Veng's 20L - Black Friday Madness!

[Veng]

Current FTS (8/1/14):











FTS- 12/24/11

FTS - 12/30/11 - New light helps a lot

FTS - 2/26/12: - Shortly after this the tank would over heat and I'd lose some of this.

FTS - 7/5/12 - New SPS

FTS - 10/26/12 - Lots of growth on the SPS

FTS - 11/15/12

FTS - 11/26/12

FTS- 12/10/12

FTS- 12/10/12

FTS- 12/16/12

FTS - 12/22/12

FTS - 1/14/13

FTS - 3/31/13

FTS - 4/28/13

FTS - 7/28/13

FTS - 4/5/14


Original OP below, hasn't been updated in a year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I had some friends that got me hooked about a year ago, and I've been on nano-reef for about the same length of time. I figure it's time for me to finally make and maintain a tank thread, it's been long enough right? I know Kat and Zeph tire of me stalking their threads, so I figure I'll give them a place to return the favor.

Equipment:

Tank: Standard 10 Gallon
20L

Lighting: DIY LED 3 cluster
4 channel dimmable
LED totals:
6x NW
12x RB
3x OCW
6x TV


Filtration: TopFin 30 Replaced 2/24/12
AquaClear 70, DIY Fuge Mod w/ 13W 6500K CFL Replaced when moving to the 20L
Sump


Powerhead:2x 480 Hydro Nano

Heater:Tetra 100W Preset

Controller: RKL

Stocking:
Fish: 2x False Percula,

Inverts:
Dwarf Ceriths
Florida Ceriths
Nerites
Nassarius snails
1 small Blue legged hermit
1 medium Blue knuckled hermit
1 random hermit
Lots of Asterina Star Fish (HH)
1 Brittle Star fish (2" Diameter) (HH) No more.
1 Harlequin Shrimp (Trying to eradicate the (Asterina)


Corals:

Softies:
4 mats, 3 strains of GSP
Xenia Lost to the temp incident
Green Polyps
Zoas/Palys
Kenya Tree (I try to kill it but it won't die)
1 neon green sponge (HH)
Various Mushrooms
1 Ricordia
1 Leather


SPS:
Birds Nest

LPS:
Christmas Favia
Candy Cane - 4 full heads, 6 mouths.
Hammer - Almost finished it's split into 3.
Green Pavonia

Current thoughts:

I'm happy with the way this tank has turned out in the end. However, the end is near for the piece of glass this tank is in. The 10G will soon be replaced with a 20L +10G sump in the coming week or two. This isn't the end of this tank by any means as everything will be moving over, it's simply replacing a piece of equipment or two!

Edited November 30, 2016 by Veng

[danimal1211]

nice that birdsnest is huge!

[Veng]

Yeah, it's been growing like a weed, lol.

[metrokat]

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

pffft....you cant grow coral with power compacts.....you NEEEED leds...

[metrokat]

I'm not a fan of back walls but yours is really nice! You'll have to detail how you made that with pictures.

 

That bird grew like that under PCs?

 

[acrab78]

Before leds power compacts were the thing of the future.... That light has plenty of power over that ten.

I have started up my seven gallon and am running the 32pc retrofit still. Leds are new to me and am learning.

If they weren't so freakin expensive it would be nice to have some although prices are getting better.

 

I would like to get a small actinic strip of leds to supplement my current setup but don't find it necessary yet with soft corals , zoos and shrooms. Would still be fifty plus for this.

 

I haven't had a reef tank going for several years and am kinda surprised that pc lighting is almost obsolete...

 

Good luck with the tank!

[Veng]

Yeah, the growth is from the PC. The problem with it is it puts out 96 Watts into the tank which makes it hell to keep it cool without a chiller. Also the bulbs are getting expensive for the fixture and hard to find since they don't make them anymore.

 

The back wall is actually a pre-made insert, I can't take credit for it. I forget who makes it. I'll look the next time I'm at the LFS where I got it.

[markalot]

Great tank, glad you started a thread! I really appreciate the over time pics.

 

Sorry you don't like the scape, I like the rubble / natural look but I'm also regretting the way I set up my 20. Very hard to clean and as I added more corals I found it impossible to really plan it out.

