If it were me, the best purchases and most needed were:
Hospital Tank Setup
RO/DI Unit
Refractometer
Salt (duh)
Alk Test kit
With out basics like correct salinity, it wont matter what kind of lights you put over it, things won't be happy. You need to build a good foundation. That foundation is good water, mixed correctly. The RO/DI gives you the good water, the refractometer gives you the right salinity. Then, you have the basics, and can look at the other things corals, and fish to a lesser extent, need.
If it were me starting all over again (like when I had my first Bioucbe). I would start by treating every single fish with either hyposalinity or Cupermine in a hospital tank. Fast forward 3 years, I now have a 100 gallon rimless tank and hundreds of dollars in live stock, and NOW Im treating every fish for ick, and leaving my DT fallow for a few months. Once done, none fish items (corals, crabs, snails, etc will be in QT for 4-8 weeks). This will also help to keep bugs and other unwanted pests of your $$ corals in the display tank. Had I got setup the
right way from the get go, it would have been sooooo much more cost effective and less stressful on me and the fish. I know theres probably a ton of people here that dont QT or treat new fish and will STRONGLY disagree with me, and thats fine and that works for them. It worked for me for years, until one day it didnt. Sort of like sex with out a condom, may work for a long time until, well you know the rest. I dont want to be a debbie downer, but thats my best advice. Here is a thread where we discussed it in more detail and you can see some differing opinions. What works for one, may not work for others. Read through this whole thing, and if you want more info, Id be glad to provide it. For me anyway, when I first started out, I wish I would have had this info:
http://www.marinecolorado.org/forum...ass-my-fish-must-see-me-as-the-angel-of-death
