Starting my first saltwater tank

[Bear44]

Plan
>20G tank FOWLR
>20lb live bahama sand (have)
>10lb eco reefer rock (have)
>10lb live rock/live rock rubble (have)
>Hydor koralia 750
>Aqua Clear 50
>Eheim Jager 150w
>Refractometer (from ebay)
>Coralife salt mix (have)

>2 Ocellaris clownfish

so far i have 1/3 of the equipment, with another 1/3 coming in through mail.

got questions that some of you more experienced people can answer.

1> whats the best salinity level for me? (this tank setup will be FOWLR, no plans for corals/anemones)

2> how deep does the sand bed have to be in order for nitrate consuming bacteria to form?

3> what do you all think of my current aquascape? (possible too much deadspace?)

[jon.smolders]

Welcome to the hobby! Sounds like you're on your way to to nice clownfish tank. Aquascape looks good (though the picture is a little dark... hard to tell exactly). But you can always rearrange it later if you don't like it. :)

A 20 lb bag of sand should be deep enough in a 20g to produce a deep sand bed. I've only got an 1-2 inchches and I can see bubbles of nitrogen coming up through it. I should add more sand though. 2-4 inches is a good depth in my opinion. try and add a couple of sand sifting snails. They will help keep the sand bed nice and healthy.

Jager heaters are good. I've had one for 10 years and it still works fine. A 150watt might be too much for you though... that's what I have in my 60 gallon! Maybe try 75 or a 100, then if it does get stuck on, it won't cook your tank quite so fast.

[Bear44]

anyone know whats the best salinity level?

i heard 1.022 will be hard for parasites to attack fishes

[sphelps]

A good salinity would be 34ppt at 78 degrees which is 1.024 SG. You can go higher or lower by 2ppt if you chose but you won't notice a difference and aiming for the middle will give you a little more tolerance since hydrometers and refractometers aren't always that accurate.

A deep sand bed will do nothing for you in that tank except reduce your volume. I would aim for a max of 1" depth. Setting up something for denitrification in a 20 gallon isn't worth while as water changes will be cheaper and much more effective.

Rock looks fine, it's not a real science so really whatever looks good to you will work.

[sphelps]

anyone know whats the best salinity level?

i heard 1.022 will be hard for parasites to attack fishes
You'll have to go much lower for this to be effective which isn't good long term.

[intarsiabox]

Welcome to the hobby! It sounds like you are off to a good start. As far as sand beds go I would only put a shallow one in or none at all. I have a 25g reef without a sand bed and it doesn't take long for pieces of rock and rubble to start covering the bottom. I chose to go no sand bed on this tank because wastes don't collect and decompose as readily and any tank I have went bare bottom has never had any type of algae or cyno issues.