New and wanted some feedback from some experts ;P

[Bugbum]

Hello everyone I am new to this board and was looking for a good website that centered around saltwater tanks and aquariums alike and enjoyed checking this one out so signed up and wanted to ask some questions.

I have some very basic questions for everyone and a short story with it.

For christmas my brother and I purchased a 20gal tank for our mother. She was so excited I can tell you that!! Originally she was making a freshwater tank and on a whim made us change all the water out and switch to a saltwater tank because she thinks they saltwater fish are prettier, which I have to say they do look more colorful then freshwater ;P.

Well we got the tank setup with the water and the other little buildings we bought originally during the freshwater setup. So things where going good and finally we were able to buy some fish. We chose to go with damsels because of the ease of care for them. So we got a yellowtail damsel and a Blue Devil. Well today I come home and my brother and mother end up buying 2 more different types of damsels, Domino and Three stripe damsel, and a Banggai Cardinal.

Now I was worried about these three new fish added and was wondering can these fish all get along. Which seems they can by my research and also do you think a 20gal can fit all these small fish?

I am going to mention this as well and say that they want to get a clownfish of the, as they say, "Nemo" variety!

I just want to make sure things do not get out of hand on their tank and make sure I keep up with this for them.

Also some other things in mind is rocks for hiding places and some bottom feeders. *Bottom feeders I am slightly confused on and would love to know what type I should get and how many if need be*

But thank you all for reading this and hope to enjoy my stay here in the forums *DRUMMER*

 

[sweetpickles7]

Ooo boy. lol. First welcome to mft. Second, read pretty much every sticky at the top of the saltwater discussion. Your cardinal might have some problems with your aggressive damsels and from what ive learned they need pretty good water. If you were to stay with this setup i would also say that you have enough fish for the tank and might even be overstocked. Ill let the mods fill in any blanks that i left.

 

[quaddity]

That's a small tank for 4 damsels. They will probably beat up on the cardinal as well as each other. I have a Blue Fiji Devil and it's really aggressive. Even though you don't normally see bigger ones some of those damsels can get to a good size too.

 

[1979camaro]

First, let me say your questions are pretty typical of what we see from first time SW enthusiasts. While I am concerned, there is no reason this tank cannot be saved and turned in to a great little SW tank.

First, let's talk a little bit about your setup. I assume you used a FW tank kit which included a hang on the back power filter or even an under gravel filter. The reality is that the basic setup of a SW tank is a lot different. While in freshwater the filter pads are used to host beneficial bacteria, in saltwater we use something called Live Rock. There is a lengthy sticky at the top of this forum with more info, but in a nutshell it holds a plethora of beneficial bacteria and takes care of your biological filtration. Then all you need is solid water movement from powerheads (or even a HOB filter with no media) to develop a healthy system. Traditional filter pads tend to become nitrate traps which can leach deadly toxins back into the tank. In SW, the closes thing we use to a filter is a protein skimmer. This handy piece of equipment is used in SW to remove dissolved organic compounds (things which turn into ammonia and nitrate) from the water. On a tank of the 20g size it probably isn't necessary as doing regular water changes of a large % of your volume is pretty manageable.

As far as your fish, the 20g is already overstocked in my opinion. I think you are going to see major aggression problems with the damsels targeted first at the bangaii cardinal and then after it is killed at each other. I would not add any more fish. A lot of LFSs tell people to get damsels because they are cheap and hardy. They forget to mention that they actually get relatively large, are super aggressive, and many turn a boring brown as they mature. I certainly wouldn't add any more fish.

Lastly, I would recommend you read two books: Bob Fenner's "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" and "The New Marine Aquarium" by Mike Paletta. They are both pretty good reads and generally readily available in book stores, LFSs, and many libraries. I would use the Fenner book for philosophy as the setup info is a little dated, but the Paletta book has good info on setups very similar to what you are doing.

Hopefully that wasn't too much information all at once...

 

[Bugbum]

Thank you all for the great advice! I see what you mean and appreciate it all. I will use this for my research and get this implemented. I plan on getting her a bigger tank sometime next year but want her to start off with this one right now. My mom is doing a good job and the fish are fairly tame. They are leaving the cardinal alone RIGHT NOW but once they mature things could change like you all said.

I am going to check more on the tank setup with the info.

You guys are wonderful and thanks for the tips