Recomended Flitration For a Small Reef Tank (and other newbie questions)

[traveler]

Hi, I want to set up a little reef tank with a 20G that I have, I was wondering what kind of flitration and lighting would be good? Right now I have a regular whisper power filter, like you would find at walmart for the freshwater tanks, would something like that work? Do I need A protien skimmer? powerheads? Im very new to the whole saltwater thing, so, any help is greatly apreciated.
Stocking idea for the tank,
25 Lbs Live sand
25-30 Lbs Live Rock
Ill add those and let it cycle for 2-3 weeks, is there anything else that I should use to help the cycle?
Then for the clean up crew, im thinking
40 Red and Blue Foot Crabs
20 Turbo Snails
1 Porcelin Crab
3 Mithrax Or Emerald Crab
I thought about a star or two, how hard are they to take care of?
Also thought about a shrimp or two, any input?
Fish Stocking:
2 Perc. Clowns or 2 Tank Raised Ocellaris Clowns
1 Damsel...Probably Domino or 3 Stripe
1 Bicolor Pseudochomis or a Royal Gramma
And somewhere in the long run an anemonie or two.
Please, any imput is greatly apreciated.
Christian

 

[saltyrich]

I'll try to help. In a 20 gallon, the bottom diminsions are 12" x 24". To get a dsb of live sand you need about 56 lbs of sand. You can get 30lb bags of aragonite and then seed it with 20 or so lbs of live sand. I'd put in at least 30lbs of lr. This combo will greatly add in filtration. I do like a power filter. It imporves circulation and you can periodically add carbon a few days a month to remove stuff and keep the water nice and clear. I do recommend a skimmer. You could go with a CPR Bak Pak 2r. It would work great on a 20 gallon. I love mine on my 30. I'd get the tank set up with the ls and lr and then throw a cocktail shrimp from the grocery store in it to kickstart the cycle. Then just let it run for a couple of weeks. After thi, test your water frequently to see where things are at. Algae growth in the beginning is common. Do'nt add a cleanup crew until they've got something to eat. I'd add a few snails and a few hermits at a time until you reach a good balance between controlling the algae and keeping the crew fed. Also make sure you use RO/DI water so as not to introduce phosphates into your system (causes algae). Hope this helps.

 

[saltyrich]

P.S.
You may find that 40 hemits and 20 snails may be too much. Once againadd a few at a time.

 

[jake22]

I dont think a porcelain crab will really clean anything. Also in my opinnion those are to much hermits for a 20 gallon tank unless you have a huge algae problem.

 

[traveler]

Thanks for the info thus far, I was re-looking at my numbers there, and I was wondering if I cut it down to say
20 Crabs
10 Snails
1 Star
1 Shrimp ?

 

[beth]

How about 5 crabs and 4 snails. At least to start. Snails will easily eat up the food supply in a tank, particularly a very small tank, and crabs could be problemmatic with tumbling over rocks etc. Less is best; you can always add down the line. Also, snails multiple pretty fast.

 

[stacyt]

I keep a 10 gallon tank, with 64 watts of PC lights, 30 lbs. LS, 20 lbs. LR, emperor 400 filter, and 1 powerhead. I only have 2 snails, 1 blue legged hermit, and 2 cleaner shrimp. Of course I only have 1 fish in the tank that I feed every few days. I havn't had any problems with algae. I also use RO/DI water and do a 1 gallon water change very other weekend. The fish that you listed may be a bit much for a small tank as well. I would pass on the damsel, they'll get mean especially when they get bigger in that small of a tank. Maybe go with just a pair of clowns to start.

 

[newreefers]

I'm not sure I am allowed to post another website on the BB but if you e-mail me at queenofconst@aol.com I will give you an awesome website packed with info on small reef tanks.

 

[newreefers]

just saw that others have listed websites - go to nano-reef.com.

 

[iceburger]

i have a 10 gallon nano reef and i run a penguin 125, skilter 250 filter/skimmer and a sponge filter, along with a powerhead. that along with LR and LS keep my water parameters pretty much perfect, I run a 55w 10000k PC and a 15w actintic....alot of wattage for a ten gallon but should be fine for low-medium light corals
just food for thought