New Tank... Input

[RJones]

After reading so many discussion boards I feel like I have the smallest tank out there. I have had fresh water for a few years, I decided to upgrade to saltwater. For starters, I used a tank that used to have fresh water but no longer does, it a 20 gal. I know it is small, but I am fairly into detail and have educated myself to some extent. I bought crushed coral, rinsed it for about two hours through a strainer, used only water through a britta (yikes) then I bought live rock.. so that is where I am at. No fish yet, water temp at 79, nitrates at 0, amonia at 1, all others ok. I am ready for fish, but a little apprehesive after reading about the whole cycle thing, so I am ready to monitor it and see how it goes. I figure if I can do a 20gal, I can upgrade, but want to start with what I have, I eventually want a reef tank, but have to start somewhere. My daughter has a saltwater tank (she just had her 21st b'day) and id a typical college kid who managed to keep a puffer and lion aline in a dorm, so I figured I could do ok with a couple of damsels and rock. I am open to advice.. but don't ridicule the tiny tank, it is where I am starting.. oh well.

Open to suggestions
RJ

 

[vanillaprice]

I would say you would want to ditch the crushed coral and go with a deep sand bed. It happen to me when I tried to go with a 30 gallon that is was much harder to keep running compared to my 75 gallon. I used to have crushed coral but could not keep my nitrates down. I also used a tap water filter. This did not work. Since I have gotten a ro/di. With the ro/di and the deep sand bed I have 0 nitrates and that is with heavy feedings. You will also have to be carefull not to over feed in such a small tank. You will want to stay away from messy feeders like puffers and triggers. They will leave food in the tank and will out grow your tank. I would stay with only a couple damsels or clowns and that would be about it in a 20. This is based on my past and you might have better luck at it then I did.

 

[Hal1]

There's nothing wrong with a 20 gal. It adds some challenges because your water volume is less, and gives less swimming room for fish (avoid tangs), but 20 gal is far better than 10 gal or no tank at all.

Dr. Ron Shimek says that if the Deep Sand Bed has a footprint less than the size of a 40 gal tank, it won't help at all with nitrate removal (the purpose of a DSB) due to edge effects. This being the case, I'd avoid the DSB. Plus a 4 inch DSB takes up valuable water column volume in a smaller type tank.

I'm sure many people will disagree with my comments on minimum DSB size, but Dr. Ron is hard to argue against.

 

[Lynn]

RJ I think thats great! Thats how I started out. I bought a 20 gal first to see what this was all about. I was hooked on it from the first day! I had a 4"deep sand bed, 25 pounds of live rock, a little skimmer and whala! haven't lost a fish (except for the one that jumped out!) We spent the first month watching things grow on the rocks!! I faithfully did a 10% water change every 7 days. The water parameters were always 100%. Now I've got a big tank going and am going to use the 20 as a QT.
You can look at my pic's if you like? also there is a nanoreef board at www.nanoreef.com that is pretty good. This board is excellent!!
Have a great day
Lynn

 

[carver]

Are you into corals? Some hardy coral would make a nice addition to a small tank.

 

[Mouse]

25 Gallons, small but perfectly formed. The best start in reef keeping you could ever have.

1) its only going to get easier (bigger tanks are)
2) mistakes are never that costly
3) hey, its still a reef

Whatever the size the water quality still has to be good. Id go slightly understocked just till you get the training wheels off, so to speak.

Mind you when i told my LFS i was going to set up a 25G reef they said it couldn't be done. "Its too small and the fluctuations will be too large", they said. So what i did was treat it like a patient on life support, i top it up every day, feed small ammounts every day. Besides if it does go that bad the water changes are a doddle.

 

[RJones]

Thanks for the support. I advanced to fish... three two damsels, blue and yellow tailed blue and a green camois (sure I got that last name wrong)... I was careful to introduce them to the tank, lots of floating in the bag, then added tank water to the bag, then after a while, added only them to the tank (no water) they are doing great (only been a few hours) but they are active and exploring, after the initial hiding of course. I am on a time will tell mode. cross your fingers!

Thanks again for the support and advice!

 

[erasmu]

RJ,

Was that a typo or was your ammonia at 1? If it was as 1, I wouldn't think you would want to add any fish. Did your cycle complete? Live rock always has some die-off that causes a rise in ammonia. The tank can cycle with only live rock, sand, and the things that came in with it.

Ed R

 

[Jawbone]

Well he is adding damsels so they will surley help it cycle without any trouble.

Like Ed says watch the tank cycle happen. If you dont see the cycle happen than it has not happend yet.

Then you can start to slowly add your inhabitants of corals or fish, although some people use damsels to cycle the tank... kind of the goldfish of the sea.