20 gallon recommendations.

[USMA36]

I’m looking to start a 20 long reef tank for my son. I have a basic 20 gallon long tank already. I am looking for ideas on the best way to add filtration, pumps, lighting....and so on. Should I use one of the fluval hob type filters that freshwater tanks use? is there an in tank filter box that works well but won’t take up to much room? What does everyone else use? Also looking for an affordable lighting recommendation. It’ll be mostly A softy tank with an LPS or 2. Can I get away with no skimmer? What’s a good wavemaker? i have an icecap 3k gyre that isn’t used but I think that would be overkill and take up a lot of room. I have a 100 gallon reef now but this is my first foray into the nano world. id like to keep the budget around 200.00.

 

[sbash]

Here's my 20L, it is a fun little tank. It is about 4 months old and it looks like coraline is starting to grow. The gravel was old, but cleaned substrate. The rocks were from a mature tank (and likely already had a softy growing on it).

All softies, with the exception of one orange acan (front and centre). There are currently four fish, three clowns and a clown goby. There are a couple toadstools, nepthea, finger leathers, GPS, blue sympodium, I think a kenya tree, a cabbage, maybe the pipe organ is still alive, lol, anyway... I put a lot of different pieces in at first, but caught an aeolid flatworm a couple months ago so I haven't added or removed anything since. This has caused the mushrooms to not reproduce (and a few died off, unfortunately). I was hoping to get a Blue Velvet Nudibranch, but I think I'll have to settle for flatworm exit...

The ATO is a gravity fed via the float valve in the back right. The light is a generic black box. A single heater, ideally one would have two heaters, but I'm moving it in a couple months so I didn't go all out. A flipper nano for glass cleaning. For flow, I just have a simple 100GPH pump, currently on an Odyssea Clean 100 'filter' which is supposed to surface skim. However, the bracket doesn't fit over the rim (I guess it is designed for rimless), so it just dangles from a zip tie. You might need more than a single small pump if you are going to have LPS.

The glass is dirty and I didn't "scape" this tank at all, I just threw everything in. The photos also, as usually, don't do it justice. But it does make for a fun and easy tank!

 

[gotwins86]

Look into Fiji Cube. They make a AIO DIY kit that I have heard good things about.

For affordable lighting a couple aqua knight A029s or a Current USA Orbit Marine.

 

[jeeperreefer]

Nano Build - 20 GALLON LONG REEF BUILD

SO HERE IT BEGINS. JUST HAVE DRY ROCK SO FAR. WILL BE ADDING DRY SAND LATER TODAY PROBABLY. WENT WITH A FIJI CUBE AIO FILTER AND WILL PROBABLY ADD THERE REFUGIUM .

www.reef2reef.com

here is my 20 long build thread . i use the fiji cube and love it. hope this helps.

 

[NanoDJS]

Grab a 200 gallon size Penguin / aquaclear HOB , a hydor nano powerhead (or 2 and a wave alternator later) , and a 75w heater the cobalt style will fit in the hob you can run any media and stuff in the hob and it gives your pods a place to grow. add a marine 3.0 hood fluval and your GTG you can keep anything , youll have 450 par on top down to 80 on the bottom , 40w hood , the whole system will take like 2-4 amps 115 so very efficient . The 20L standard is prob my fav nano tank ,the AIO's are a monster PITA compared