still learning about this hobby

[jk69ls6]

I have a 20g FO tank for about the past 6 months. I recently brought it back from school with no complications and I am itching to make it into a reef tank. Nothing to crazy just some live rock and maybe a couple easy to care for corals. I currently have a yellow tail damsel, 3stripe, lemon peel angle, and a strawberry chromis dottyback. What would be the best way to go about this change? Thanks for the help.

 

[who dey]

you need powerful lighting for a reef. a 20 gallon you should use a coralife satelite pc. w/1 65w white and 1 65w blue, should be powerful enough and will look cool with the blue light. you may want to exchange a few of those fish for corals because IMO thats too many for a small reef. skimmer is a must to remove any nitrate causing organic materials from your system and will keep your tank sparkling. LR, about 1-2 lbs per gallon for a reef i would recommend

 

[mudplayerx]

Really all you would have to do is buy some live rock, cure it, and put it into the tank. Do you have aragonite sand as substrate? If you don't, you will need some. Also, if you are using crushed coral as substrate, get rid of it before buying the rocks and replace with aragonite sand.
Here is a FAQ on buying and preparing your live rock:
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...hreadid=157354
You will also need better water flow for a reef tank. You need 20-25x the volume of your tank pumping per hour for a reef tank. A good way to add this is by buying cheap hang on the back filters and/or powerheads.
If you plan on having corals and stuff, you will probably need to increase your lighting as well. This can get very expensive depending on what you want a keep. Here is a good FAQ on the basics of reefkeeping:
http://www.reefcorner.com/reef%20keeping_101.htm

 

[jk69ls6]

I currently have cruched coral in my tank so that needs to change. I was wondering what types of sand could I use. I live at right by a beach with some really good looking red sand, would it be bad to use this? Just thought that a dark red bottom could look good. Also if it basicly will be LR can a fluorescent light still be used? For now still being a standard issue poor college kid cost has to play a roll. thanks again.

 

[who dey]

Originally Posted by JK69LS6
I currently have cruched coral in my tank so that needs to change. I was wondering what types of sand could I use. I live at right by a beach with some really good looking red sand, would it be bad to use this? Just thought that a dark red bottom could look good. Also if it basicly will be LR can a fluorescent light still be used? For now still being a standard issue poor college kid cost has to play a roll. thanks again.
the light i suggested above is about 60bucks... and it is flourescent

 

[who dey]

oh and i'm sure you could use the sand. make sure you grab it from where the water hits so it's wet and has beneficial bacteria in it.

 

[mudplayerx]

I think you can use sand from the beach, but I don't know if it is the natural sand from your area, or put there for tourists. As long as you get rid of the crushed coral, you are one step ahead.
You can have live rock under a flourescent lighting, but it probably will not get any of the nice purple, lime green, and scarlet coraline alage you see in other peoples tanks. Actually, since there won't be the good algae growing, your rock might get covered with the bad, microalgae.

 

[jk69ls6]

thanks for the info. Would it be ok to add in some plants like shavers brush?

 

[speg]

I think you wanna be careful from using sand straight from the beach.. I 'believe' I was told you wanna go like 20 miles out to get sand so that there was no(little) toxins in the sand.. boats.. sun tan lotion.. --- on the beach.. etc