New 20g tank seeded with used bio/filter media from established 90g!

[NorthEastreef98]

Lets run through the 20g tank specs:

1. Tank: 20 gallon aquarium with a Flipper 10/20 gallon aquarium stand
2. Filter: Aquaclear 50 filter x2
3. Heater: Cascade heat 30 gallon 150w heater
4. Lighting: Aqueon Obtibright+ lights
5. Powerhead: Sicce Voyager Nano 1000 powerhead
6. Substrate: 10-15 lbs of dry rocks and 20 lbs of live sand
7. Thermometer
8. Protein skimmer: Mini Q nano internal protein skimmer
9. Automatic top-off system: AutoAqua ATO
10. 3 Kasa smart plug mini's (for powerhead & filters)

Yesterday 1/15 I fired up the tank, adding rocks/shell, sand and then the water.
Then I set up my two filters. One has new coarse foam, 3 seeded marine pure bio balls, new ceramic media from the filter, and 3-4 seeded plastic bio balls on top. Second has all new foam & ceramic media, and 3-4 seeded plastic bio balls on top. After that, I spread 3 seeded bio balls in different locations in the tank in hopes of spreading out the bacteria I was hoping to retain.

Next I took a coarse filter sponge and filter floss from the 90 gal's sump, rinsed the coarse foam in my new tank, and floated the floss in my tank for a few hours eventually wringing it out in my tank. (Had all my filters on as well as my powerhead.) I also added some water from the 90 gal, from the bucket that had held my seeded media and filters but it was probably around a quart or 1/2 gallon not an impactful amount in my opinion but I figured it couldn't hurt.

A few hours later after my tank had mostly cleared up, I measured my parameters, and went to my LFS and purchased a firefish goby!
I also purchased some zeolite/ammonia detoxifier and tossed it on my sand bed (after rinsing well in some RODI) in an area with decent flow to reduce the harm done, if any, to my new little friend.

Today 1/16 I fed my firefish before noon, being careful to not overfeed. I fed quite literally just enough food the fish would consume (4-6 freeze dried mysis shrimp) and then again with a similar # of brine shrimp around 8:15 PM, as I was feeding the 90 gal as well. Fish consumed virtually all food both times.

Measured my parameters again today; SG was good, and ph, alkalinity & temp were stable. Ammonia measured at .25 ppm. I was surprised to see ammonia so quickly, but hopefully the zeolite is working its magic. I did not measure phosphate & nitrate 1/15, but 1/16 I did and recorded .50 ppm phosphates & 20 ppm nitrates. Surprised me again there to see so quickly but might have come from the water or media I added I'm assuming.


I attached a picture from today, my firefish was polite enough to pose outside of his newfound conch shell home! LOL

I am hoping to slide the shell forward a bit and add some more rock behind it but I will get to that as I increase the stock of the tank I think.

Let me know what you think, if you have any insights on my testing, or if you'd like any more info don't hesitate to ask!

Happy reefing,
Vincent

 

[AydenLincoln]

I love the shell and I’m sure your fish will too!

 

[NorthEastreef98]

I love the shell and I’m sure your fish will too!

Thank you! You wouldn't believe it I forgot to let the air out of the shell for the first 12 hours or so so it was not very accessible to the fish, but then I tilted and released all the air and within 30-45 seconds it swam right over to investigate and moved itself in! How rude of me to forget!

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Day 4 update: I added a powerhead because the HOB filters don't give me a ton of flow down lower in the 20H, and I may eventually cover the back of the tank because its definitely not the prettiest setup back there as long as the fish and everything inside are pretty I'm a happy camper.

I have been consistently testing ph, ammonia, nitrite & SG every day, and for 3/4 days I have tested alkalinity and nitrates. Tested phosphates once as well just for fun.

I saw 0.25ppm ammonia the second day, and 0.25ppm nitrite on the third day.
ammonia has remained at 0.25ppm since day 2, same with nitrite since day 3.
I did not measure nitrates the first day, but measured 20ppm 2nd and 3rd day, and 30ppm 4th day.
I'm assuming some nitrates (maybe up to first 20ppm) came from used media/wee bit of water from 90g tank I added to start with but I am not positive.

The first two days my ph was 8.2 then day 3/4 it was reading 8.1/8.0, and my alkalinity first two days was 11dkh, 3rd day it was 10dKH, and I did not measure on the 4th will probably measure on the 5th.

