20g FOWLR

[ClamFan]

Well its time to share my newest saltwater adventure so here we go. After a few years away from the hobby I was able to convince the wife to let me start a new tank. I want to take this slow so everything will be healthy and stable for a few fish. So as of last month I added 30 pounds of aragonite sand and 2 weeks ago got some live and dry rock from Scutterborn. So yesterday the wife and I went to Elegant reef and have added a couple of blue leg crabs and astrea snails. All I need to do now is seed the sand bed. I was going to get some Garf grunge but have decided against it. As of now the only filtration is an Aqueon power filter that came with the tank. Lighting will also stay simple. I want coral but its not a priority since Im going for a semi low budget tank. I would like to put together a closed loop of some sort just to improve flow but we will see. There are plans to replace the filter with a penguin biowheel soon.

As of now, our plans for fish include 3 blue/green chromis, and a purple dottyback. But this could change if compatibility will be an issue. We want to keep it simple until its time to move into a house. So here are some pics. If you guys have any ideas or advice I welcome your input. These are phone pics so please excuse the poor quality.

[MadReefer]

starting slow. Good form man. lets see. fish only so its simple on the system really. deep sandbed (good in this case). some live rock (check). hob filtration (fine for fish only... Check). Flow... pshh i'd say a maxijet in a 10g. cheapest rout i can think of and effective, plus upgradable prop mod for like 15 bucks if you decide. man 10g though... not much buffer room but hey. 1 5-gallon bucket and you have a 50% water change lol. tis good. if you stick with fowlr only, you dont need to worry bout calcium, mag., all that extra stuff that fish dont need. same for lighting really. intensity fish dont care about, so can go on the cheap as well. even salt itself can go with instant ocean's cheapest and have 0 probs. oh dont worry bout adding snake oils. your tank will do what it needs to on its own by simply feeding a fish once. then the amonia, nitrate, nitrites begin to ballance out. long as you dont overfeed =-)

2 thumbs up and a cookie!

Reef On!

[ClamFan]

Cheap is exactly what Im going for. And I enjoy a dsb for all of the critters and natural benefits. Plus all the dosing gets expensive and its too easy to overdose a 10g. As for water parameters, they are still quite stable with a tiny bit of ammonia and nitrite, but no nitrates yet. I have a small diatom bloom which is why I got the crabs and snails. Im hoping the copepods I have will begin to thrive soon, but I guess I need to feed the tank a little bit. Its been a while since I had a tank going so Im willing to take it real slow and easy. The only growth I am after right now is coralline algae and Im sure the salt im using will provide all the calcium I need. I have a maxijet 12 for mixing salt but putting it in the tank would blow the water out. Very excited to watch this all come together.

Thanks for the thumbs up!

[MadReefer]

yeah true on the powerhead thing. its hard for me to think 10 gallons lol. ummm perhaps the jbj dual 500 wave maker? i actually had a LFS tell me the 500's would perform great in my 180. ummm no lol. so at least i have 2 wavemaker timers i guess. but from what those little 500's do i would say its not a blast at all its very subtle. the dual kit isnt much either iirc, maybe 80bucks-ish. i have more stupid koralias and other powerheads that are so under-rated for my tank, but they were free. i'd give you these if i didnt live way out in kerrBill.

[ClamFan]

Yeah the maxi jet was left over from my last 2 tanks. Major overkill for a 10. Wave makers would be nice but in time. I'm a delivery driver and make it up to Kerrville about once a month. I have a 110 in storage but the wife wants me to sell it. Besides, we don't have the room with the kids. Eventually everything will get moved to a larger tank. Hopefully I can keep the 110. So far I'm losing that battle.

I appreciate the offer for the powerheads. I may have to meet up with you next time I make it up that way.

[MadReefer]

Yeah the maxi jet was left over from my last 2 tanks. Major overkill for a 10. Wave makers would be nice but in time. I'm a delivery driver and make it up to Kerrville about once a month. I have a 110 in storage but the wife wants me to sell it. Besides, we don't have the room with the kids. Eventually everything will get moved to a larger tank. Hopefully I can keep the 110. So far I'm losing that battle.

I appreciate the offer for the powerheads. I may have to meet up with you next time I make it up that way.

sounds good man. pm me if you do :thumbs_up:

[ClamFan]

Will do!

[ClamFan]

So last night I got everything together for a closed loop. I got a second maxijet 12 from sjdunn90fowlr and used that for the pump. Im considering changing the nozzles to loc-line but I may be switching everything over to a 20 gallon soon. If I do then Im going to run the closed loop under the sand with loc-line outlets on either side of the tank. All things told, I have only spent $70 on this tank. I will post a picture of the closed loop on the tank later since I don't want to show off my diatom bloom. Looks pretty bad. Tomorrow my wife and I are going to get her windows tinted and am gonna check out the new Aquarium Adventures grand opening for some phosguard to help take care of the extra phosphates. Tests are coming up zero on ammo, nitrites and nitrates. PH is at 8.1. Using API kit.

[ClamFan]

Went to the grand opening of Aquarium Adventures today to take a look and walked out with a 18" Current LED with remote. Price was pretty good too.
http://www.current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/satellite-freshwater-led-plus
I do not intend to keep coral, but my old light was just too dark. This light will be added to the 20g when its time to set it up.

[ClamFan]

Finally moved everything to my 20g 2 weeks ago. Now that the diatom bloom is gone I will be adding fish. Starting with 2 blue green chromis, then 2 weeks later an orchid dottyback. Maybe a lawnmower blenny after that then it will be compete. Again, please excuse the pics. I cant seem to find our camera.

[ClamFan]

Its been about 6 weeks now since adding livestock to the tank. Added the chromis first. Then the blenny and finally the orchid dottyback. Now im planning the next upgrade. I got a drilled 29g from Malofish a couple of weeks ago and cleaned it up today. Next week is vacation and then time to build a stand. I will be using a taotronics led for lighting and my current 20g will be used as a sump and some rock I got from sdunn. Just have to find a baffle kit and decide on what pump to use as a return. Any advice on making a sump out of my 20g tall and advice on return pump would be great. I want lots of flow and am thinking a sicce 9 or something close. Will be using the maxijet closed loop as a carbon reactor. Let me know what yall think. Also let me know if anyone has any sand they want to get rid of. Thanks!

[ClamFan]

Came home today and found my algae blenny was dead. Very disappointed. He was fine a couple of days ago. Water parameters are spot on. Even low nitrates. I don't test phosphates. I did have an algae bloom because of over feeding a couple of times, but a 5 gal water change stopped it quick. I do 2.5 gal changes every 2 weeks. I will be doing water changes every week now for a while. The Chromis are quite happy, and the Orchid Dottyback is fat and happy. Hopefully they will stay that way.

[Scutterborn]

Sorry to hear about the Blenny. They do good in established aquariums with lots of live rock to graze on.

[ramsey]

Sorry to hear about the Blenny. They do good in established aquariums with lots of live rock to graze on.

I agree. A 20g is a little bit on the small side for a sailfin blenny. Tail spot and barnacle blennies would probably do better in that size of tank. Sorry for the loss.

[envy]

maybe that was a sign to set up the 110 when you move

[ClamFan]

maybe that was a sign to set up the 110 when you move
Agreed! Too bad the wife talked me into selling it. That's ok. Petco will have another $1 per gallon sale im sure. Ben and Ramsey, My daughter says she saw a bristle worm messing with him a few days before he died so I wonder if that may have had something to do with it. Thanks for those recommendations Ramsey. Im liking the tail spot blenny. But no more fish for a little while. Im going to wait till the 29g is set up.