New 20Gal Salt nano reef tank.

[smash102]

Just starting a small 20Gal saltwater nano reef tank. I need the following items to complete it.

Skimmer
Light
Stand
Live Rock

Any suggestions on what make, model, or where to get them, or if any one is selling anything?

[raynist]

Hi, check your PM's.

--Ray

[acer]

send Pm

[smash102]

Update:

This is my intentions, any suggestions?

I am planning soft coral bed of like 2 or 3 colorful mushrooms. Like a green or yellow. I am planning on putting the following in my tank:
FISH
2 – Nemo 1 larger than the other.
1 – Gobi thinking fire tail

SOFTIES
1 - Colt Cora
1 - Blue Mushroom
1 - Common Polyps

REEF KEEPERS
15 - Blue Leg Hermits
5 - Red Scarlet Hermits
5 - Astrea Snails
5 - Margarita Snails
5 - Cerith Snails
5 - Turbo Snails
2 - 3 Cleaner Shrimp

Maybe:
1 - Brittle Star

My planned live run refugium setup to hang off the back of the tank:
1) First chamber: One sponge and possibly a pump, facing out of the left side of the intake grate.
2) Second chamber: In the future, I will probably add live rock rubble for additional filtration and later on macroalgae as a refugium if I can successfully get light into the middle chamber using a grow light. I was thinking of putting my Temp probe here too.
3) Third chamber: Maxijet pump, heater

[smash102]

Just got most of my PVC plumbing completed. Painted the tank and plumbing. I will take some pics soon and post them.

Refuge completed baffle placement and filter placement. Just waiting on arrival of vinyl tubing, pump, live rock, cheeto, and skimmer. I am not quite sure where to get the cheeto yet.

Any suggestions if I cheeto is the correct thing I should use in the refuge?

[smash102]

Here are some pictures:

First one is of the Tank and Stand. And one of the plumbing.




Second is the under sand reinforcement to prevent sand sifters from getting under the rock and to prevent the rock from scratching the glass.



Third is the IKEA LED lights I got for my moon lighting.





4th is it running with live sand and base rock for right now. Still waiting to get my pump and skimmer. Should be here this week. and I need to get some live rock. Looking for cycled rock to speed it up a bit. Please note that the power head and heater will be removed once my pump gets here.




I bought 50lbs of the SouthDown sand direct from Home Depot.
Apparently its yardright now.http://www.yardright.com/sand.htm

[smash102]

I am having trouble with my overflow. It’s not draining more than 100 gph. Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong and probable solutions?

[Python73]

What you have there is a fancy syphon, not an overflow. I'm assuming you had to prime it to get water flowing. Problem is, if you lose power, and the syphon breaks, then the power comes back on, it will not restart itself, and you will pump the sump contents into and out of your tank.

My suggestion would be get a hole drilled where that syphon plumbing is, and do a simple bulkhead with strainer. This is about $7 of parts and a half hour drilling if you know someone with a drill. The club has serveral members with hole saws. Are you a member?

Hope that helps.

S !

[smash102]

As far as membership goes, I want to. Just can’t find the site to pay the bill.

As for drilling, I really didn’t want to. I tested this design and when the power is removed it does drain to the level of drain. When the power is returned the siphon picks right back up with no interaction what so ever. It’s really neat that way. I think I am over driving it or I built it wrong. I’m not sure that’s why I am asking. I am willing to consider drilling it, if I can’t get this to work.

[smash102]

Lowered the intake and it pulls the full 600GPH the pump can spit at it. Its just burping in the sump. Looking for suggestions on how to correct that.

[smash102]

My die-off is almost complete and my second cycle is starting to peak ever so slowly. Just put an AquaClear50 with two carbon pouches and an ammonia pouch in to help buffer a little bit since the live rock is not completely established yet.

[smash102]

P.s. the above pictures were taken from my logitech underwater webcam that I put together. I will have to post how I did it some time.

[smash102]

I need some advice on 2 subjects.

1.) Am I cycled yet?
2.) What should I be doing to encourage purple coralline algae?

Readings:
As of March 18th.
NitrAte 10
Ammonia 0
PH 8.2
NitrIte between .025&.5
Phosphate .2
Calcium 340

Did a 20% water change on the 18th after taking readings with Instant Ocean salt.

As of march 20th
NitrAte 10
Ammonia .25
PH 8.2
NitrIte between .025&.5
Phosphate .2
Calcium 480

[smash102]

Will a 250watt metal halide bulb be too strong for my tank? If so then what wattage would be best 150, 175 and 10k,15k,or 20k?

Today’s readings:

As of march 24th
NitrAte 5
Ammonia 0
PH 8.2
NitrIte between .025 steady
Phosphate .2
Calcium 480

[raynist]

Originally posted by smash102
Will a 250watt metal halide bulb be too strong for my tank? If so then what wattage would be best 150, 175 and 10k,15k,or 20k?

Today’s readings:

As of march 24th
NitrAte 5
Ammonia 0
PH 8.2
NitrIte between .025 steady
Phosphate .2
Calcium 480

I think a 250w would be overkill.

A 175w bulb can let you grow anything depending on the bulb.

--ray

[smash102]

So far:

I have rearranged my rock. It actually looks like I have more than I did. There are more crevices and hiding places for the fish and etc.

I have picked up a few corals (Thanks Kelly & Dave), a fire tail goby, and a peppermint shrimp.

I picked up the peppermint shrimp because some of my new corals had some aptasia on the rock. I put him in and 24 hours later… NO more aptasia.


On with the pictures:

[smash102]

New aquascape.

I added about 15 pounds of rock today to increase the reef size. It only displaced about 5 cups of water.

Oh, Also the algae did go away as you can see.



Look Mom, a rock with legs.



Not a great image, but he wasn’t posing for me.

[smash102]

Updated Pictures

Below are some updated pictures of my tank. I have gotten some new members to the clean up crew and one or two new pieces of coral. The stuff I have is growing by leaps and bounds as you may be able to see from previous pictures.

[smash102]

Found a hitchhiker I never knew I had. See the little starfish on the snail?

[zzpw3x]

It's and asterina. Considered good.

If not too late, I would isolate the green star polyps from your main live rock. Someday you will hate it as it starts to cover every living thing in the tank. If it is isolated you can remove the single rock. Don't let it creep onto rock you don't want to see covered in GSP's someday.

TO get rid of the cyano, I'd use chemi-clean. Some will tell you to go the all natural route (water changes, less feeding, etc.) but IMO chemi-clean works without months of tribulations.

Dale

[smash102]

That is what it is? Cool.

Ya the green star polyps are on a single rock I can pull out and replace any time. I hope to try and keep them in the tank for bit though and at least cover the rock their on. Thanks for the advice; I will keep that in mind.

I did not know it was cyano. The snails seam to be having a feeding day with it though. I just added some more live to my fugue, which I thought caused a bloom. If it is that bad, then I will look for that chemical you speak of.

[smash102]

Cyano completely gone today. Nothing left but coralline algae and a little green algae. Just let the snails eat and eat, then did a 20% water change and waited. Didn't change feeding habits.

[smash102]

Picked up a pulsating zenia, some sort of hairy plate coral (growing like crazy) and a green mandarin. Tank bugs now under control, me’s not starving that’s for sure. Going to supplement him with blood worms and baby brine shrimp.

Question, my zenia is growing fast so how do you split zenia from the main stalk?

[smash102]

I was getting ready to do some cleaning of my tank before gusts come over for the holidays, so I snapped some pictures.