First Saltwater Aquarium - 20 Gallon Nano

[YearLongCoast]

Hiya

My first thread on here I think. Hopefully I'm doing it right. I've kept freshwater aquariums for five ish years and finally taken the step towards a reef tank.

The aquarium itself is the Aqua Manta Nano 60, it's roughly 20 gallons. I have two photon lights that are a tad overpowered but I love the control I have with them.

Rock wise I'm using TMC eco reef rock. I've gone quite heavy on the rock because I want quite a few inverts, and maybe only a nano goby or two.

I set my aquarium up on the 3rd September, so it's just over two months old now.

I think I'll stick with soft corals, they seem to be easier to care for. Two months in I have quite a few different varieties of zoa, also a toadstool, a Kenya tree and red mushroom. I'll have to get some photos of them.

Livestock wise at the moment I have a beautiful crinoid squat lobster and a hermit crab. And many many copepods haha. Hoping to eventually add:

• one strawberry crab
• some sexy shrimp
• nassarius snails
• a pink scooter dragonet
• a yellow coral goby

All I'm adding at the moment is food for the Squat Lobster every other day and live Phytoplankton a couple of times a week to see if I can increase my copepod population.

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R and the salty side. Nice looking tank

 

[Tankkeepers]

Nice tank

Is the crinoid squat lobster reef safe?

Idk much about lobsters honestly as iv never kept them only their freshwater cousins crawfish and those are horable for anything but a species only tank how big does it get

Just now wondering if I coukd get ine lol

 

[LaxFrags]

Nice tank

Is the crinoid squat lobster reef safe?

Idk much about lobsters honestly as iv never kept them only their freshwater cousins crawfish and those are horable for anything but a species only tank how big does it get

Just now wondering if I coukd get ine lol

Haha just thought the same thing

 

[YearLongCoast]

Nice tank

Is the crinoid squat lobster reef safe?

Idk much about lobsters honestly as iv never kept them only their freshwater cousins crawfish and those are horable for anything but a species only tank how big does it get

Just now wondering if I coukd get ine lol

From the research I've done they're supposed to be reef safe, and in the month or so I've had him he's not bothered any of my corals. And he sticks to the top of the aquarium while my hermit stays on the sand. The only trouble I ever had was when he was pushing frags off the rockscape, but gluing them down stopped him from being able to push them haha. Very different in behaviour from any other lobster or crayfish I've come across, he's awesome.