Alge issue

I agree with you Pasty on the ammonia issue, but I feel that a canister would be a good thing because I dont want all that extra plumbing under and behind my nano cube (if its nessary then The choice is allready made.) As im new to salt water fish any help is great. I just have limited space and want to maximize the effectivness of my system.Thats the reason for my idea of a canister filter with a built in uv sterilizer. I would remove the tray from behind my cube and run it out to the canitser from there. Once again any help would be great.

 

a sump doesnt have to take up much space it all depends on how elaborate of a system you have, your sump could be just a 5 gallon bucket and the plumbing is easy too for a very basic setup you could just get an overflow and run it down to your sump with a piece of flex tube and the return you could just attach flex tube as well. however pvc is definitely a cheaper option then flex tube. i have a 20 gallon tank which i built a sump for by just using a 5 gallon bucket. also although you think you dont need all that extra plumbing but the little bit of extra plumbing will make your tank 50x less cluttered since you could put all you filtering media/skimmer/uv sterilizer/etc inside the sump under the tank making more room in the main tank and making it look much less cluttered. also the uv sterilizer is a necessity but some prefer to run them some say that you shouldnt though.

 

Salty, I'm running the CPR Aquafuge2 on my 26g. It hangs on the back of your tank and acts like a mini refugium. I've had it running now for almost 8 months and couldn't be happier. It is a wonderful option for those of us with smaller tanks and limited room. What's best of all is they cost no more then a good canister filter.
Inside of mine I'm running chaeto for nutrient export, with live rock rubble for extra filtration. It also houses my heater and my Reef Octopus NS80 Nano Skimmer. What's beautiful is none of it's visible!!

As soon as I get to my laptop I'll post pics and a video. You'll be amazed! For now here's a tank pic

P.S. Salty1 please RESEARCH salt water for beginners!! Your starting off all wrong here and this can only lead to disaster. Learn about the Nitrogen Cycle.