brandons 20gallon long sps diary

[brandon7491]

alright guys as some of you already know i am starting a 20gallon sps tank. here are some pictures and what not. it has 2 penguin 1140 power heads in the corners of the tank with a black background. i have cycled the water with shrimp already and have 30lbs of ls in it. on wednesday 22lbs of ultra premimum fiji lr will be comming in and if i dont have enough the 25lbs from my 14gallon nano will help even it out. i am using a simple milenum 2000hob filter with biological filtration and it has chemical filtration. no protien skimmers are going to be used and it should be self supporting. my lights are going to be a 150 aquamedic metal hailide which will be suspended about 16-22inches from the tank. the fish list is going to be well actually here are the two fish that i am 100% going to be getting a flame angel and a 6line wrase to control flat worms from eating the sps. they will be added last so the lr can mature for the angel and the 6line last so it wont bully other fish. here are now some pics of the tank and my 14gallon nano which all the corals will be going from it into the 20long. also may i add that i will have xenia glued on the 2 outer corners of the tank for a more wavy and elegant look.

 

[puffer32]

Good luck with it

 

[brandon7491]

thxs this tank though small will be stunning no doubt more pics will be posted on wednesday of the lr and aquascaping. if any one has any suggestions plz feel free to say them im taking all the suggestions i can get so this tank can be one of the nicest small tanks ever

 

[rubberduck]

lots good so far keep the pics coming

 

[efishnsea]

Great Start

, Good Luck with your new tank!!!!

 

[brandon7491]

thxs guys more pics will be posted on wednesday.

 

[brandon7491]

well it came in hurray! i cleaned and aquascaped it the way i felt was the best thing for sps n e ways here yall go.

 

[brandan]

Sweet rockwork!

 

[brandon7491]

thxs i was expecting some smaller piece but instead i got boulders lol in the end it all worked out

 

[wifishman1]

nice start. i love the 20L tanks.

 

[brandon7491]

yea they are nice. i already cycled the water previously with smaler piece of lr and some damsels and what not but due to the lr i have to wait cuz i just checked and nitrate,trite,amonia are all spiking which is good.

 

[brandon7491]

wsp guys! Well my light finally came in and my water is now finally perfect. the prams are nitrite-0,nitrate-0,phos-0,calcium 420,salinity 1.025,ph 8.2-8.4ish,amonia-0. last night i transfered all my corals from my other tank into this one. soon i will b going over to my buddies house who has a 1400gallon sps tank to be hooked up. enjoy the new pics

 

[brandon7491]

btw as you guys already know the egg crates and screen are to acklimate the corals to the new lights. i forgot to tell you guys but yesterday i went to my lfs and got a beautiful and healthy as can be fire fish ill try to get a snap shot of him. also i want to have four fish in the tank which will be flame angel,6line wrase,and fire fish, i dont know what the last one should be any suggestions?

 

[brandon7491]

well i took out one of the penguin1140 powerheads due to it being just too strong and replaced it with a maxijet900. way better and it looks like my corals are oppening up more. i went alittle fast with adding corals but i should be ok. ill be waiting another month before i add anything else. the corals in there are. montis, 1open green brain,closed red brain,frogspawn,gsp,and a sun coral

 

[brandon7491]

and blasto,maze brain, comon guys comment i feel sad now

any suggestions or constructive criticism?

 

[reef diver]

MAybe you should add a bottom dwelling goby, sand cleaner, keep teh sand free of any bad stuff

 

[brandon7491]

what about a watchman? so far in the tank i have a firefish and a hawk fish i put in from other tank. i want to get a flame angel and a 6 line. do u think 5 fish would be pushing it? the flame will get fed well so he wont nip at the corals and clams.

 

[fish addict]

Maybe no flame or 6 line and get the goby instead. But I wouldn't get 5 fish since this is going to be an SPS tank you want as little bioload as possible. Looks great though, post some pictures of the new coral!

 

[brandon7491]

since we are talking about bioload should i take my longnose hawkfish out?

 

[brandon7491]

sigh i just dont get it. i did a 5 gallon water change on my tank just to get everything down cuz salinity was 1.026 and there were some nitrates and nitrites just barely showing up. sooooooo the water change got everything perfect again but my nitrites are showing up as .25. i dont understand. i have all my corals in there cuz i just got done cyclying the tank and params were reading perfect. (i kinda rushed with corals) should i move all my corals to my other tank where the params are being perfect or should i be patient and stop worrying?