Duncan Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Hi guys, I placed an order for a 20 gallon aga tank 1+ week ago and it finally arrived 2 days before Christmas! The main idea is to keep the equipments simple. No skimmer, no sump, no long tubings, no nothing! All I will have are 2 power heads and my lighting setup. Livestock will be a good variety of colorful shrimps, snail and hermits only. I decided that fish is not on my list since I would want to keep the bio-load as minimum as possible. As for my corals, there'll be only 2 kinds in this tank. I want to do a green theme tank, meaning that all my corals will have to be GREEN in color! I would most probably keep a couple of branching frogspawn and hammer. I don't think I will keep any softies this round as I had too many tank crashes due to softies farting. Here's the equipment specs 20g AGA (24 inch x 12 inch x 18 inch) Powerhead with single output (pushes at 230gallon per hour) Powerhead with double output (pushes at 290gallon per hour) 96watt (24W x 4) T5 High-Output (2 10,000k bulbs and 2 artinic bulbs) Pics coming soon! Thanks for reading! Link to comment
clifford513 Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Sounds cool. You shouldn't have any trouble finding green Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 Here's my FTS! The tank contains 18lbs of live rocks covered with lots of purple coralline algae. There's also quite a handful of macro algae on the rocks as well. The bottom is merely covered with less than a quarter inch of sand. The 2 powerheads provide sufficient flow around the tank. There're 2 nozzles pointing to the front wall, providing strong turbulent flow around the tank and a back nozzle (the left ph) to stir up the dead zones at the back the rockwork. And yes, I know the filterfloss I rubber-banded at the intake of the power heads is not very pleasing to the eyes! But it helps clean up the tank a bit and prevents the dirt from clogging up the turbine of the powerhead. And most of all, I want to keep my equipments simple. Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 Thanks, clifford513! We have abundant of greenery in Singapore aka The Green City. Here's another shot taken from the bottom corner. You can see the light reflection at the top of the tank. Most probably due to the fact I didn't paint the back wall. But I really loves my new lights, T5HO really rocks! And another bottom corner shot with only the bluuue lights. Jazzy feeling surging... Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 And here's the green part of my tank! Some un-id macro algae close-up shots. I got no idea what algaes they are... I'll just pray that they are beneficial to the overall health of the tank. The same kind again... And 1 more macro shot on macro algae! Thanks for looking! Link to comment
mandarin dragonet Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 that algae looks very nice in ur tank, i love that aquascape!! Link to comment
clifford513 Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Scape looks awesome. What are you using to secure that big rock at the top? Looks like a tank cracker Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 Ah, I almost forgot about my lighting setup! A newly purchased 96watts T5HO lights with stand. Contradict to beliefs, T5HO runs pretty hot! I scalded my arms quite a few times when I accidentally brushed them against the hood. Thanks for looking! Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 that algae looks very nice in ur tank, i love that aquascape!! Thanks for your kind words! I hope the algae can propagate in my tank, to fill up the empty spaces. Scape looks awesome. What are you using to secure that big rock at the top? Looks like a tank cracker Thanks for the compliment! Ya, the big boulder is balancing on its own. I tried rocking it in all directions and it seems pretty secured. Till now... *cross fingers* very clean Thanks, travisurfer! Hope it's still clean-looking after a month. Most probably I'll have to scrub quite a bit when the algae starts creeping in. Link to comment
travisurfer Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 lol, thats the way my tank wen too. the worst part is in keeping the sand bed clean. the walls can be scraped easily enough. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 interestingly looking macro! is it a local variety? merry christmas! Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 ya... the sand is definitely a PITA. I read that some guy in RC replaces his sand every month and he has a huge tank. Wish I have that kind of $$$ to do that. I do really like the 'no algae on wall' look on all four sides (and that includes coralline algae!), so I'll have scrub quite often. I found that plastic cards are quite handy and cleans better than mag-floats. Bad point is wet arms due to 'diving in'. Link to comment
travisurfer Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 yep, that can be a pain. just curious as to why the styrofoam is under the tank. why not paint it black for aesthetics? hopefully the macro will stay alive though since it is so cool. any stocking plans as of yet? lol, how's that for jumping around a bit? Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 Merry christmas, tiny! To tell the truth, I don't know what macro it is! I supposed it belongs to the caulerpa family. The leafy macro should be a money plant AKA Halimeda. But not too sure about it either. The rocks should be from the Indonesia region (just southeast to Singapore), so the macros should be local as well. I got a question on macro algae though... the macros seems to lose their colors and turn white when the lights are off. Then the colors came back gradually when my lights are on again. Kinda weird to me since I never keep macro before. So is this how marine plants behave? Link to comment
clifford513 Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 I got a question on macro algae though... the macros seems to lose their colors and turn white when the lights are off. Then the colors came back gradually when my lights are on again. Kinda weird to me since I never keep macro before. So is this how marine plants behave? That's normal Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 Travisurfer, you haven't see what's below the foam yet. The stand is uglier than the foam! It's a plain old metal stand. If you want to see, I will post the pic but it's rather ugly. I don't know either, the exact reason why the foam is under the tank. But that's how we do in Singapore, marine or freshwater tank, big or small tank. Most probably, it acts like a cushion between the tank and the metal stand. And if someone knocks on the stand (lightly), the foam can absorb the shock as well. But most of all, I would guess its a local flavor! I tried painting on styrofoam before (using wall paint). The paint melted the foam to crumbs... Or is there a recommended paint specially just for styrofoam? I hope the macro stay as well. I went to the lfs and the owner allowed me to select my own rocks. There are many rock, these are the only ones with the macro algaes. Stocking will be shrimps, some fire shrimps and shunk cleaners. No more fish for me though. I have a bad rep for keeping fish alive for less than a month. Corals will be all lps but only 2 kinds - froggy and hammer. Thanks for reading! Link to comment
masmedic Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 You should be able to find some nice green trumpet corals too! Here's a picture of mine. They glow under actinics. Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 That's normal Cool! Thanks, clifford513. Pretty interesting, I used to think plants are boring except for being nitrate absorbers. Link to comment
clifford513 Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Cool! Thanks, clifford513. Pretty interesting, I used to think plants are boring except for being nitrate absorbers. I think plants are cool. Macros come in many colors. I think it would be cool to have a big tank dedicated to macros. Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 Hey masmedic, nice shot and great-looking coral! I do saw trumpets @ the lfs, but it's pretty expensive for me to have. The $$ also plays a big part for me. Frog and hammer are among the cheapest LPS locally. It's about 30-40 singapore dollars (14 us dollars) for a 7 head frogspawn. Link to comment
Travis Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Duncan, that's a beautiful tank you have there and I love the no background look! Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 I think plants are cool. Macros come in many colors. I think it would be cool to have a big tank dedicated to macros. I like macros only tank too. I felt that there's more exploring and sightseeing in macros tank, cos it's really 1 big underwater jungle in there! Link to comment
71vwbug Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 man your tank is looking really nice. i cant wait to see it full..... keep us posted. Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 Duncan, that's a beautiful tank you have there and I love the no background look! Thanks for the comment, Travis! I love the no background look too. It was suggested by my friend, Toomin, not to have a black or blue background. So instead of having all wires dangling behind the tank, I pulled up the wires and run them along the rim of the tank. But it's still quite messy outside the tank, think I will have a pvc tube to hold all the wirings. man your tank is looking really nice. i cant wait to see it full..... keep us posted. Thanks, 71vwbug. I appreciated it! I will post some more pics later! Link to comment
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