Wilioli's 20L Sanctum

[Wilioli]

how bout with no powerheads? just saltwater and rock?

[.Newman.]

no you need the powerhead to provide water movement through the LR and water flow to oxygenate the water.

[Wilioli]

lol cause i ordered different things from different companies.. so the sand's here, but not the powerheads.. hahaha, ok ill wait then.. thanks guys

[l3lumarlin]

You could add the sand and water before the powerhead arrives to give the sand a chance to settle and finalize your aquascape.

[Wilioli]

You could add the sand and water before the powerhead arrives to give the sand a chance to settle and finalize your aquascape.

u trashin my scape? lol, no good call -- i think i will actually do that.. thanks

[Sunstar]

that 20 L is cute. I had to cut a 10 gallon down because the glass was broken near the top. About 3 inches of glass all around removed. rim replaced. Now I use it as a betta breeder.

[Wilioli]

that 20 L is cute. I had to cut a 10 gallon down because the glass was broken near the top. About 3 inches of glass all around removed. rim replaced. Now I use it as a betta breeder.

cute? I was going for 'gangsta'.. lol lol -- thanks

 

betta breeder eh? underground/water fights as well?

[Sunstar]

cute? I was going for 'gangsta'.. lol lol -- thanks

 

betta breeder eh? underground/water fights as well?

 

I don't fight them. Just the female I wish to breed is ill, so I am treating her. then I will introduce her to her b eautiful husband to be. the 10 gallon cut down actually would mke a lovely lagoon type tank. if I get out of bettas perhaps that will be its fate. Yeah I am becoming undeniably salty.

[Wilioli]

For some reason everyone posts the pic of sand and water and cloud... so here it is , im excited

 

[JBM]

nice box of rocks.

 

fwiw

 

you don even need to have a filter on such a small tank. I choose to run a ac70 to put my cheato, heater & chemipure in it. but the choice is yours in the end

[Wilioli]

nice box of rocks.

 

fwiw

 

you don even need to have a filter on such a small tank. I choose to run a ac70 to put my cheato, heater & chemipure in it. but the choice is yours in the end

thanks... yea i notice that most people with tanks this size use the filters as a nice refugium alternative -- but then what about mechanical filtration? i feel the filter floss alternative i use filters A LOT, and the carbon helps as well..? Otherwise I don't think it does a thing!

[Wilioli]

 

so i had no idea how small the nano's actually were.. i woulda gotten the 1000gph+ powerheads had i known... oh well -- i guess they're still good cause this is what 'technology' is? Im used to my maxi powerhead thats 160gph and double the size of the 425 nano! The mag floats A LOT smaller than i thought -- said it was for up to 30 gallons.. and the vacuum tube IS MASSIVE... said it was for 20-50 gallons... thats what i get for online shopping.. lol.. still excited and happy -- hence the happy dance

[Sunstar]

Oh you haz new toys! I need to get a new Phosphate test. mine went yellow :/

[JBM]

i started with twin 1050's on a wave maker in my 20l

 

down graded to 1 1050 & havent looked back. unless i find a mp10 for under $140

 

btw, you can use filter floss in the ac70, i use it. cant really fit much else in my ac70 (heater filter floss, purigen, full unit chemipure, cheato)

 

the 2 425's should be enough, just make sure you dont have any dead spots

[Wilioli]

i started with twin 1050's on a wave maker in my 20l

 

down graded to 1 1050 & havent looked back. unless i find a mp10 for under $140

 

btw, you can use filter floss in the ac70, i use it. cant really fit much else in my ac70 (heater filter floss, purigen, full unit chemipure, cheato)

 

the 2 425's should be enough, just make sure you dont have any dead spots

yea i know u can put the filter floss -- i meant ur comment on not necessarily needing a filter for a tank of this size -- i meant if there's no filter, then the lack of mechanical filtration won't have any sort of negative affect on the tank??

and im starting to understand how some ppl have 1050's like urself.. there's so much on the net of how thats' over kill this and that.. or maybe i just need to see something in the tank being moved with the flow... my maxi is 160gph and i can feel that flow with my hand like... .6 inches away... and the 425 is the same.. i thought i would have felt something 12 inches away at least.. ? anyways just looking at the surface it seems like the 'only' dead spot is in the back right behind the rockscape where i left a bit of space -- where the filter will go.. so that should fix that...

 

update: i bought 3lbs of live fiji rock -- so thats gone in there to seed some of the base rock -- i dont know how there's gonna be space with all this rock... but i want to use it all!!!

