Good morning all!
I've recently delved into the world of SW tank keeping with the intention of keeping corals. I live in North Kingstown, RI and am a 26 y/o vet/Army cadet.
My tank is a simple 20 gal tall approx. 1.5 months old. Did a DIY 21 LED light fixture from Aquastyle and then built a wooden hood to suite it. Added in a HOB CPR Aquafuge 2 w/ light with fiji mud and chaeto/rubble from my LFS, which has started a copepod boom. The sand bed in the display is 1" of coarse sand covered by 1" of crushed coral. In the future I'll do away with both and switch to much finer sand with a thin layer of the crushed coral. The coarse sand has a kitty litter appearance that I'm not particularly fond of. The live rock is looking great, and the base rock is growing a fair amount of green algae on it, which I'm hoping will spread quickly after my aquascape yesterday.
Album of the tank (~4 weeks old) : http://imgur.com/a/ubFci
- the hood has been covered by ~1/8" plywood on all sides, and a quiet RV fan is going to be added this weekend for circulation
- the tank has been aquascaped giving a much more natural look rather than just two islands, new pics will be added tonight.
- I've recently readded the HOB stock filter shown in the pictures with the carbon filter to help with the cloudiness of the water. The filter is being cleaned daily and the unit is only operated on a by needs basis. Also have been doing ~10% PWC daily. I had very high calcium levels for reasons unknown to me, as the measurement was around 550 ppm (i've never added any supplements besides the alk buffer at the beginning), so calcium carbonate was forming.
- Refigium is only shown in a few pictures, the ones without it are from roughly a month ago prior to it's purchase.
Rock:
6 lbs Manado - Premium Aquatics
6 lbs Pacific Island - Premium Aquatics
~12 lbs dry base rock
CUC:
~10 mixed snails from turbo to nassarius
5-6 red legged hermits (small)
1 large Emerald (1 1/2" across) , 1 small emerald (size of a dime)
2 cleaner shrimp
Fish:
2 Clowns - 1 Darwin and 1 Ocellaris
Lessons Learned:
Hermits love to eat snails
Melanarus Wrasse love to shoot into the sand when added, and if startled will shoot up between your refugium intake and the tank wall and get stuck and die.
Place a foam sponge in between the intake and tank wall so things don't commit suicide before you can even name them.
Emerald Crabs, when larger, are murderous creatures. The big guy has killed a fellow emerald half his size (smashed a hole in his body), thrown snails and hermits trying to get to food, and taunts my fish if they come too close.
Future plans:
Begin adding my corals (this weekend!!), Frogspawn and a few other LPS at first. Then move on to more difficult in the coming months/year.
Try the copepod breeding system in the mason jars with an air pump / phyto
- Once this is mastered and I know I can feed it - Look more seriously into getting a Mandarin. (I've read a hundred different opinions about people's opinions for keeping a Mandarin (100g, 10g (as long as you can feed it), etc. and 2 month old tank or 1 year old tank; I'm just going to make my best judgment call with the stability of the parameters, the copepod breeding, and my knowledge of the hobby to make a determination down the line whether or not the fish will be happy)
Think about a protein skimmer, but on a tank this size I don't know how much it will benefit.
Buy a house so I can have a bigger tank.
Ride a dolphin.
Anyways, I'm always open to hints / tips / criticisms, so don't hesitate to post! Also, any tips on what to get this weekend as far as corals would be great. I know I want a head or two of frogspawn (10$ a head at my LFS), besides that there is no set plan.
-Jeremy
I've recently delved into the world of SW tank keeping with the intention of keeping corals. I live in North Kingstown, RI and am a 26 y/o vet/Army cadet.
My tank is a simple 20 gal tall approx. 1.5 months old. Did a DIY 21 LED light fixture from Aquastyle and then built a wooden hood to suite it. Added in a HOB CPR Aquafuge 2 w/ light with fiji mud and chaeto/rubble from my LFS, which has started a copepod boom. The sand bed in the display is 1" of coarse sand covered by 1" of crushed coral. In the future I'll do away with both and switch to much finer sand with a thin layer of the crushed coral. The coarse sand has a kitty litter appearance that I'm not particularly fond of. The live rock is looking great, and the base rock is growing a fair amount of green algae on it, which I'm hoping will spread quickly after my aquascape yesterday.
Album of the tank (~4 weeks old) : http://imgur.com/a/ubFci
- the hood has been covered by ~1/8" plywood on all sides, and a quiet RV fan is going to be added this weekend for circulation
- the tank has been aquascaped giving a much more natural look rather than just two islands, new pics will be added tonight.
- I've recently readded the HOB stock filter shown in the pictures with the carbon filter to help with the cloudiness of the water. The filter is being cleaned daily and the unit is only operated on a by needs basis. Also have been doing ~10% PWC daily. I had very high calcium levels for reasons unknown to me, as the measurement was around 550 ppm (i've never added any supplements besides the alk buffer at the beginning), so calcium carbonate was forming.
- Refigium is only shown in a few pictures, the ones without it are from roughly a month ago prior to it's purchase.
Rock:
6 lbs Manado - Premium Aquatics
6 lbs Pacific Island - Premium Aquatics
~12 lbs dry base rock
CUC:
~10 mixed snails from turbo to nassarius
5-6 red legged hermits (small)
1 large Emerald (1 1/2" across) , 1 small emerald (size of a dime)
2 cleaner shrimp
Fish:
2 Clowns - 1 Darwin and 1 Ocellaris
Lessons Learned:
Hermits love to eat snails
Melanarus Wrasse love to shoot into the sand when added, and if startled will shoot up between your refugium intake and the tank wall and get stuck and die.
Place a foam sponge in between the intake and tank wall so things don't commit suicide before you can even name them.
Emerald Crabs, when larger, are murderous creatures. The big guy has killed a fellow emerald half his size (smashed a hole in his body), thrown snails and hermits trying to get to food, and taunts my fish if they come too close.
Future plans:
Begin adding my corals (this weekend!!), Frogspawn and a few other LPS at first. Then move on to more difficult in the coming months/year.
Try the copepod breeding system in the mason jars with an air pump / phyto
- Once this is mastered and I know I can feed it - Look more seriously into getting a Mandarin. (I've read a hundred different opinions about people's opinions for keeping a Mandarin (100g, 10g (as long as you can feed it), etc. and 2 month old tank or 1 year old tank; I'm just going to make my best judgment call with the stability of the parameters, the copepod breeding, and my knowledge of the hobby to make a determination down the line whether or not the fish will be happy)
Think about a protein skimmer, but on a tank this size I don't know how much it will benefit.
Buy a house so I can have a bigger tank.
Ride a dolphin.
Anyways, I'm always open to hints / tips / criticisms, so don't hesitate to post! Also, any tips on what to get this weekend as far as corals would be great. I know I want a head or two of frogspawn (10$ a head at my LFS), besides that there is no set plan.
-Jeremy
