My 20 gal slice of the ocean

Russter · May 5, 2011

Hi there,
Just thought I would share some pictures of my reef tank. It is a 20 gal tall tank with the display tank located in a built in entertainment unit in my basement.

The display is plumbed through the wall to a fishroom that is directly behind it in a corner of the laundry room. The sump is 55 gal.

Fish list:
2x Percula Clownfish -Amphiprion percula
Bangaii cardinal - Pterapogon kauderni
Lawnmower Blenny - Salarias fasciatus
2x Firefish - Nemateleotris magnifica
Cleaner shrimp - Lysmata Amboinensis
Emerald crab - Mithrax sculptus
Numerous hermit crabs and snails

fsu1dolfan · May 5, 2011

Sweet looking tank and nice massive sump for it!! Last pic looks like you lawnmower owns the tank LOL.

Russter · May 5, 2011

fsu1dolfan said:
Sweet looking tank and nice massive sump for it!! Last pic looks like you lawnmower owns the tank LOL.

He likes to perch up there and keep an eye on things. :wink:

lars · May 5, 2011

nice. if i just saw the sump and equipment and not the tank i would have thought there as a 120 or so hooked to it. thanks for shareing.

Nate82 · May 5, 2011

Beautiful tank. And serious filtration set up for it! I like your style. Although I do have one question. The tank is right under your entertainment center? Aren't you worried about salt creep or evaporation taking out your electronics?

cdness · May 5, 2011

Nice tank! I wish I had the room for a fish room like that. Boy would things be easier. I would be concerned for the electronics as well having the saltware that close. Do you have any fans taking the evaporated air from the tank to the fish room?

My blenny does the same thing. I have a picture somewhere of the dark black tribal blenny perched on top of a candy cane colony. They are such characters.

Russter · May 5, 2011

To put it in perspective, the entertainment unit is 10 ft long and built into one wall. It has four sections and each section is separate from the next. There is a fan that pushes air from the aquarium though the wall and into the fish room, so salt creep on the entertainment equipment should not be an issue.

Russter · May 5, 2011

Some details:

Display Tank - standard 20 gallon high
Sump - 55 gal split in 3 compartments: refugium, return, skimmer
Auto top off - standard 10 gal tank with Level Loc ATO (on timer) using an Aqualifter pump on a float switch to push water to the sump.
Skimmer - SWC Xtreme 160 cone
Return pump - Mag 18 dialed back about halfway with a ball valve
Controller - Neptune Apex Lite Aquacontroller
Water movement -EcoTech Marine Vortech MP10 ES
Dosing - Drew's Dosers for 2 Part
Lights - Odyssea 4 x 24W T5. 2x ATI Blue Plus, 1x ATI Aquablue Special,1x KZ Figi purple
Reactor - Bulk Reef Supply Dual Carbon/GFO
RO/DI - Bulk Reef Supply 75 gallon/day 5 stage system
Rock - DIY agrocrete with a couple of pieces of live rock
Misc. - American DJ PC-100A 8 Channel Power Strip, 5" computer fan to cool lights, air pump and air-stone in sump

reefer916 · May 6, 2011

Wow, that's an insane filtration setup. You could probably just replace the whole rightside of the entertainment center and do a 120 gallon cube..lol I think you have the filtration system for it

Thanks for sharing and it's definitely cleaner than my mess..

Russter · May 6, 2011

Coral list:
Frogspawn - Euphyllia divisia
Hammer - Euphyllia fimbriata
Flower Pot - Alveopora sp.
Yellow polyps - Parazoanthus gracilis
Pulsing Xenia - Xenia sp.
Devil's Hand Leather - Lobophyton sp.
Colt - Cladiella sp.
Pink Birdsnest - Seriatopora hystrix
Pipe Organ - Tubipora musica
Acan Lord - Acanthastrea lordhowensis
Sun coral - Tubastraea sp.
Green star polyps - Pachyclavularia sp.
Favia - Favia sp.
Zoas - Zoanthid sp.
Palys - Palythoa sp.

Russter · May 11, 2011

New additions:

Green tipped birdsnest

Yellow tipped birdsnest

JaysonPRreef · May 11, 2011

I think that you are planing to upgrade your thank some day. Look great the thanks.

Russter · May 11, 2011

JaysonPRreef said:
I think that you are planing to upgrade your thank some day. Look great the thanks.

Yes, definitely someday, but for now I am really enjoying this one!

Russter · May 13, 2011

I just purchased an LED light fixture. It is the SWC Xtreme Cree LED 60 watt unit with 10 3 watt royal blues and 10 3 watt white LEDs and 60 degree optics. It also comes with it's own dimmer switch and separate power cords for both.

Here is the last picture I'll take with the T5's. New light will be here next week.

GoTakuF1 · May 14, 2011

Super clean! I really like the alveopora!

Russter · May 17, 2011

New light arrived yesterday and was waiting for me when I got home.

It was packaged well and no shipping damage.

It seems well built and has a huge heat sink and fan built in. The red button is the fan switch.

Installed. I got rid of the clips that came with the hanging clip and used stainless bolts and nuts to attach the hangers to the fixture.

Blue only. Very nice fluoresence in real life but I couldn't get the camera setting right.

White only.

Full on blue and white with very nice shimmer effect too.

I have dimmed it down to about 75% so that everything can get acclimated. I am very impressed with this light so far, especially for the price. Hopefully the corals feel the same way.