New to the Game - 20 Gallon

[beens_N_Weever]

HI fellow reefers,

This is my first ever aqaurium and I can't wait to be immersed in the hobby.
Being my first tank I wanted to start small and just learn the basics so I decided to start with a 20 gallon tank.

I've got 3 fish currently swimming around in the tank:
- 2 clownfish (Cream C & Dreamy)
- Hectors Goby. (Sunny)

I plan to add a Royal Gramma Basslet and a CUC. I still am trying to figure out what would be best for the CUC so if you have any suggestions please share away. I am still trying to learn how many CUC members I should have and what would be best for the 20 gallon tank.

My setup:
21 pounds of Rock
One bag of Caribsea Arag-Live Bimini Pink Sand
Jebao OW Wave Maker Flow Pump OW-10
AquaClear 50 power filter

I plan to add an AI prime light once I get into adding Coral . I also want to add a HOB Skimmer once I add more fish.

 

[jasrivas]

hi, welcome to the hobby. i would wait to get any cuc until you start getting algae otherwise they will starve. what i do is just stick with snails nassarius for uneaten food, Astrea Snails and Mexican turbo for algae. i don't recommend hermit crab like everywhere online does because they don't do that good of a job and they kill each other and all your Snails so stay away from them. you wil also get stuff naturally by adding corals like bristle worm, asterina starfish, etc.

and start off with a small hand full of Astrea Snails or 2 Mexican turbo and go from there if you still see a lot of hair algea add some more they are ment to help with mainly hair algea

 

[blaxsun]

So how does the cat like the fish?

 

[beens_N_Weever]

hi, welcome to the hobby. i would wait to get any cuc until you start getting algae otherwise they will starve. what i do is just stick with snails nassarius for uneaten food, Astrea Snails and Mexican turbo for algae. i don't recommend hermit crab like everywhere online does because they don't do that good of a job and they kill each other and all your Snails so stay away from them. you wil also get stuff naturally by adding corals like bristle worm, asterina starfish, etc.

and start off with a small hand full of Astrea Snails or 2 Mexican turbo and go from there if you still see a lot of hair algea add some more they are ment to help with mainly hair algea

Thank you for that information! I’ll definitely start with a small amount of snails like you recommended. I’ll wait until I start to see a spike in algae. I feel like I’m making the rookie mistake of over feeding and I have been feeding smaller amounts of food but haven’t found that balance. That was a big reason why I wanted to get a CUC to help help clean up some of the left over food.

 

[beens_N_Weever]

So how does the cat like the fish?

We have 3 cats and so far two of them enjoy watching them swim. The one in the picture is probably the most intrigued by the fish she is up there watching them the most! Our oldest watched the first day but since hasn’t been really interested and the youngest doesn’t even know they exist lol

 

[jasrivas]

adding a small power head or wave maker can help suspend the food partial so your filter can take care of it, but regardless of if a small creature eats it or if it sits and rots your still going to get nitrates. what i find works really well are algae scrubbers they make hang on the glass ones and i don't even run a protein skimmer because it is so effective.

Thank you for that information! I’ll definitely start with a small amount of snails like you recommended. I’ll wait until I start to see a spike in algae. I feel like I’m making the rookie mistake of over feeding and I have been feeding smaller amounts of food but haven’t found that balance. That was a big reason why I wanted to get a CUC to help help clean up some of the left ove

 

[beens_N_Weever]

adding a small power head or wave maker can help suspend the food partial so your filter can take care of it, but regardless of if a small creature eats it or if it sits and rots your still going to get nitrates. what i find works really well are algae scrubbers they make hang on the glass ones and i don't even run a protein skimmer because it is so effective.

I do have a power head that does look like it keeps the food suspended a little longer. I'll look into getting an algae scrubber, do you have one that you'd recommend? I was looking at adding a protein skimmer but if the algae scrubber is a better option I'll look into going that route instead.

 

[BetterJake]

HI fellow reefers,

This is my first ever aqaurium and I can't wait to be immersed in the hobby.
Being my first tank I wanted to start small and just learn the basics so I decided to start with a 20 gallon tank.

