1) What sea salt is some of your favorites?
I like Reef Crystals the best. It seems to have good calcium and buffering, it cut down on the amount of those supplements I used.
Oceanic is ok if you need a lot of calcium, but it seemed lacking in buffering.
Plain instant ocean is ok for a non-reef tank or a tank with very hardy corals
2) What substrate should i use? I was leaning toward aragonite. I saw live aragontie that was in a bag with water. It said it was loaded with BB. Is that true?
Definately use aragonite. Other sands won't necessarily help buffer your pH and calcium. I'm not sure if live sand works like it says or not. I haven't ever noticed a difference. You're better off getting a bit of sand from a clean and well established reef tank and adding it on top of your own sand. That way it will have all kinds of organisms that you need and also BB.
Never take sand from a non-reef tank (unless you 100% trust the person), or a non-established tank since it can have things in it that will kill your inverts and corals (what if the person had treated with copper before?).
Note, when I say established in a SW tank I'm talking at LEAST 6 months and better a year or more. The longer the better.
3) What flouresent tube is good for easy corals?
Many people prefer T-5 strips (with seperate reflectors for each bulb).
I use compact flourescents and they work just fine for my use. I have LPS, soft corals and all kinds of polyps, several high light and all my stuff grows fast. You just need enough wattage.
I'd venture to say if you're just going to do easy corals that compact flourescents will be fine for you. Still don't skimp though, because if you really get into the saltwater hobby you are going to have wasted money on the crappy lights when you decide to do higher light or more picky corals.
I used a 96 watt coralife on my 20L. They're a good price, but if you have excess money there is always better. It's a good starter light though.
4) What are some easy corals?
Depends on what you mean by easy. As far as just keep alive and almost impossible to kill, green star polyps, tree polyps, most zoanthids, pulsing xenia, mushrooms.
Mushrooms don't require much light. You can do a tank full of really nice mushrooms with very little light at all. In fact, with too much light they'll often move underneath the rocks where you can't even see them.
5) What are some good cleaner shrimp, crabs, and snails?
Blood red fire shrimp are cool looking, I dunno about them in a 20L though. Skunk shrimp. Stay away from species of shrimp that you don't specifically know to be safe. Coral bandeds, which are common, are cool looking but they are very aggressive towards other shrimp and crabs. Don't go for these in such a small tank.
Emerald crab (very good algae eaters). Blue leg hermits or scarlet hermits.
Same as above, avoid crabs that you don't specifically know that species to be safe.
Nassarius snails (sand sifting, not real good for deep sand bed which you'll have trouble doing adequately in a 20L anyway). Nerite snails.
6) Is a protein skimmer necessary for a 20 gal?
No, but it will make maintanence a lot easier on you and help keep your tank more stable. I would go with one if you can afford it.
7) Will an aqua clear 50 be ok?
Not if you're doing a reef. I wouldn't use a HOB at all, run a skimmer and use liverock and sand for your bio. Aqua clears do make good refugiums though run empty, or for chemical media.
8) For fish i'm leaning towards 1 flame angel, 1 or 2 clowns, and 1 or 2 domino damsels. That sound like a good mix?
Flame angels get too big for a 20L, they can also pick at corals. Prone to ich too, sensitive to water quality and I would not personally recommend for a beginner.
Clowns - depends on what kind you are talking about. Most get too big for a 20L. Skunk clowns would be ok in a tank of that size.
Domino damsels, aggressive and get way too big. Especially aggressive towards clownfish.
9) Ph buffers? Will they be necessary?
Probably. At least keep them on hand because salt mix can vary from batch to batch. One bucket may provide adequate buffering and another may not.
Same goes for calcium and anything else.
