LITHreefer Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Hey guys just joined up, looks like a pretty sweet site and it's great it's focused around smaller tanks. So anyway I set up a 20 Gallon Long on 12/26/2010. My plans for the tank are to keep some soft corals and mushrooms as I know I don't have the best lights. As for fish I want to start out with 2 Clowns and a Yellow Clown Goby, and possiably in a year or so a Mandarin when I will hopefully be able to support it. Specs: 20lbs of rock, most cured LR. 20lbs Sand Koralia Nano 425 and 240 AquaClear 30 going to turn into a HOB Refugium after the cycle. 2- T5HO Lights running 8hours a day. And now the fun part PICS! Although its nothing special yet. Day 1 Day 4 Day 6 Day 9 Not the best pics I know but all I have for now. What do you guys think? Im open for opinions and suggestions! Also my readings are as of today. PH 8.2 Ammonia 2.0 Nitrite .25 Nitrate 5.0 Salinty/SG 1.023 Temp 79F Link to comment
d9hp Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I like day 9 the best. Everything looks good but you might want to consider bumping up that SG to 1.024-1.025...though your softies won't mind too much. I think that light will be great for soft corals. I have mushrooms that have zero direct light that are doing just fine. Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 alright thanks, and yea im going to do a water change this weekend for the first time and ill try bumping it up a little bit. And wow your tank looks amazing! Link to comment
Wilioli Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 yea day 9 makes it look like a tank thats been established for a long time.. i really like ur scape! awesome Link to comment
Deano Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 to N/R and the 20L club. It is a great tank size. You off to a good start. Definitely get the SG up to 1.025. Is your light a 2 bulb fixture? For softies you will be ok, but this hobby has a way of growing way out of hand and you will wish you had atleast a 4 bulb fixture in about 2 months. If its new and you can exchange it, kill the pain right now. You can buy a Odyssea or a Fishneedit 4 bulb light fixture for $100 or less. Either will grow some simple SPS's. Upgrade the bulbs with some quality ones and you should be pretty happy. I have a 4 bulb Odyssea over my 20l $70.00 shipping included, sure there are better lights but it works fine. Link to comment
cruiZe Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 for such a young tank your live rock sure is growing quickly ! looks great, now for the waiting part. Link to comment
JulieR Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 So much great looking rock! I agree with the others, it does have a nice aged look to it already. Is that a ZooMed AquaSun light fixture? That light was actually purchased for me as an xmas gift for my tank, but it wasn't the one I was looking for so we took it back. That thing was HUGE. I can't wait to see creatures in there! Link to comment
swayd Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 It all looks great and I really like the scape on day 9... From my experience with a 2OL I will suggest a sump/fuge. It wont cost you much more than a new AC70 and they are super easy to build and set-up... Other than that looks like your off to a good start! Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 Thanks for all the compliments guys! And yeah it is only the 2 bulb ZooMed light and I also just got it for christmas but my mom lost the reciet lol soo i'll be hanging onto it for at least a little while before I upgrade to a 4bulb set up. Also I have decided to get a 10gallon fuge going as I found my old 10gallon in the basement haha. Still trying to figure out how exactly to build an overflow and the piping. I also have noticed some aipitasia sprouting up which im kinda bummed about hopefully the tank will speed up the cycle so I can get some peppermint shrimp in to take em out haha. I also found what im pretty sure is a Red Eye Reef Crab as a hitchhiker, any experience with these? Heres the new temporary setup. Link to comment
anemone fan Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Like everyone has said already, welcome to the 20L crowd. It is tank with some nice dimensions. Definitely trade in the 2 bulb for the 4 bulb, you will end up doing it anyways. Fishneedit has a nice setup which will do fine for softies and once you get to wanting something more difficult just switch the stocks out for some nice bulbs. Link to comment
JulieR Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 And yeah it is only the 2 bulb ZooMed light and I also just got it for christmas but my mom lost the reciet lol soo i'll be hanging onto it for at least a little while before I upgrade to a 4bulb set up. Hehe, mine was a present from my mom as well. The funniest part was when I found the receipt for it. It was in a grocery bag in my room along with cans of cat food. We feed our cats in my room so I always have a stock of cans in my room, and I just hadn't emptied this particular bag yet. Makes me wonder if that bag was in my room before Christmas. I could have looked at the receipt and spoiled some surprises I wonder if they'll take it back without a receipt? Maybe give store credit at least. Good luck on the fuge building. Definitely document the process here! I've got an empty 10G sitting below my 20L but the idea of building a fuge/sump is beyond me. I don't even know where to start. Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 haha nice, yea idk I have had it up and going for 2 weeks now so I doubt I would be able to anything for it and I think ill just go with this for now maybe a few months down the road ill upgrade. I really only wanna start with softies anyway as I have no clue how to care for corals. And yeah I will try to document how the process goes, probably bad lol but we will see. Link to comment
Wilioli Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 hey is your stand holding your entire tank? Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 There is a board under the tank so it is supported, but yea looks scary haha. It was a freshwater tank in that same spot for over a year with no problems so I hope it stays that way. Link to comment
Wilioli Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 hahahah, yea it'll be fine.. I was going to put my 20L on an old tv stand that was 24" long... everyone told me not to and freaked me out -- instead of gettin a board i just ended up putting it on my desk.. lol... so just making sure.. haha Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 Ha yea my stand is only 24inches as well but I know its safe so Im alright with it ha Link to comment
Wilioli Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I've got an empty 10G sitting below my 20L but the idea of building a fuge/sump is beyond me. I don't even know where to start. I'm in the same boat -- got a 10g that I want to do somethin with.. definitely document the process -- how is that going btw? updates? i can't remember, but is ur tank drilled? mine isn't and im wondering if i can still go about a sump with just.. tubes..and.. stuff.. lol Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 Well i have the 10gallon set up below the 20 but i still have no actually started working on turning it into a fuge, little low on money so im trying to do some other stuff first, and no its not drilled ha and yeah thats my plan, get a overflow and then just run some pvc down to the fuge and then back up. When I do finally end up getting around to making I will deffinitly document it for you guys. And now the update haha, a few days ago i added the first part of my cuc. I picked up 5 cerith snails and 5 dwarf hermits and 1 that was about 3 times the size of the other ones. Since then I have also noticed that my glass is covered in copepods or something like them, so im pretty happy about that. Bristle worms now appear to be on every piece of rock in the tank. The only bad so far is I have had a few Aiptasia pop up, so I think i will get some peppermints shrimp and see if they can take care of it for me. Also last night I bought a Koralia Nano 425 so ill have two powerheads by the end of the week. The hermits right after i put them in, still need some better pics. Link to comment
Wilioli Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 lookin good -- for some reason i thought u had a 20H sump... 10g is gonna be tough (from what im reading) with having enuff 'space' with the baffles and all... pvc piping all the way! Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 Yea I know its not ideal, but im just gonna keep it simple and put some cheato in and and maybe the heater. ahaha o yeah pvc and maybe hold it together with duct take to top it off haha Link to comment
Wilioli Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 ....................im taking notes...... Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 Update* I have added a few more snails and also my first coral, a green birdsnest, and the best part two True Percula Clowns! Lots of Pods! Link to comment
LITHreefer Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Another Update, bought my 2nd coral a Nice Frogspawn frag. FTS The big dip in the sand to the right, infront of the rock, is their bed. Link to comment
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