I disagree with the comment that the AC500 is useless, with a little modding it becomes a great HOB fuge.

Does your tank have an overflow, or is it drilled?

Its a great size tank to start out with! You have lots of options for livestock combinations.

Have you made any decision about what type of tank you want to keep? Fish only, reef? I ask because it may impact what type of information you need, and what type of equipment may best suit your needs.

He said:

:D

Oh Mike, that reminds me, I forgot to mention that most anemones will need Metal Halide lighting, there are a few that will do ok under strong T5 lighting, but your T8 lighting is definately not sufficient for an anemone long-term.

Actually I was asking about his future plans above and beyond what he had already mentioned.

Sorry 'Myka' I do appreciate the long post you wrote but it was mostly straight forward and I understand it ..... except the empty tank for 6-8 weeks allowing the cyle period, thats along time.

I won't be drilling the tank so a HOB skimmer would be my best option. I think I'll be looking in the DIY section to see about lighting, a good light will break the bank so soon after Xmas.

Can I start the tank as a fish only with live rock, add more live rock over time slowly building up to a small reef. I know I would need to get reef safe fish , but could those reef safe fish survive with only some live rock in the tank?

Yes of course you may start a tank out that way! The same type of rock applies regardless. Some of the things that change between fish only reef is flow and lighting.

Good choice to look through the DIY and buy/sell forums for equipment. It makes setting up a system considerably cheaper. Do you know how deep your tank is offhand?

I believe my tank is 48"long x 18"wide x 24"tall (I think), I'll go measure it.

I only ask because the depth (24" as you stated) impacts what lighting options you can consider.

Sounds like a nice size system. Have you started assembling other equipment yet, or are you still in the research stages?

Still in the research stage... I currently have a 55g planted community that I havent decided what to do with , whether or not I should just transfer it for now or set up a reef(I've always wanted a reef tank). I only want to have one tank set up.

I'm just building a cabinet for the 90g tank now, so it will be a couple weeks at the speed I'm going to even get water in the tank

Your tank wouldn't be empty. It will have the live rocks, then the cleanup crew. Not to mention all the little critters that will start popping up on the rock, in the water, one the sand, and in the sand. It seems like a long time, but it will go by soon enough. My tank didn't even see a fish until it was 8 months old. Haha! Mostly just because I couldn't decide what to put in it. I had lots of corals though. I think the first coral went in around week 8.

If you want to add live rock to an existing tank the best idea is to put the new rock in a bin with a heater and a powerhead for 4 weeks to cycle it before you put it in your tank, otherwise you'll have a mini cycle from the die-off on the rock. You can buy "cured" live rock, but there will still be some die-off, and it will cost you more.

The reef safe fish will be just fine without corals. :)

Spend as much money as you can afford on a skimmer. There are only two brands of HOB skimmers I recommend, AquaC Remoras and the Deltecs. The Deltecs are faaaaaaaaaaar superior to the AquaCs, but also cost quite a bit more. I don't think any other brand of HOB skimmer is worth the cost of taking them to the dump. For your tank, you'd need the Remora Pro (~$265), or for Deltec the MCE300 ($290) would be sufficient if you don't plan to stock heavily. The Deltec MCE600 ($495) would be a better choice and would help to buffer the newbie mistakes you will make. :D Deltec also makes a skimmer that sits inside your aquarium called the MC500 ($450), but you lose tank space.

I would recommend you use T5 lighting because it is strong enough that you could try some lower light corals like mushrooms, polyps, and maybe zoos without having to upgrade your lighting. As well, if you do eventually want to keep higher light corals and want to upgrade your lighting to MH you can still use your T5s for actinics. You can buy retrofit kits for fairly cheap, and the bulbs are all fairly cheap as well. T5s run fairly cool, and have really nice color as well as lots of bulb selection.