Hi there. I wanted a set-up where i can put on my desk, since i dont want to have big tanks full of corals i wanted a small tank to just house some corals.

What i wanted was to use a 5 gallon tank, with about 10 lbs of aragonite sand, 7-10 lbs or more of live rocks.

Things i need help on:
Lights: I was thinking of keeping xenia, zoos, mushroom, and maybe other small frags i can find in stores for a good price. I was thinking if using a 10 watt coralife mini compact is good enough. If its not then im thinking about trying to make it run 2 of them. Each bulb is 10k and atinic.

Filteration: I dont know what kind of filter to use so all advice would be good. Thanks.

Enough sand for a 1-2 inch depth is plenty. It depends on the size of the pieces but that amount sounds good.

What are the dimensions of the tank? Personally I would go with much more lighting than two 10w screw in bulbs. Depending on the length of the tank I would go with either a 32watt PC retrofit kit into a canopy or a Current USA 40watt PC fixture. With this amount of lighting you should be able to keep soft corals without any problems

For such a small tank you don't need much in the way of filtration. The live rock will be the main filter for your tank. You could add a small HOB filter for running carbon, phosphate media, etc.

One thing you didn't mention is circulation. For a tank housing Soft coral you will want around 20x turnover. A HOB filter along with a small powerhead should provide enough circulation. For a powerhead look into the Tunze Mini or a Minijet.

Just remember to not overstock your tank and keep up with the maintenance.

Thanks for the advice. The tank was set up. Everything seems to be going good so far. I'm thinking of just using 2 compact bulb as i dont want to waste any more money buying a new fixture.
Im using eye to calculate because i couldnt find a ruler. long:15 in
width: 6in Height: 7 inch. ITs not real acurrate but it should be close enough.
http://www.petsmart.com/media/ps/images/pr.../9187_45a43.jpg
These are the bulbs illl be using.

If you do use that lighting stick with very low light coral, Mushrooms, Zoas, etc. I believe Coralife makes 20w screw in bulbs also which would be much better than the 10w bulbs.

Thanks PB. So far the tank is going good. Since my camera is broken i have to wait till next month to fix it. When i get it fix ill give updates and some pics. :)

Found a good site where they are selling one 20watt coralife mini power compact for 11 bucks. So im going to be ordering two. And im going to do a light DIY fixture. Ill give some pictures of doing it to. And its about 40 watts so i have 8 watts per gallon. Which seems pretty good to me. Tell me about ur opinions.