any recommendations for water filtration on an 8 gal tank?

[rayray]

hey guys/gals, i've been keeping african cichlids for ever but am still relatively new to nano-reefs... ran into a dilemna with running a small 3 gal tank. for being my first tank (saw the same setup in a small local salt water fish store and had to buy it lol) i've had pretty good luck so far. it's been up and running for 2 yrs+ now and i haven't done much until the original filter/pump died on me.

 

here's the current setup:

Deco 3 gallon (Tom aquarim makes them)

original 15w lighting

ditched the original external hanging filter for a temporary Tetra air pump powered filter

 

with every pet store practically always out of stock of the replacement filters my tank is becoming a mess... staying alive by frequent water changes. i've gone through a handful of filtration systems on the freshwater tank before settling with the eheim and want to save the headaches for my saltwater tank.

 

question is (finally): i will be upgrading to a glass 8gal tank and wanted to know if you guys had any suggestions on a reliable filter without being overkill. i run an eheim 2236 for my freshwater tank which works awesome considering the amount of waste they produce, but i didn't know what would be appropriate for an 8 gal saltwater. i want to try and keep it simple... i have no experience with skimmers and all the other fancy stuff i've seen on huge tanks.. but open to ideas.

 

all there is in the tank (which will be transfering to the 8 gal) are a damsel, a clown goby, a few snails (one a nassarius), some feather dusters, and some hammers/frogspawn which are all doing very well. there used to be some acans, polyps, and some other stuff, but i lost most due to a busy work schedule which left me no time to maintain the tank... corals are definitely healthier now than a few months ago

 

i don't have a lot of details on the tank i'm purchasing but it's pretty much just a glass tank, bare-bone. so i'm starting from the ground up as far as filtration goes... it's basically a desktop tank rather than a livingroom showpiece so space is limited. so i'd like to do it right

[Scott Riemer]

Well, I'm sure your fish will appreciate the upgrade.