Starting a 20 gal Nano Reef

The 20 gallon nano reef is finally looking good, and starting to cycle!
Here's the Specs:
20 gal long tank
30lbs dead sand
10 gal sump
96W PC light that ended up being 4" too long for the tank
I'm still searching for a good ebay deal on a skimmer(i'm thinking aqua remora or coralife ss)

So, we started with a stand/desk plan with a nano tank (so I'm expecting work and studying performance to go down due our fascinating tank).

We drilled the 20L in 2 places on the bottom. One to the sump, and one for return. Tested it with water, and cracked the bottom. Reinforced the bottom by covering it with .22 acrylic. Tested again, and it worked!

A friend gave us the 10gal for the sump, and upon delivery broke the bottom. So, we put a new acrylic bottom in this tank too.

Now we have the sand and cycling in the main tank! We just need solve our light problem, and get the skimmer and sump together.

I've just started doing some stocking research so any input would be great. Let me know what you enjoy most in your nanos! The only thing we've decided is to move our smallest blue damsel from the 100gal that's getting picked on.

 

Here's the top we built... should of measured the lights, huh?

- Amanda and Dan

 

looking good

 

lol we've all done it......

 

So I have almost come to the point where I'm just waiting for water parameters to become stable enough to throw some good rock in the tank with zero die off.

I'm now looking for advice on what corals and fish I should aim for. My general wants/needs are to populate this tank as heavily as possible with both fish and coral but without putting anything in there I shouldn't (space/compatibility) and am I going to be restricted to SPS in this shallow tank, I know I want the 96W PC light but if I should get another bulb in there also Im down for that. but 96W for 20 gal seems plenty, any opinions?

Anyway, I have a long list of fish I could place that I'll be making a wishlist out of, so if anyone has already done this for their nano, your info would be appreciated =).

-Dan.

also i included pics of how much ive finished this weekend.

 

looks cool

 

Looking really nice. Love 20 l reefs. Keep up the good work. Do u have pics of the canopy and how it sits on the tank? I'm building one for my 30 for the "big" upgrade lol

 

your making me want to do it the way you have it

 

Looks nice. Dont feel bad my lights are 6" too long

 

the canopy isn't finished yet, i still need to acrylic the bottom and set in the lights. basically its just cut to snugly fit over the top of the tank covering the black plastic liner, with two blocks on either end keeping it from sliding down, ill take a lot of pics when I've finished it. probably this weekend.

-Dan