First SW tank - my 20g build

[fouldsy]

After building a stand for my 20g long, I've since been fighting a middle + outer ear infection in both ears whilst waiting patiently for all the goodies to arrive to put the tank together. My shopping list included:

• 2 x Marineland Maxi-Jet PRO 400 Pro's - one as a powerhead at 110GPH and the other as circulation pump at 500GPH
• Aqueon QuietFlow 10 HOB - 100GPH
• Theo 100W heater
• 20lbs of Caribbean Live Sand
• 30lbs Florida Reef base rock from reefcleaners.org

This was with the hardware all in place. I lowered the 400 Pro on the left as I realized it was sitting a little high by the time I had water in:

I got some really good sizes and shapes of rock from John at reefcleaners.org, and spent a little time going over some different aquascaping layouts I'd thought up in my head before settling on this. The pieces all seemed to come together nicely for it, and should give plenty of spaces for any smaller inhabitants I end up with in the tank:

The live sand was a little harder to work with than I was expecting having never worked with it, as with it being just a tad damp or simply sticking together it didn't pour out easily and work it's way around the rock. Once the water started going in it was fine:

And the ubiquitous shot of not being able to see a thing until the sand then settles down after adding water :

I mixed up 5g batches of water using Instant Ocean salt, and was quite happy with myself that the tank ended up with a SG of 1.023 given it was my first time mixing salt

The water is slowly starting to clear up and I should then be able to re-arrange any sand that has been moved around, and get a feel for how the rock work looks with the sand in place. With 700GPH water movement from three different units, I feel I have plenty of flow, and realized I'm going to need a little patience in letting the base rock build up some growth?

My plan is to start cycling with a shrimp tomorrow and order in the 30" 48W Marine AquaticLife T5 HO Dual Lamp Light Fixture, as although I'm not initially going to be looking at setting this up with any corals, I'd like to have the ability to add some basic corals in 6-12 months if I have a light unit doing almost 2.5W/gallon?

Overall, I'm very excited about this SW tank! I've kept FW for years and wanted to do a SW tank pretty much since I started in the hobby but always shied away. With so much helpful info here on AA, I finally feel comfortable + confident enough to successfully maintain it though.

 

[redsea]

Looking good. I will be following!

 

[huma-huma]

Def off to a great start the watts per gallon guideline is pretty much worthless now, is the fixture a dual bulb setup or single?

 

[Heera]

Welcome to a piece of ocean in your home.
Looks great so far. I only wish that u started with a bigger tank. Oh well u will upgrade soon as I am doing.

IMO cycle with the bacteria way faster, than get few pieces of rock from a friend with established tank or put 2-3 of your most pours rock in his tank for few weeks.

I know this will turn out to be great so I will be following.

Ps: just started my 75 gallon build! So check that out too.

 

[carey]

Looks good, great start! Following along as well

 

[fouldsy]

Thanks guys!

huma-huma - the light unit is dual fixture and provides one 24" 24W Actinic bulb and one 24" 24W 10,000°K bulb. I've heard a lot of good things about the AquaticLife units. So is watts per gallon more a FW plant thing?

And Heera, this is actually the size I was wanting to set up I simply don't have the space or resources to build a bigger tank right now, and didn't want to push for something bigger and not be able to equip it right. I know it doesn't give me much room for error with the water quality, but I think it will be plenty to learn with so that when I can make a jump up to something bigger (ahhh 175g ), I'd be in pretty good shape to handle it. Your tank looks awesome though, some of those corals are beautiful!

 

[Heera]

Thanks guys!

huma-huma - the light unit is dual fixture and provides one 24" 24W Actinic bulb and one 24" 24W 10,000°K bulb. I've heard a lot of good things about the AquaticLife units. So is watts per gallon more a FW plant thing?

And Heera, this is actually the size I was wanting to set up I simply don't have the space or resources to build a bigger tank right now, and didn't want to push for something bigger and not be able to equip it right. I know it doesn't give me much room for error with the water quality, but I think it will be plenty to learn with so that when I can make a jump up to something bigger (ahhh 175g ), I'd be in pretty good shape to handle it. Your tank looks awesome though, some of those corals are beautiful!

Thanks,
I started 30 gallon as fish only tank 7 months ago. Don't know when reef bug got me. So I turned to reef. And now it's too small for the fish I want to keep. so getting 75galon.
Can anyone relate, lol
This is why I said larger tank.

But I do hope u stay happy with this tank.

