Hey y'all, new to reefing/fish keeping. I am in NE Florida and everyone else in Florida is on the wrong side in the classifieds . I got a 20L back in October and have learned a lot and read a lot since then but especially the last month.
Current setup:
Equipment:
Aqueon 20G Long tank
Approximately 15-20lbs live rock, 11lbs of which added last Friday (Thanks @sbreefco!)
20lbs CaribSea AragAlive sand
HOB homemade refugium w/Ulva, ceramic bio balls, and pods (converted ClearFlow)
Sicce wavemaker
Aqueon cover/light w/daylight LED (says only for fresh so I'm waiting to see how long till the salt rusts it out)
A blue clip on light from Aqueon for night time on one side of the tank
DIY protein skimmer (it needs some help right now)
Cheap $30 grow light from walmart (I don't trust it but we'll see)
Variety of shells and decorations my GF put in
Livestock:
Small mocha clown
Large (very large) thin stripe hermit crab from the intercoastal
Emerald crab
Amphipods (tons of them started popping up about 3 weeks ago)
Trochus snail
Red serpent starfish (hitchhiked on the rock from Salty Bottom Reef Co, pleasant surprise)
Various critters on liverock
The protein skimmer I built last Saturday and had to learn how it works, never had one so figuring parts of it out as I go. I need to make a new cup for it as I accidentally busted the silicone seal messing with it. It seems to work well, but I need to actually mount it and make a better cup to catch the skim mate. I have had 3 fish die on me since I got the tank, two were different Goby species (One I killed, the other never ate cause I had just changed out the sand) and the last fish was a springeri damsel I got with the live rock. It survived 2 days with symptoms similar to what I've seen @brandon429 talk about in several threads; heavy breathing, sitting on the bottom of the tank. I moved the rock around 3 times after putting it in the tank and kicked up some dust and it was hiding around the rocks while I moved them. Lesson learned to not move rocks all over the place while the fish is already stressed as well as about how the dust stirred up can kill things.
I would like to eventually add and do the following with my tank:
Install reverse under gravel filter (like what I've seen @Paul B discuss)
Get better growing light for refugium (I'll probably have to sell a kidney to cover the cost)
Perfect my DIY skimmer
Get a sump going
Get good test kits for coral water parameters
Livestock wise I am planning on the following:
Bubble tip anemone
coral (need to do more research, start easy)
Diamond Goby
Copper Band Butterfly
Valentini Puffer
Naso Tang
I know it is only a 20G tank so having all of that livestock may not work, I will be adding one thing at a time and hopefully getting advice from all y'all on the forum. A couple of questions I know I have already:
The sand has only been in the tank for 6 weeks, is that old enough for a Goby to get nutrients? Will he eat amphipods/Copepods? The first Goby I had ate the same food I dropped for the hermit crab.
@brandon429 if the springeri damsel I got did die from disturbing the sand, will a Goby kicking up sand and sifting it hurt the Goby? should I be concerned about the other creatures? My mocha clown was fine but he swam way up toward the top and was not stressed.
How many fish is too many for a 20L and are any of the fish I mentioned above aggresive and/or incompatible with eachother?
Thanks! Pics to follow
Current setup:
Equipment:
Aqueon 20G Long tank
Approximately 15-20lbs live rock, 11lbs of which added last Friday (Thanks @sbreefco!)
20lbs CaribSea AragAlive sand
HOB homemade refugium w/Ulva, ceramic bio balls, and pods (converted ClearFlow)
Sicce wavemaker
Aqueon cover/light w/daylight LED (says only for fresh so I'm waiting to see how long till the salt rusts it out)
A blue clip on light from Aqueon for night time on one side of the tank
DIY protein skimmer (it needs some help right now)
Cheap $30 grow light from walmart (I don't trust it but we'll see)
Variety of shells and decorations my GF put in
Livestock:
Small mocha clown
Large (very large) thin stripe hermit crab from the intercoastal
Emerald crab
Amphipods (tons of them started popping up about 3 weeks ago)
Trochus snail
Red serpent starfish (hitchhiked on the rock from Salty Bottom Reef Co, pleasant surprise)
Various critters on liverock
The protein skimmer I built last Saturday and had to learn how it works, never had one so figuring parts of it out as I go. I need to make a new cup for it as I accidentally busted the silicone seal messing with it. It seems to work well, but I need to actually mount it and make a better cup to catch the skim mate. I have had 3 fish die on me since I got the tank, two were different Goby species (One I killed, the other never ate cause I had just changed out the sand) and the last fish was a springeri damsel I got with the live rock. It survived 2 days with symptoms similar to what I've seen @brandon429 talk about in several threads; heavy breathing, sitting on the bottom of the tank. I moved the rock around 3 times after putting it in the tank and kicked up some dust and it was hiding around the rocks while I moved them. Lesson learned to not move rocks all over the place while the fish is already stressed as well as about how the dust stirred up can kill things.
I would like to eventually add and do the following with my tank:
Install reverse under gravel filter (like what I've seen @Paul B discuss)
Get better growing light for refugium (I'll probably have to sell a kidney to cover the cost)
Perfect my DIY skimmer
Get a sump going
Get good test kits for coral water parameters
Livestock wise I am planning on the following:
Bubble tip anemone
coral (need to do more research, start easy)
Diamond Goby
Copper Band Butterfly
Valentini Puffer
Naso Tang
I know it is only a 20G tank so having all of that livestock may not work, I will be adding one thing at a time and hopefully getting advice from all y'all on the forum. A couple of questions I know I have already:
The sand has only been in the tank for 6 weeks, is that old enough for a Goby to get nutrients? Will he eat amphipods/Copepods? The first Goby I had ate the same food I dropped for the hermit crab.
@brandon429 if the springeri damsel I got did die from disturbing the sand, will a Goby kicking up sand and sifting it hurt the Goby? should I be concerned about the other creatures? My mocha clown was fine but he swam way up toward the top and was not stressed.
How many fish is too many for a 20L and are any of the fish I mentioned above aggresive and/or incompatible with eachother?
Thanks! Pics to follow
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