csvengal
Member
Hey everyone! Finally ordered my base live rock and sand, and have setup my 20 gallon long reef tank. I've done two small water changes and ammonia has never gone over .50ppm. Nitrite was close to 1.0 ppm a couple days ago, but yesterday it tested at .25. Right now I am trying to catch unwanted hitchhikers, mostly small whelks and small gorilla crabs. I think I have a small pistol shrimp (heard, not seen) there is lots of life in the sand and the rock. I am just leaving the lights on 5 hours per day, and waiting for the ammonia to drop lower. I have attached a few pics, I think I am off to a good start - any input would be greatly appreciated. It has been in tank for 5 days now. As soon as everything stabilizes I will get the second part of the rock (15 lbs), along with my cleaning gang of 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 brittle star (even though I have a baby one in there already that came with the sand) 15 blue legs hermits, 8 astrea snails, and 2 tiger tail cucumbers. I have 1 keyhole limpet and about 4 ceriths that came with the live sand. I plan on waiting a good long while before adding any fish, but when I do I would like to get two clownfish, and either a dottyback OR a blenny. I have an unknown species of crab, he is very tiny and I have attached a pic of him too, but its not very good. As before, any input or advice would be greatly appreciated. I am currently doing the bottle trap for the gorillas, baited with a small shrimp, but so far he's not going for it. Thanks!