New to the hobby, and starting a 20L

[SV650Squid]

Hi I've been lurking here and at reef central for awhile now. I finally got me some live rock(early Christmas present from the fiance). It's 30 lbs. of Florida rock, and the place she ordered it from threw in 10 lbs live sand free. It's all curing in my 20L and a 20H that I setup just for curing.

 

Next thing on the list is a DIY aquaclear refugium(maybe a modded ac500), buying a skimmer(thinking about the aquac), and some decent lights(corallife aqualight 2X65 power compact).

 

What do you guys think? I just want to keep 2-3 small fish, and eventually some easy corals.

 

ohh and my water parameters are: ammonia .25, nitrite .25, and nitrate 30ppm(yeah i know water change but the lfs isn't open on sunday and i need more di water) at least the cycle is almost over. i was really suprised about how low the spikes were, amm or nitrite never spiked past 2 ppm.(been 2-1/2 weeks since I got the live rock)

 

I'll see about pics when it's all cured, and i have it all looking good.

[tinyreef]

looks good, you might want to wait a bit on the fish and corals and see what turns up on the florida rock. they usually have pretty good hitchhikers.

 

are the two tanks connected or separate?

[kyman_33]

Well you might want to wait a bit on the fish. What is 20L in gallons? You need some inverts to clean your tank. I suggest snails, hermit crabs, and shrimp.

 

First you will want to cycle your tank with you live rock and sand. Then once your tank is cycled I would put in some inverts to keep the algae under control. Once the tank is stable I would add coral. Then once the coral is in I would lastely add fish. This is the best way to do it in my opinion.

 

Just my $0.02

[MrKrispy]

i would get the fuge going (I am very happy with my e-bay aquafuge clone, see the Refugium forum) before you add any fish. This will give the pods a good lead.

 

Once the diatoms are over and the tank is cycled and all good get the cleaning crew in there before the algae takes over. Don't be shy with the snails...

[SV650Squid]

actually I already have 4 snails(2 astrea and 2 nassarius) and a shrimp(only seen it's whiskers, it only seems to come out at night), all hitchhikers. the two tanks are separate, and have been cycling ~2 1/2 weeks now w/ the sand and rock in it. Once the rock is cured in the extra tank it shouldn't hurt it to just move it over to the show tank right?

 

do you think the fuge or the skimmer are more important? i'm on a budget so this is going to be a one at a time deal as far as equipment goes. I was planning on this being a FOWLR tank for awhile, then adding some easy corals when i'm comfortable with keeping the fish.

 

I have some really pretty stuff on the rock tho. most of it i can't id, but it sure looks nice(at least one sponge, a few corals, and some other stuff)

[kyman_33]

That way would work fine too. Don't get too many snails though because if they eat all the algae too fast they will have none left and starve. 4 should be plenty!