Lee's Clown Pirate Ship 20 gallon

[webbl19]

Hey all.
Just wanted to start a thread for my pirate ship tank. Not as cool as a lot of our tanks with corals and fun fish, but it will be different visually, at least for me. It is not going to be a reef at this point, but there are internal talks about letting GSP take over the ship. So just a fish only tank at this time with a little bit of live rock. Maybe 5 pounds or so.

We've been thinking about doing something with my 20 gallon that I have. This was my first tank that I took down in exchange for a 55 gallon that is currently my main tank, it's my other love. So with talking with the lady friend we wanted something a little different, but still saltwater that was easy to maintain. I don't see "themed" tanks on here. So thought I would share what we have in mind. We wanted a bedroom tank, so I took out the TV and put this in it's place. Sounds much more peaceful to hear the water than the TV. Feel like it's making me a calmer person already [emoji1].

Anyway on with the show, since I don't know the true minimum equipment list for a FOWLR I'm hoping someone can chime in and tell me if I'm way off track or if this will workout. I've Googled and searched as much as I could, I see a few different lists of things people suggest, seems to vary to much to rely on it IMO. So I'm going to try it my way first to see for myself. I'm a live and learn type of fella, but will accept experience over my ignorance any day, so type away, please, and let me know if I'm nuts. Plus I didn't really find anything on what I'm doing, except on the TV show I watch.

So far this is how it's setup-
Small powerhead/circulation pump I had laying around.
Aquaclear 30 powerfilter. 3 stage filter, Sponge, Carbon and BioMax, wanted to over power it a little bit. Flowrate can be adjusted also if I needed to for some reason.
Coralife Dual T5
Pirateship decoration
1 bag live sand

This is it!

I put in a couple rubble rocks I had in my sump for my 55 to help it cycle a little bit. Gotta pick up a bigger rock still. My hope is that I'll get enough beneficial bacteria build up on the ship and the rock I put in to control things.

My main question is, do I really need a skimmer? Like really? If I'm not doing corals. Will the filter sponge not pull out what I need it to pull out? Obvious cleaning will be involved I know to make sure it stays clean and of course water changes weekly.

I have a feeling I will be putting a HOB GFO reactor on it once it goes through those algea stages and to control my phosphates further. I don't like algea. I do have a Yellow Tang I could sneak in if it got way out of wack I guess.

Livestock I'm going for 2 small clown's, small ones, I want to watch them grow and bond, maybe even have babies, I'll probably give them names and teach them tricks, 1 or 2 peppermint shrimp, and a small CUC so the bioload shouldn't be very big on this thing. The filter says it cycles 150gph which is more than 5x the tank volume, seems like it should be enough to keep me clean.

Any thoughts or experiences you can share? Is my filtration adequate for a couple Clown's? I still consider myself a beginner, I've only been reefing or even using saltwater alone for about 1 1/2yrs. So I have lots of ups and downs to experience and learn about.

Here's to my FOWLR journey! Let the cycle begin.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

youd be crazy not to put corals and Macros in there.

You need more rock imo. an ato is a must for little tanks.

 

[helen ann]

youd be crazy not to put corals and Macros in there.

You need more rock imo. an ato is a must for little tanks.

+1

 

[webbl19]

youd be crazy not to put corals and Macros in there.

You need more rock imo. an ato is a must for little tanks.

I did talk about Macros with her. There are some neat ones and they add great color I think. I also think a entrusting coral of some kind would be cool. Who knows.

I may see about fitting in more rock. I was thinking a good sized one right in the middle which is what broke the ship apart. Could probably fit another good amount in the back corner. Maybe I can make some type of shelf also. Who knows. I'm going to play around with this one and probably change it around a little bit. Not having to worry about coral placement or putting a new rock on top a coral colony will be nice. I want to add rocks to my 55, but I have corals all over.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I just dont know how good the bio filter would be. Without rock. Never done that. some nice interesting piecs would draw your eye to the ship too.

In my better nanos, a decent small light, rock sand heater, aquaclear filter with carbon and sponge, ato and hob refugium. That lasted two years or so. lost some corals when it got hotter than expected.
kept a pederson's a clown and nem crab and some corals..

 

[TylerMoralez]

You could make a really cool ship wreckage with some rock underneath the ship. Have the ship slightly pointed up towards the top to make a natural affect. Or what would be even cooler is if you placed some pieces of medium sized rock in the middle, and dropped both pieces of the ship to see how they land and if you like it, just keep it there. I LOVE the idea of letting GSP go crazy all over the ship. Brilliant build and concept no matter what you do. I will definitely be following this.

 

[webbl19]

You could make a really cool ship wreckage with some rock underneath the ship. Have the ship slightly pointed up towards the top to make a natural affect. Or what would be even cooler is if you placed some pieces of medium sized rock in the middle, and dropped both pieces of the ship to see how they land and if you like it, just keep it there. I LOVE the idea of letting GSP go crazy all over the ship. Brilliant build and concept no matter what you do. I will definitely be following this.

I had the same idea with the rocks. This is what we came up with. Still deciding on if I want coral. Trying to talk my girlfriend into letting me put a couple nice acros in there. One on each end of the ship, I think that would look pretty cool once they turn into big colonies. It's kind of her tank that she doesn't take care of, so I think I have some leverage [emoji3].

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Where's her anamonae going to go?

 

[webbl19]

Where's her anamonae going to go?

Haha. Not really sure. Guess wherever it stays put. Didn't really have one in the plans, but I like them. I've been waiting for a purple long tentacle, I passed them up last time the LFS had them. I don't have good luck with bubble tips. Though the last one I bought was bleached. If I find a cool bubble tip I'll snatch it up. My LFS had a rainbow at one time, but I haven't seen one in awhile. I may need to ask.

Maybe I can squeeze the hulk in there lol.

His tomato clown would be to depressed if he left. He'll have to stay.

 

[TylerMoralez]

I had the same idea with the rocks. This is what we came up with. Still deciding on if I want coral. Trying to talk my girlfriend into letting me put a couple nice acros in there. One on each end of the ship, I think that would look pretty cool once they turn into big colonies. It's kind of her tank that she doesn't take care of, so I think I have some leverage [emoji3].

That looks awesome!!! Wish I would've thought of something like this for my tank... truly inspiring