[marcingo]

My nano project started a couple weeks ago with the purchase of a used 10 gallon freshwater setup.

This turned out to be an aweful mistake. I kept the tank filled with water running for 3 days and on the 4th day after I put my live rock in my girlfriend got home to a wet dog, wet floor and singed power bar. Somehow a giant crack from one end of the glass to the other appeared on the front glass.

Needless to say I purchased a new 10 gallon tank and tried it again. Having great luck with metal halides I purchased years ago for a reef from China I began looking into LED lighting for nano reefs. I found a few options between reef brite, ecoxotic, and some DIY setups. I did not like the reef brite or ecoxotic since they were all single strips for the size of tank I wanted and did not feel like making the DIY canopies.

After some forum searching I found a supplier in China and read some great stuff about their maxspect lighting. I searched the site and found a great nano set up 40cmx15cm with legs that fit a 10 gallon tank perfectly. It comes with 12, 3watt Cree XP-E bulbs, built in fans, heat sink, dimmable, moonlight etc into one nice unit. This is what I opted for and am now waiting for.

The tank is a standard 10 gallon. Filled it with some live sand and live rock from a fellow reefer.

I have also put in 2 hydor koralias. One is a nano (250gph) the other is (650gph- in the mail from mops.com).

I am looking to get a very small internal filter for particulates.

I will be posting some pictures of the tank as soon as I can of the tank and of the lighting I bought.

Last night I found a few polyps mounted on a rock in the sand. Hopefully these can come back to life under the stock compact florescents. I wont have the LED lighting for another 25 days (according to the suppliers estimates; although I have read from others who have ordered from the same supplier that they recieved theirs within 12 days).

I plan to put a few SPS frags in this tank once it stabilizes and the lights come in just to see if the LEDs actually work.

The decision to write this thread came from the hours I spent trying to research these Chinese LEDs and their application on nano reefs. (Unfortunately found very little which is why I am writing this for others who might find themselves debating the same thing).

I will be unable to provide PAR readings once the lights come in since I have no idea how to and do not have the equipment. If anyone does and is interested in getting some numbers I am more than willing to offer my tank.