Im in Sudbury Ontario Canada so I have 1 salt water fish store.
You should really check out J&L Aquatics, its an online store, but is very good, and good customer service too.
the owner that sold me the 75 Gallon tank told me I didnt need the skimmer for the first 6 months.
Probably right abou the skimmer, but I would say you dont need the skimmer for your cycle, and then after that you could add one. I would suggest maybe, Reef Octopus, Vertex maybe. Just look into them and make sure you look at the reviews too. DONT let the fish store guy tell you everything and believe it, most want to make a quick buck outta you. But not all.
Another power head after I add live rock.
Powerheads you should be looking at are maybe 1050GPH, Koralia, are good, which i see is what you got, but it loos to be in the 550GPH area, which you need alot more flow than that, maybe add two more 1050GPH.
As for the gravel I think your right its a crushed coral I am adding a better picture of it.
Crushed coral is a bad substrate really, it collects all nasty things, and can build up alot of nitrates and so on, so while you have no livestock, it will be easier to just scoop it all out with a net, and replace with some sand.
The marineland has no Carbon filters it it, its running empty for my cycle.
Yep you dont need to run Carbon all the time, and you dont need the filter all the time. The only reason i mentioned it is, i use it just for when maybe something is wrong with the tank like some sort of chemical warfare. But if you keep the HOB (Hang On Back) filter, it will build up nitrates also. So i would ditch it till you need it.
So what im getting is to run any filter at all?
Your filter, will be your live rock, you want about 90-100lbs of live rock in the tank, yes it may be expensive, but not all of it has to be live, look into getting maybe a 50lb box of dry, and the rest live rock.
all the pictures I see is under tank filters. I dont have that, so if I take off the filter what filters it? The live rock that your suggesting?
Yep thats right your rock is the natural filter, as for the filters underneath the tanks i assume your talking about either a Fluval filter or a Sump, fluval is like your HOB, dont use it till you need it, and a sump is where you store your equipment like heaters, skimmer, all the stuff that may clutter your tank.
Plz help I want to do this right.
We want you to do it right too! ;)