Livestock question

[mkturklol]

Hello i am new to saltwater and had a couple questions.
My tank setup at the moment is a 20 long (30x12x12) with t5 lighting, a pinguin bio wheel, heater, 240gph powerhead, getting a protein skimmer, 25 lbs of live rock, aragonite sand as substrate and salinity is sitting around 1.023. Looking to have corals in future.
I just added my live rock and my tank is going through cycling. This is where i get confused. Please correct me if im going to do something that isnt a good idea.
When its done cycling i am going to get my cleanup crew. 3 cleaner shrimp, a couple small crabs(any suggestions?) and some snails. My first fish i will introduce will be a firefish. a week later i am thinking of a bengaii cardinalfish. maybe after a couple more months a flame angel?
I .think i will be maxed out after that., If this won't work, what are some good combos of fish for a 20 long?

 

[mmyuki]

Sounds good to me, maybe one more powerhead for the other side of the tank, since it is a 20 long. You may be able to add one more fish in the future but 4 would be max I would say, think about getting some hermit crabs and more snails as well. Goodluck!

 

[florida joe]

That’s a lot of clean up help for a newly started tank IMO
Quote:
i am going to get my cleanup crew. 3 cleaner shrimp, a couple small crabs(any suggestions?) and some snails

 

[reeferchief]

Sounds about right as far as cycling. I would definitely get a good skimmer and another small powerhead to circulate water. Water movement is important. Many people add something to start the bacteria needed for cycling like a piece of shrimp or they even sell bottle of turbo start to get cycling started. Test the water after 2 weeks and continue to test until the levels are stable. Then you can acclimate a CUC, after another week or 2, if the water test come back consistant, you can acclimate a fish.
Try to get the salinity up to around 1.025 for corals. You can get all types of coral for beginners, zoo's, mushrooms, xenia's, hammers, bubble, and several other hardy corals. What kind of T5 lighting are you using?
I would not suggest 3 cleaner shrimp maybe 2 or a cleaner shrimp and a blood shrimp. Also Hermit crabs are good, I have 3 emerald crabs also that have posed no problem in my reef, they like to clean around the corals, especially the zoo's. Also snails that live the longest for me and do a good job cleaning are margarita snails (they're able to flip themselves over so less likely to become a meal) along with 2 nassarius snails. Sand sifting starfish also keep your sand clean.
Just be patient and everything will come together fine.

 

[1guydude]

flame angels in a 20L??? I dont think that would be good down the road. Try to stick to fish in the 1"-3" range....

 

[travelerjp98]

Everyone has helped well so far.... and I think all your questions are answered so far... so.... I don't have anything else to say

 

[gemmy]

How rude of us! Welcome to the site and to the dark side...err..money pit..err..reef keeping!

 

[snakeblitz33]

Welcome to the site! I also agree with 1guyDude about not getting a flame angel, or any other dwarf angelfish.
Try to stick with small fish in the 1 to 3" range - cardinals, pseudochromis, chromis, clownfish, dottybacks, blennies, some hawkfish, some reef safe wrasses and gobies are all great species of fish for a small tank.

 

[juanro]

Do you have a closed hood? If not, I suggest some eggcrate since firefish are known to jump.
For fish, I suggest gobies, stay away from engineers (they get pretty big), the Yellow Watchman are pretty cool, and there are tons of small gobies that are great for smaller tanks like yours, like the Green banded, the Neon and there are tons of different Clown gobies.
Some other cool fish are the Pygmy wrasse and the classic, an Oscellaris clownfish.
Tip: stay away from damsels, they may look cool and most stay on the smaller size, but they are little devils.
The Bangaii Cardinalfish is a cool fish, they don't swim much so if your looking for some movement this isn't the fish to go with.