Try getting a nanocube, its prefect for the begginer They arent that expensive and super fucking easy to maintain. If your super eager to start, some fish stores will sell you the water they use in their reef tanks, its already cycled so youd be ready to go.
2 years ago I knew shit about having a reeftank (I still dont know shit), When my wifes employer went belly up they gave me the lobby tank with everything in it. It used to be thriving with life, but my son went at it with the feeding tongs, (says he wanted to catch a crab) killed almost everything while i was sleeping, I had to start over. (wife wont let me spend money on it or it would be kick ass) I just ad the chemicals as needed, and test the water quality every week with the lab kit.
24 gallon Nanocube, OdySea 130W lamp, 16K blue actinic, and 50/50 bulb. about 2inches of crushed coral sand, 20-30lbs of live rock. 1 blue tang, 1 yellow tang a few crabs, and snails. 1 anemone, random coral frags.
heres my 2 tangs, I had a clownfish, but it died a month ago for no apparent reason. water parameters were fine.
Heres a closer look, its a little dirty, need to change the water this week.
Their little tunnel, they love swimming thru this thing, chasing each other.
cheap little water chiller/heater. keeps its at 78° all the time
The lab, magnesium, strontium, calcium suplements, water test kit, digital temp/ salinity/gravity tester. PH buffer, phosphoban. and the food, I have prime reef, krill, plankton in the freezer.
I wanted metal Halide lighting, but it was too expensive. The tank stays pretty clean, I just do a water change every 2 weeks (20%) scrub the glass with the magent scrubber, and vaccum the sand when i do a water change.
My plans are to eventually build a 50 gallon shallow reef tank out of acrylic sheets, when i move to a bigger place.
check out this site it is filled with usefull info.
http://www.saltwater-aquarium-online-guide.com/