[SaltyDog143]

First, thanks everyone for the advice in my first post

so here is where I am as of today

have- 120g tank w/rear external overflow dual drains 2" i think
- Ro system
- eco1056 submersible pump (not sure if its apporpriate for this tank) was fre
- hydor wavemaker, not sure the size but from looking at the ones in the store it isnt very big, was free
- bought sump last night from LFS ( trying to find a balance between supporting him and staying as inexpensive as possible)
- ordered steel stand from LFS last night he figures a week and it will be ready

ok order of things I think I need with questions

heaters- 3w/gal is this correct?
- if so 3w x 120 gal =360w
if i remember correctly I read somewhere that having two heaters is desirable, so...
- 2 heaters @ 200w each is what I am looking for?
in my opinion, heaters are cheap, two isn't a big deal $30 -$40 each

pumps- I have no clue what I need here, have not been able to find that magic number of how many gph I should be running, I know you need a return pump but what other pumps do I need?

Lighting, well I think I would prefer LED, but that isn' t written in stone just yet, my reasons for thinking led, yes they are more expensive but lower opperating costs, we really do want corals and dont want to limit our selection too much, and the flexibility of programming is very attractive

Skimmer- ok I am a little confused here........some guys say buy bigger than you need some say dont go too big? With a 120g tank is a 300-400g reasonable like a hydor performer1005 or something smaller like a bubble magnus nac5 80-135g, or should I shoot for something in the middle? This one confuses me!

well I will leave it there as these are what I consider necessary components, if I have left anything out please let me know, big learning curve here.


oh as a side note, a local guy is selling his live rock, do you guys think it is a good idea to buy a bunch from him and store it until I am ready? Like maybe let it dry and start the process over once I have the setup, LFS owner says he is willing to come with me to make sure its in good shape, no bad guys in the rock to worry about.

Thanks
Randy