 

[Grizz]

I'd go with a 4 bulb min light fixture other wise you'll be forced to upgrade to a new light save the cash and go big right from the start I have 96 watts (AquaticLife) over my 20H and have no problem keeping coral and a Condy nem happy

 

[huma-huma]

Idk how some people can stand to run the fixtures that they do, my coralife 72 incher has 4-96w cf bulbs and its insanely bright...to the point where I can run just my actinics and I don't need the room light on.....those 8/10/12 bulb t5's have to be absurd

 

[fouldsy]

4 bulbs over a 20g sounds like it would be a whole lot of light! I guess the nice thing about the AquaticLife units is that you can easily chain 2/3/4 together if I did want to expand. The quad-bulb AquaticLife unit admittedly has a built-in digital timer and lunar lights, but is three times the cost of buying an initial dual-fixture, and I can simply add another dual-fixture unit if I feel the need for more light. And again, from a cost and upkeep point of view, I just can't see myself being able to go all that crazy with invertebrates but some very basis soft corals. I think I'll stick with the dual 24" 24W T5 HO for now.

 

[huma-huma]

Sounds like a good plan and I don't blame ya on shying away from the quad-bulb setup...that would be some stadium lighting for the tank

 

[newbjank]

im subscribing ! good luck!

 

[fouldsy]

Ordered the AquaticLife T5 HO 30" 48W Marine dual lamp fixture today.

The water is starting to slowly clear up - with using live sand, I didn't want to rinse it all out like I would have done normally with sand or gravel, but it has meant it's taken a little longer to settle. I'll try to get a photo later, and then hopefully start the cycling process by dropping in a shrimp

 

[newbjank]

Ordered the AquaticLife T5 HO 30" 48W Marine dual lamp fixture today.

The water is starting to slowly clear up - with using live sand, I didn't want to rinse it all out like I would have done normally with sand or gravel, but it has meant it's taken a little longer to settle. I'll try to get a photo later, and then hopefully start the cycling process by dropping in a shrimp

could you send a link from wich site you ordered it from. I haven't been able to find your exact model any where. I also have a 30" lighting fixture tthat needs replaced.

 

[fouldsy]

I got it from Foster & Smith - Aquarium Lighting T5 Fluorescent Light Fixture: AquaticLife T5 HO Dual Lamp Light Fixtures

 

[fouldsy]

Okay, so here's a couple of photos now everything has settled down:

And closer up of the rock work:

I'm pretty happy with how the base rock turned out. Hopefully the AquaticLife unit arrives as fast as the other equipment did, as I'd really like to see how this looks without just the ambient room lighting (which isn't great anyways, as you can see from these photos!).

Going to check over the filter media to see if it needs replacing after clearing out all the junk from the sand, then I think it's time for Mr Shrimp to take one last swim (well, sink...) and start the tank a' cyclin.

 

[newbjank]

The rock-scaping looks prettttyy sweet.
Good luck

 

[Heera]

Cool looking
Nice rocks.

 

[Johny]

I'm hoping to start a small SW tank soon, so I'll be following your build too! Good Luck on everything! Hope you don't mind me occasionally adding in a question or two about the steps you're going through.

I'm just starting on the "which lighting would I get" research, so I looked at the lighting you got. IMO the ability to connect more at a later time, if and when you need them is awesome. While I was reading, I noticed on the one you ordered that "Depending on the type of marine aquarium inhabitants, the Lamps may need to be replaced every 9 to 18 months." Is this a normal estimated time? Is this one of the company recommendations to swap out a lot earlier than needed to get more money, or is it actually a necessary swap out?

I also didn't quite catch the answer to the Watts Per Gallon question.. it's outdated, but what's a better rule of thumb to go for? The net has all sorts of conflicting info, and I've found AA seems to have some nice and informative help.

Once again, Good LUCK!

 

[fouldsy]

I think that's probably somewhat acceptable on lights. I've seen recommendations on replacing every 6-9 months which, IMHO, seems slightly along the lines of trying to get the customer to purchase lights more frequently than needed. But, there does appear some validity in bulbs losing the ability to deliver lighting at the specific wave lengths and intensity over time. It's also maybe somewhat worth bearing in mind that AquaticLife, in my case, aren't forcing me to buy their bulbs - there's quite a few alternative brands I could purchase, so it's not simply them trying to gain some extra dollars. I don't see an issue in looking at replacing a pair of bulbs every 12 months or so. Others may chime in with more specifics from the units they've ran over time. And yes, I think expandability is useful so I'm not replacing an entire unit in 12 months or so Hopefully the AquaticLife unit will be here over the weekend and I can let you know what I think!

As for the watts per gallon, I really don't know. I think it does depend a little on what you're hoping to do. For fish only (FO) or fish only with live rock (FOWLR), it doesn't seem to matter on lighting, as it's more for you to be able to enjoy the fish and keep their bodies somewhat in rhythm. When it comes to a reef system, it seems more the intensity and ability to penetrate deep in to a tank, along with the range of the bulbs rather than a specific amount of watts per gallon. Again, in my circumstances, I think a pair of 24W bulbs, one at 10k and one actinic, should be enough for me to grow some basic corals or polyps, but I want to be able to manage the FOWLR tank before researching what would fit well and be comfortable under those light conditions.

All the best with your adventures! Hope some of this helps.