Nano reef tank

Question
I have a 26 gallon bowfront aquarium with two clownfish 4 hermit crabs and 6 snails. i also have some artificial coral. i wanted to add some live rock to give the tank a more natural look and possibly some coral later on. the tank is about 18-20 inches deep and i have one flourescent bulb. i have a bubbler and a filter that give good water flow but i wanted to know if i need a powerhead and a protein skimmer. PS i was just planning on keeping small easy to care for corals.

Answer
It sounds like you are on the right track with getting the rock in before adding corals. As far as your first step goes, adding rock, I would be cautious with the amount you add at a time. Adding rock may cause a small cycle as the die-off on the rock is processed into living bacteria which could in turn cause harm to your current inhabitants. I would consider adding dry rock with just a little bit of live rock as a safer alternative.

Your bubbler and filter will most likely still be adequate with the added rock, but a little bit more flow will not hurt either. You should shoot for about a 10x turnover rate to get the max out of your rock as filtration. To calculate this simply plug in:

Flow rate of filtration and power heads / Total volume = turnover rate

As far as your lighting goes, it will be perfectly suited to keeping liverock happy, though it might not get much coralline algae, but for corals you will most likely need to upgrade it. If you are planning only on keeping easy soft corals, a two bulb T5 unit might be a good place to start.