The Beginning of my 20 gallon long Reef

flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
Hi everyone! I posted some pictures of my 20gallon long to see what other people think.
I originally was going to use this tank as a small sump for my 55 (very small i know) But decided I could get more for my dollar with this tank (less money on lighting and I wont need more power heads and stuff for the sump) plus I really do like the long look of the 20gl. Right now I have about, o i dont know, maybe 40 lbs of lr and maybe 30 pounds of ls. Right now I have two damsels in the tank with a Penguin 400 and power head to make adequate water movement.
Soon I am going to make a fuge out of the half gallon "buckets" of the filter, and add 2 small lights to grow bacteria. The lights are typical fluorescent 60watt, which i dont think is strong enough for any coral. (I really want to upgrade the lights, any suggestions?)
Please leave any links to other 20 gallon long nanos i can look at! AND any other advice or suggestions you may have





 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
2 more photos
The top one is of the right side of my Penguin filter. right now I have the heater in there just to get it out of the way BUT I really like the idea of turning this area into a little sump where I can grow bacteria and keep my heater. I plan on cutting out a little hole for the lights to go right over the back canopy of the filter

 
V

veeraj87

Guest
what lighting are u running/ plan on running when u start your reef, fyi i am thinking of doing a reef tank but i just dont know how much i want to spend on lighting, i really want an anenome for my clowns that i just got, but i have a 20GL, i am running 2 filters 1 Penguin 150, 1- Top fin 10, and i have a Penguin powerhead (140gph)... for like a total of 340 roughly so not quite 20 times the flow rate but id say its alright, and im running the stock lights but not sure what to upgrade too... let me know what your plans are
 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
Hey there,
Currently I am running a Emperor 400 with the media filters taken out (just havnt had time to buy clean ones) and an old power head from a company idk (it just says powerhead 301) on it. I am also running "stock lights" but I was thiking of upgrading to a Current USA nova or something like that. I do have a 2x65 watt pc but it is 48" long and unless I can figure out a way to disesemble the light from the long fixture and re do it I will be forced to get a new light
 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
I forgot to mention that I am going to use one side of my biowheel filter's "canisters" to make it into a fuge area. I found this sweet thing with the penguin filters where you take out all the media and make essentially an external sump where I can grow stuff and hide my heater. Just Google something like, "filter turned fuge" i cant remeber what it was exactly but i think its a great idea for us nano'sthat arnt all in one...
PS
how do you like your 20gL... I love mine and would never trade it in for a cube even if it was free (ok that was a lie, but i sure wouldnt pay for one) I lreally enjoy how long it is.
OOO
and I am planning on doing corals like you, but i might take a diveregence and get a fu manchu lion or fuzzy dwarf bc i miss my old one
I should have never gotten rid of him he was kick ass

I am looking forward to seeing everything you are doing and we should deff trade notes sence it seems everyone on heree with a nano is in a GD cube haha
 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
***UPDATE***
A friend of mine found this deal for me so i am going to upgrade the tank soon...
29 gallon tank
protein skimmer
30" Coral life PC lights (about 96 watts total)
3 power heads (maxi jets i think)
An external dual chamber filter (going to either scrap it or make it into a fuge)
probally 30 lbs of VERY NICE LR (i will put in a bout 10-15 pounds of mine as well)
about 4 inchs of LS
FOR A TOTAL OF $100

any thoughts about what I should do with the old tank (sump?)
 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
I was thinking about a QT tank but here is my question, if i did a QT tank could I throw out the sand and just keep some rock in there with a powerhead and normal output flourescent fixture?
 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
Today I am moving the tank out of the guys dorm into my GF's house for the summer (I go to school in OH but am from FL). I will post pictures once I have everything hooked up but here I have a few questions. How much of the water should I try to salvage being that there is no live stock, (I think I should keep as much possible)
Also I was looking at the tank and saw 3 maxi jet powerheads and was wondering is there a better configuration then just one on each end?
photos coming soon....
 
flboyinohio

flboyinohio

Member
I just got the 29 gallon up and running... found a hermit crab and shrimp in the rock which was kinda cool. I also found out the tank had been up and running for 3 years ( !!!
) so i think I will have no problems adding corals soon.
The lights are 30" Coral life 2x65 watt with 5 leds (which are cool). Enough talking here are the pictures, any ideas or suggestions on fish? I dont think I want to do the typical clown and anenome so let me hear what you all think





 
acroshark

acroshark

Member
I think they are zoas! here are some suggestions...
1) try clean that algae off the front glass because eventuallt it will build up and be dificult to remove,
2) I suggest you drill and plumb this tank to your old tank and use the old tank as a sump! i would not rely only on a HOB filter for your filtration..unless you turned it into some sort of fuge!
3) Run a skimmer!
4) I would upgrade the lights straight away to t5's! it will be beneficial in the long run! you will have a better variety of corals you can choose to keep!
as for fish...
clowns, goby+shrimp combo, royal gramma, bangaii cardinal, pyjamma cardinal, any pseudochromis, green chromis, sixline wrasse, clown goby..any of those are cool fish!
nice start.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top