20g Long Kitchen Reef

[Have_A_Beer]

Hey everyone! I recently moved out of state, and now that I've settled in to my new place, I decided that it was time to set up a new reef tank. My last tank was a 29g that unfortunately never had enough time to truly develop, and met its demise sooner than I would have liked. However, the tank was a valuable learning experience, as they all are.

 

If you'd like, follow along with my new kitchen reef build...

 

 

So basically I noticed a prime spot on my kitchen counter and thought that it would fit a 20g long perfectly. Petco was having their $1/g sale and so I planned on grabbing one there, but actually ended up at Petsmart first to buy dog food. Turns out they were having a clearance on aqueon tanks, so I got one for 10 bucks. I had a bunch of old equipment from my previous tanks, and have bought some new things as well. Here are my specs:

 

Tank

20g long Aqueon (one day I will have a beautiful rimless tank)

 

Equipment

- Light: Radion xr30 Pro

- Heater: EHEIM Jager 75W

- Powerhead1: Jebao RW-4

- Powerhead2: SunSun JVP-110

- Filter: Aqueon QuietFlow 30

- ATO: Hydor Smart Level + TOM

 

 

Pictures coming soon... stay tuned!

[FlowerMama]

I love 20g longs. They're versatile and you don't have to put your whole arm down into it. Here's mine. Home for my mantis shrimp Gertie and 6line wrasse.

 

 

and before I moved the rock flowers

 

[Have_A_Beer]

Skipping ahead a few steps...

 

 

I totally forgot to take any pictures early on, but here she is! Can you see what I mean by the perfect spot on the counter? My plan was to mount the light tucked up under the cabinet. In this picture, I've already made a small circular hole in the cabinet and glued in a desk grommet to make it clean looking. I will run all of the wires up to the cabinet and house all the electronics inside.

 

 

Went to the LFS and picked up some sand, water and live rock. The sand is CaribSea, I forget which one but its pretty large grain and there's some shiny pieces in it. At this time, I just had my heater and SunSun powerhead in the tank. You may also notice that I have a glass top for the tank. Just got a piece of glass cut at Lowes and it works great. I wanted to minimize evaporation and figured my lighting would be ok because my light is going to be so close to the surface.

 

To kick off the cycle I threw in a few tiny chunks of leftover fish. And the cycle waiting game begins! Also, I will add more liverock to the tank soon.

[FlowerMama]

Yeah, great spot to be able to hide some wires & lighting, just make sure you're blind is always down on the right side, will be getting some green algae but I see on the left the light switch so you can't go that way either. What ya keeping? Softies, lps?

 

Minimizing evaporation is understood but you don't want to block gas exchange. You'll lower your pH by having the lid on which will affect the corals. Go to the home improvement store and get a kit for under $20 to make a screen top.

[Have_A_Beer]

Yea, I realize the natural light from the window could be somewhat of an issue. I do plan on keeping the blinds down all day while I'm at work so I think it will be fine. And definitely can't move it either way because it needs to be centered under the cabinet.

 

I plan on starting out with some softies and LPS at first, and then eventually add some SPS once I feel like everything is doing well in the tank. You make an interesting point about the gas exchange and pH issues with the glass top. I honestly haven't read too much about this topic, so I'll have to do a little research. Thank you for mentioning it. I may have the potential to go topless / screen top since I will have a ATO set up.

[Have_A_Beer]

Here's an update of everything that has happened with the tank before I commence a photo dump:

 

 

I ordered some liverock from reefcleaners because I have had a positive experience buying their rock in the past. Its great rock, super porous, usually interesting shapes, and the price was better than what I would pay at my LFS. Once that arrived, I began the stressful task of setting up an appealing aquascape. I know some of you really enjoy this part, but I am always stressed out about making the scape look good. Luckily I had a pretty good idea in mind of what I wanted it to look like. After several rearrangements and some suggestions from friends, I finally had a finished product. Honestly I wasn't sure if I loved it or hated it at this point, so I decided to sleep on the decision. Turns out I really like it now. Let me know what you think.

 

Next, I mounted my light underneath the cabinet. Found some screws at Lowes that fit into the holes of the Radion, and drilled the holes in the cabinet. Let me tell you... it was a HUGE pain in the ass to try and get the spacing right on those. Literally no wiggle room. But it worked out eventually and imo it looks great.

 

Finally, I added my second powerhead and set up the ATO. Also grabbed a HOB filter and am just running filter floss in it for now.

 

Stay tuned for a picture dump!

[Sharbuckle]

Im tuned in. Cant wait

[Have_A_Beer]

FTS

 

 

 

I promise you don't normally see the LEDs like that, it's just because of the lower angle for the shot.

 

 

These shots are about a month from the last ones. The tank had cycled, and it was time to add some livestock. The first tank resident was a skunk cleaner shrimp. Followed by like 15 or 20 various snails: astraea, turbo, nassarius, & trochus. Finally, later on I added 3 Camel Shrimp, Rhynchocinetes durbanensis.

[Have_A_Beer]

 

These things are cool! They're pretty small too, the size is somewhere between a sexy shrimp and cleaner shrimp.

[FlowerMama]

I like the rock work, I wouldn't change it at all!

[xHereFishyFishyFishyx]

Looks good so far!