Reddit reviews Wave-point 12-Inch 16-Watt Super Blue and DaylightMicro Sun LED High Output Clamp Light

I have an 8G nano I will try to answer your questions.

My current cost is somewhere around $200 including sand, rock, aquaclear 70 refugium mod, light, refugium light, seachem purigen, heater and snail clean up crew.

I would actually buy some sand and not use the beach sand. Use the ocean direct live sand original grade its a great mix of fine and thick pieces with seashells in it.

anenome is not really good for a small tank, but there are a ton of easy to care for corals, green star polyps are quick growing and hardy, mushroom corals and zoas are the common ones. Tridacnid clams are pretty and fairly easy to care for as long as they have good lighting and food and quality water parameters i.e. ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0. Nitrates can be a little higher for the clam, green star polyps and mushrooms but any higher than 10 is pushing it.

As far as fish go you are kind of limited with size. You can get a goby/pistol shrimp pair, a single clown fish and some cleaner shrimp, a green chromis and cleaner shrimp, royal gramma and cleaner shrimp. If you like the pistol shrimp you can get a clown, chromis or dottyback along with the pistol shrimp. go here for more info on some common nano fish. make sure to read their minimum tank size requirements

The aquaclear 70 refugium is an excellent mod I am running it with seachem purigen, a clump of chaeto and a submersible light which is staggered 1 hour difference from my display light. i.e. refugium light on at 7, display off at 8. Display on at 9, refugium light off at 10. This helps prevent pH swing during the night. You can use a aqualcear 110 if you wish. I also found that you don't really need the divider between the intake section and the main part of the filter, just use the mesh part over the out take portion and you will be all good. In my 8g I didn't replace the impeller with a smaller version I did remove a small tab on the gray plastic part that reduces flow so that you can reduce flow even more, but I keep mine at max flow output and the corals seem to love it.

My parameters with the 9 pounds of live rock and 10 pounds of live sand with the refugium mod and seachem purigen is
ph-8.2
ammonia-0
nitrite - 0
nitrate -0

I do water changes about every other week but top off daily with RODI or salt water depending on the salinity levels, which I check at night time after the lights are out.

As far as lights go there is a wide variety you can get but I have the wave point 8 watt it provides excellent output for my corals. For you I would recommend the wave point 16 watt since it is a standard 10G tank There are other lights that would work well like a DIY Led array, Par 38 bulb or other clamp on LED's.

I bought my LR from petco.com sicne my LFS didnt have good quality rock. It took my tank about 1 week to spike ammonia and nitrite, then I added the seachem purigen and chaeto to reduce the nitrate levels which were at 40ppm. I also added a clean up crew at this point which I purchased from this awesome site. Performing 50% water changes twice within a week my nitrates were undetectable. Once ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is less than 20 you can add fish, but if you want to add corals try to keep your nitrates as low as possible.

during the cycle you will see algae which will be maintained through the clean up crew and eventually will be replaced with coraline algae (the purple, red, green cool looking stuff).

Thank you, my entire setup is below, I do 10-20% water changes weekly depending on water quality and nothing else

15 gallon ~15x15x15 aquarium

Penguin Biowheel HOB filter ( most here will say never use HOB but I've never had an issue in the 2.5 years I've had it)

Hydor Koralia Nano 240 powerhead

The light is a 12" wavepoint 16 watt LED, half super blue half daylight

http://www.amazon.com/Wave-point-12-Inch-16-Watt-DaylightMicro-Output/dp/B007ZK816S/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=023TVC4Y08SYZT2GA6XC

I also check out this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007ZK816S/ref=pd_aw_sbs_2?pi=SS115&simLd=1

I had the freshwater version on my mini planted tank and it worked great and looked amazing.

I'm using this on my 2.6 gallon pico (Fluval Spec III) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZK80YG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01

Unfortunately I literally just got it set up so I can't vouch for it yet. It's bright but very, very blue (not necessarily a bad thing). Amazon reviews seemed to indicate it'd do just fine for softies and easy LPS. I plan to try some SPS with it, figure it should be doable for such a small tank and with the light close to the water. It's also $50 instead of $300 which is a big plus haha.

For a Spec V there's a much bigger version for only like $10 more. Honestly I probably should have gotten it instead haha. Oh well. http://www.amazon.com/Wave-point-12-Inch-16-Watt-DaylightMicro-Output/dp/B007ZK816S/ref=pd_sim_199_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=410yCXPyClL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0W7NCT4T3KC76AX6QJ7D

You can also try disassembling the stock light and use it for a bit of extra light. I unscrewed mine to remove the bracket; now it sits next to my main light to balance out the intense blue with a bit of white.

http://imgur.com/dKqzemW

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007ZK816S/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418946229&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

This is the light I use on a marineland contour 5 aquarium. Everything is open and happy including softies and lps, some of the reviews try sps but I'm not a fan so I don't have a first hand account. My main gripe is no on off switch (its on a timer anyways). It's a blueish light for sure and you don't have a nighttime setting is also a bummer. But for the price I'm happy!

Wave-point 12-Inch 16-Watt Super Blue and DaylightMicro Sun LED High Output Clamp Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZK816S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.gSXDbDV2YG6G

No filtration besides the foam that came with the tank and rarely a little carbon bag.

I had all of my current corals in a 5g fluval spec and I used a Wave-point 12-Inch 16-Watt Super Blue and DaylightMicro Sun LED High Output Clamp Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZK816S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ftlOybHXRMNXM on it. Paired with an actinic marine land strip it looked decent though the colors faded over time...

Which led me to believe I wasn't getting enough blue spectrum. Is the wavepoint and actinic strip combo enough for the 12? Or could I stand to get more light in there?

If I need more light would this suffice going on top of the glass on the edge? VIPARSPECTRA Timer Control 165W LED Aquarium Light Dimmable Full Spectrum for Coral Reef Grow Fish Tank https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UMXAR5S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_lElOyb5RS6Z9J