How Would You Stock These New Tanks? (Equipment Wise)

So I'm pretty interested in making a salt tank thats FOWLR. Although I'm really interested in Coral Frags as well so not really sure what route to do. The fish that I REALLY would love to have would be the Fire Fish Goby



But anyways, to the main point - I'm thinking of making a 29g Biocube or 40gb into a Salt tank or even maybe a 55g with the whole Petco Sale



If you were on a budget of ~$1,000 - $1,500, what kind of equipment would you buy for the tanks?



I've heard that BioCubes are the "good tanks" for starters considering it comes with built-in sump and you can easily replace materials, but the downfall would be spending the same amount of $ on buying new equipment/replacement parts for the biocube in which can be the same amount of $ for equipments for a 40gb.



So what are your thoughts and stock equipment you would use if you got these brand new tanks?



Thanks for your time, and hope to hear from all of you!



Edit: Please list how many lbs of Rock/Sand (brand) you would buy as well!