Really depends on what you want. No, you don't need all the fancy equipment if you aren't planning on raising some of the more sensitive fish/corals. Most of them are time savers, you can do without but you will have to spend more time on your tank. I have a 65 gallon with 5gallon skimmer/sump combo, been doing very well for over a decade. Before that was a 55gl with same system. No auto-top off, no refugium, no dosers/controllers, just the sump and 4 wavemakers for water movement. Regular 7-10% water changes (weekly), kalwasser drip (manual) mixed up with some vinegar added for carbon source. Do I get some algae? Sure, cyano brushes off, do get a small clump of hair algae once in awhile (kinda weird, pops up 3-4 times a year, usually in a different spot, clean off with toothbrush, don't see it again for a few months). I have some livestock that eats algae (lawnmower blenny, yellow tang) but they don't eat it all and a regular clean-up crew (large cerinths, 4-5 Astrea, brittle star, banded star, various hermits). But like I said, theres a time trade-off. I've had a reef tank for almost 20 years now and the couple of times I neglected my tank early on, it became an algae garden. Didn't lose any livestock because of it, just looked bad. After spending the better part of a day a few times removing live rock and livestock, cleaning off live rock in old water, re-setting up tank you learn to take better care of it, LOL. BUT ... you gotta do your research as to what animals you can get, stay away from anything that is super-sensitive to nitrates/phosphates. I have daisy coral, some acans, three different color zooanthids, Xenia, Green Star Polyps, frogspawn, plate coral, toadstool, a hairy mushroom and many regular red and green mushrooms (see sig). Other than the green/brown mushrooms, just a small colony of all the rest. Well, frogspawn is huge, going to have to frag that soon. PJ cardinal and tang, I've had both going on 10 years now. And most of those things are easy to raise and don't need anything special equipment-wise. Take your time (number ONE rule), read everything you can, start with a very, very small biological load, use quality food so your not tempted to over feed and slowly build (like 1-2 years), then you can decide if you want to spend the time or the money (what am I saying, your going to spend the money, just how much at once, LOL!). As you become more comfortable, you can decide if you want to buy some of the other equipment, to save you time or to properly take care of the special coral you fell in love with at the LFS.
o4-X solution as well ??
