I currently have a very nice cichlid tank that I would like to convert. Will start with fish only with live rock and live sand. What all do I need above and beyond that? I do currently have a 24 gallon nano reef but want fish. Any help and or ideas will be appreciated. Thank you, matt

You will need adequate flow like 20x's your water volume for one thing, will you be running a sump?

If I can get around running sump that would be great. I know a couple power heads. But I really don't want to have a sump. Any ideas?

You can run it without a sump/fuge but there are great advantages to having one may I ask why you dont want one. The advantages are being able to keep skimmer and heater in it also added water volume for better stability and for topping off and the water level in the display will remain constent because all evaporation will take place in the last section of the sump/fuge. I would suggest a large canister filter and make sure to maintain it every 10-14 days a quality hang on skimmer if you dont want a sump/fuge and a couple koralia 3's for power heads.

I am doing this for my son. I built this tank into the wall in my basement. Now that is my sons room. He loves the look of my 24 gallon so I want to surprise him. Also if I use sump I assume there is a lot more up front money involved. I figured I could add sump down the line. Also what kind of plumbing is involved on doing that? I really just want to do something nice for my sons 12 birthday in a couple weeks. Was gonna take day off work and set it up for him.

The price thing is what most people think but in all reallity they can be cheaper. With an in-sump skimmer they can be considerably cheaper than a qaulity hang on and any 29-50 gallon tank that holds water will work for a sump then just have 3 pieces of glass cut and silicone them in and you have a sump/fuge then a return pump and a hang on over flow box. The center section you would put macro algea in and as it grows it removes nutrients and then you just remove some as it grows and disgard and empty your skimmer cup when it get about 1/2 full. I would bet that for the price of just a qaulity cannister filter you could get the sump, overflow, return pump and maybe even the power heads and then for the skimmer you could save about 30% by going in-sump instead of hang on this is all JMO.

i am assuming that there is some where that i can find out what sizes and things of that nature that i need to cut the glass to section out the sump. i am trying to research this as much as possible before doing this so that i know that it is done right and for the tank t0o be healthy. any other sugestions that you have will be heard out.

The sump can be very simple, you would need to get the glass cut to the width of the inside of the tank and then get them cut between 9-10 inches tall. Look for a U tube over flow that would handle at least 600 gallons per hour up to about 800 GPH then find a pump that will have a flow rate a little under what the over flow is rated for at the head height of the tank.