Hello, everyone! I'm so glad I found this forum. There seems to be a wealth of information here and I can't wait to browse through all of the sections. My husband and I have started a 36 gallon tank and have it set up and waiting for it to cycle. We decided to go with a live rock piece at the center. At first we tried oolite sand... after two weeks of fighting with the cloudy water.... THAT had to go! Since then we have switched to CaribSea Aragonite sand. We are very pleased with the results! It sucks that we had to start over, but it was the best thing to do. Our set up does not include a sump. We did take our time selecting a slimmer and decided to get the Reef Octopus Classic 90-HOB. I will try to post a picture for you guys!