Starting Salt

[Corey Shelk]

You can do that or get some 5 gallon water safe jugs and pick it up from your LFS. With small tanks it's kind of a toss up as to which is better. I'll be honest even for my 90 gallon I just buy pre-mix from my LFS. Then again, they are a dedicated Saltwater store (they don't do anything else) run by hobbyists who have been doing saltwater tanks for 15-20 years and they only charge me 75 cents a gallon for RODI/Saltwater Pre-mix and give me RODI water for free. It also helps that they are 1 light down from my house.

Oh yeah I can check in with my LFS and see what they do because that would be a lot cheaper

 

[Corey Shelk]

A pair should be fine and they do tend to do better in pairs. The Royal Gramma would be fine. Personally, if it were me, I would go with a Possum Wrasse/Pink Streaked Wrasse in that size of tank and/or a sand sifting goby of some kind:

http://aquarium-fish.liveaquaria.com/search?w=Possum Wrasse

In addition to the clowns and royal gramma or instead of?

 

[madweazl]

A goby/pistol pair is extremely enjoyable; much more so than a cleaner shrimp in my opinion (they don't clean any parasites in an aquarium and become ornamental at best and a pain in the butt when they snatch food from your corals/anemones at worst). Most do great in a smaller tank and there are a number of shrimp gobies, not just the YWG. 20 longs can be awesome little tanks and the size remains small enough to keep simple with no external components if you're diligent with water changes.

 

[Jesterrace]

In addition to the clowns and royal gramma or instead of?

In addition.

 

[Corey Shelk]

A goby/pistol pair is extremely enjoyable; much more so than a cleaner shrimp in my opinion (they don't clean any parasites in an aquarium and become ornamental at best and a pain in the butt when they snatch food from your corals/anemones at worst). Most do great in a smaller tank and there are a number of shrimp gobies, not just the YWG. 20 longs can be awesome little tanks and the size remains small enough to keep simple with no external components if you're diligent with water changes.

Yeah I'm excited to be able to watch them

 

[Corey Shelk]

In addition.

Oh neat, thanks

 

[Corey Shelk]

Hey everyone! It's been a while since this post but I'm going to revive it since I finally got my tank! It's a 20 gallon standard. It's currently running with a Fluval AquaClear 50, 20lbs of CaribSea Arab-live sand and 15lbs of live rock. Specific gravity is 1.022 and it is currently not stocked. I put in API quick start just to see if it would work. I have a few hitchhikers on my live rock. I knew this would happen and since my tank have no fish or corals I wanted to see what I would get. I am new to the saltwater hobby but I have been doing extensive research since even before starting this thread and I still have a few questions. My first one would be if anyone can identify some of the hitchhikers I am able to see

 

[Corey Shelk]

Here are some things I've noticed. Sorry the pictures are so blurry, I stirred up the sand a little before this. I can retake the pictures in a little bit once it clears up again if I need to. There is also a small snail looking thing that I can't get my phone to focus on because of the water so I'll try to take a pic in a little bit.

 

[Corey Shelk]

Sorry I just realized there was an entire section of the forum for this part so I'll make a thread over there and just keep this for updates

 

[cracker]

Good Luck corey !

 

[408Dartfish]

If you do decide to get a firefish. Be best to put them in first as they can be shy and intimidated. I put mine in at about fish 9 and mine didn’t hide nearly as much as I thought in my 69g, prob got lucky. He holds his own in the tank as it’s pretty peaceful.

 

[Corey Shelk]

Good Luck corey !

Thank you!

 

[Corey Shelk]

If you do decide to get a firefish. Be best to put them in first as they can be shy and intimidated. I put mine in at about fish 9 and mine didn’t hide nearly as much as I thought in my 69g, prob got lucky. He holds his own in the tank as it’s pretty peaceful.

Yeah they are definitely up at the top of my list for livestock. I love their look

 

[Corey Shelk]

Here is the FTS. It's not much right now, I'm going to get more live rock for the left side tomorrow probably. I like what I have going so far, it's obviously not a professional aquascpae but I love it, and I think the fish will love it. Sorry for the blurry water, I had to remove the rock on the right to get rid of the bubble algae and stirred up more sand that needs to settle and clear. I'll keep you all updated

 

[408Dartfish]

Looks great. My biggest advice is always be very patient with your tank, never get into a rush adding live stock. Dustin

 

[Corey Shelk]

Looks great. My biggest advice is always be very patient with your tank, never get into a rush adding live stock. Dustin

Yeah that's going to be my biggest challenge

 

[Corey Shelk]

I picked up another pound of live rock, I would've gotten more but they didn't have any. I also got a handful of chaeto macroalgae, 3 astrea snails, and 1 small blue green chromis. I know it's a little early to get a fish but I have a friend here in college who has been in the saltwater hobby for about 10 years and he said with all of my live rock and live sand I could add a few blue green chromis already, but that sounded like a lot plus I didn't want to have to return all of them to the store later so I just added one. In the next week or so I'm going to get my yellow watchman goby. Here is a pic of them temp acclimating. You can't see the chromis but I'll get a pic of it later today