hope that helps.