Potatowned's 20L - First Tank (Updated. Got some fish finally!)

[ewilson04]

Im about to start my 20L you have basicly everything Im looking at getting for mine except Im going with the reefbreeders value fixture for lighting. Good luck with your tank I will be following this one

[potatowned]

Im about to start my 20L you have basicly everything Im looking at getting for mine except Im going with the reefbreeders value fixture for lighting. Good luck with your tank I will be following this one

 

Good luck with it! One thing I would recommend - check out the light I got. Around the same price as the Reefbreeders, but the lights are dispersed over a much larger area. So for my 20L, which is 30" long, the OceanRevive gives wider coverage. I also think it looks nicer. Just a thought!

[ewilson04]

Good luck with it! One thing I would recommend - check out the light I got. Around the same price as the Reefbreeders, but the lights are dispersed over a much larger area. So for my 20L, which is 30" long, the OceanRevive gives wider coverage. I also think it looks nicer. Just a thought!

 

Im looking into it right now thanks

[potatowned]

UPDATE TIME!

 

So after a about a week of stable water parameters, I figured my cycle was over. I went ahead and picked up a clean-up crew online:

 

 

I also dropped by my LFS. I went in just wanting to look around, but after talking to the owner, we decided that I was ready to pick up some coral. My approach was basically this:

 

Hey, so that coral looks neat. Is it easy to keep alive? Is it cheap?

 

So if the answer to both questions was "yes", I went ahead and picked it up. I ended up with 3 corals. A torch, a zoa, and an acan.

 

Welcoming them to their new home.

 

I was pretty nervous about the torch, since it wasn't mounted on a frag. I bought some superglue gel and glued it to a rock. I made a bit of a mess, but I think it's doing ok now.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the torch. I like how bright the green the tips of the polyps are, even under normal lighting.

 

Here is my zoa. Anyone know what its called?

Under actinics:

 

The center is green and it goes purple towards the edges. There are some white flecks along the center. The zoa always closes at night. Normal?

 

Lastly, I got an acan. It was hard to get a good picture of it, but under actinics, its bright green and orange. Doesn't look as cool under normal lights.

 

Should I have the acan on a rock? How about the zoas for that matter? Near the bottom of the tank?

 

Bonus pic: my toadstool, which just started growing out of nowhere:

 

 

Bonus pic #2: hermit crab!

 

Lastly, obligatory FTS:

 

What do you guys think I should do next? Wait a bit and pick up some more coral? Or go ahead and get a fish??

[Angel<3Nanos]

Love your scape

[Javious]

As hard as it is to do, I'd hold off on adding anything else until after your CuC arrives. You will be getting a small mountain of snails and not all of them will make it through alive. Your water parameters will swing for a while after you put in the CuC. I'd give it a couple of weeks after it was added and check your parameters before adding any fish or coral. As you add bioload it takes a while for the bacteria population to increase to handle the new bioload.

 

The Acan I would leave on the sand, put the zoa on any rock that you want completely covered with them and put the torch where it will get a moderate current and has room to grow. Picture the torch 3-4 times as large as it is and leave it that space.

 

You are off to a good start and it's looking good, I am trying to be patient with my 20 long build and you are not making that easier!

[nickpop86]

Love your build so far, im starting my 20l tonight when my light comes in the mail

[zeke2020]

As hard as it is to do, I'd hold off on adding anything else until after your CuC arrives. You will be getting a small mountain of snails and not all of them will make it through alive. Your water parameters will swing for a while after you put in the CuC. I'd give it a couple of weeks after it was added and check your parameters before adding any fish or coral. As you add bioload it takes a while for the bacteria population to increase to handle the new bioload.

 

The Acan I would leave on the sand, put the zoa on any rock that you want completely covered with them and put the torch where it will get a moderate current and has room to grow. Picture the torch 3-4 times as large as it is and leave it that space.

 

You are off to a good start and it's looking good, I am trying to be patient with my 20 long build and you are not making that easier!

Amen!! ^+1 wait til the cuc arrives.. you'll get some movement in the tank and something to look at! Looking good though. How much you pay for the torch?

[potatowned]

Ok, I'll wait until my CUC arrives later this week, and then wait a few weeks before adding anything else.

 

The torch I got from my LFS for $20. It's only a single head. The zoa and acan were $5 a piece.

[zeke2020]

I definitely want a torch or a hammer.. my lfs that have them want around $80-$100.. but they are huge colony about 10 heads average!.

[GtTap]

Nice welcome to the 20 Long world looking good so far cant wait to see more.

[potatowned]

I definitely want a torch or a hammer.. my lfs that have them want around $80-$100.. but they are huge colony about 10 heads average!.

 

Ask them to frag it for you. The torch frag I got was off of a bigger colony. I said I only wanted a single head, since I am willing to be patient and let the torch grow on it's own. The owner fragged up the entire colony and picked me a good piece.

[zeke2020]

I definitely should ask them! I'll hold off until I get my new tank finished. Its getting harder not to buy anymore frags til the tank is wet!! My livestock list is growing/shrinking /going every damn direction!

[gena]

Your first tank sure is a lot nicer looking than my first tank . I love your rockscape.

