I'm running one of these exactly as it came out of the box, with no upgrades at all. The lack of a skimmer is kind of frustrating, but only because that means I have to make sure to stay on top of my water changes. I do 2 gal/week, but I don't have too many fish.
The standard lighting is 24 watts of power compact, not VHO. It comes in either 50/50 or 10k- I went with 50/50. Marine snow's tank (which is a bit sexier than mine) has a 36 watt bulb retrofitted. I haven't been able to find this yet, but apparently the ballast can handle it. Speaking of the ballast, mine did go out (when my girlfriend dropped the hood), but I'd registered the tank online at jbj's website when i bougt it, so they honored the warranty and replaced it free with 6 bucks for shipping. I was pleased, except there was no light for a few days while they sent it. I ended up rigging a Coralife EZ ballast that my friend gave me. The only other problem is I HATE taking off the hood- it's put on there pretty tight, so whenever you have to mess with the light, you're stressing plastic hinges, and i"m always afraid I'll break them.
The filtration is pretty good, but in an established reef, the live rock is going to render those bioballs and sponges almost unnecessary. I added an extra PH for flow, and once I get some free time to really mess with it, I'm considering putting a small PC light over the first 2 compartments and making a refugium. And the compartment doesn't have a perfect fit flush with the hood, so my sixline wrasse is sometimes able to jump into the back. It's not fun trying to get him out of there, but I'm sure I could close that gap somehow if I really wanted to.
I've had it up for 9 months now, never lost any fish or coral, and kept the following species without problem:
Oscellaris clown, sixline wrasse, yellow clown goby; pagoda cup coral, star polyps, mushrooms (green, red, purple), branching hammer coral, blunt hand leather (?), brown button polyps, silvertip xenia; feather caulerpa (prune OFTEN!); 12 hermits (assorted), 2 bumble bee snails, 2 astrea snails, 2 margarita snails... I guess that's it. All the corals have reproduced, and the fish seem very happy and active.
So, even though I was skeptical at first, I give the thing a pretty good review. I'll post a picture here if I can get it to work. Best of luck.
I've heard the included ballasts sometimes blow out in the first 6 months. Is there anything else to watch out for? Also, how good is the integrated filtration? I assume those who use skimmers with these are just throwing out the bio-balls and using that space for a skimmer...what skimmer(s) work well here?
