20 Gallon Low Budget Nanoreef

[Poison Dart Frog]

I have a couple pico reefs and I've been posting my 20 gallon in my pico journal but now that it's about 6 months old I figured I'd start a thread for it specifically. I have an aquaclear 50, a Jabeao wave maker and a Current USA light. It needs about another 6 months to look grown in but it's not looking too bad.  I have mostly LPS corals. The only SPS is a seriatopora on the top rock and 2 pieces of montipora on a magnetic ledge right below the light. 

Also covering my 40 gallon reef tank in this thread.

[Poison Dart Frog]

Cleaner shrimp and cup coral.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I have 4 fish. Pygmy spotted filefish, Fiji clown, bangai cardinal, and a damsel.

[Poison Dart Frog]

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Posting into the void. Not much new to report. I bought a tiny HOB refugium and some Miracle Mud. Not because I need to greatly lower nitrates (they average about 20) but because it might be a fun experiment. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I've added a few things. A "holy grail" goniopora and a 2nd bird's nest coral. 

[Fryguy0201]

pretty tank i love the positioning of everything 

[Joevember]

Like the scape a lot! I'm a sucker for arches. All the corals look great too, love the new additions you put in. Doesn't look like a low budget tank to me 😁

[Tamberav]

Looks really nice! I love the filefish 😍

[sublunary]

Looks great!  I'm a big fan of gorgonians, and I love the way you used them here. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Thanks for all the kind comments. 

This Ponape bird's nest is starting to get pink tips. I also have a piece of it in another tank with higher PAR where it's turning green. Weird how the intensity of light can affect its color.

[Guest]

amazing tank! I am also doing stocking for a 20 gallon, and currently only have 1 black perculla clownfish, but was thinking of adding a pajama cardinal and a clneaner shrimp somewhere down the line, how have these been for you and what have you been feeding them?

[Poison Dart Frog]

16 hours ago, FreshwaterFishMan said:

amazing tank! I am also doing stocking for a 20 gallon, and currently only have 1 black perculla clownfish, but was thinking of adding a pajama cardinal and a clneaner shrimp somewhere down the line, how have these been for you and what have you been feeding them?

Thanks! Those sound like really good choices. I mostly feed frozen mysis shrimp, but I did buy another variety pack of frozen food which includes fish eggs and some other stuff. The cleaner shrimp swims to the top to feed right along with all the fish. Cleaner shrimp are really bold and make for interesting critters to watch.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I added some red macro algae. Also I have a couple new leather corals in the tank but ultimately those are going in the new 40 breeder I just set up. It has one fish so far, a flasher wrasse. I'm waiting a bit to start adding soft corals. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

After spending weeks facing the back glass this rock flower nem decided to move to the front.

[Poison Dart Frog]

Getting some decent growth. I think the "candy cane" coral is splitting to add a new head and the frogspawn is growing steadily. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Getting some decent growth. I think the "candy cane" coral is splitting to add a new head and the frogspawn is growing steadily. 

beautiful tank!
 

what is that very large sae fan you have in the back?

[Poison Dart Frog]

8 hours ago, FreshwaterFishMan said:

beautiful tank!
 

what is that very large sae fan you have in the back?

Thank you. The big one on the right side? That's a Grubes Gorgonian. Real hardy and easy to care for and grows fast. 

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Thank you. The big one on the right side? That's a Grubes Gorgonian. Real hardy and easy to care for and grows fast. 

Wonderful! 

 

Sounds like a nice coral then 🙂

[Poison Dart Frog]

The 20 gallon is doing pretty good. Someday I need to clean the back glass though. 

And I've been adding some soft corals to the 40. It is hopefully almost through the diatom stage. I added a neon yellow-green... nephthea? sinularia? kenya tree? Whatever it is, it's a neat leather coral with a color I hadn't seen before. 

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

The green rock flower nem has been all over the tank the last few days. It has finally picked the perfect spot at least from my perspective. I spot fed it, hoping it will choose to stay where it is. 

[Tamberav]

The new coral looks awesome 🙂 Coming along nicely

[billygoat]

Just found this thread! The tank really looks beautiful. You've got some gorgeous gorgonians in there. 😁

[Poison Dart Frog]

The tank is doing pretty good. Just letting things grow.