20g High setup - first saltwater tank

[Dendromad]

Enjoy the hobby. As a noobie myself a year or two ago, I have to warn you it gets addictive!!

I have one of these lights over my tank http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dimmable-165W...YAAOSwPCVX-Hik
I had it over a 10 gallon at first and it was way more than enough light to grow anything. Currently have it over my new set up and everything is growing well, sps, lps zoas etc...

[604reefer]

I bought an RO/DI filter on the weekend - no more trips to wal-mart for RO water! What a joy I've had trying to figure out how to plumb it... finally got it figured out last night. Only flooded the space below my sink once LOL.

Turn's out I actually got 3 Astrea's and either 3 cerith's or nassarius' can't tell still a newb... the Astrea's keep trying to escape the tankhaha.

@zhasan: Ahhh, I already want to upgrade! But the 20 gallon is a great way to get my feet wet and I'm trying to buy with this in mind so that the same equipment can be for an upgrade.

@tang daddy: It was a trip to J&L aquatics in December that sealed my saltwater fate!! My fiancee was on board instantly when we saw the display tank and all the amazing fish and coral you can get. Obviously 20g limits this a lot, but even with a 20 there are awesome possibilities.

I'm planning on adding one orange and one black/white ocellaris clowns and a blue/green chromis, if the tank is running well a yellow watchman goby too. I'm running a hydor nano slim skim, seems to work pretty well.

I was thinking of doing 2.5G, but I just bought a RO/DI so 5g should work.

@dendromad: I was thinking of going with an AI prime because I like the idea that it hangs on the back and it's really compact. I will have to get on the google machine to see if there's a DIY for the one you've linked as I've seen lots of those on ebay, but all hanging from the ceiling or wall which isn't an option. Do you know of anything?

[Dendromad]

Above my 10 gallon I had it hung from the ceiling but with this one I went with 3/4" bent electrical conduit to hang it from. I have mine attached to the wall but you could easily attach it to the stand.

[gregzz4]

Hey Jason
Have fun with your new setup!

One thing I'd suggest is to raise your heater as high as possible. Bring it up to the water line on the housing. Nothing like having a heater fail because it filled up with water.

No matter how 'waterproof' they claim they are, they will eventually leak, and saltwater will destroy it in short order

[604reefer]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Hey Jason
Have fun with your new setup!

One thing I'd suggest is to raise your heater as high as possible. Bring it up to the water line on the housing. Nothing like having a heater fail because it filled up with water.

No matter how 'waterproof' they claim they are, they will eventually leak, and saltwater will destroy it in short order

Thanks for the tip! I moved it up a bit, thinking of moving it over to closer to the protein skimmer so most of my equipment is in that corner for looks.

I added a Blue/Green Chromis, RALPH, on the weekend. He was really SCARED of me for the first 2 days, but now he finally let me take his picture as he's swimming everywhere.


I also added 5 more blue hermits for a total of 8 and 3 margarita snails. The astrea's are boring! They seem to only want to do their thing when I'm sleeping. One of the margarita's flipped and couldn't get back up and when I went to flip it I dunked the tank light into the tank. Luckily i caught it before the bulb hit the water (it's plugged into a GFCI, but still).

The surface seems to be all dusty again, my koralia powerhead sounds like a jet engine taking off so I have it out of the tank and only have the Voyager in there right now. Gotta return to the store and see if I have to go through Hydor for warranty or what.

[Myka]

Your tank looks great!! I love that you used live rock instead of dry rock! Where did you find such nice live rock?

I think you're on the right road by planning bigger water changes. I own an aquarium servicing company, and the smaller the tank, the bigger (percent-wise) the water change depending on bio-load. Most nano tanks are overstocked compared to the equipment running them though. In-sump skimmers are vastly better than nano skimmers, so you are always limited. What the equipment can't do, you must do manually. On 10-gallon tanks I do 40-50% per week. In the beginning you don't have to, but as the tank progresses and you stock it more, larger water changes will definitely help.

With a nano tank, make sure you're topping it up EVERYDAY, better yet is top it up in the morning and in the evening. Fluctuating salinity makes all the parameters fluctuate (they concentrate with evaporation, then dilute when you add RO).

Which light are you using now? The Prime is a nice option, but at 24" you also have the option of using a T5 fixture which would be my first choice, especially someone new to the hobby. A 2-bulb fixture over that tank would be great. Aquatic Life makes one with a built-in timer. The included bulbs kinda suck - I'd replace them with ATI bulbs.

[604reefer]

The live rock came from J&L aquatics in burnaby, I have purchased everything except the skimmer (used) there. I had read some negative reviews about the real reef rock, but figured I would try it out as the rock at King Ed and Aquariums west looked gross. I just grabbed 3 big pieces without thinking about how they may fit together... doh! Went back and picked up a couple pounds of small pieces to make a more "natural" look.

I did a 6g water change last week, but aiming for 4g weekly which is 20% and see how it goes.

I'd really like to keep frogspawn, torch, bubble, polyp, or brain coral - love the way the torch and frogspawn sway in the water. The tank has a POS aqueon light hood that came with the tank lol. I don't have any experience with T5. How does the look compare to an LED like the AI prime? I kind of like the idea of being able to customize the colors/look to my taste. With a T5 I know you can get different bulbs, but no idea how it would look. The aquatic life/ATI combo is really reasonable though!!

Originally Posted by Myka

Your tank looks great!! I love that you used live rock instead of dry rock! Where did you find such nice live rock?

I think you're on the right road by planning bigger water changes. I own an aquarium servicing company, and the smaller the tank, the bigger (percent-wise) the water change depending on bio-load. Most nano tanks are overstocked compared to the equipment running them though. In-sump skimmers are vastly better than nano skimmers, so you are always limited. What the equipment can't do, you must do manually. On 10-gallon tanks I do 40-50% per week. In the beginning you don't have to, but as the tank progresses and you stock it more, larger water changes will definitely help.

With a nano tank, make sure you're topping it up EVERYDAY, better yet is top it up in the morning and in the evening. Fluctuating salinity makes all the parameters fluctuate (they concentrate with evaporation, then dilute when you add RO).

Which light are you using now? The Prime is a nice option, but at 24" you also have the option of using a T5 fixture which would be my first choice, especially someone new to the hobby. A 2-bulb fixture over that tank would be great. Aquatic Life makes one with a built-in timer. The included bulbs kinda suck - I'd replace them with ATI bulbs.