Demm's 20G Long

[Demm]

Hello all!

Well i have decided that i need to stop with the freshwater stuff, I gave away my fish, and plants, and everything, to start over.

Old Tank:

Alright, after a scrub down, a broken back, and sore...everything i am finally done setting everything up. Took me almost 4 hours.

Current Info

• 20 Gallon Long (30in width, 12.5in height, 12in depth)
• 78 Watt T5HO (2 x 39 watt 6700k sunlight bulbs)
• Aqua clear 10 powerhead
• Hydor Koralia 3 or 4 (cant remember anymore)
• 15lbs Live Sand
• 25lbs Dead Rock (was live about 10 months ago)
• Couple pieces of lava rock...think i might just get rid of those...they look..wierd lol
• AquaClear 50 Filters (with activated carbon and sponge)

Stats

• 1.024 Salt Level

I just kinda threw together the tank with stuff that i had just laying around. I know the light isnt optimal for the tank at all. I am in the process of selling the light. I will be getting a new one in about 2 weeks. It will be a 96 watt T5HO (4x 24 watt - 2 actinic and 2 10000k daylight). Also for now i do not have a skimmer, i will probably wait a couple months on it as i wont really be needing it right off the bat. Looking at getting a AquaC Remora Nano..dont know if i want the pro...think it might be a little to big. I'm honestly afraid of the back of the tank falling off if i hang heavy stuff like that on it lol. I am also planning on putting some live rock rubble in the filter once the water clears up a bit. Possibly some chateo, however you spell it, and get a little bottle of copepods and see how they fare in there.

As far as livestock. I know for sure i want a little ocellaris clownfish. other then that a royal grama, a starry blenny, mandarin goby, clown goby, sixline wrasse, cleaner shrimp, some hermits, astreas, and a couple nassarius snails. Of course thats kinda getting a bit over the capacity of the tank, probably wont get all of those, but those are my main choices.

As for corals. I would like some zoas, frogspawn, torch, yellow polyps, green stars, ricordias, xenia, maybe a bubbletip anemone, maybe an sps here and there if possible.

Now my question to everyone is what do you guys think about my fish selection? Also will my 96 watt T5 support all the corals i will eventually want? How about some sps?

Now on to the pictures!!

Live Sand (eww i guess i missed a couple pieces of algae from the other tank ):

Left Side Of Tank:

Right Side Of Tank:

Lava Rock:

Full Tank Shot:

Thanks for looking! i will keep this as updated as i can! As always any Comments/Suggestions are welcome wether they be positive or critizing!

-Andrew

 

[ben1987]

id bin the lava rock aswel lol. looks like a nice start, welcome to the addiction. what are you going to keep?

 

[Demm]

My stocking list if right above the sand pic

 

[ZoddyZod]

your freshwater set up looked nice. Like your rock placement in the salt one, particularly the rock 'trees' on the right hand side.

 

[seffieuk]

Demm to the salty side of the hobby

Might I suggest you buy some live rock to help seed the old rock

Seffie x

 

[Demm]

Yep i am in the process of getting some actual "live" rocks. I just got a 2 pound piece today, all the rest of the pieces were huuuuge. So i will have to go back for more, but definately on my list of "first important" things to do! Thanks for all the comments so far everyone! Tank looks a little plain and boring for now, but i'm sure it'll pick up soon!

If anyone is interested in seeing my other journals here they are:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/219172-demms-55g/

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/218222-demms-29g/

 

[Demm]

well the tank went through it's ammonia spike. went up to about 1.0ppm. the nitrates shot up to about 20-25ppm. This was about 2 or 3 days ago.

Since then i've been testing the water about ever 24 hours.

Current water conditions:

ammonia - 0ppm
nitrites - 0ppm
nitrates - <5ppm (did a 50% water change last night)

It has been at these conditions for a little over 24 hours now. So i'm confident all is ready to go!

 

[-Nemo-]

Looks and sounds good

Oh and may I suggest two little adorable clowns instead of just one. So much more adorable in a pair.

 

[Demm]

I just went and got one clownfish and a new live rock. Just a 2 pound. I'm gonna go back on wednesday and see if they have anymore live rock that isn't really big. If i get another clownfish then would it be too late? would this one already have territory setup? (i'm trying to avoid rearranging the rocks if possible lol) The clown i have right now is a really small one. at most probably an inch long.

 

[-Nemo-]

Clowns should be fine together. Just get another one of the same size.

And of course you're going to have to post pictures of them. I love clownfish.

 

[Demm]

i will post pictures as soon as i can. i sold my light that i had on there before. so i have a ugly little 20 watt florescent light. I'll see if i can get a picture of what i have to far. the clownfish doesnt seem to like the camera much and is hiding in a dark corner behind the rocks lol

 

[Demm]

Alright i managed to get a couple of pictures. poor thing looks perified lol. I didnt think i was THAT ugly

I fell in love with this one out of all the others in the tank because he has solid black fins on the bottom. Never seen one like that...that i can remember anyways lol

Excuse the image quality. I'm using an old camera. I tried using my roomates SLR and i couldnt take a clear picture with that thing if my life depended on it lol

 

[jaylam]

Looks good, I would move the powerheads to the back corners though but thats just a personal preference.

Like your sand as well, looks a lot finer than most.....or maybe its my eyes not focusing this early.

 

[Demm]

i took out the hydor powerhead for now. it was making way to much current in the tank for the fish. once i have more rock in there i will put it back in. When i took that our i moved the other powerhead you see in the picture to the back right of the tank. It did look a little tacky sitting in the front lol. So now this is one of the places the clownfish sleeps, so i cannot see him

The sand is very very fine. I was really suprised when i got it. I got the sand on ebay for $7, and $12 for shipping (15lbs worth). The seller has alot of auctions up with sand and says it's carribean live sand. Not sure how legit his claims are about this...especially since the sand shipped from ohio but it seems to be doing it's job. There's little tiny black pieces in the sand as well.

 

[-Nemo-]

Aww adorable clown.