So now my newest concept is to use the 8g Fluval Flora but have a canister filter filled with biomedia and purigen and with an attached surface skimmer to pump water into a 2g above tank sump that will house my Saffire skimmer and be drilled to gravity feed the cleaned water back into the Flora. The lighting will probably end up being a DIY LED nano unit that I'll have to build later on. Probably use a different light that I already have in storage in the meantime.

Neat my first reef was a flora :razz:
I just used the stock light for zoas and leathers for about 4 months until moving it to my 16g

OK. Tore down the fw, cleaned the Flora and it now is a sw nano. Took pics but won't have time till Monday or Tuesday to post pics.

This is only version 1. Using a very basic LED light with some blue moonlights at the moment. Getting a custom "DIY" light built after tracking down most of the components last week.

V2 will be "blinged" out with the new LED lights. We have to do some testing. Will be trying out 2 x 10w emitters (1 6500k or 10000k; 1 blue 455 nm blue); 3 x 10w (1 white; 2 blue); or a combination of 1w to 5w emitters on small heatsinks with built in fans. These will be hanging off custom stainless steel bent pipe holders.

V3 will be the final evolution of the nano for this contest but won't have time to complete the other "DIY" projects till Christmas break. This one will have new pump and heating system, to go with the new LEDs. V3 will be a full-on technology tester for my friend and I to tinker with. If it works out, then I will upscale the new tech onto my other bigger reef tanks.

Anthony

Finally some pics:

Fluval Flora as fw planted - piece of wood leached a lot of tannins into the water

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...DSC_0084-2.jpg


Empty tank with some saltwater

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...DSC_0085-2.jpg


Empty tank with shallow sand bed (never got used to bb look)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...DSC_0086-1.jpg


Added a couple of pieces of live rock, but later changed out aquascaping

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...DSC_0088-1.jpg


Topped up water

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...DSC_0089-2.jpg

Cool!