 

I had a Kenya in my 40, I swear I not only killed all of it but removed the original rock it was growing on. A fragment got into my AC110 with rock rubble which I used to seed my 20 ... and now I have it in my 20 gallon. Of course new stems also showing up in the 40 now. Impossible to kill.

[Veng]

I removed it, and three months later it had grown back. I removed it again, and 3 months later it had grown back, I removed it and I can see it starting to grow back again. At this point I just kind of laugh about it when I look at the tank and see it as upkeep just like trimming the cheato. Now cheato, that stuff grows like a weed.

 

 

And I'm not sure it's that I don't like the scape as much as it is I'd simply do something different on the next tank. I know the scape looks good for what it is which makes me feel better. Or at least I think it does. I think next time I'd end up something like this guy's. Of course, that's a 100 gallon where mine isn't. The real down side is the amount of corals one can put in a tank is reduced dramatically when you go for the minimalist scapes.

 

pffft....you cant grow coral with power compacts.....you NEEEED leds...

I know, right? What am I thinking! I really do need to figure out if I'm going to upgrade tanks or not and plan a fixture. I don't want to buy another bulb for this thing.

[markalot]

And I'm not sure it's that I don't like the scape as much as it is I'd simply do something different on the next tank. I know the scape looks good for what it is which makes me feel better. Or at least I think it does. I think next time I'd end up something like this guy's. Of course, that's a 100 gallon where mine isn't. The real down side is the amount of corals one can put in a tank is reduced dramatically when you go for the minimalist scapes.

 

That is nice.

 

As far as upgrading, I thought I'd like the 20 long because I love the footprint, like a wide screen movie, but it's not tall enough for any real rock work (at my talent level anyway). I will probably upgrade to a 29 (all same equipment, just taller) at some point in the future.

 

Would a standard 20 gallon (24" wide, 12.5" deep, 16.8" tall) fit? Would require a new glass hood, and maybe a light. Cost always seems to add up quickly. Regardless, keep us updated. I love these small simple tanks.

[BulkRate]

The trick to offset the loss of coral placement real estate in minimalist scaping is to use a few structures that are more vertical than horizontal. Case in point- take a look at the zoa garden rock structure in Spirofucci's tank (I think it's somewhere around page 8 or 9 of the Zoa and Paly Club thread over in Corals)... a spread like that would take up half-to-most of the sandbed in a typical nano-class tank. But it fits into the front right corner on his. Bonus that this kind of structure let you mix light-loving and shade-preferring specimens in full view and adjust where bright/shaded spots are simply by turning it.

 

Something like that scales up and down nicely. I only have a 9 gallon tank and yes, half the bed's taken up with zoa frags. But I've got enough rubble and waterweld lying around to make something similar that fits the scale of mine, giving me back a nice clean look without forcing me to get rid of anything.

 

I think the rock backer board you've got in there is very distinctive in a good way... makes it look like you've got a deep dropoff & gives the illusion that the tank's more like a window view of the reef rather than a container. And it looks like you could easily play with the rocks in the center or remove them/build up something else without a full tank reboot.

 

EDIT: Correction, the zoa rock in question is in the back-left corner. But you get the idea.

Edited November 16, 2012 by BulkRate

[Veng]

That is nice.

 

As far as upgrading, I thought I'd like the 20 long because I love the footprint, like a wide screen movie, but it's not tall enough for any real rock work (at my talent level anyway). I will probably upgrade to a 29 (all same equipment, just taller) at some point in the future.

 

Would a standard 20 gallon (24" wide, 12.5" deep, 16.8" tall) fit? Would require a new glass hood, and maybe a light. Cost always seems to add up quickly. Regardless, keep us updated. I love these small simple tanks.

There's a 36 bowfront rimless at a LFS that looks nice, and it is fairly tall but the dimensions seem a bit odd to me the move I look at it.

 

One of the things I've realized the longer I keep this tank is I love tanks that have small corals and fish relative to thier size. A 12" fish in a 300 gallon tank makes the tank look tiny, a 1" fish in a 20L makes the tank look huge. Funny how one can be 15 times the size of the other and seem so different in size just because of what we put in it.