 

This is the first time I'm checking out your tank thread and I was zipping through the pictures before reading. I saw this picture.....

Apparently, this one is pretty rare.

And thought OMG....he stumbled across this amazing fish at his LFS and bought it not knowing (neither you nor the fish store, nor the supplier) it's worth a fortune!!!!! Wouldn't that have been something .

 

Anyways....great tank, and I love your screen name, it's different

[hey]

Your first tank sure is a lot nicer looking than my first tank . I love your rockscape.

 

This is the first time I'm checking out your tank thread and I was zipping through the pictures before reading. I saw this picture.....

 

And thought OMG....he stumbled across this amazing fish at his LFS and bought it not knowing (neither you nor the fish store, nor the supplier) it's worth a fortune!!!!! Wouldn't that have been something .

 

Anyways....great tank, and I love your screen name, it's different

 

I lol'd, if this were the case I would have cried.

[potatowned]

Your first tank sure is a lot nicer looking than my first tank . I love your rockscape.This is the first time I'm checking out your tank thread and I was zipping through the pictures before reading. I saw this picture.....And thought OMG....he stumbled across this amazing fish at his LFS and bought it not knowing (neither you nor the fish store, nor the supplier) it's worth a fortune!!!!! Wouldn't that have been something .Anyways....great tank, and I love your screen name, it's different

 

Haha! I actually went to the Waikiki Aquarium specifically to see that fish. I saw a YouTube video on the fish at some point and thought it was pretty neat. I then realized that the aquarium was pretty close to where I was staying in Hawaii at the time so I decided to makes stop on my morning jog. Funnily enough, it was all the beautiful tanks at the aquarium that made me decide to finally start a reef tank of my own.

 

So that peppermint angel is partially responsible for me getting into this hobby!

[ewilson04]

Thats cool i wish I would have stopped at the aquarium when I was in Hawaii. Keep up the good work on this tank

[potatowned]

Question: do I need to heat up my water when I top-off? The temp will drop SLIGHTLY depending on how much I put in. I'm normally right around 79-80. If i top off a decent amount, it may drop to around 77-78. Is that OK?

[Elrato]

That will be fine, won't take long for it to heat back up

[potatowned]

Just got my CuC in from Reefcleaners.

 

I received 201 dwarf ceriths, Yes I counted. Some of those suckers were tiny. 9 nassarius snails, 14 regular sized ceriths, and 20 or so nerites, which were all clumped together, (I got tired of counting towards the end.)

 

The round snails are all moving around. The ceriths all look dead, which I guess is normal.

 

But I have something in the ballpark of 250-300 snails in my tank! Is there such thing as too many many snails??

 

Acclimating the snails:

 

Little baggies full of snails:

 

Tankful of snails!

 

I don't think all the snails made the trip cross-country. I already pulled a coiled snail corpse from my skimmer box!

[potatowned]

So i woke up this morning and my torch is withdrawn, completely inside the skeleton. Only the little green tips are showing. My zoas are closed up completely as well. They aren't going to die are they??

 

Does this have anything to do with adding the snails? When I put them in yesterday, the corals were doing great. Bigger than I've ever seen them!

[potatowned]

OK false alarm. I got home and the torch was opened up again and looked great. WHEW. I was worried I killed my first coral.

 

Everything in the tank looks good, although the hermit crabs harass the snails like crazy.

 

Edit: adding my params just for my documentation

 

Salinity: 1.026

Temp: 79F

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: .5 ppm YIKES! CuC must have started a mini cycle

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 20 ppm??? This API kit is hard to decipher

 

WATER CHANGE TIME.

[zeke2020]

Water changes are the best thing for a tank !

[potatowned]

YAY! Did a big 7 gallon water change on Friday night (and mixed saltwater for the first time), now my levels are pretty close to perfect.

 

Salinity: 1.026

Temp: 79F

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: .0 ppm YAY

Nitrite: 0 ppm YAY

Nitrate: 20ppm

 

I got lots of little "bugs" in the tank. At night, I use a flashlight and I can see them zipping around. My corals seem to be doing pretty well. I really want to get a few more corals and some fish finally.

 

On my short list for corals is:

• a hammer or a frogspawn
• candy cane/trumpet coral
• Galaxea
• GSP

For livestock, these are all fish I have been considering:

• clownfish pair
• firefish
• mandarin (I heard these are hard to keep... but they look so cool!)
• ruby red dragonet (same as above... but my LFS has em and they look so cool!)
• royal gramma/bicolor dottyback

I also want a BTA to hopefully host my clownfish.

 

So, thoughts??? I know I cant get everything, especially all the fish, but should I avoid anything on this list? I think for the most part they are all pretty hardy fish/corals, right?

[potatowned]

OK I was peeking around in my tank with a flashlight and I just realized that my tank is swarming with little tiny white organisms. I think they are copopods and amphipods? They are all over the glass. How do I know if my population can sustain a Mandarin? What if the Mandarin eats them all up and they don't keep reproducing?

 

Also, i found a tiny feather duster and a tiny green polyp. The little polyp is so small that when it's closed, I cant even see it. But I think it's awesome that you can set up a tank, put some stuff in it and then find all kinds of other stuff growing!