First Reef Questions

[Aveet]

First off, I'd like to great everyone as I'm a new member to Reef Central.

I've been researching around as I'm attempting turning in an old 38 gallon tank into a 'nano' reef tank. I'm still in initial planning stages and haven't committed to anything yet. I've kept various FW tanks so I'm very familiar with the basic ins and outs of aquaculture and the nitrogen cycle.
I have a few questions / request for suggestions from experienced reefers.
1) Would it be viable to use a canister filter and HOB filter (live plants inside) in conjunction instead of a sump/overflow setup?
2) I like the wavemaker idea as I want to have natural looking movement on the coral but I don't want to spend a ton as I'm still learning the reef stuff. Would a more 'vanilla' powerhead setup be best?

Any other tips or suggestions are completely welcomed. Also any stocking ideas could be of use. I have been looking at Live Aquaria at inverts and fishes for stocking ideas.

Thanks

[JUNBUG361]

Hello & welcome. Canister filter with live plants inside? You could use a canister filter no live plants, use a hob refugium & have live plants in it

[Aveet]

That's exactly what I meant, sorry if I typed it weirdly. I'm curious if the HOB w/ live plants would be useful or not. I was hoping to have it act as a small refug more or less.
The canister would be used as a water sifter/chemical if I needed it.

[JUNBUG361]

Hob fiIter with chaeto & light could be useful(imo)

[mcgyvr]

IMO skip the hob filter/fuge..

Keep it simple and rely on having sufficient rock (1.5lbs/gallon or more) and water changes (~10% per week) to take care of everything..

as for powerheads you do NOT need fancy/expensive wavemakers to be successful either.. Any old powerhead will do the trick.. Just shoot for having 2 or so whos flow rate equals about 30x tank size in gallons per hour..

[Jeramirez85]

Either a hob refugium will do the trick. Also agree on weekly water changes and plenty of live rock for biological filtration

[crawlerman]

Jebao makes a decent powerhead that's reasonable. I would by the Hydor PH, I've had three and all three were eventually put electrical current in the water. If given the choice between a hang on back refugium, canister filter and skimmer, I'd get the skimmer.

Check craigslist, sometimes you can get a complete setup for half of what setting up a system will cost.

[Aveet]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I plan on having plenty of rock in the tank to host all the bacteria. I'm not planning on using the HOB for actual filtering in the tank. My idea now is to have it act as a housing for smaller organisms such as copepods or others of the like. Do these types of organisms have any chance in a slight current like the HOB filter, the filter flow rate is variable btw.