New to the hobby!

[Quinn]

Welcome! Perhaps I can start the ball rolling by sharing some of my limited knowledge, since I am bored and at work.

-A refugium is basically a seperate chamber/tank plumbed into your main tank with no predators in it, in order to encourage pod population growth. Some people also put macro algaes, sand beds, etc. in their fuges, to help with nutrient export, denitrification, etc. For larger tanks, a seperate tank works well, in your case, you may want to look into internal fuges, small acrylic boxes that sit in the top corner of the tank.

-I won't comment on PC lighting, as that would be better left to people who know about corals than I. However from what I gather, anemones are rather specialized animals, requiring attentive care and high levels of light (VHO or MH).

-I won't comment on calcium reactors either, because there are many people on this board who build them and understand exactly how they work, while all I know about them is that I have one.

-The DSB issue is still an ongoing debate. I think a fairly widely accepted standard is 4", although I've heard some people say that they have a 1" DSB, and others 7".

-There are people in Calgary who have good live sand and I am sure will be happy to donate. Assuming you have live rock, it will eventually seed the sand itself. I only put live sand in my fuge, and my display tank DSB already contains many worms after two months, thanks mostly to my live rock.