I've got 3 fish currently swimming around in the tank:
- 2 clownfish (Cream C & Dreamy)
- Hectors Goby. (Sunny)

I plan to add a Royal Gramma Basslet and a CUC. I still am trying to figure out what would be best for the CUC so if you have any suggestions please share away. I am still trying to learn how many CUC members I should have and what would be best for the 20 gallon tank.

My setup:
21 pounds of Rock
One bag of Caribsea Arag-Live Bimini Pink Sand
Jebao OW Wave Maker Flow Pump OW-10
AquaClear 50 power filter

I plan to add an AI prime light once I get into adding Coral . I also want to add a HOB Skimmer once I add more fish.

For a 20 gallon tank, the unquestioned greatest CUC combo.

Human + Toothbrush

 

[jasrivas]

I do have a power head that does look like it keeps the food suspended a little longer. I'll look into getting an algae scrubber, do you have one that you'd recommend? I was looking at adding a protein skimmer but if the algae scrubber is a better option I'll look into going that route instead.

Right now im using the santa monica HOG algea scrubber, but i do not recommend that one because i have had issues with the magnet. They make a small in tank ones that does not have magnet or there are HOB options from other companys you can try. in my experience algae scrubbers work better the protein skimmer it is basically a compact, more efficient refugium. they work so good that you will have to lower the photo period of the algae otherwize you wil have zero nitrates and phosphate whitch is bad for corals.

 

[Dom]

hi, welcome to the hobby. i would wait to get any cuc until you start getting algae otherwise they will starve. what i do is just stick with snails nassarius for uneaten food, Astrea Snails and Mexican turbo for algae. i don't recommend hermit crab like everywhere online does because they don't do that good of a job and they kill each other and all your Snails so stay away from them. you wil also get stuff naturally by adding corals like bristle worm, asterina starfish, etc.

and start off with a small hand full of Astrea Snails or 2 Mexican turbo and go from there if you still see a lot of hair algea add some more they are ment to help with mainly hair algea

Cleanup crews don't live on algae alone. They are called cleanup crews because they scavenge. I would add snails and crabs immediately. Just because you don't see anything to clean up, doesn't mean there isn't.

 

[jasrivas]

Cleanup crews don't live on algae alone. They are called cleanup crews because they scavenge. I would add snails and crabs immediately. Just because you don't see anything to clean up, doesn't mean there isn't.

no, but definitely a huge part of their diet. nassarius are great to add in the beginning because thy will immediately eat any uneaten food that falls on the sand, and i think avoiding carbs is the best think you can do for the longevity of your other CUC, fish and corals they all cause to much problems.

 

[Dom]

no, but definitely a huge part of their diet. nassarius are great to add in the beginning because thy will immediately eat any uneaten food that falls on the sand, and i think avoiding carbs is the best think you can do for the longevity of your other CUC, fish and corals they all cause to much problems.

Problems? Such as?

 

[jasrivas]

Problems? Such as?

depends on the species, but hermits tend to kill each other and snails even when there are plenty of loose shells for them to pick when they need a new one. green emerald crabs can pick at corals and things like sally lightfoot crab and arrow crab have been know to even attack fish. i personally avoid crabs in general.

 

[kevgib67]

I didn’t see your aquarium must have only focused on the cat. Striking color and pattern! As for cuc start small and increase as needed. I love my nassarius snails, they along with my tiger conch and diamond watchman goby keep my sand bed white as white can be. I have a dozen mixed dwarf red and blue legged hermits that were added over a year ago, no murdering but I added a lot of empty shells for them. My go to snail is trochus snails, work horses, are able to right themselves if the land on their backs. Another plus is they reproduce in our aquarium and I now have all sizes. Ceriths are pretty awesome as well. My big dawg is my tuxedo urchin, wow does it eat. I probably wouldn’t add one unless you get a lot of algae. When algae is low I supplement with algae wafers or nori.

