20 Long Mixed Reef

aggie05

aggie05

Member
Here is my 20 Long that has been running for a little over a year now. Lighting is two 24" VHO, for a total of 150 watts. The inhabitants are a firefish, tomato clown, and banghai cardinal, along with a peppermint shrimp. Oh yeah, also my new Squamosa clam. Corals are as follows
LPS
Torch
Open Brain
Moon Brain
Bubble
Candy
Hammer
SPS
Purple Montipora Digi
Green Monti Cap
Orange Monti Cap
Red Acro of some sort
Green and Purple Acro
Pavona
Pink Birdsnest
Softies
Green hairy shrooms
Blue Rics
Green Rics
Xenia
GSP
pink ployps
vairous mixed polyps
Toadstool leather
I run skimmerless and do weekly water changes of 2 gallons using oceanic salt. So far the tank has been incredibly stable. The only problem I have had is a constant cyano covering on the sand. I am pretty sure it is from my heavy feeding and am cutting back and hoping the new clam helps to consume some nutrients as well. Also just added a bunch of nassarius so we will see what happens.
Pics
 
crazy4reefs

crazy4reefs

Member
very awesome tank ! how long have you had sps corals in there ? my tank has been very stable so i am a little nervous to add the skimmer.
 
aggie05

aggie05

Member
Yeah, I won't add a skimmer for that reason and the fact that I have no sump and its in my bedroom.
I started adding SPS about 4 months ago. Everything has been great ever since. The only problem I had was with the red acro. It started bleaching on me due to way too much flow hitting it, it has since then really started to flourish. But everyone else who split the mother colony with me lost thiers, so I guess it says something about the health of my tank.
 
clown_nut

clown_nut

Member
Any thoughts to get a longer hood? Also What would you say would be the lowest light an xenia would need to thrive? How much liverock do you have? And How much Sand is that? By the way the tank looks very beautiful. Also what all do you have for filtration and circulation?
 
aggie05

aggie05

Member
Filtration is only live rock and sand. I would guess I have around 20# of rock and about 20# of sand as well, maybe a little bit more. Circulation is provided by two powerheads and two small HOB filters with no media in them. My hood stretches the length of the tank, its just the bulbs that are 24", but there is very little light die off at the edges so I am happy with it. I am considering adding two more bulbs though, which would give me 300 watts total.
As far as Xenia is concerned it can survive under very little light, say 30-40 watts over a 10 gallon, but my Xenia really started to thrive when I added the VHOs.
Thanks for all the compliments on the tank. It definitely has a lot more potential.:)
Edit: I just noticed you are in Pearland, I am from Missouri City. Are you on the MARSH website?
 
clown_nut

clown_nut

Member
the what website? Also how would an xenia frag do in a 2.5g with 13w? Or would I just do well to stick to shrooms? lol
 
aggie05

aggie05

Member
It would do great in a 2.5.
www.marshreef.com
its the houston reef clubs board. There are lots of members and even some in your part of town. We have frag swaps on a regular basis and monthly meetings.
 
7days

7days

Member
Aggie05 that tank is simply beautiful.
I am starting my 10 gal nano, but only have lr and ls right now. I also do not plan on having sump, fuge, skimmer, etc. That money buys a LOT of salt! One question though, I thinking about getting a 96w powerquad bulb, is there anything in your tank that I couldn't grow in a 10gal with that bulb? And do you know how I can save this thread for later viewing? Say 2-3 months down the road?
And once again :happy: that tank is inspiring.
 
aggie05

aggie05

Member
The 96 watt powerquad is great for 10 gallons, and you should be capable of any LPS. SPS is always a toss up, some, like Brooklyn Johnny have had great succes at keeping both clams and SPS under PCs, but most of the time, they lose their color. Hell, even under VHOs, my SPS colormorph, luckily for me, they only change to greens, rather than going to brown like they would under PCs. A lot also has to do with your tanks stability.
As far as saving the thread goes, I don't know how. But you can always just search for my username and find it.
And thankyou very much for the kind words. I have never thought of my tank as being one of the better ones, but it is nice to hear positive comments from others. Good luck with your 10.
 
aggie05

aggie05

Member
Yes, but don't need any supplemental food. Mine get DTs only because I have the clam, and so many other things that will consume it.
 
manjisann

manjisann

Member
That is a beautiful tank, I have a reg. 20 gal, only a couple of weeks old, so no corals. I'm really intriqued by the hammer corals, any advice you can give would be great. I have a brown type algae growing on my rock and sand, any suggestions on how to control that?
 
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