Rock pool tanks shouldn't be too hard if you have access to cheap salt water.
the fish and invertibrates are generally extremely hardy to water chemistry due to their location (found triplefins in rock pools that were almost pure fresh water after rain, and they were still feeding happily).
wouldn't bother too much using a canister system with saltwater (a quick google will find hundreds of people telling you why not), try a sump tank with a deep sand base, easy and cheap if you can source an old tank and a couple of bits of glass.
wavemakers are not essential, more for looks. would do 25% weekly and just use regular conditions tap water should be ok with marine salts (just use fresh sea water if you have access), try and set your maintenance schedule so you can measure and record the water changes is the easiest way to work out how much evaporation is going on and then you top it up with fresh water to dilute the salt a bit.
to be honest I don't think you will need to worry about chillers either as rock pools tend to heat up considerably during summer. just try and collect your creatures from the higher rock pools as they will tend to be the hardiest. lighting is a matter of preference, try and keep it up for algae growth but not to cause algae problems (get a chiton, they are quite interesting and graze away at algae (but they can scratch acrylic tanks) and there is a lot more than just the common ones from my latest piece of research) anenomes tend to do well just don't try prying them off rocks, and expect them to move their little stinging bums around a fair bit. research what you will find in your area as some fish spend their juvenile stage in rockpools and can get quite large. Triple fins are cool fish but can be aggressive. forget about crabs unless you want just one nasty lil crab running round your tank. careful about touching anything like kina, paua or crays without a collecting permit (if you really want one invest in a chiller and purchase them from the aquaculture people).
hrmmm... cant think of anything else....