New to salt, 13 Gallon tank

[Dominus]

Hey all,

I am finishing up my custom tank build, currently waiting for the black paint to dry on the back and she will be pretty much done. The dimensions of the tank are 18" wide X 15" deep X 11"tall, So as you can see this is a relatively shallow tank. As I continue to do research The main thing that comes up for me is lighting. I have a 27 watt PC light fixture running a 10,000k bulb. I already have this light and I don't really want to sell it so I was thinking of DIY LED's to augment the light and help the spectrum. (see below for what I want to keep) My question is what are my options with this light? what can the light grow? what can't it grow? How many LED's would I need to boost lighting? (From what I am finding out probably around 12, 6 white, 6 royal blues)

For what I want to keep in this tank; I was thinking as far as fish go I would do a clown or something of that nature, I really want something that will be out and about swimming, visible. After hearing about iDream's firefish not every coming out I'm kinda wary of them but am still interested in them. SO basically I'm open to any ideas yall have about fish.

Inverts- I love shrimp so there will be one or two in the tank for sure as ell as a snail or two and maybe a crab.

Coral- still Trying to get myself acclimated to this world but I know I really like Frogspawn. I don't know much about it but I plan to find, but in the mean time can anyone give me pro's and con's of this in my tank? I def want to stay in the beginner coral range and don't want to break the bank on expensive and hard to keep corals.

Last question, The water at my school is terrible, (bronx water) so I am thinking I will definitely need an RO/DI unit, Doing research about them currently as well but want to see if anyone who is reading this has any opinions on these?

Thank you so much and yes I know the search button is my friend and I am using it quite a lot, I just want my own thread as well to address specific issues to my developing tank.

 

[mr_X]

for your size tank and the water changes you'll be doing, it might just pay to purchase water from a local aquarium store. you're probably going to be doing a gallon or two a week to export nutrients and replace elements, and maybe a gallon or two in evap? that's not expensive to purchase. i would skip the R.O. and invest that money into corals instead.

i would look for different lighting entirely if this was my tank. light will make or break your reef and your experience. power compacts just make a tank look bleh in my opinion. why not just use all LEDs? you could go with 1 watters and stagger the blues and whites and i think you'll be glad you did.

as for the fish....
Nano Fish

....i don't consider frogspawn an easy coral, but not an expert one either. also check out australian elegance coral. elegance from indonesia is hard to keep alive, but i've heard many success stories from folks that kept elegance from aussie.

 

[Dominus]

So how many LED's would I need for this tank? 12? (6 white 6 blue) That's if i DON'T run the 27 watt PC.

 

[mr_X]

that's a good question. i think to cover an 18 x 15 area you are going to need more, depending on what corals you intend to keep partially, and also aesthetics, but i will leave that to those who have done the research.

for mainly frogspawn and the like, you aren't going to need a ton of light, but you don't want an unevenly lit tank either.