[.Newman.]

LOL! thats going to be a ton of rock! arent you going to also add the rock in the 10 gallon? youll have a rock tank, not a fish tank

[Wilioli]

LOL! thats going to be a ton of rock! arent you going to also add the rock in the 10 gallon? youll have a rock tank, not a fish tank

yes newman RIGHT AGAIN U ARE... .. .lol Basically after rearranging the rock and such, i realized i can't use even half of that stuff... the rock i have in teh 10 gallon by itself will take up almost half of the new tank (obviously, seeing as it takes up a lot of the 10gallon.. .lol)... then the base rock I have is just as bulky and macro shaped.. .sooo basically I hate it.. lol.. I've taken out a lot of the base rock -- used one rock (out of two) from the 10 to seed the 20... I guess after a couple weeks of observation i'll put in the other rock in the 10, and the fish.. -- leaving the corals behind on a base rock in the 10.. wait for the lights, then transfer those two into the new tank...

[Wilioli]

ok so i took out 10lbs of base rock -- hardest thing ive ever done -- but i figure after all is done with the transfer, and i see there's space (which i will, so i'll really try hard not to) then I can always just add base rock, but not take out live rock and what not...

 

anyways, its been an overnite with the new live rock, and the old live rock .. parameters are weird.. ammonia is 1mg/dl... ph is 7.7...? strange.. calcium is 400-420 -- only measured that cause i can now.. lol.. nitrites 0, nitrates 0... soo.. ammonia i guess for the spike.. but ph low because.. lack of light and maybe flow?? i dunno.. i guess ill point the powerheads a bit more towards the surface? .. i dunno... or is this normal for now?

[JBM]

i've had tanks twice the size with no mechanical filtration. Just have to do 2 water changes a week & feed 1/2 as much

[Wilioli]

i've had tanks twice the size with no mechanical filtration. Just have to do 2 water changes a week & feed 1/2 as much

gotcha... thanks again

[glennr1978]

Did you order your mh bulbs yet? Don't be misled, not all bulbs are created equal. I saw that someone on here told you that 10k's tend to have a white with a hint of blue look...... I've never seen a 10k that looked like that.

 

Not only will bulbs vary depending on brand, but the ballast and reflector you use play a major role as well.

 

I would recommend the phoenix "14k". It's labeled as a 14k but is as blue as alot of 20k's. Anyway, it's a good high quality bulb that will work great with just about any 150w ballast. I'm confident you would be happy with it., most everyone that uses them is.

[Wilioli]

Did you order your mh bulbs yet? Don't be misled, not all bulbs are created equal. I saw that someone on here told you that 10k's tend to have a white with a hint of blue look...... I've never seen a 10k that looked like that.

 

Not only will bulbs vary depending on brand, but the ballast and reflector you use play a major role as well.

 

I would recommend the phoenix "14k". It's labeled as a 14k but is as blue as alot of 20k's. Anyway, it's a good high quality bulb that will work great with just about any 150w ballast. I'm confident you would be happy with it., most everyone that uses them is.

Thats actually what I was going to do.. it seems like almost everyone uses the phoenix brand, 14000k.. But the fixture I am going to order (not in stock yet) comes with the bulb as well.. so I figured seeing as its not really a brand name bulb, id get the 20000k, and if anything it might just perform as a 14000k? Thanks for the recommendation

[.Newman.]

if 10,000K isn't crisp white then what color is it? you shouldn't just throw out an incomplete thought. And I disagree, 20,000K bulbs aren't blue to me they're purple >

Here is what I'm coming up with:

Yes its a representative of one brand, but why cant we just estimate based on this?

10,000K are crisp white.

[Wilioli]

see id choose between the 14000k and the 10000k -- the chart being for one brand. I'm sure the better brands will hold true to said color, and the so called 'cheaper' brands will be a bit 'less'.. which again is why im thinking 20000k would really be a 14000k? or is my thinking wrong? 20000k is 20000k no matter what brand?

[.Newman.]

OK I'm going to stop pressuring you to get 10,000Ks because I realize thats what i'm really trying to do and i'm getting a bit crazy here

 

For the stock bulbs it really doesn't matter what you get because they're cheap ones that you'll probably want to ditch 6 months down the road anyway. once you start deciding on which quality bulb to buy then you'll have to worry. So for now I would choose the 20,000K for the stock if you think that they'll look like 14,000K, according to what you've been hearing right? 14,000K is nice and you'll probably choose that one when the time comes

 

I like shallow water look more so for w/e reason I like crisp white light.