Nano tank for beginners???

Welcome Danial, It sounds like you are on the right track. Just a few tips.
1. A small tanks parameters can change very quickly, salt level can rise (from water evaporation), Temp can change rapidly with room temp.
2. Use (live) rock & sand to help your filtration needs.
3. Do allot of reading, it will help you a ton. (One of my favorite Books is The Coral Propagation Book) from Anthony Calfo. It is very informative and easy reading.
4. AC&C is a great place for info as well, They wont stear you wrong.
5. And as always don't be afraid to ask questions.
6. Above all other things be patient, take your time with things.
Hope this helps some, and good luck.

 

Glad to hear you are going SW with this! With all of the support around and tremendous resources around you I am sure it will turn out great.
As already stated by B-Rad, since this is a smaller tank you need to be diligent about maintaining your parameters. Looking into an ATO may be a good idea. The mj1200 is a good pump to be running as a return. Between myself and the others from GIRS that have experience with nano's we should be able to pretty much help you with anythng, but I would still recommend going to www.nano-reef.com to do some reading there as well. You will find more Aquapod owners there and will be able to see more specifics about what they have done. Something else I would recommend checking out would be inTank's products ( http://shop.mediabaskets.com/AquaPod_c11.htm ). He makes products specifically designed for almost every different kind of nano tank on the market. I think running his product with filter medias has been a big saving grace for me and as I am preparing to upgrade from a 14g biocube to a 29g biocube I know that I will continue to run his products.
A big goal of my upgrade is to be able to keep a BTA too, more specifically a tri-color bta that I saw at MACNA. Hopefully we will both be successful at this! Good luck and make sure you ask any questions you may have along the way!

 

Don't give up on those shellies!  They're about as awesome as FW gets!  I plan to get some when my fishroom is done...
Regarding small tanks: Parameters swings as noted above are more drastic.  These are among the most troubling challenges a new reefer (or old ones for that matter) will have.  Be ready to do lots of top off and water changes.
The second consideration is that it would cost marginally more for you to jump so something a bit bigger like 75 or 90 and I think you'd have an easier time maintaining fairly stable parameters...
If I was going to do a small tank I'd definitely install and auto top off and get a good controller.  Will save you lots of time (and money if you lose livestock from parameter variation) and aggravation and spilled water, etc.  It will help reduce the amount of work you'll need to do so you can enjoy it!  If you decide to stick to shellies, you can resell the controller for near market value pretty easily.
my $0.02
Matt