Thanks for replying so quickly ...
What I meant about the live rock was that I've heard that sometimes the fish will eat the rocks clean ... leaving just rock ... no big deal but I figured I'd just get a couple small/medium sized rocks to help with cycling and cleaning and see how badly the fish mangle it before deciding on any makjor live rock addition. Being new to this hobby there's so much to learn about!
As far as the power filter it's a Whisper and I think I'd rather stick with that to start with just until I see how things go and if I feel brave enough to go with out then I'll try that once I see how the rock thing works out.
The powerhead is a Penguin, don't know it those are good or not but it looked like a good brand (as I've never had any problem with my other Penguin products) and it was in the mid-range for cost ... not cheap but not the most expensive either. I believe the flow rate said it was like 500 or 600.
Sorry for the stupid question here but ... "DSB"?????? What's that? I'm not too familiar with the hobby yet and haven't picked up on the abrevs.
As far as the skimmer goes, I wasn't planning to use one unless I find it absolutely necessary as I have limited space as it is now with the tank up and I was not very impressed with the way the "in the tank" ones look if they can't be hidden well. I will have to see how things progress before going that route.
As for the light ... it's whatever came with the tank hood. I know you need special lights for live corals and certain invertibrates but I think I read that just a fish tank was ok to keep the regular light on. Please let me know if I should change a bulb or something.
The sand thing really has thrown me for a loop for the past week or so as the live sand can be so expensive. I was thinking of getting either a child's playsand or a beach type sand from Home Depot or Lowes (the kind you use for decoration or sand play around your house) to layer on the bottom and then add a 30lb bag of live sand to the top of that to help get the water cycling. I also don't know ... should I fill the tank and mix the salt water before adding the sand or put the sand in and then add the water and salt mix? This is a lot more owrk then I'm used to ... I've only ever had freshwater tanks before ... but I think it'll all be worth it in the end!