Just another beginner... but here's my summary from some read up and experience.
2. Someone has also told me that anemone can be easy as well, as I have seen it in a basic nano tank without cold water. now how true is this ?
From experience, anemone is easy,IF, you do not have the intention of trying other corals. Anemone moves a lot, especially in a smaller tanks, and you might find your shrimps and little fish missing too. My latest casualty been my lovely firedart fish before I decided to pull the plug and gave it away.
4. Lighting... most confuse part, some ppl told me PL is no good as it does not encourage coral growth and recommended T5. What is the comment ? what about LED lighting ? I'm using PL-S 55W 6.5K at the moment.
It is not about what kind of likes is good, but what kind of lights is effective. Many believe T5HO (high output) give the best coverage in par and spectrum in smaller tank while I do heard of people running Metal Halides on one footer. If you are good with hands, you might want to try DIYing a LED set (stevenkoh is doing a MO for it currently). Kelvins or K is an unit for color temperature. Lower K is yellowish and higher K move towards blue. It is also believe that lower K is in fact better for coral growth, but it will look horrible to viewers..... lol... Personally I believe PL is sufficient for 1' height but they give off a lot more heat as most PL uses magnetic ballast. It is also not easy to find effective tubes that are aesthetically pleasing to your eyes too.
Just my 2 cts worth