cycle? what's that?
honestly, though-- i've been running nothing but nanos since i started in the hobby (i'm a college kid and i move once a year or so). for EVERY nano i've ever set up i've always used established live rock and water from an established tank. by using just those things i've never had a cycle last for more than a few days, at most. the point of having a nano tank is to have a tank that is moveable and easily established.
also, is that an eclipse12? if so, great tank-- it's what i started with and still have running (after three years!).
there are a few things you should do to make it more acceptable as a reef tank, though.
first, take out the stock lighting and upgrade it (a 96w powerquad or 2x32w pc). keep in mind that with a lighting upgrade that you will have to add a few small computer fans for evaporative cooling, though (water temps reached 95+ when i first upgraded to the 96w and cooked all my livestock). second, take out the stock filtration unit since it will block off light to the back portion of the tank fairly well. you can easily cut into the back of the hood and add an aquaclear filter/DIY refugium. finally, we get to the flow question. personally, i like a lot of flow in my tanks-- in my 26g i've got a tunze 6100 and a seio 1100 running (mostly sps-- a few lps on the bottom). in my eclipse i had something like four rio 600 powerheads along with the flow from the bakpak skimmer and the aquaclear filter/fuge. i did, however, keep only hard-to-come-by zoanthids and sps in that tank (i also added a 70w hqi metal halide along with the 96w powerquad).
anyway, there are plenty of things that you can do with the eclipse12-- just use a dremel and think things through before you go all out.
-danny
