well as far as fish goes my favorite one to get is the spotted clown fish (i think thats the name), nemo, yellow tangs, and other random fish but definitely my top 3. no i do not have a skimmer yet. i'm basically doing things manually. my lighting right now is just normal 18in flourescent (just waiting to have some $$$$$ i want to get the ones i saw at the store almost blue guessing its higher watts).