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{8ry}'s 20g Nano


{8ry}

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So I figured I'd finally start my own tank thread!

 

Unfortunately, I didn't start capturing pictures of my tank from day one, but I intend to keep up at least monthly pictures and this thread will be a good place to document that.

 

I established my tank July 24, 2014.

 

Here is a FTS taken aprox 8-10 weeks after setup:

 

FullSizeRender_zps0aee0299.jpg

 

I've been a lifelong FW hobbyist and always thought about setting up a small SW tank even when I was a kid, but always thought it took crazy expensive equipment to make it happen.

 

I had an extra 20g high tank and stand sitting around and I started doing research on nano tanks and realized that I didn't need all the fancy expensive equipment to make this happen. I learned that by keeping good tank husbandry, I just might be able to finally have a SW tank!!

 

So here's my stats:

 

Tank and Filtration/Circulation

 

20g high glass tank

Aqueon Pro heater

2 x Hydor Koralia 240 pumps

Biowheel 150

 

Lighting

 

Current-USA Orbit Marine LED - 24"

 

Rock/Sand

 

10lbs of live rock from Petco

15lbs of dry rock purchased from Amazon

20lbs of live sand also purchased from Amazon

 

Inhabitants

 

2 1 Percula Clown

1 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner

 

Corals:

 

Softies:

Variety of Zoas

Mushrooms (Blue, green, Red, Blue/green)

Ricordia

LPS:

Pipe Organ

Purple Hammer

Green Trumpet

Chalice

SPS:

Birds nest

Setosa

unknown encrusting SPS

 

 

So started with just the sand, filtration and made up my first batch of SW and filled up the tank. Nothing but a cloudy mess for 3 days. Went to Petco the next day and purchased about 10lbs of live rock. The Petco close to my house actually has decent SW tanks in their store. Their LR was either new or their tanks kept pretty nice because none had any bubble algae or GHA on them like I've seen at other Petcos. That being said, that was the last purchase I'll make at Petco for this hobby. I've since found 2 other reef stores within driving distance of my house and will patronizing them for now on!

 

A few days after adding the purchased LR, I added 15lbs of dry rock to supplement my aquascape.

 

I waited the normal 2 - 2.5 weeks and measured my water levels about every other day. I think I missed my ammonia spike as one day it was zero, then two days later I had what barely registered an increase, followed by the next test as zero again. At the time I was using the API test kit so who knows exactly what I saw. I've since purchased the Red Sea Marine test kit and I've been very happy with it.

 

I started to get a diatom bloom so I knew it was time to purchase my CUC. Got a variety of snails, hermit crabs and one turbo snail (only one the LFS had at the time).

 

IMG_20140805_102944_hdr_kindlephoto-4414

 

About 2 weeks after adding my CUC, I decided it was time to get some movement in the tank! My LFS had percula Clowns, 2 for $30 so why not, I picked up two and named them "Walt and Jesse" (I just got done binge watching Breaking Bad...so don't judge!)

 

Jesse decided to commit suicide one night and I never got a pic of both of them, but here is Walt:

 

_DSC1737_zps206a9639.jpg

 

About 2 weeks after adding Walt and Jesse, I decided I wanted to get a shrimp. Enter Saul:

 

_DSC1725_zpsaea69442.jpg

 

After another two week, I started adding some corals. Originally I started with a few zoa frags, a green trumpet and pipe organ coral. (Pics below) I've slowly been adding to my coral collection, adding a mushroom garden, a purple hammer and just recently, I've added a couple "easy" SPS, a birds nest that has been doing great, getting tons of growth, a Setosa frag from Mr. Microscope and a cool piece of encrusting SPS.

 

My maintenance includes weekly water changes of aprox 4.5 gallons at which time I turkey-baster blast my LR, scrape the front and side glass and vacuum small areas of my sand bed each week. I test my water every 3 days and my parameters are as follows:

 

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

Salinity: 1.025

Alkalinity: 8-8.5

Temp: 78 degrees

 

Luckily, I've never had any algae outbreaks, other than 2 bubbles of bubble algae so far which I've plucked off and hit the area with Hydrogen peroxide.

 

I feed Walt and Saul a small pinch of either frozen brine shrimp or mysis shrimp daily. I more often feed them brine shrimp as Walt doesn't seem to like the mysis shrimp all that much. They seem too big for him and he often spits them back out.

 

Other than an occasional spot feed if I remember, I don't feed my corals right now. I haven't decided if I should do any broadcast feeding yet. I need to research foods more to figure that out.

 

So onto the photo dump!!

 

Blue Leg Hermit Crab

 

_DSC1736_zps367c765b.jpg

 

Mushrooms:

 

_DSC1735_zpseeb885fa.jpg

 

_DSC1734_zps3e341e12.jpg

 

_DSC1733_zps4bdda433.jpg

 

_DSC1731_zps8669ff58.jpg

 

Purple Hammer

 

_DSC1729_zps1539212e.jpg

 

Chalice

 

_DSC1722_zpse0df1114.jpg

 

Green Trumpet

 

_DSC1720_zpsd48e5052.jpg

 

Birds Nest

 

_DSC1716_zps9bd8275f.jpg

 

Zoas

 

_DSC1696_zpsb0f5266d.jpg

 

_DSC1695_zpsf8576164.jpg

 

_DSC1694_zps2137d5a5.jpg

 

Pipe Organ

 

_DSC1675_zpsf4223c47.jpg

 

 

Thanks for reading. I'll post an updated FTS in a couple days. Please feel free to offer any suggestions on my setup as well. I'm always open to learning new things and I'm loving this hobby so far!!

 

Bryan

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