SeaSerpants 20g Long

[SeaSerpant]

Thanks guys! Now it's time for the long wait for the cycle to go through. Anybody have any suggestions for a good chemical plotting system (so i can plot graphs of nitrate, nitrite, ect.) Hopefully something more interactive than excel

[AdamsB]

I think that would be a pretty neat home for a pistol shrimp goby pair. There's a few to pick from depending on availability. J&L would be/is my go to store. I have the candy cane pistol with a banded high fin goby. As for coral, I'd do rare zoas with a couple of lps mixed in. But that's me

[SeaSerpant]

AdamsB
Yasha hase goby and a pistol shrimp was on the top of the list! How did you know? And i've always loved the look of sexy shrimp.

As for corals i want to get a nice large frogspawn or torch coral for the very front of the tank in that empty space and i plan to do a nice mix of zoas, mushrooms, lps sps the works.

[Dyspnea]

I like the aqua scape! 20L is a nice size aquarium. I miss mine from long ago.

[SeaSerpant]

Thanks Dyspnea!
I haven't had a 20g in years and it seems like the perfect size. i made sure to leave the aquascape open for the addition of corals

[SeaSerpant]

Just a quick update with fts. I bought a Rio 1400 waterpump with a flow rate of over 400gph which will do great for my purposes and was a better alternative than the 160gph Maxijet 600 i had sitting in there.

Here are the chemical readings thus far:
Ammonia - 1
Nitrate - 5
Nitrite - 0.3
Ph - 8.2

Looks like the cycle is well under way and i'm looking forward to the end. Although i'm not going to rush it.









I made sure to leave lots of room for corals and additions

Thanks for looking!
SeaSerpant

[SeaSerpant]

Just realized that half of my picture links aren't working since i moved the albums around on photobucket so i'll be sure to fix that tonight!
Update:
Ammonia spiked to about 1 or 2 last week and has constantly at 0 (or what i assume is zero on the nutrafin test).
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 5
I also had a sizable diatom bloom which makes me happy to see. So i added 3 hermits, 2 astereas and 2 ceriths. Hopefully the tank will stable a little bit more by the weekend and i'll be able to add a bit more.
Just as a side note, the Fluval skimmer is doing it's job well but it's constantly putting microbubbles into the water column, but hopefully that should go away when the skimmer breaks in.
Thanks For Looking
SeaSerpant

[SeaSerpant]

The first stage of the cycle is over! The ammonia has settled down to 0 and has held there firmly for over a week. The nitrate has been going between 5-7ppm and the Nitrite is 0.1 or less.
I added a CUC a week ago and last weekend i bought 2 clowns as well as a hammer and yesterday i introduced a bubble coral in the hopes that it will host the clowns without being desimated!
As always here's some shots of the tank now
(you can't see it in the photo but i've been having quite the problem with microbubles, most likely due to the skimmer breaking in)

[SeaSerpant]

Hey All! Sorry for the long wait between posts, school really got on my ass and i still have 2 more finals on friday, but i was able to finally get some time to write up a post!

I'll start with the pictures that everyone loves!

[SeaSerpant]

My bubble coral began receding and i checked the params and i had gotten a second ammonia spike, so i did a quick water change and i've added some cheato to the back part of the tank to reduce extra nutrients and so far the bubble has bounced back a little.

The current habitants are:
Corals:
Zoas
Palys
2 types of cloves (small purple ones and the bigger kind)
Not too sure what the long stalky one is
toadstool
gsp
bubble coral
torch coral
xenia
mushrooms

Fish/Invertebrates:
6 hermits
2 ceriths
4 astrea
2 turbo
1 green emerald crab
1 Sexy shrimp (always by bubble coral)
2 Clownfish

Hope i covered everything!
(ps- i get a new phone this weekend, so hopefully that means better pictures, and some things look more sickly then they actually are since i just did a water change)