Design my tank

have a 28 gallon (deep and tall) would like to spend as little money as possible... i already have a bio wheel hanging filter and 150 watt heater

challenge:
design my tank (live rock, sand, skimmer, lighting, powerheads, EVERYTHING to start fowlr tank and then possibly move up to reef...

thank you so much

 

Well, you just mentioned reef.....so that is what you should plan on. Some things differ WRT to FOWLR and reef tanks. Unfortuately, while spending as little money as possible is always a goal, this hobby is far from an inexpensive endeavor and you will need to prepare yourself for a few good sized purchases.

WRT LR, I would go with Base Rock. A lot cheaper and it will 'liven up' as the tank cycles. For a reef tank you will want about 40 to 50 lbs.

WRT sand, I would go with aragonite sand. It gives good buffering capacity. One to two inch base will suffice.

WRT a skimmer. Don't skimp on this one. Look at the AquaC Remora and the Octopus BH-100F. You want some overkill ITO stocking capacity with a reef aquarium

WRT lighting. Don't skimp on lighting. A nice little T5 array will treat you right. Don't go bargain basement. You get what you pay for in lighting. Stay away from PCs. For a reef tank, PCs do not do well.

I wouldn't even bother with the biowheel. Some use this kind of filtration, but IMO, LR and a good skimmer will take care of business.

WRT powerheads. The Koralia line is great. The general rule of thumb is to go between 40 and 50x turnover in your tank. So a 28 gallon tank will want around 28x50=1400GPH. You could use two Koralia-2 powerheads (600gph each), which would give you 42x or a K-2 (600gph) and a K-3 (850gph) for 52x turnover. You can even go higher, I know of a member who runs 80x. Another I calculated at 108x. I would stick with around 50x give or take.

The heater is fine. Glass is not recommended. Plastic is OK, that is what I have, but the next one I am going to be titanium. That is preferred.

So that is something to chew on. Go ahead and start reading up. Every tank being different, your end result will be like all of ours....Unique.