well, you need rock, salt, a powerhead, a heater, a refractometer and water. that's all you actually need. however, the more you add from there SOMETIMES it gets easier, other times its more of a pain. without more of a game plan, we cant give ya much. don't plan for what you want now, plan for what you want later. that's how people spend so much money. they buy for what they want now and have to upgrade later. just buy the upgrade now.
but I would suggest a 55 gallon or 75 gallon sump with a beananimal overflow setup. quality protein skimmer such as the bubble mangus curve series. 5 ebay blackbox leds, or 3 MH/LED combos. hell even t5, its easy to make your coral look good so long as you have enough light and the right colors. an auto top off. dosing pumps such as the dp4 from jabeo. in the end the list gets longer and longer and none of its really needed, but it should (if you set it all up correctly) make life easier on you.
