20g Long Budget Set Up | Newbie`

[Eyezik]

​

Background:​

Back when this pandemic first got started I bought a comet fantail goldfish and rapidly discovered the complexities of fish keeping. I gain knowledge and got to the point of buying a 55 gallon for my goldfish, as well as some buddies. It has been about half a year and I am not taking the next step into reefing and keeping a saltwater tank. Back on December 28th, I decided to repurpose my 20g long as well as its filter, heater, and some dead coral from Haiti to start a reef aquarium. Since then I have been doing research upon research to get ready for fish and snails, and now I am looking forward to coral and maybe even anemones. Now that I have fish in after a month cycle I would like to show off my work and write down my specs. This is in no way completed and I have a job interview in 2 days which will hopefully allow for upgrades and changes around the tank.

Live Stock:

​

2 Clown fish
2 Turbo Snails
2 Other Snails
(forgot species, named after some type of drink)

Specs:
20g Long
1 Texas Holey
Assorted shells and dried up coral
Aquaneat 480gph Wavemaker
Orluchy 100w Heater
Uniclife Airpump and Bubbler
Aquaclear A600A1 Filter
NICREW ClassicLED 12"
Omega Sea Premium Reef Salt
Mix of... Petco Sand, Alive Sand from my local fish store, as well as some black pebbles from my grandparents.

Future Plans:
Moving into the future there are many things I am planning to get, primarily new light.
I also really want to get some more rocks into the tank for better scaping.
As I said I want to get into coral and anemone so after this tank goes for a bit and I believe it is a good time I will buy my first coral!



!!! Let me know what you guys think below, suggestions welcome !!!
​

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

To start, you won’t have any success with Texas rock that is a freshwater rock mostly used for cichlids. You need some live rock/dry rock like macro rock. Definitely a new light ASAP. I’d recommend a AI Prime or Radion XR15. I would not try anything without proper lighting especially a Nem. Nems need lots par of quality light as well do best in mature tanks over a year old. I’d recommend more flow for corals as well and a hang on the back protein skimmer.

Id also suggest not getting any livestock from petco and other big name pet stores. Try to find a decent LFS, you may have to drive a hour or more but it’s normally worth it.

 

[Eyezik]

To start, you won’t have any success with Texas rock that is a freshwater rock mostly used for cichlids. You need some live rock/dry rock like macro rock. Definitely a new light ASAP. I’d recommend a AI Prime or Radion XR15. I would not try anything without proper lighting especially a Nem. Nems need lots par of quality light as well do best in mature tanks over a year old. I’d recommend more flow for corals as well and a hang on the back protein skimmer.

Id also suggest not getting any livestock from petco and other big name pet stores. Try to find a decent LFS, you may have to drive a hour or more but it’s normally worth it.

Sadly my local pet store only has texas holey and no live rocks. I mention how I want to get more rocks and I will for sure get live rocks. I was miss informed that texas holey was my only option but I figured out it wasn't after the fact. I plan to get some dried live rock alongside my new light.

I have never bought a fish from Petco nor will I probably ever. I buy my fish from my local fish store that specializes.'

All of those things are a good shout and once I get my new light will be the first thing on my list. I don't want to kill anything so I won't be getting coral until then.

(I didn't mention this in my post but my plan is to not get nems for another 5-6 months unless I see good growth once I get coral.)

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Eyezik]

Will a texas holey develop anyway or bc of the type of rock it is will it not change?

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Will a texas holey develop anyway or bc of the type of rock it is will it not change?

It will grow algaes but has no bacteria formation, there’s many places to get rock online. Bulk reef, marine depot, if you can get live rock, KP aquatics and tampa bay saltwater are the best for live rock. General rule is 1 pound per gallon but these days people are using a little less rock in their aquascapes.

 

[Eyezik]

It will grow algaes but has no bacteria formation, there’s many places to get rock online. Bulk reef, marine depot, if you can get live rock, KP aquatics and tampa bay saltwater are the best for live rock. General rule is 1 pound per gallon but these days people are using a little less rock in their aquascapes.

Sounds good! Also, you mentioned a protein skimmer, do you have any recommendations for a 20g long?

Also, a side note, the dead coral I have was pulled from the ocean in Haiti, will this develop anything good for my tank or will it just act as a rock?

 

[LegendaryCG]

Well I don't know that I agree that there’s anything particular wrong with that rock. It may not be perfectly ideal but I suspect it will be fine. Plenty of people use man made rock in their tanks. Having substrate provides bacteria surface area as well and it’s seeded with bacteria.

 

[Eyezik]

• UPDATE

Story -
I landed my job and on my first paycheck, I bought many new things.
First I bought my first live rock, and the tank sat with this live rock for about a month when it started to develop some red slime algae. I don't have any pictures of this but it was pretty bad. Thankfully this was the low point of this tank, it all goes uphill from here. Sadly, at this point all 3 of my Turbo snails passed, I want to guess it was the coats of slime on everything. I started to commit to doing water changes way more often and it somewhat helped. At this point, I talked to my local fish store owner about the slime and investing in a Softy. That day I bought a softy, an emerald crab, and the treatment. I started to treat the tank with the crab and softy inside. I don't know for sure why, but the emerald crab ended up dying, I think it was due to the treatment but nowhere on the box does it say anything about affect fish or other animals. So at this point, after about 5 days after starting the slime treatment, it was gone! I was so happy to see it gone. After a nice week or 2 with no slime, my softy was doing well and growing so I went to invest it more. I bought some live rocks with coral on it and a hermit. A day later I bought more live rock and more rocks with coral. To my surprise, one of the rocks had a baby Nem. on it! And I got it for 5$!

Progress -
First Week Of Tank
+ Live Rock1
End of February
+ Red Slime
- 3 Snails
+ 2 More Lights
Around March 1st
+ Crab
+ Soft Coral
- Crab
- Red Slime
March 12th
+ 2 Baby Rocks (1 with Nem and other softies)
+ 1 Hermit
+ 1 Mangrove
March 13th
+ Dry Live Rock
+ Wet Live Rock (Lots of softies)
+ 2 Hermits

Moving Forward -
The tank has been doing very well at this point and I can't wait to keep upgrading! Right now I am looking into a light upgrade, and maybe a hang-on back protein skimmer.

Pictures ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------