Anyone out there with a 20L?

[laddy]

So I've had my 10g stabalized for about six months now <knock on wood> and it's been up for almost a year now so it's time to get the wandering eye. I saw a 20L at a chain store for $30 and thought to myself "hhmmmmmm I could do a lot with that." Anyone out there who can tell me setup features, equipment, etc about maintaining a 20L? :joy: :joy:

 

[norway]

lr and ls is optional on what you want but i have 150watt visitherm heater a mag3 scwd closed loop for circulation, 2X65 watt pc with led diy moonlights. for filtration i run carbon through a penguin mini once a week and i have an excalibur protein skimmer

 

[laddy]

Do you have any PH's running in the tank? That was my main concern, getting the water in motion. I don't think I'd skim it, however, I'd add an old 10g sump/fuge. What have you stocked it with?

 

[norway]

i did have a maxijet 1200 with a diy Y on the output untill i made the mag drive 3 closed loop system
maxijet with Y in top left

 

[norway]

you can also see the return from my sump which was about 100 gph
now i have the closed loop system...

 

[norway]

plumbing inside the canopy

 

[norway]

the best, cheapest, least amount of plumbing way to circulate a 20 long is with 1 maxijet 900 on each backside corner of the tank pointing at each other and then have them both regulated with a wavemaker. that would cost you about $60 all together. i say the 900's because the 1200 that i had was a massive amount of flow but it always kicked up my sand on the other end of my tank... 2 900's should be plenty of flow.
1 maroon clown
1 yellow watchman goby
1 coral banded shrimp
1 pistol shrimp
1 hawaiin pink crab
2 emerald crabs
various hermits
2 turbo snails
1 green bta
blue striped shrooms
yellow ricordia
yellow polyps
green star polyps
i plan on adding
1 more small fish
xenia
zoo's
candycanes
brains
hammer
frogspawn
and many more
i start out with tiny frags that cost a few dollars and if they dont make it then i dont mind as much as if i lost $100 worth. plus its like getting a puppy...you can train it to fit any ledge or crevice(spelling?) which is nice to be able to do in a nano.

 

[crazy4reefs]

this picture of my tank is a couple of months old. i have changed somethings and have more corals. right now i have a small HOB filter
2 small (201's i think) ph, one on each side of the tank. then burried under my live rock i have another ph to get circulation near the sandbed. as of right now i dont have a skimmer or a sump or fuge. someday i do want to set up a 10g sump but i am going to wait because i am actually going to upgrade to a 29g tank. you might want to consider a 29 its the same length and width as the 20L just higher...hope this helped

 

[laddy]

Thanks guys, you've given me some good ideas.
Norway--your closed loop system looks very clean, I'm impressed (clean as in the routing of PVC). Also, is your hood a DIY?
Crazy--I'm a big believer in sumps/fuges and have a 7g on my 10g. I mainly did it to see if I could, but after two months I noticed that I my maintenance on the tank diminished (i.e. algae blooms, buffer dosings, etc).

 

[laddy]

....as for the philosophy of starting with small frags, I totally agree. I started fragging mushrooms awhile ago after I realized I give too much money away to my LFS I converted an old 10 into a grow out tank and haven't looked back since.....

 

[norway]

yeah the canopy is actually a unique setup i designed and built myself
here is a pic from the side...its like a child to me, haha.

 

[liverock27]

Great tanks yall. I just started up a 20g long about a month ago. I am using a Fluval204 and an Aquaclear 301 ph plus a 200w Won Brother Titanium Heater with the LCD screen. The lighting has 2x65w actinic and 10,000k daylight bulbs plus 2 LED moonlight bulbs (1watt each). All the equipment I had leftover from an old system. I have about 40lbs of live sand and about 22lbs of live rock. Right now I have 5 small turbo snails and 4 Banded Trochus snails (also from an old system). Hope mine ends up looking like yalls.