 

[beens_N_Weever]

For a 20 gallon tank, the unquestioned greatest CUC combo.

Human + Toothbrush

I will have a tank toothbrush handy.

Maybe I can teach the Cats how to clean the tank so I can outsource the task to them lol jk.

 

[beens_N_Weever]

Right now im using the santa monica HOG algea scrubber, but i do not recommend that one because i have had issues with the magnet. They make a small in tank ones that does not have magnet or there are HOB options from other companys you can try. in my experience algae scrubbers work better the protein skimmer it is basically a compact, more efficient refugium. they work so good that you will have to lower the photo period of the algae otherwize you wil have zero nitrates and phosphate whitch is bad for corals.

Okay, I'll start looking around for a small algae scrubber that would work best for my tank.

 

[beens_N_Weever]

I didn’t see your aquarium must have only focused on the cat. Striking color and pattern! As for cuc start small and increase as needed. I love my nassarius snails, they along with my tiger conch and diamond watchman goby keep my sand bed white as white can be. I have a dozen mixed dwarf red and blue legged hermits that were added over a year ago, no murdering but I added a lot of empty shells for them. My go to snail is trochus snails, work horses, are able to right themselves if the land on their backs. Another plus is they reproduce in our aquarium and I now have all sizes. Ceriths are pretty awesome as well. My big dawg is my tuxedo urchin, wow does it eat. I probably wouldn’t add one unless you get a lot of algae. When algae is low I supplement with algae wafers or nori.

Thank you, She's one of two Bengals we have running around our house. I was thinking about adding a couch becuase I had heard they are good workers. I wanted to get a Diamond Goby but LFS said that it would outgrow my tank and so they recommended the hector goby instead. Sunny (hector goby) has been working away at sifting through the sand, but he's still small and I feel like it's a lot of tank for one little guy to keep clean. That's good to know about supplementing with algae wafers or nori. I'd seen a couple places recommend supplemneting in the algae wafers if there isn't a lot of algae to go around.

 

[BetterJake]

I didn’t see your aquarium must have only focused on the cat. Striking color and pattern! As for cuc start small and increase as needed. I love my nassarius snails, they along with my tiger conch and diamond watchman goby keep my sand bed white as white can be. I have a dozen mixed dwarf red and blue legged hermits that were added over a year ago, no murdering but I added a lot of empty shells for them. My go to snail is trochus snails, work horses, are able to right themselves if the land on their backs. Another plus is they reproduce in our aquarium and I now have all sizes. Ceriths are pretty awesome as well. My big dawg is my tuxedo urchin, wow does it eat. I probably wouldn’t add one unless you get a lot of algae. When algae is low I supplement with algae wafers or nori.

How do you feed an urchin a wafer or nori? Do you just put it on the bottom and they find it? Or do you place them on top of it manually?

 

[beens_N_Weever]

Just wanted to put an update on the tank.



Well, the bad news is I lost my two-clown fish. I think they caught a disease, and I wasn’t prepared. Since this is my first tank, I didn't have the proper hospital tank and medication to help my sick fish and by the time I got the equipment it was too late. I've been doing my research and I got a quarantine tank, some different types of medications (CopperSafe, Metroplex, Rally pro plus, and PraziPro). I am letting my tank sit fallow for 70 days, so I'll be able to add some fish come February.

Around the time that my fish had passed I had put some cleanup crew in. I got a blood red fire shrimp, a tiger conch, and some snails. The shrimp (Cherry) has become my favorite addition to the tank so far. She hides upside down on the rock most of the time but when it's feeding time she comes running!



I've noticed some algae starting to grow but from my research it looks like its common ugly phase algae and so I'm letting just the snails do their thing and biding my time.



I'm hoping this time around when I add my new clown fish in it goes better than last, I'm excited to get them and hopefully watch them flourish. I am going to do the 21-day quarantine by BRS where I put them in the QT tank for 28 days and just observe them. That way I do not have to put my DT back into a fallow period.



I am excited to see what 2023 brings for the tank. Once the tank is matured, I am going to slowly add in coral.