 

The trick to offset the loss of coral placement real estate in minimalist scaping is to use a few structures that are more vertical than horizontal. Case in point- take a look at the zoa garden rock structure in Spirofucci's tank (I think it's somewhere around page 8 or 9 of the Zoa and Paly Club thread over in Corals)... a spread like that would take up half-to-most of the sandbed in a typical nano-class tank. But it fits into the front right corner on his. Bonus that this kind of structure let you mix light-loving and shade-preferring specimens in full view and adjust where bright/shaded spots are simply by turning it.

I'll try to look this one up when I get home. 99% of pictures won't load at work because of the internet filters here.

 

Something like that scales up and down nicely. I only have a 9 gallon tank and yes, half the bed's taken up with zoa frags. But I've got enough rubble and waterweld lying around to make something similar that fits the scale of mine, giving me back a nice clean look without forcing me to get rid of anything.

I have noticed how you can make a smaller tank look almost better than a larger tank with the right amount of work.

 

I think the rock backer board you've got in there is very distinctive in a good way... makes it look like you've got a deep dropoff & gives the illusion that the tank's more like a window view of the reef rather than a container.

Thanks. I am happy with the way this tank has turned out, even if it's not my prefered scape in the end. It's much better than I thought I'd make a tank look a year ago.

 

And it looks like you could easily play with the rocks in the center or remove them/build up something else without a full tank reboot.

Sadly I've become attached to this scape with everything that's on it. Almost all of the rocks really have too much on them to remove. There's shrooms and zoas on the back of some of those rocks you can't even see in the FTS. I think if I do end up with another tank, it might just have to start from scratch with it.

[markalot]

There's a 36 bowfront rimless at a LFS that looks nice, and it is fairly tall but the dimensions seem a bit odd to me the move I look at it.

 

Stay away from the bows, in my opinion. I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank, freshwater planted, and it's nearly impossible to get a nice closeup picture. It will always look great from a distance but the distortion closeup is a killer.

[Veng]

Stay away from the bows, in my opinion. I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank, freshwater planted, and it's nearly impossible to get a nice closeup picture. It will always look great from a distance but the distortion closeup is a killer.

Ultimately the shape just doesn't suit my eye when I invision how I would fill it compared with how it looks empty. Ultimately, that's a killer for me. I think I'll go continue to dream about the 105 rimless at the LFS.

[jedimasterben]

get LEDs, damnit!

 

 

Is that good enough?

[Veng]

lol. But look at the growth on the GSP and birdsnest! How can you argue with it!

 

Yeah... I've planned a few full spectrum maker's LEDs out in my head and on paper, I'm just not sure what size tank I want to do it for.

[Veng]

I went to the store and looked at a 40B.... that might have been a mistake, lol.

[markalot]

40B is the perfect tank IMO, I love mine. I have 2 - 2 bulb T5 fixtures plus 2 -1/2 watt LED strips over a glass top ... no issues growing anything yet.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

I know, right? What am I thinking! I really do need to figure out if I'm going to upgrade tanks or not and plan a fixture. I don't want to buy another bulb for this thing.

T5 isnt going away any time soon and the bulb selection is good(for 24'' fixtures kinda slim pickings for the few that are smaller).

 

personally, id build the new tank AROUND the light

[Veng]

Yeah, that's pretty much the plan to build the next tank around the light. I look at 20L and think to my self hrmm.... 40B isn't that much more.... then I think well... 65 rimless isn't that much more.... hrmmm... 105 rimless isn't that much more... holy #### that's a lot of money, 10 gallons is fine for now!

[metrokat]

Uh oh, he has the upgrade bug....

[Veng]

Yeah I've had the bug for a while... then I start adding up the cost and the bug goes away lol.

[jedimasterben]

Yeah I've had the bug for a while... then I start adding up the cost and the bug goes away lol.

The hell would you do that for! Never add anything up!

[metrokat]

The hell would you do that for! Never add anything up!

I have a spreadsheet. That is how I know my corals are paying for the tank in leaps and bounds.