Question for youse guys

[josh f]

I have had my tank for a month and a half and it has cycled, no big algea problem tho, I added a nice little clean up crew, btw it's only a 20gal high, and I have live rock stacked up to about the top, I will post a pic soon, I don't have much in it, a domino damsel that hangs out in the anemone I got, small, pink, the lfs was a retard and said it was something it wasn't but it was cheaper than it should have been so I didnt argue... a CBS, a red serpent star, still small, and some blue leg crabs, snails etc. oh yeah, and a hermit I got first that has a really cool shell, I will post a pic soon, anyways, I am going to add a sump and protein skimmer soon, all my filtration is now is... a biowheel, I don't think it does much of anything, and 20lbs LR and 2in LSB... I want to add a few fish, maybe 4 small ones MAX, but I know I need good filtration, the sump will be atleast 10gal, so I'd have round 28gal total, can this support a bioload of 4 fish? cardinals maybe or clowns, also, when I feed the anemone, a small piece of shrimp, he eats it, it goes in his mouth, but some of it comes out, are they supposed to digest the whole thing? I dunno, any help would be great, thanks, also, I want to know if it is best to get a premade sump or build one, and what kind of protein skimmer for such a small system, thanks, and I'm not a college student so no HUGE wierd system setups that cost a million dollars, thanks!

 

[adrian]

Josh, you have a condalactus sp? anemone, and its natural host is the domino damsel, but watch out it does not accept clowns and most of the time it will eat a clown or other unsuspecting fish. If it dosnt eat all that you give it you may be giving it a little too much, feed it 2-3 times a week. You can keep 4 small fish in a 20. As for siltration I would add your sump, you can easily build one out of a cheap ten gallon e-mail me if you need any help with that, add an extra 2" to your sand bed, ditch your biowhell and rely on the sand and LR for all bio filtration. Remora makes a good skimmer for small tanks, its alittle pricey but dont skimp on your equipment or it will just cost more when upgrade later on. HTH

 

[josh f]

Thanks for the info on the anemone not being good for clowns, what about cardinals maybe? Or something that won't get too big, how much to inverts, shrimp, crabs, etc. add to the overall bioload? Is a shrimp equal to a fish or what, I've allways been confused by this, also, I am going to make the skimmer myself and have some good plans, I am taking out the biowheel and maybe adding more LR and am probobly making an overflow to go to a ten gal I have lying around, what should I put in the 10gal, can I put a bunch of macro algea to aid in the removal of nitrates? or should I put LR, or maybe alot of LS, suggestions would be swell, or should I but a sump setup?