so you want clown fish.
first of how big is the tank.
you will need:
live rock AT AROUND £10 per kg, 1kg per 5 liters this is your biological filter.
coral sand -1 inch will be fine in the bottom of the tank, depending on the size around £20.
power heads for flow - 2 smaller are always better than 1 big one, so depending on tank size anything from £25 each.
skimmer - brand new depending on tank size again, something like a deltec mce 300/600, these are excellent skimmers, around £150-£200. you can get away without a skimmer if you keep a very low bio load, ie 2 fish but will need slightly bigger water changes.
salt - a 22kg tub will keep you going for 12 months - £60
if you want corals you will most likly need to upgrade the lighting to a halide or LED which can cost £150+
its better to have 2 heaters rather than one incase one fails in some way - £15
test kits NH4 NO2 NO3 minimum - £20 ish, if you want corals £50 ish
Refractometer - i suggest the d-d refractometer at around £35
TDS meter for checking the RO water - £10
RO water - you can buy this from fish shops, not all do it but it is much cheaper to buy your own unit and make it yourself. a RO unit costs around £80.
that is the minimum to get a tank running.
i would budget around £500 providing your tank is up for the task.
if you plan fish only you will not need the live rock but will need some other way of doing your biological filtration.
what a lot of people do is set up a sump to put all the equipment in and add more water volume to make things easier and to allow more fish.
a sump is a tank setup and plumbed in to the main tank that you put your heater and skimmer in and also do most of the filtering. you will need to research more into this if you want it and how best to set it up for your needs.
that should do you for now.
if you really plan to go through with it, expect it to be expensive to maintain but well worth it.
you should also spent a good few weeks researching everything you could possibly need before buying anything.
i would suggest getting on a few of the main forums and asking questions there rather than going to shops because most of the shops are trying to make a sale were as people on the web care more about the fish.
