20 Gallon Reef Tank

Perfectblue

Perfectblue

Medium Fish
#1
Mar 31, 2006
83
0
0
Minnesota
#1
Let me first start out by explaining how this tank came into play. Well as some of you may know I have had a 55 gallon FOWLR tank running for about 6-7 months which is great but I really wanted to try my hand at coral but didn't want to spend alot of money on upgrading my lighting so I decided to downgrade to a 20 gallon long. I originally had 4 fish in my 55 which consisted of 1 Firefish, 2 Ocellaris Clownfish, and 1 Sandsifting Goby but obviously I couldn't keep all those fish in a 20g tank so I only kept the Firefish. Don't worry the other fish found good homes with local reefers. :)

I transferred most of the sand from the 55 which gave me a nice substrate depth of 1.5" to 2" in some areas. I am going to install 2x65watt PC's which came from my Current USA fixture. I would maybe like to add another small fish sometime in the future, as well as a Cleaner shrimp. I placed both Maxijet 1200's in the tank and turned them on and imo it is too much flow for only softies and a few LPS so I will place them on timers so only one powerhead will be running at a time. I will list specifications but Everything is from my 55 gallon tank including the water.

Equipment:

20 gallon long tank (30"Lx12"Wx12"H)
DIY canopy with 2x65watt PC lighting installed
AquaC Remora protein Skimmer
2 Maxjet 1200's
11lbs of Fiji live rock
Roughly 30lbs of fine white sand

Inhabitants:

1 Firefish
1 Strawberry Crab
1 Whelk
1 Strombus Snail
2 Cerith Snails
4 Nassarius Snails
4 Astraea Snails

Future Coral Plans:

I will keep softies and LPS in this tank. My rough list of coral that I would like to keep:

Zoos
Mushrooms
Candy Cane
Frogspawn or Torch
Brain
Favia
Xenia

Canopy is pretty much finished but I still need to purchase a couple hinges and will probably install a fan. Here are a couple pics of the inside of the canopy.







That is it for my introductory post on chronicling the process of my 20 gallon reef tank. Comments are always welcomed. :)
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#3
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
3
0
#3
Some thoughts ...

1. Looking at the images your lightbulbs need replacing. See the dark lines near the bases - a sure sign these tubes have seen better days. Higher K compact fluorescents do not have a very long lifespan at all, 6 months tops.
2. Rather than mess around with a timer for the powerheads keep them both one, but consider the arrangement of the rockwork and flow. I have 2 tanks - one in my basement is my 20 long 'messing around' tank, and that has a maxi jet 1200 and a comparable 1000 lph internal filter. I do not see this as a high flow setup at all.
Remember when the rockwork goes in it will disrupt, reduce flow considerable.
3. 1 1/2 - 2 inches of sand is netither one or another. It will need some sifters for maintenance, but is not deep enough for dentrafication (reputedly).
4. Be wary of your choice of corals. I was thinking that your lighting flow,, would be inadequate for xenia, but smart placement can control that. I would be wary of a toch in a tank of that size - the stinging tentacles get a bit big for my liking.

One of the dwarf dwarf angels would make a great addition to that tank.
 

Perfectblue

Perfectblue

Medium Fish
#4
Mar 31, 2006
83
0
0
Minnesota
#4
Thanks for your comments Wayne. I realize that my bulbs need replacing but I should be able to get another 2 months or so out of them since the last set of PC bulbs I got lasted 6 months. I have actually been playing around with powerhead placement and now have the flow exactly where I want it with both running. I never wanted a DSB in this tank so I just added enough sand to make it aesthetically pleasing. I will post a few full tank shots fairly soon.
 

Perfectblue

Perfectblue

Medium Fish
#5
Mar 31, 2006
83
0
0
Minnesota
#5
Update: The tank is doing good and I'm getting some good coralline algae growth. I have added a small Green Clown Goby which is doing well and is eating most of the foods I offer. I will be adding a few more snails to my tank and I should be adding my first coral to this tank soon. Here is a full tank shot and a few pictures of my Firefish

Full Tank Shot


Closeup Pics Of My Firefish






 

Perfectblue

Perfectblue

Medium Fish
#19
Mar 31, 2006
83
0
0
Minnesota
#19
Thanks for the comments everyone. Well over the last couple weeks I added a few new inhabitants:

Green Clown Goby
2 Cerith Snails
1 Scarlet Reef Hermit
1 Small colony of Zoas (15-20 Polyps)
1 Small Mushroom

I will post pictures of the new coral soon.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.