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My 1st suggestion is to change the tank. A freshwater tank is a bit risky to be used for a marine tank as the thickness of the glass is important. I have no experience running a canister filter in a marine setup. However, you could use the canister filter and place a bag of carbon and a bag of phosphate absorbing media in it, kinda like an alternative to a fluidised reactor if you have a limited budget. As for lighting, get T5 HO tube and lightset that have parabolic reflector.
1) You'll need marine salt, specially made for the saltwater hobby setup. I've only been using Marine Environment and do not have any expeience with other brand but I was told Tropic Marine Pro Reef salt has very good paremeter and mixes well and doens't leave residue when mixing in water.
2) Hydrometer? Yes, you'll need them. There are manual ones and digital ones. Some manual ones are cheap while others are dead on accurate. Digital ones however are simple to use but need calibration from time to time and cost more than those manual ones. This will depend on your budget.
3) Sand, you do need them. There are different grade of sand and the grading of sand begin from grade 0 sand that are like as fine as powder to grade 5 sand that are like small broken off pieces of dead coral. The average type of sand used would be the grade 1 sand, not too small to be blown away and not too large too. I do not know how much you'll need but usually in practise, if you bought too much bag of sand, you could return it back to the lfs and exchange for other stuff. But enquire 1st with the lfs you patronise before buying sand.
4) Live rock. You would need this too as a marine tank wouldn't look right without some. Also, it serve as a platform to place corals onto and also provide sleeping and hiding area for fishes too. There are 2 types of live rock available in the market, cured and uncured. Cured live rock are those that have been 'cycle' in the container and contain no 'die-off' on the rock. Uncured live rock are those that have been harvested and are sold as is. Both cost differently from each other and the cured ones cost more than the uncured ones. Also, you'll need to smell them 1st before purchasing them.
5)Lighting. Mentioned above in the 1st paragraph.
The best thing for you is to get a proper setup for saltwater tank, ie a tank and cabinet setup with sump and piping built into it. You have to take things slow with marine and no good thing happen fast in a marine setup, only bad stuff. Also, you'll need to cycle the tank 1st before adding any livestock. You'll need to read more and look at other marine tank setup to have an idea about setting up a proper marine tank. This part of the aquarist hobby will require more attention and may break your bank account. So do your research and take your time.
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