lowpro1 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 i have a 20 gallon high tank and for my filtration im going to use live rock, araganite sand mix with live sand, and a protien skimmer along with a power head. but how many pounds of live rock should i use? and how deep of a sand bed should i create? Link to comment
jc51373 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 I am setting a 20g up as well and I am interested in the answers to these questions. I have been told about 1-2 lbs per gallon. I am gonna load up on about 40 pounds of handpicked stuff so I can create the aquascape I want to acheive. I will be using all the same types of equipment and possibly a doser as well. Best of luck with yours! Link to comment
lowpro1 Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 hey jc5! i wish you lots of luck on your tank too! what kid of fish do you plan on putting into your tank? i herd that you do need 1-1 1/2 pounds of rock per gallon, but to save room for the fish to swim someone told me to go with 15 pounds or fuji rock. they said its more porus and filters good. but if youone can help us on this, im sure it will be highly appreciated Link to comment
Trag Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 30 lbs live rock No more then 1" Just My Opinion Link to comment
jc51373 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 Your right Fiji rock is the most pourus which creates more surface area for biological goodies to grow...I am not so concerned with room for fish to swim as I am only going to have two maybe three tops! For fish I am most likely going to purchase a mated pair of True Percula Clowns. And if I add another fish it will be a species that controls algae etc...I really want a Clown Angler fish but this would mean I have to keep him alone cause they eat other fish even larger than themselves. Sounds like you are on the road to success with your tank...If your doing a reef this small I would make another suggestion to you..For additives try not to use Kalkwasser for your calcium supplement. Too risky that you will spike the PH in a tank of that size. Rather, use ESV B-Ionic supplements, they are all you will ever need...Keep it simple! Good luck Link to comment
jc51373 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 agree, 30 pounds should do it for your tank if your looking for room...I may get around 40 for my tank..I would do a sandbed a bit depper than and inch though...At least two and 3 is even better...The deep sand bed has been well receieved from many aquarists using it. It will make alot of the animals you may want to keep feel more comfortable if they can burrow and chow down on the life in the bed. That life that will live in the sand requires a it more than an inch of sand to be able to reproduce and hide away. Link to comment
jc51373 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 I agree, 30 pounds should do it for your tank if your looking for room...I may get around 40 for my tank..I would do a sandbed a bit depper than and inch though...At least two and 3 is even better...The deep sand bed has been well receieved from many aquarists using it. It will make alot of the animals you may want to keep feel more comfortable if they can burrow and chow down on the life in the bed. That life that will live in the sand requires a it more than an inch of sand to be able to reproduce and hide away. Link to comment
~_~ Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 Just do whatever looks good to you I have around a 2-3inch sandbed and 23pounds of fiji rock in my 20h (I do want 1 more rock though, so it will probably be 30 pounds when I get another piece) Here's how my 20h looks so far... (nothin in it but rock&sand Link to comment
lowpro1 Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 ~_~:: are you aware that there is a little alien thing floating in your video picture? lol. ne ways the fish that i might be keeping in there, well from the other post i made about picking my fish, are going to be a royal dottyback, 2 firefish and a percula clown. so i wont need that much rock since i will only need some for a few anenomies and maybe a few corals, but i will need alot of swimming room wouldnt you say? and i prolly will wind up going with a 3 inch bed so that my fish can dig around when they get hungry other then there feeding times. also, how many times do you feed your fish a day? in my fresh i normaly went with 1 time at night to keep the polution level down. but should i feed my salties 2 times a day? Link to comment
jc51373 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 Sounds like your doing more of a fish tank than a reef...I would advise staying as far away from anemones as possible as well. They do not live in captivity,PERIOD. Don't fool yourself into believing they do or let anyone tell you different..I have never known anyone to own one for an extended amount of time, ask yourself if know anyone that has had one for more than a year too...Don't be fooled by heathly thriving anemomes at your LFS either, they are there long enough to be sold and thats it...Also what kind of lighting do you have?? Anything less than halide for an attempt with an anemone is feudal...The bright side is there are other corals and such that a clown will host, not sure of the name off hand, but they do exist. For a 20 gallon reef I personally think that is too many fish but for a fish tank it is comfortable. But i totally disagree with the theory of too much or too little swimming room for a reef tank..The goal is making your corals comfortable first, and a small amount of fish are part of that. PS-keep in mind that when some anemones die they omit a toxin, and in a 20 gallon tank this is of great concern. Link to comment
