Adding a sump to mykidsclownfish's 20 gal reef tank

[mykidsclownfish]

2 years ago, my oldest son asked to receive Nemo for his fourth birthday. Not knowing the pandoras box that was about to be opened, we bought a 20 gal tall kit from a LFS. A co-worker set me up with a few good deals on some equipment, including an Aqua C remora. The tank stayed with the 2 clowns, and a purple firefish goby for about a year.

After about a year the ballast burnt out in the hood, so i built a custom hood for a PAR 38 LED. As you can see, the optics were pretty tight, but it produced better color than the florescent kit bulbs.

 

[mykidsclownfish]

Here is a picture of the hood. Shortly after getting the PAR 38 LED we got a green bubble tip anemone. The clowns never did pair with it and it eventually died.

After the anemone died we didnt do anything with the tank for several months. Then in january of this year we got our first coral, the zoanthid below. it was at that point that i really started getting the itch.

 

[mykidsclownfish]

The par 38 shorted out, so i bought the Value LED from Reef Breeders. That has been a really good purchase. look at the difference between the two, proper lens selection is important.

Since feb of this year i have been stocking the tank with zoas, paly's, ricordeas, mushrooms, acan, garf bonzai, miliaporas, pipe organ, and frog spawn.

 

[mykidsclownfish]

the stand that i originally put the tank on was a temporary measure at best. so now, two years later, i got around to setting up a new stand. looking around i found a bathroom vanity that looked about right. i was able to get 10 gallon tank for a sump and an eshopps overflow box from the same coworker. we decided to have a little fun with the paint job. we let the kids sponge paint fish over a blue base coat.

 

[mykidsclownfish]

This was my first go round in plumbing a sump. many, many iterations of dry fits and i only had to cut one glued fitting (and 6 trips to lowes) and i am pretty happy with how everything turned out.

 

[mykidsclownfish]

added some new stock to the tank last night, hopefully they will come out today so that i can get some pics.

Added: Clown fairy wrasse, six line wrasse, and yellow watchman goby. Existing stock; Melanurus wrasse, 2 oc. clowns, red firefish, mandarin.

I also added about 500 pods to my cheato ball, 5 astrea snails, 10 nassarius snails and 25 small hermit crabs. Since i noticed that the melanurus wrasse eats crabs i am just going to keep added them from time to time.

 

[fyrfytr]

as the parent of a 4 yr old (who should have been born a fish) let me say I LOVE IT!

 

[Mike in CT]

Love it... Great job!

 

[mallorieGgator]

Looks great! Just want to say though that the melanarus wrasse is going to be way too large for that tank and the six line wrasse will get VERY agressive especially towards shy fish like your firefish but also towards your Melanarus and fairy wrasse. Wrasses need space to swim and most need to be kept in 50+ gallons. I would say with this size tank I would just have the clowns, goby, and firefish. Also, mandarins need to be continuously fed live pods unless you are a lucky one and your eats frozen or pellet food. They usually waste away in tanks and aren't really suited for being kept in captivity.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

I love it. Great build.

 

[revhtree]

Love that you did this for your son! The tank and stand look great!

 

[jimmybling31]

+1 on the wrasses getting too big but other than that I love it. I set up a tank for my kids at one point and ended up tearing it down and adding the stuff from it to my 120 reef.

 

[glamisracers]

nice set up nice seeing young kids getting into the addiction when my wife was in the hospital after having our son i came home to check on the dogs and put a 14 gal bio cube in his room and upgraded to a red sea max 130d now till i get back im going to swap it out for a 60 gal rimless cube lol the boys only 11 months but he loves it

 

[kateater]

Looks great. You should paint the back of that tank or put one of those liners from petstore. Lights would really pop after that.

 

[mykidsclownfish]

Just got a deal on a 46 bow on craigslist that I am going to move onto the stand this fall!!! I am going to set it up and start curing rock as soon as I get back from vacation.

 

[Kody72]

This is how I got started in the hobby. Going and getting a 5g for my daughters room and left with a 26g now to a fishroom. Awesome job I bet your son/family loves it.

 

[freakfish]

I think dad needs a big tank........Good job

 

[mykidsclownfish]

So...along with the 46 bowfront i got a skimmer. My Aqua C Remora was a pain in thebut to clean with my new set up. I had to do some manuvering and usually endedup spilling some of the lovely product of the collection cup all over the standand floor. this new one is about the same height but the cup design isthreaded, so, i dont have to lift it as high to get it out. Any ideas whatbrand skimmer this is? model even. it has a rio 1100

pump.