Hello everyone.

First off I would like to say that I only have a small amount of experience with saltwater aquariums, since we have only had our biocube 29 set up for about five months now. None-the-less everything is doing great, now that the red algae has been treated, and the fish/corals/shrimp all seem happy.



I recently took down my old eclipse 3 and now with my extra time I would like to set up a 12'' cube.



I really like the ADA aquarium's overall appearance and want to keep the look as "clean" as possible. For this reason I was wondering if a (hide-a-way) Eheim 2215 canister filter (163gph) would be sufficient? I have heard that they can be "nitrate factories", but since I plan on cleaning it every two weeks I don't think that will be a problem. I have seen them run with a few pounds of liverock rubble (is this effective if the inside of the canister has no light???) along with standard carbon/filter floss/ etc. But does that sound like a good plan if I want to keep the tank really clean?

Also I was wondering what lighting would be most appropriate. I found a 36W dual satellite that seems like it would work but it prevents the viewing of the tank from the top and is quite ugly. I also found the Viper 70W MH Clamp-on, which I am leaning towards because it looks a lot better and has more watts, but it seems to have some negative reviews. Anyway, would that be too much light and cause high temps or would it be just right?