Starting a 20gal

[skabooya]

Alright new order form
2x24 T5 HO nova extreme
25lbs fiji live Rock
20lbs of caribsea live sand
Bag of instant ocean salt
1 hydrometer
1 Koralia 1
rio nano skimmer
no lid for clowns (yup decided on clowns) Will buy once cycle is well over and i dont mean a week.

Corals i def want are mainly blue/purple shrooms, and some red shrooms. Lots of zoas such as 'green eyed sally', 'man of steel', 'mean green', 'iceberg', 'devils armor', 'red delight', 'safecrackers', 'blue eyed girl', fire and ice, 'polar ice', 'true joker', 'whami'n watermelon', 'royal thunder', and i dunno but i love zoas.
I also like pulsing xeina and i saw some electric blue cloves that i MUST have.
I also love feather duster worms and macro algae.
Rics are also cool but the only ones that turn me on are blue or Pink Yumas.... and of course rainbow aussie acans but thats for another tank with more lighting... and when i win the lottery

[skabooya]

I am so confused. I just got a response on another reef forum and this person basically told me i need to rethink my entire plan.
Do i have to have a 4" deep sand bed?
Do i need to have 2 powerheads? I thought i K1 would be enough since flow is dispersed everywhere.
Is the rio that bad where i shouldnt bother at all? I thought something was better than nothing. I cant in any way afford a remora.
A bucket of salt will last me more than a year. Is this true?
Is instant ocean really that crappy? Its all my lfs supplies. Aparently it has low alk buffering capacity is that true. That worries me because i have very soft neutral to acidic water out of my tap. (The tap water he is amazing lots of people do salt where i live and use tap)

Please help me out. Im getting discouraged again.

[Canuckgod420]

Well I dont think you need to be confused.....up until this post all the advice given to you sounds pretty decent....you dont need a 4" sandbed, you dont need 2 powerheads(your not havind SPS), instant ocean is fine salt(used for years by thousands of reefers), and the skimmer should be fine(never used this particular unit though).
Listen...if you take things slowly and add you critters slowly you should have no problems(except the common problems all us reefers encounter, algae outbreaks, cyano, the crazy obsession to expand....lol).
I set up a 34 gallon cube tank for my wife about a year ago with 1 250watt MH and a strong return pump from the sump, a 3" sandbed and she has no other powerheads or even a skimmer. Mostly softies, 1 hammer lps, 5 fish, an anemone and a ton of zoos and mushrooms, no problems at all....in fact I have to trim the softies so often that I want to tear out the colonys and just replace with a frag....lol
I am also in the middle of setting up a 20 gallon for my daughter, just finished the stand and I'm on my way to get her some more live rock and sand(she already has a 10 gallon set up with some rock and sand) I got her a 4x24 watt T5 light so this should be able to grow anything she wants(also no skimmer on this tank). The only reason I have a skimmer on my main display is my bioload is rather large and I have an SPS dominated tank.
Hope some of this helps.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by skabooya

I am so confused. I just got a response on another reef forum and this person basically told me i need to rethink my entire plan.
Do i have to have a 4" deep sand bed?
Do i need to have 2 powerheads? I thought i K1 would be enough since flow is dispersed everywhere.
Is the rio that bad where i shouldnt bother at all? I thought something was better than nothing. I cant in any way afford a remora.
A bucket of salt will last me more than a year. Is this true?
Is instant ocean really that crappy? Its all my lfs supplies. Aparently it has low alk buffering capacity is that true. That worries me because i have very soft neutral to acidic water out of my tap. (The tap water he is amazing lots of people do salt where i live and use tap)

Please help me out. Im getting discouraged again.

Please don't get discouraged, you're doing fine. Some people on these forums think their way is the only way. Not true. No, you don't have to have a 4" sand bed. If you can only afford 1 Koralia 1, go with it. IO salt is not that bad. I too can only get it here locally and it's fine. Many reefers use it. If you are just going with softies and a small bio-load, you can get by without a skimmer for awhile, just do lots of water changes and you'll be OK. Shop the buy/sell forums for a good HOB skimmer as you say you can't have a sump.
You've already indicated you have been researching and that you intend on taking your time in setting up this tank. That's good, I'm sure you'll be fine, and good luck.

[Lance]

OOOPS! I must have been typing while you entered your post. Sorry CanuckGod, didn't mean to repeat you.

[Lance]

Oh, one last thing, Skabooya get yourself some decent test kits. Very important.

[gqlmao]

By saying 4 inches he is thinking about growing more nitrifying bacteria and other goodies, I would say 4 inches is still too shallow 6-8 inches would be your best bet at dsb. However, You do not necessarily have to have sand bare bottom tanks are fine. The flow he might be quite right because a K1 isn't very strong, I'm running a K3 and its really weak in my opinion, 2 power heads might be a good choice. Its all good you can add more flow in the long run. The rio pump should be fine for you if its lightly stock, however I have no experience with them. Remora's are alright however I heard they aren't all that great either due to its weak pump. For the salt thats up to how much water changes you make. Lower buffering means that you would have to add supplements such as baking soda for example. I've used IO for 3 years with tap water and I got no problems but its Calgary here. Just get some buffering agents at your lfs they should be around 15 bucks and will last you for a long time to come.

Don't get discouraged cause people have to learn from experience and plus you haven't tried your set up yet. Don't let people tell you what is right and wrong cause they might think they know everything about reefing, the fact is that they do not. No one does.

[skabooya]

OMG thank you everyone. That makes me feel so much better. Thank you thank you thank you. That post totally threw me for a loop. Anyway i gtg and make dinner.
Again Thanks a bunch for calming me down

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Hey there--sounds like you've gotten some good advice!

Can I encourage you to try something like this for your lighting instead of the Nova fixture? You'll get the true shimmer lines, it won't heat your tank too much, it'll definitely be enough for the shrooms and zoas...etc. Much neater and better quality, in my opinion.

Good luck!

[skabooya]

ooo that is nice Der_Iron_Chef.
And its a whole $6 cheaper and that includes shipping. I dunno about duty though yikes.
It comes with a bulb but it doesnt say anything about a ballasat. Does it include one?
How much do the bulbs cost? and where is a local supplier for those particular bulbs?

One of the reviews on that site said that it didnt last long.
And the only other thing im worried about is that its 70watts of light. The nova has 96 and the coralife pc fixture has 130. Wont the 70watts of light wash out the colours of the corals? I want them to pop. If i get blue corals i want them to stay blue, likewise for my other future corals.
But im gonna do more research on this fixture to see what others say about it.
Thank you for that link the light does interest me.... better quality for cheaper hmmmm.