Hi, I am going to be starting a 5 gallon pico reef after christmas and I was wondering if anybody could help me with ideas of how to start it. All I have so far is the tank.
Any ideas on what light I should have, also what kind of flow I should have and what filter would work good?
Thanks for the input I am open to all suggestions!!

LED's are your best choice for lighting, although it might be pricey. Then again you never have to replace the bulbs so you often end up saving money. I don't know the dimensions of the 5 gallon, but if it is long enough I would go with T5s. If you go to the top of this Pico Reefs thread, there is a sticky that's called "El Fab's Guide to Keeping a Successful Pico" or something like that... it has everything you need to know.

Thanks! I'll make sure I read that. Would I need a protein Skimmer in a 10 gallon reef tank?

Kinda depends on a lot of thing like what you plan to keep in the tank, bio load, are you going to run a refugium, etc? I have 20 gal frag tanks where I do not run skimmers...nitrates = 0 all the time...but I have a small refugium with chaeto running on reverse photoperiod from the main tank, growing mainly zoas, a few sps, only a 6 line wrasse (to deal with unwanted critters) and very small tang (to deal with algae)...(plus snails and hermits)