In Search of 20 gal SPS tanks

[madequity]

I have noticed that most SPS dominated tanks tend to be a mix of corals and I am thinking about starting my Finnex 20 as an SPS dominated tank. I am looking for pics of any 20's that are setup this way and in particular the physical setup of the system regarding lighting and the use of ozone, skimmers, additions of calc, etc...

There has to be a way to do an SPS 20 and apply the K.I.S.S. methodology that has brought me back to the nano's in the first place. Notwithstanding the economics and wile I love the pictures of the larger tanks on this site the shear mechanical demands of large tanks I just no longer have the bandwidth for.

Hence, my search for simple well thought out 20 SPS's.

[cj_basser]

Alright..here it goes. These are not updated pictures...my digi cam isn't working at this time or else I would post some newer shots.

This is my sump of ~26 gallons. Nothing much has changed since this shot. That is a EuroReef CS-5 skimmer, and a MAG 7 for a return pump.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/CShaver/100_1418.jpg

This is where I really start to get mad at myself. This was my first experience keeping SPS...and lets just say I rushed it a bit. I let the tnak mature for 2 months, slowly adding a cleanup crew, shrimp, and one coral just to start it out. And then came the obsession...weekly trips to the LFS, who has 1 500g SPS tank..and 4 other smaller tanks. I put way too many corals in, and as you can see, the tank obviously wasn't mature.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/CShaver/100_2065.jpg

Then came one thing after another...it hit me like a ton of bricks. Aperantly, one of the clams had Pyramid snails, and all of those gorgeous clams died. After a few weeks, I decided to plumb in a NanoCube to put my angler fish in. This was the real downfall of my tank. I though it would be OK to plumb it in and not let the stsyem get used to the water quantity. This caused an out break of Ick, which claimed my angler, and pair of super rare Papua Clowns. It also led to the downfall of all of my corals. I was able to salvage a few of the corals, but most of them died. I lost so much money in this tnak it isn't even funny.

I also lost a lot of confidence as a reefer, as well. I guess I didn't want to put any corals in, in fear of killing them. My parameters were comepletly fine...and to this date I still don't know what the deal was.

Now, the tnak is still up and running, and I gained some confidence and have started adding corals. I am still thinking about tearing it down and staritng up a frag tank for profits.

I guess this post tells you guys exactly what not to do when starting up a SPS tank.

CJ

[madequity]

Well I appreciate the feedback. Good, bad, or indifferent it all helps.

Hopefully someone who has pulled this off will post. I am really thinking it can be done by keeping it very simple (which sometimes is the most stable) but I am concerned with the ability to stabalize an SPS tank given the heavy calcium uptake of the corals.

[KING OF THE REEF]

i dont personally keep sps yet, but i have seen and heard of all sps 20's they are out here, in fact a good place to ask this question as well would be nano-reef.com.

[Jovreefer]

Are you looking for the keep it simple as in no work...tons of equipment or minimum equipment?

I have a 20H with 150W DE MH, old prizim skimmer recently modded for surface skimming, A old pinguin bio-wheel gutted and made into a tiny fuge (of course no wheel) & 2 maxijet powerheads I believe one 600 & 1 400 but I could be wrong...I have not seen the writing in so long due to coraline growth.

Its mostly SPS but I do still have my favorite zoa's and rodactus/rics, a few acans and a clam :)

Its been running 4 months so all my SPS are still tiny sticks.

The only thing I wish I had done different would be to have gotten a 250W MH instead of the 150. I can only keep high light demanding SPS at the very top with the 150.

I use a 2 part calc & alk to dose along with TM pro salt so my Mag has been pretty stable. Calcium demands are pretty high, I usually dose an additional 5 ml of calc compaired to alk.

Its under a complete re-vamp right now so it looks nothing like this... but heres a pic from before christmas. 14sps (2 more comming this weekend) WHOHOO!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/jovreefer/Tankjan06.jpg