SeaSerpants Dual Hills 20g ONE MONTH!!!

[SeaSerpant]

Hello Everybody!

I have been apart of this forum for almost 2 years now! And i've never even had a SW tank. After finding out how expensive this hobby is i went FW and already i know SW is the best! I had talked before about getting a 20g and now i have!

Specs:
24x12x17
Rounded Front corners
Black Back

Equipment:
K-2 Viper (metal halide) with 10k bulb (will change to 14k)
Penguin 330 Biowheel Filter
Hydor 100w heater
Koralia nano powerhead

Bio-sea Marinemix salt
15lbs Live Rock
20lbs Argonite sand

Corals:
None
Want:
Zoas
Pulsing Xenia
Frogspawn
Feather Dusters
(any ideas for nice colourful corals? preferably soft)

Fish/cuc:
None
Want (will change):
2 clownfish (female, male)
RedFire Fish
Longnosed Hawkfish
Magenta Dottyback
Lawnmower Blenny
CUC
Possibly a pygmy seahorse


I just set this tank up yesterday and it's looking good. The filter almost has all the sand out of the water column and everything is looking good. Now before the pictures i have a spur of questions:

When can i tell when the nitrogen cycle has started/finished?
Will the metal halide be good enough for corals?
How many fish can i have? Corals?
What kind of CUC is the best at cleaning? best looking?
Is there any kind of anemone that won't kill other corals?
Does my tank look good?
Any Advice?

And here are the pics:






I'm thinking about switching the sides of the light around with the filter!
Comments Please!
Thanks
SeaSerpant

PS, Just bump the thread for me to update/reply or i might forget!

[gobytron]

Good start so far...

1st things first...
When can i tell when the nitrogen cycle has started/finished?
Testing.
You get an ammonia spike when the cycle begins, followed by a nitrate spike followed by both of them dropping (sometimes fast sometimes painfully slow) to 0 when it has finished.
2nd
Will the metal halide be good enough for corals?
what wattage is your k2 halide?
Anything 150 and up and you're fine for coral of any variety, however you're correct in believing the positioning should be rethought. You want the light over where the coral will be, not your sand bed.
3
How many fish can i have? Corals?
With no skimmer or sump, the lesser the better.
You'll be dedicating a lot of time to water changes or hair algae removal without any additional filtration to your live rock other than your biowheel (which we will get to) if you go with your list as proposed.
You might consider an all coral tank, with maybe 1 or 2 very small fish until you want to bump up your gear, but in the end, up to your desired level of work.
4
What kind of CUC is the best at cleaning? best looking?
Snails are the way to go, hermits and crabs in general are opportunistic and not to be trusted. A few are pretty reputable though, like the smaller scarlett variety. Go to an LFS, they will be able to help you here as in the end, it's really all the same until you know exactly what your systems needs turn out to be when established.
5th
Is there any kind of anemone that won't kill other corals?
No, not really, most or all have a tendency to sting and move around from time to time doing just that to anything that happens to be in the way.
6 and 7
Does my tank look good?, Any Advice?
Looks great.
Your scape looks like there is lots of room around rocks for flow and fish.
As far as advice, ditch your biofilter, they are almost useless and usually just accumulate nasty stuff that winds up impacting your aquarium chemistry negatively. If anything, take all of the media out and run some good carbon in there and change it regularly.
I think you might want to consider adding another powerhead as well as you'll want a higher overall tank turnover as well as more flow.
Also, take your time, best add 1 fish/coral at a time, a small system feels any change.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions about anything.
Can't wait to check here in a few months.

[SeaSerpant]

Wow thanks Gobytron thats really helpful! :thumbsup:
The wattage of the light is 150w! yay!!
For the filter it is rated for a 75g tank so the aquarium has a good overall turnout!

And i have an interesting tid bit. On the middle rock on the left side, there looks like there is a tube there, i just realized when i turned the light on, a feather duster head popped out! It looked like the top one in this:


Any ideas?
Thanks
SeaSerpant

[elitesurfer]

Originally Posted by SeaSerpant

Wow thanks Gobytron thats really helpful! :thumbsup:
The wattage of the light is 150w! yay!!
For the filter it is rated for a 75g tank so the aquarium has a good overall turnout!

And i have an interesting tid bit. On the middle rock on the left side, there looks like there is a tube there, i just realized when i turned the light on, a feather duster head popped out! It looked like the top one in this:


Any ideas?
Thanks
SeaSerpant

Ya that looks like feather duster:


Has the water settled to the point its clear?

[SeaSerpant]

Elitesurfer
Thanks for confirming my suspicons. i'll try and take a picture of it tomorrow (pic was of one off the web). The water has cleared to being crystal! lol! I'll take a pic of it tomorrow too!

Thanks
SeaSerpant

[elitesurfer]

Originally Posted by SeaSerpant

Elitesurfer
Thanks for confirming my suspicons. i'll try and take a picture of it tomorrow (pic was of one off the web). The water has cleared to being crystal! lol! I'll take a pic of it tomorrow too!

Thanks
SeaSerpant

Hehe sit back and let it cycle now.