Another First Reefer... 20G Tall

[Tibs]

Finally got some batteries for my camera and took a few shots to share. Sorry, my camera sucks and my clowns love attention and find a way to get in nearly every shot. I built this aquarium on a college student budget and I'm happy with it so far. Its a little over 2 months old right now. Just starting to get some coralline building up on the rocks. I know the goby should be in a bigger tank but he's tiny right now and if I notice him acting weird, I'll transplant him ytbj's 500 Gal. He seems happy to me, sifting away.

Specs:
20G Tall
25lbs LR/ 25lbs LS
65W 50/50 PC
Current SubCurrent Filter (w/ Filter Floss & ChemiPure)
HOB Filter converted to HOB Fuge w/ Chaeto and 19w UV (doubles as night light)
Koralia 2
2 Clownfish (Barnum & Bailey)
1 Golden Head Goby (Bon Goby)
Nice variety of Snails and Hermits as CU

This is what I started with....


And then...


Ahhhhhhh Algae!


And then these are the recent shots
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HOB Fuge Light doubles as moon lighting.


Let me know what ya'll think. Thanks to ytbj, I think I'm getting addicted and foresee going bigger soon. It's a basic set up, as I didn't want to get too crazy being my first reef aquarium. Learning the basics and playing around with the water/equipment parameters mainly.

[Pennies2Cents]

Looking Good Tibs! This is the exact size we started off with.

Welcome to MAAST.

[Mr Cob]

Yep, thanks for sharring. Looks great. Glad you took the plunge. Welcome to MAAST!

[ErikH]

Welcome to our big ol' hole in the wall.

[txav8r]

Great start! Keep the pictures coming.

[Shu]

Welcome, this is what I started with. Soon you will be upgrading to a bigger tank in no time. This hobby is addicting and I guarantee you will outgrow that tank. I went from a 20 to a 90.

[Jordan N.]

Looking really good, I think the rock work has a really nice flow from left to right. I'll be watching this as it grows out.

Edit: Also, welcome to MAAST! I'm sure you'll find that it's a quite helpful little community.

~Jordan N.

[diego]

I have a 20 gallon tall also. I am liking it so far. I want to upgrade already but I won't. I want my corals to grow out. Keep the pics coming and welcome to MAAST.

[Tibs]

Appreciate the comments. I promise I will keep updates going via pictures. I recently began inserting "Kents Essential Elements" into the tank after every water change and only after 3 weeks I can really see a change with my corals, especially with the frogspawn. They open up a lot more and I guess.... seem "healthier". The next thing I have to do is move my frogspawn to a different location or at least a tad bit farther away from the mushrooms. I've noticed some of the 'arms' doing a little damage to the couple of mushrooms that are close by. The only other corals I want to throw into this tank are some zoa's and as far as live stock goes, maybe a cleaner shrimp. What do you guys think. I want more fish, but with a 20g, it is limited and I know.... therefore... bigger tank in the future. Anyways, I took some high res pics tonight and will post up tomorrow. Once again, thanks for the comments and I welcome any opinions on how or what I could do better.

-Tibs

[justahobby]

Hi and Welcome. You are making great progress. Keeping a 20 gal. healthy can be more challenging than bigger tanks so congrats! The mushroom island is sweet. The advantage to smaller tanks is the ability to see everything up close and noticed tiny details.