Help me decide which "theme" for a strange 8gal reef

[BrillReef]

So i'm in the process of setting up an 8gal display + 4gal sump nano reef. The goal for this setup is to keep it very minimal with essentially no equipment visible.

 

Quick overview of my equipment plan: 

Display is a 15 x 15 x 10in rimless acrylic shallow cube

"Sump" is going to be a DIY canister filter (no overflows allowed, in the pursuit of an equipment-free display). After exploring all the commercially available canister filters out there, I didn't feel like any of them were ideal for my design. I need something that is extremely easy to clean on a regular basis, with a high quality pump, and relatively high canister volume to help make the overall system a little more stable. So I'm going the DIY route. It's going to look a lot like an "ADA super jet" canister - iwaki pump and all - just made with cast acrylic instead of stainless steel. 

Circulation provided by the Iwaki MD20RT pump on the canister - but I do have a MP10 Vortech lying around if that doesn't work as planned. 

Ceiling hung pendant light - either AI Prime 16HD or Kessil A80, depending on my coral stocking choice. 

 

After obsessing over a "theme" for this tank, I'm down to two choices: 

 

Option 1: "Psammocora Island"

    Plan is to use those "Stax" dry rocks to create a flat, mesa-shaped island in the middle of the tank. I'd get green encrusting psammocora to cover the top of the "island" except for a little mound or two for pink stylophoras (psammocora is kind of like grass, and the stylo's are like little pink trees). Once that's established, I'd get some blue clove polyps and let them run wild around the base of the tank. I figure the "island" should be small enough to completely lift out of the tank so i can scrape off the encroaching clove polyps from time to time. 

 

Option 2: "Gorgonian Alien Planet" 

    Plan would be to have little to no rockwork, and let purple gorgonians run wild and fill the vertical space in the tank. Across the bottom, I might have a carpet of GSP with small rocks here and there completely encrusted in some eye-catching varieties of Cyphastrea. I'm thinking this tank could thrive on relatively low light - a kessil A80 would probably suffice? 

 

I'd be grateful to know anyone's thoughts! Both options are intentionally light on rockwork. I guess what I'm going for is less like a nano reef, and more like a living coral sculpture - or glorified frag tank. 

 

[Tired]

I wouldn't really suggest trying a small tank with no rock, that's a recipe for instability. The second option could look really pretty, but you'd want to sneak some rockwork in. Might also want to keep the cyphastrea away from the gorgonians, I don't know if it'll grow on them. And I would wonder if having it on ALL the rockwork would seal the rockwork up and largely negate its porous nature? I can't imagine cyphastrea is very well-ventilated stuff. 

[BrillReef]

@TiredI'm hoping to add enough high porosity ceramic bio media (maybe mixed with some live rock rubble?) to the canister to compensate for the lack of live rock in the display. 

 

Good idea on keeping distance between cyphastrea and the gorgs.. I don't have any experience keeping either, but it looks like many people have had cyphastrea take off like weeds. I'm thinking that I might drill some holes in small live rocks, and fit them with a thin plastic rod stand, so they can almost "hover" above the GSP carpet. That way, the cyphastrea won't spread.