My 1st Aquarium! : ) 20Gallon Waterbox

[jbarriga]

Well this is my first attempt at owning an aquarium!  Im in love with reef tanks and finally took the dive in!

I wanted to do this right from the beginning..  I couldn't get my hands on a stand from waterbox and it would have been way too expensive to ship to Panama so.. I had one custom made here and it turned out firkin awesome!

 

I will be running a 20 Gallon Waterbox with:

included return pump (if its no good ill order the Sicce 1.0)

AI led light

Tunze 3155 ATO

Inkbird Temperature Controller

Cobalt Aquatics 75 Watt heater

Intank media basket for Chamber 1 (in tank filter floss on the top, and some carbon)

double cooling fans (attached to the ink bird) 

DJ power strip (to organize everthing in the cabinet)

Nero 5 powerhead

 

I think my biggest issue will be temperature since we don't use central air in Panama.. during the day when no-one is home, A/C's are off.. then later we turn them on when we get home..  im hoping open windows and the fans will help.. 

 

I purchased Caribsea life rock (about 9lbs) and caribsea black aragonite live sand. 

 

I will be filling up tonight and tomorrow (as long as temps aren't an issue) throwing in Fritz Turbostart 900 along with a clownfish to start her off.

 

Very excited!!

 

Hopefully it goes well and isn't a total disaster!

 

JB

[Biconia]

Congrat i was debating between Biocube 32 and that style tank at first.. 

current with biocube 32 and happy with 

 

good luck !  

[billygoat]

Welcome to the community @jbarriga! That's a super slick custom stand you've got there. I'm sure it will be sturdier and longer-lasting than the Waterbox stock stand. Looks like you're off to a great start! 😁

[jbarriga]

Thank you @biconia and @billygoat! 

Very much appreciated! 

My LFS only had 10G of saltwater left today so I have to go back tomorrow and get another 10g to finish filling up. 

Not the biggest fan of my aquascape but I’ll work on it.. at least they had some liferock to sell me : ) wasn’t the biggest fan of bukani 

[Clown79]

Welcome to Nano

 

Tank looks really nice, love the stand.

 

Liferock is great.

 

How are you planning to cycle the tank?

[slugworth]

Interested to hear how the Nero 5 goes. I was looking to get one although convinced my self it would be too powerful. 

 

I had a Sicce 1.0 running on my Waterbox 20 and found the flow was too much. I am looking to put a red sea net cover on it and the high flow was resulting in the water in the display being too high. I changed it to the  Sicce nano and find it much better.

[jbarriga]

@Clown79 I am going to use fritz turbo 900 and maybe a clown (depends on what the LFS has at the moment).. unfortunately customs is tough on this market and import shipments are very few.. 

@slugworth I have been a little worried about the Nero being too powerful also, I just love how it is controlled via an app from my phone (same as the lights).. I have to give it a try.. if it’s too much I’ll sell it and get a nano power head (hydor or something along those lines).  I’ll post updates and let you know. 

 

Happy to to be here with people who can help guide me to a successful reef tank! 

 

Temperature stayed at about 80.5f all night.. let’s see where it’s at during the day

[jbarriga]

So maybe someone can help me clear up a doubt I have.. 

i read that using fritz turbo start 900, once the aquarium is up and running you add the nitrifying bacteria and a fish immediately for a source of ammonia.  I read that during this period you do not want to use any lights or filter. 

Am I doing this correctly?  Any recommendations would be appreciated.  

[Lauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

9 minutes ago, jbarriga said:

So maybe someone can help me clear up a doubt I have.. 

i read that using fritz turbo start 900, once the aquarium is up and running you add the nitrifying bacteria and a fish immediately for a source of ammonia.  I read that during this period you do not want to use any lights or filter. 

Am I doing this correctly?  Any recommendations would be appreciated.  

It is commonly considered cruel to use a fish as a source of ammonia during the cycle, I'd recommend reading up on fishless cycling. https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling 

[jbarriga]

Thank you 

[Lauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I'd also recommend reading this thread: 

 even though it's about a nano cube pretty much everything in it still applies to your tank.

[jbarriga]

So I had read with Fritz (I am attaching a picture of their recommendations/instructions for a new tank) it was add the bacteria and a fish. 

 

Thank you @RoboNarples2929 I will go ahead and read it. 

 

[Wonderboy]

I've done it with fish and have constantly tested to verify that levels remained safe - if you do it like this, having water that is temperature adjusted and appropriate salinity, pH ready to go in case levels get to high is a good idea. Also ammonia alert would be useful. 

 

My preferred method though is fish-less, bottle bacteria, live rock, + rotting food; I just use the bottled bacteria per directions, but instead of a fish, I use a few pellets of fish food every other day until I see brown algae growing - when algae starts to grow, I know the cycle is close to complete and then begin to test for nitrite (the real toxic one of the bunch). Once nitrite is 0, it is safe to add fish/inverts and continue feeding somewhat as previously.