New small tank set up

[djbarnes88]

I have an idea for a small saltwater setup. Right now I have a 125 Gallon and a 29 Gallon African Cichlid tank and I do not have the room right now for another big tank.

I am thinking of converting a 20 Gallon High to a saltwater tank. It has a Penguin Biowheel 170 Filter and a 100 watt Proquatics heater. I will be adding a Maxi-Jet 600 PH, a Visijet Protein Skimmer.

It will be stocked with approx. 25lbs of caribbean Live Rock, 1 Percula Clown, 1 Royal Gamma Basslet, 1 Green Mandarin and various Stars, crabs, shrimp and snails.

I was considering a Coralife Aqualight CF single bulb fixture. Will this be enough light to support the live rock? Would an Anenome even be an option.

I will be upgrading to a 75 Gallon this summer and i am trying to not spend a lot of money on things that can not be used for the other tank. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. I hope this is enough info.

 

[djbarnes88]

Also, substrate help would be appreciated.

 

[loganj]

I have an idea for a small saltwater setup. Right now I have a 125 Gallon and a 29 Gallon African Cichlid tank and I do not have the room right now for another big tank.

We've all been in that position. Try explaining to your wife why it's a good idea to have an aquarium in the bathroom .

I am thinking of converting a 20 Gallon High to a saltwater tank. It has a Penguin Biowheel 170 Filter and a 100 watt Proquatics heater. I will be adding a Maxi-Jet 600 PH, a Visijet Protein Skimmer.

I have a 20 high reef...yes it can be done and it's not terribly hard with a tank that size as long as you stay on top of things. You can use the Penguin, but I would remove the cartridge and biowheel. You won't need the filters biological capacity because your rock will handle that. It'd be great if you could put in a little more rock though. The biowheel will contribute to high levels of nitrates in your water. Your heater should be sufficient. I have two MJ600's in my 20. Ideally, you want turbulence instead of laminar current in a reef tank. Two powerheads pointed at each other, while not the best way to do it, will accomplish this. Don't waste your money on the Visi Jet. It's a piece of crap. IMO, the minimum skimmer for a tank this size is a Prizm or Seaclone...Prizm being my pick. Neither of these will handle a 75. You could invest in an Aqua C Remora, but even that is marginal at best for a 75. I think your best route would be to get one of the Lee CC skimmers that goes in the tank. I know they're cheap, cheesy, and ugly, but you'd be surprised what they will pull out of the water. It would be an acceptable and inexpensive temporary solution.

It will be stocked with approx. 25lbs of caribbean Live Rock, 1 Percula Clown, 1 Royal Gamma Basslet, 1 Green Mandarin and various Stars, crabs, shrimp and snails.

While the percula and the royal gramma are fine, the mandarin is not something you want. Unless I have my fish confused, these fish usually starve to death in aquariums. Once you have a 75 set up, and the sandbed critter population is well established, you might be able to successfully keep this fish. It'll take at least a year for that to occur and then, IMO, it would be an iffy proposition.

onsidering a Coralife Aqualight CF single bulb fixture. Will this be enough light to support the live rock? Would an Anenome even be an option.

This is the absolute minimum you could get by with and, even then, I wouldn't expect much in the way of growth. No way will this support an anemone or any other high light photosynthetic invert. You might be able to have some button poylps if they were close to the top. Mushrooms would probably do OK in there as well.

I will be upgrading to a 75 Gallon this summer and i am trying to not spend a lot of money on things that can not be used for the other tank. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. I hope this is enough info.

The problem is, due to the large difference in the tank sizes, not a lot of the more expensive equipment will work. You can certainly transfer your substrate and rock to the larger tank. You'll have to add quite a bit to it as I'm sure you already know. The 75 is going to require more lights, a bigger skimmer, larger pumps and powerheads, and more heat.

 

[djbarnes88]

Thanks for the quick response. In my research I had already read about the problems with the Mandarin so that does not surpise me at all. I will look into the possibility of getting the Lees CC Skimmer. My only concern is that an in tank skimmer will take up so much space in an already small aquarium. I guess this is why we research first and buy later.

 

[reefrunner69]

My only concern is that an in tank skimmer will take up so much space in an already small aquarium. I guess this is why we research first and buy later.

I'm probably gonna have a CPR bak pak skimmer I'd be willing to let go in a couple of weeks, I'm getting a remora for my 20 If your interested, let me know and I'll get you a price, it's been used less than 6 months and does a fine job, I'l be letting it go fairly cheap.

 

[djbarnes88]

Curious, if I upped the lighting to a double bulb that would give me 130 watts would that open up the possibility of any more corals or an anenome?

 

[biotoxin]

more light is always a good thing but the anemone i would pass on unless you have experience with them before.

 

[dralarms]

more light is always a good thing but the anemone i would pass on unless you have experience with them before.

I gotta ask. Why?

 

[djbarnes88]

Ditto. Why?
I do not have any experience and I do not want to add something that has little chance of survival, but the only way you can gain experience is by doing something. If your response was based on my set up I completly agree. If it is based solely on my lack of experience then I wouldn't be able to set up a SW tank at all since I have never had one.[/quote]