lowpro1 Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 yea i dont have anythign set up yet. im buying all the basic stuff i need first then setting it all up once i have everything. so im doing my h/w right now and finding out what could be done. i would love to hear about what other coarls and such a clown will host. and what i want to try to do is get about 15-20 pounds of live rock, like niccce pieces, and try to make as many caves and hiding areas as possible so that i dont have any conflicts. i an thinking of only going with 1 firefish and insted getting something that stays on the botton like a orange prawn goby or a two spot goby. so that i can space out swimmgng areas a little bit. but like i said i am ordering my skimmer, lights, rock and am just trying to figure out how and what to do. Link to comment
jc51373 Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 I would suggest more rock poundage if your budget will allow it. With the firefish just make sure it is not bullied, they are a beautiful but very peaceful and can be bullied by larger more aggressive tank mates. Sounds like you are creating a very nice start for yourself with the equipment you want to buy. What kind of skimmer, lights, rock do you plan on buying? Are you going to use RO/DI water?? There is so much minor crapola to deal with when creating a reef but if set up properly with more science than technology they can run smoothly. Link to comment
lowpro1 Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 i was thinking about getting a seaclone skimmer. and for the lights, i have the lighting fixture from my freshwater tank, i was thinking i would jus buy a saltwater bulb for it is that would work. and as for the rock, i herd that fuji was more pourus and i will probablly whind up buying that. as far as water is concerned, i live in toms river nj, and if you ever been here you kno the water deffly has some stuff in it its not supposed to. so i am going to buy a tap water conditioner unit from liveaquaria.com Link to comment
LakerFan Posted January 31, 2003 Share Posted January 31, 2003 You'll probably learn that most people haven't had a good experience with Seaclone skimmers. The older versions didn't work well so seaclone owners started modifying their skimmers by placing airstones in the chamber or cutting down the inner tube (which by the way is how the new seaclone skimmers come) it improved the skimming ability of the skimmer, but it still didn't compare to others on the market. There are a lot of skimmers out there that perform way better than the Seaclone for just a little bit more money. I would suggest and Aqua C remora. You can also try the new Via Aqua Multi skimmer that's now out in the market. I saw it in action at a MAC event at the Long Beach Aquarium thing weekend and it was performing extremely well. You can get this skimmer for around the $70 to $100 range. Link to comment
LakerFan Posted January 31, 2003 Share Posted January 31, 2003 Oh and as far as the amount of rock or sand goes, use what looks right to you, as long as you don't go too fast you can vary in the amount of live rock that you use. The pounds per gallon rule really shouldn't be followed because some rock is denser than others. Link to comment
lowpro1 Posted February 1, 2003 Author Share Posted February 1, 2003 what abotu a prizim skimmer? i hear that they are good and around the 70 dollar price Link to comment
jc51373 Posted February 1, 2003 Share Posted February 1, 2003 I have a prizm and I don't like it..Don't work as well as other skimmers and it is really loud..I would say save and extra $100 and get a CPR or AquaC remora. Seaclone does not get good fanfare either. The two I recommended are a little higher in price but will save you $$$$ in the long run. Link to comment
SnowReefer Posted February 1, 2003 Share Posted February 1, 2003 I would recommend around 30lbs of LR. I have a 20g high and I started with 45 lbs of aquacultured figi lr from FFE and chiseled and aquascaped my way down to 30lbs and made beautiful arches caves etc. I used about 1 1/2 inches of oolitic sand for my sandbed( pain in the ass sand very very light but beautiful). I'm using a Prizm and would recommend another skimmer CPR or better aqua c remora! You need about 2 powerheads go with no other than Maxi-Jet. I use three because I'm going for stony corals. hoped that helped Link to comment
Goliath Posted February 26, 2003 Share Posted February 26, 2003 Has anyone really given the Aqua Via Multi Skimmer a run for its money. I really like the idea of an all in one filter/skimmer. I am really looking at the CPR bakpac 2 as well but if that Multi Skimmer works well then I will go that route. I have an 18 gallon tall tank so I know its plenty big enough for my tank. Jeremy Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.