SG was 1.024 for first two days then 1.023 next two days; I let air out of my conch shell that I originally forgot to do, and then also set up my ATO where I wanted it, a bit above the water line after the conch shell filled up, which ended up diluting the SG but not really a problem. Not sure if this also related to the ph/alkalinity decrease, I will continue to monitor it though.

My firefish seems to be faring well at the moment, its maybe 2 1/2 inches long, and I feed twice a day (no auto feeder) quite literally 4-6 pieces of shrimp per feeding depending on how much gets eaten, to not have decomposing food adding to ammonia. Not very skittish at the glass either, stares right back at me sometimes and seems to have a good personality. Only really hides when I stick my hands in the tank to put in/adjust powerhead and what not.


Stay tuned for more updates!
Stay salty,
Vincent.

PS I had a video I was trying to post but it wasn't attaching it in a viewable format for some reason I'll have to get that fixed I apologize.

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Here's the video!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I like the tank so far!!

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Thank you!

I like the tank so far!!

I am hoping to add a bit of rock behind the conch shell for some more height but I don't want to invade my fish's free swimming space too much because I know that is important to a degree as well.

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Here is another structure I built for the 90g, (I'll start up a thread on that at some point)
But I used NYOS reef cement for everything I cemented together and I'm pretty happy so far. It cures very quickly which is nice, but not too quickly to where it's a nuisance to work with. I worked joint by joint just portioned out how much cement I needed and did it over the course of a few days/weeks whenever I found some time and was feeling creative LOL I found that if the cement was too wet it did not always cure the nice texture and color as it usually did when it was the perfect balance, so I would recommend thicker pastier application. If it's really shiny and looks moist, it's probably too wet and you should sprinkle some more powder on to absorb the moisture. Most people say 2 mins is when it starts to really harden up, but I found I could still work with spare cement over the 2 minute time I just had to work it into a ball and knead it around a bit and it was still usable. anything beyond 3-4 minutes it will just start to crumble if you try my knead based approach. LOL

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Here is a close up of my two HOB aquaclears;

Basically I have a "real" filter and one that is more for bio media/extra. I considered just going with a larger aqua clear, but all things considered I thought the versatility of two filters might give me more of a "control" when I'm changing variables if adding chemical filtration or anything like that.

First picture "real filter" has intake foam sponge on intake, then coarse (same pores per square inch), then ceramic media and finally plastic bio balls seated on top.

Second filter has no intake cover except built in strainer, coarse foam along bottom and right side so that all water has to pass through a coarse filter before it exits the filter. The way aqua clears are designed some water can slip by once inside the filter.
Then ceramic media, and some plastic bio balls on top.

They are relatively similar at the moment, but I am working on a pre filter sponge for my main filter that has coarse foam (psi) smaller than what I would run in the filter, and this will replace my coarse foam in main filter allowing me to combine biomedical into one filter, and floss the top. then second filter will be same, maybe gets a coarse intake pre filter sponge, a downgrade on some coarse foam inside the filter, and more room inside for biological or chemical filtration as needed.

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Nice quiet video of my tank along with some feeding of my fire goby!
Freeze dried mysis Brunch!

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Day 5-6 Update:

My ph is 8.1
ammonia is still 0.25ppm for the 5th day in a row.
Nitrite has increased a tiny bit from day 4 0.25 to >0.25ppm,
and my nitrates have increased a tad since day 3 from 20 ppm to 30-40ppm.

 

[NorthEastreef98]

Update!

I was doing adding some aqua scape/live sand to my 90 gallon and stole 2 live rocks to add to my 20 gal to add some biological filtration after I did a 15% water change because my nitrates were a bit higher than I'd like (40ppm) on the 21st. The next day, ammonia and nitrites willing, (0ppm) I went to my lovely LFS and purchased two Black Phantom snowflake clownfish! New Phantom Snowflake clowns!

I have continued to monitor my parameters daily, and I noticed a wee bit of ammonia <.25 or maybe just the day after I put in my clowns, no nitrites, and today even less ammonia, and no nitrites.

Clowns are doing well, and everyones eating together at dinnertime!

Dinner time in the 20gH!
(The new rocks I added can be seen in the front center (small coral looking rock) and in the back left corner.)

I hope you all enjoy the videos! I hope to keep em coming!

 

[NorthEastreef98]

So I am thinking of getting some corals; Zoas, leather coral or mushroom coral? Going to ask some questions at my LFS tomorrow as I know next to nothing about corals, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with low/mid flow/light beginner corals and could make some recommendations for specific types of zoas and whatnot.
thanks!