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SeaSerpants Dual Hills 20g ONE MONTH!!!
Hello Everybody!
I have been apart of this forum for almost 2 years now! And i've never even had a SW tank. After finding out how expensive this hobby is i went FW and already i know SW is the best! I had talked before about getting a 20g and now i have! Specs: 24x12x17 Rounded Front corners Black Back Equipment: K-2 Viper (metal halide) with 10k bulb (will change to 14k) Penguin 330 Biowheel Filter Hydor 100w heater Koralia nano powerhead Bio-sea Marinemix salt 15lbs Live Rock 20lbs Argonite sand Corals: None Want: Zoas Pulsing Xenia Frogspawn Feather Dusters (any ideas for nice colourful corals? preferably soft) Fish/cuc: None Want (will change): 2 clownfish (female, male) RedFire Fish Longnosed Hawkfish Magenta Dottyback Lawnmower Blenny CUC Possibly a pygmy seahorse I just set this tank up yesterday and it's looking good. The filter almost has all the sand out of the water column and everything is looking good. Now before the pictures i have a spur of questions: When can i tell when the nitrogen cycle has started/finished? Will the metal halide be good enough for corals? How many fish can i have? Corals? What kind of CUC is the best at cleaning? best looking? Is there any kind of anemone that won't kill other corals? Does my tank look good? Any Advice? And here are the pics: http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish002.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish003.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish001.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish004.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish005.jpg I'm thinking about switching the sides of the light around with the filter! Comments Please! Thanks SeaSerpant PS, Just bump the thread for me to update/reply or i might forget! |
Good start so far...
1st things first... When can i tell when the nitrogen cycle has started/finished? Testing. You get an ammonia spike when the cycle begins, followed by a nitrate spike followed by both of them dropping (sometimes fast sometimes painfully slow) to 0 when it has finished. 2nd Will the metal halide be good enough for corals? what wattage is your k2 halide? Anything 150 and up and you're fine for coral of any variety, however you're correct in believing the positioning should be rethought. You want the light over where the coral will be, not your sand bed. 3 How many fish can i have? Corals? With no skimmer or sump, the lesser the better. You'll be dedicating a lot of time to water changes or hair algae removal without any additional filtration to your live rock other than your biowheel (which we will get to) if you go with your list as proposed. You might consider an all coral tank, with maybe 1 or 2 very small fish until you want to bump up your gear, but in the end, up to your desired level of work. 4 What kind of CUC is the best at cleaning? best looking? Snails are the way to go, hermits and crabs in general are opportunistic and not to be trusted. A few are pretty reputable though, like the smaller scarlett variety. Go to an LFS, they will be able to help you here as in the end, it's really all the same until you know exactly what your systems needs turn out to be when established. 5th Is there any kind of anemone that won't kill other corals? No, not really, most or all have a tendency to sting and move around from time to time doing just that to anything that happens to be in the way. 6 and 7 Does my tank look good?, Any Advice? Looks great. Your scape looks like there is lots of room around rocks for flow and fish. As far as advice, ditch your biofilter, they are almost useless and usually just accumulate nasty stuff that winds up impacting your aquarium chemistry negatively. If anything, take all of the media out and run some good carbon in there and change it regularly. I think you might want to consider adding another powerhead as well as you'll want a higher overall tank turnover as well as more flow. Also, take your time, best add 1 fish/coral at a time, a small system feels any change. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions about anything. Can't wait to check here in a few months. |
Wow thanks Gobytron thats really helpful! :thumbsup:
The wattage of the light is 150w! yay!! For the filter it is rated for a 75g tank so the aquarium has a good overall turnout! And i have an interesting tid bit. On the middle rock on the left side, there looks like there is a tube there, i just realized when i turned the light on, a feather duster head popped out! It looked like the top one in this: http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...latusCOZDi.jpg Any ideas? Thanks SeaSerpant |
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http://www.aquariumfish.net/_adverti...her_duster.jpg Has the water settled to the point its clear? |
Elitesurfer
Thanks for confirming my suspicons. i'll try and take a picture of it tomorrow (pic was of one off the web). The water has cleared to being crystal! lol! I'll take a pic of it tomorrow too! Thanks SeaSerpant |
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I know this is a very quick update but... i gotta keep busy!
I took a bunch of tests and i think my cycles started! Ph-8 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-5 Ammonia-.5 SG-1.025 Temp-27 And i noticed that i have a small thing of aiptasia, it's about a penny in size, should i worry about it? I'm thinking i'm just going to get a peppermint shrimp!(when the cycle is done!) And i have heard from many people that a HOB filter doesn't do much for filtration (live rock and sand does most!) so i'm thinking about getting a nano remora, hopefully it will make the flow better too! Ok and just a few pics since it's clear now! Aiptasia http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish007.jpg Feather Duster http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish010.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish012.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish011.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish009.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...nt/fish008.jpg Comments Welcome SeaSerpant |
Looking good so far! I would suggest after confirming tank cycle, that you start with either a chromis or a yellow tail blue damsel and see how they do before you invest in the other things on your list. I would advise against a seahorse especially for the other things you want. Clownfish are good but stick to the smaller variety, perc's etc. maybe a nice anemone as well, but make sure you put sponge over filter intakes to prevent it from being sucked in, peppermint shrimps are good for aptasia most of the time and a cleaner shrimp is nice as well. stick to softies and mushrooms etc, I will see if I have any pics of my 27g tank at work, easiest tank I have got to take care of and I abuse it regularly{maybe thats the secret}, With small tanks I believe the secret is the K.I.S.S. theory, Keep It Simple Silly. I have customers who come in and stare at my tank for ages, so it works well. You are doing great so far though.:biggrin:
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Dsaundry,
Thanks for the reply! I like the look of a yellow tail blue damsel, but is there a nicer fish for that? (lol, just like asthetics, tis all):p I do like the idea of an anemone, except for the part of it killing other corals/fish and growing to large! I expect to keep it to soft corals, i don't very much like the look of hard corals:biggrin: Now another question, i have looked at a bunch of different sites and i get totally mixed results, i have a HOB filter, should i get rid of it? Almost all say take out the biowheel (can cause bad things in the long run) and some say that just some filterfloss and carbon is good in it! Is this true? Thanks SeaSerpant Ps Don't worry, i'm doing my homework! |
The thing is, you're going to run into all kinds of different opinions about these things.
using a HOB filter for a reef, which requires much better filtration than fw or fish only set ups is just not going to cut it. 20 gallons is pretty small for a reef as well, this means that you need even better filtration than a comparably larger system. As stated in the very first post and in the pms you have sent me, your HOB is almost useless as designed. Adding some carbon and filter floss will help but you will need to change them regularly or they will just do the same thing that any media will do which is become a haven for phosphates, dissolved organics, ammonia and nitrite. The best filtration you are going to h=get without a skimmer is from your love rock, again, as stated to you before which means that you're better off with another powerhead in there to help the water get pushed through (and filtered by) the liverock than to keep the HOB filter on. As I suggested, do some reading on dissolved organic compounds and you'll have a good idea of the difference between the filtration a skimmer gives you versus what a hob filter will do for you. These are very important pieces to your puzzle. Looking better every time I take a peak at this thread though, keep up the good work. |
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