my 20 gallon long

[filefishfinatic]

this is the new journal for my 20 long. i dont think it will be very picture heavy, i plan to include lots of thoughtful discussion and advice for others seeking a simple reef. i will start out talking about my stocking of fish, coral, and invertebrates. i do things my own way, if my tank was unhealthy, i would ask for advice. you can run your tank however you want as long as your satisfied with the result. 

Peramaters

temp 80  (aqueon pro heater)

salinity 1.25 (controlled with a digiten ato)

ph 8.3

8 alk 

ammonia & nitrite 0

nitrate 10 (i credit this to my excellent biofiltration and my macroalgae)

phosphate 0.1 

calc 440 (seachem calcium reef trace all in one dosing)

mag 1300

idk iodine and stronium but i dose reef trace 

 

Fish: complete list not getting more, i have no agression or bioload issues, all fishes are adults

Melanurus wrasse

Butterfly goby (neovespicula depressifrons)

Blue spot toby puffer (he eats my zoas but i plan to get sps eventually so its fine. i regret getting the zoas anyway so im fine with it.)

clarkii clown (very peaceful species. the agression of them is very very overestimated)

bicolor blenny subspecies idk but its only 1 color. looks the same as a bicolor though

aptasia eating filefish (dosent do much, dosent touch coral though)

coral beauty (BEAUTIFUL FISH) 

 

coral: 

pavona

xenia

gsp

zoa thats really sad

not a coral but i have some sea lettuce 

 

inverts:

hermits

snails

arrow crab

mithrax crab

brittle star

 

i used live rock to insta cycle the tank

 

so far my tank has been succesful, i have not had to deal with much uglies recently. my nutrients have also always been spot on. i hope you enjoy learning about my tank. this is not a thread for criticizing a succesful method. i follow the lasse, paul b, timfish, subsea and other people's methods which involve heavy biofiltration and heavy feeding. the fish are in prime condition and they would probably be spawning if i had paired fish. 

[pal]

Let’s see some photos!

[filefishfinatic]

[TheKleinReef]

[filefishfinatic]

https://streamable.com/ntqxjj https://streamable.com/wzjmrz https://streamable.com/iznv40 

[filefishfinatic]

this isnt current because i took the big pot out then i moved the small pot to where the big pot was covered it in rocks and oyster shells, put my xenia in a oyster cup shell thing and on the left i moved the bottle a bit and made a small platform rock spire and put my pavona on it. the zoa and kenya tree are gone at this point because of my coral munching puffer. xenia and pavona doing AWESOME 

[filefishfinatic]

i saw my brittle star last night. it was crazy. my tank is now a sps dominant tank because like all of my stuff was getting nipped by my puffer 🙄

[filefishfinatic]

that means i can go to my lfs with a spending spree on sps. any way to train my puffer to not nip coral? i just have a couple polyps of gsp and my pavona colony now 😭

bless him, he has the best heart but he dosent know the difference between mysis shrimp and polyps. 

[TheKleinReef]

20 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

any way to train my puffer to not nip coral?

no. especially if you already know it's eating your coral.

 

if you want sps, trade the puffer in.

[filefishfinatic]

it dosent touch the sps lol. only the softies i have pavona in my tank and it dosent even swim near it 

[filefishfinatic]

does pavona only do its polyps at night i usually only see like a few in the day but tons of polyps tentacles at night. i dont htink its lepto cause its growing in hight light and flow 

[TheKleinReef]

5 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

it dosent touch the sps lol. only the softies i have pavona in my tank and it dosent even swim near it 

not necessarily.

My angels of the past never touched seriatopora or montipora. but it always went after acros. Each fish is different, can't assume anything.

 

it's a gamble, if it's worth it. take it ig.

[filefishfinatic]

what i might do is go to the lfs like the weekend after schools out then buy an assortment of small frags as a test. the ones that get nipped i put in an acclimation box then return for credit or i put em in my pico. the ones that survive, i get more of them  

do you know of a few that have almost nonexistent polyps or ones that have really bad stings on fish that try to nip?

[filefishfinatic]

do you know of a few that have almost nonexistent polyps or ones that have really bad stings on fish that try to nip? i might try a new anenome 

[TheKleinReef]

3 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

what i might do is go to the lfs like the weekend after schools out then buy an assortment of small frags as a test. the ones that get nipped i put in an acclimation box then return for credit or i put em in my pico. the ones that survive, i get more of them  

do you know of a few that have almost nonexistent polyps or ones that have really bad stings on fish that try to nip?

 

seems like more work than trading in a fish, but you do you.

[filefishfinatic]

23 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

 

seems like more work than trading in a fish, but you do you.

i love my little guy and he eats outta my hand and follows me around. he is just like a dog. 

[kimdawg]

Good luck with the new frags, Post a pic of your fish, I would love to see him.

[filefishfinatic]

all you would see is a blur of fish. my puffer is so fast. i put everything but the pavona in the 3 gal. pavona is growing still. i feel like sps might be perfect for the system because theres no nutrient swings. i dont mind my tank being a refugium and a display at the same time lol. on coral reefs basically theres coral heads then dead ones covered in algae. the dead coral head algae is gross. sea lettuce on dead oysters is way cooler looking.