20 Gallon tank diary

[Navarre]

you can add a smaller amount of liverock and then add a low bioload. but once you add more liverock at a later stage i would add it a little at a time just in case its not fully cured and creates an ammonia spike.

As for the DSB in yor 20 galloon DONT DO IT!

20 gallons with liverock as well is simply too small in surface area to make an effective DSB.
Do not make the sand any deeper than 2 inches and perfferably only 1 inch

 

[sammydee]

Ok, thanks. Do I need to worry about nitrates though? Or will the live rock take care of that by itself?

EDIT: Have done (even more) research and found a site where limestone is recommended as an alternative to live rock. As limestone is extremely cheap, could I use this and seed it with a bit of live rock? Has anybody done this, and is it liekly to work?

thanks

 

[sammydee]

Ok, I promised pics of the lid, and its nearly finished. Just needs a bit of tidying up now :

Whole Tank

Side view

It needs cleaning up, but it looks pretty good compared to my other diy disasters!

Sam

 

[FrAnK3333]

Nice tank. Get it setup and put some pics up.

 

[sammydee]

I need to paint the hood white on the inside. What SAFE, marine grade waterproof paint can I use? Do I need to varnish it too?

Anybody gonna comment on the limestone instead of live rock idea?

Thanks

 

[sammydee]

Ok, update on the tank lid. Painted it and it just needs varnishing now:

It's looking quite good I think.

 

[sammydee]

Ok update:

Got actinic and marine white T8 tubes, rated for 18 watts. They're quite significantly brighter when run on 36 watts though. Unfortunately they get pretty hot so I also added a couple of cooling fans which helps keep temperature down.

The hood is completely finished now, and my next step is to add sand and make some rock out of concrete. I found a load of pool filter sand inthe shed, still sealed up in a bag, which my dad never used for the pool. Is it possible to use this on a reef? Do I need aragonite sand as well? Will the silica in the sand cause algae to grow?

Thanks

 

[Navarre]

I strongly advise against silica sand. Some silca sands carry silicates which will promote huge algae growth. It also offeres no stabality to the water or buffering to the pH.

If you want to make man made liverock then use Cement mixed with aragonite and rocksalt. it will take a good 8 weeks to prepare the rock for tank use.

 

[sammydee]

Yeah that's what I meant, cement and aragonite. Not concrete . I'll have a look for proper aragonite sand at my LFS.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Ok, thanks. Do I need to worry about nitrates though? Or will the live rock take care of that by itself?

EDIT: Have done (even more) research and found a site where limestone is recommended as an alternative to live rock. As limestone is extremely cheap, could I use this and seed it with a bit of live rock? Has anybody done this, and is it liekly to work?

thanks

Its my understanding lime stone wasnt good for tanks as they dissolved Co2 and other nasties.

 

[sammydee]

I found this article on the internet. Are you sure about the silica sand navarre?

 

[Malawiandude]

yea he is so right. I used a silica based substrate on my first 38g SW tank, super bad outbreak of hair diatom algae. everywhere, the stuff was feeding the algae like nothing.



BTW dude, coming along nicely i am gonna have to try that DIY, can u get some pics of how u put the pegs on the inside for me?

I am gonna have to follow this post...

 

[Opcn]

Why exactly are you against a DSB in a 20 gallon Nav?

 

[sammydee]

Malawian dude - you mean the hood? It's really easy to do. Even I managed to do it! You'll need some marine ply to start with. What pegs are you talking about?

Navarre said (i think) that a DSB didn't have enough surface area in a 20G to work effectively.

 

[Opcn]

I think considering the volume to be filterest a DSB comes out just fine, the only consideration for me would be loss of swimming space.