reefrunner69
Aquarium Advice Addict
About 15 years ago, my wife and I were having our first Christmas together, some friends of ours had just gotten a S/W fish tank, and my wife decided she wanted one. Now I wanted no part of this. I was dead set against it, but being that my wife tends to win in these kind of arguments, I bought her a 20g kit at Walmart and a bag of salt from the LFS.
Christmas morning....we set up the tank, complete with UGF and about 25lbs of crushed coral. Well, the quality being what it is when you get it from Walmart...it leaked. Tear it down, return it and start all over again. I really did not like this hobby! Set up the new kit, let it sit for a day and guess what...this one leaked too!
We are not doing another kit! Go to the LFS, buy a 30 gallon tank and stand, set it up, let it run for 24hrs and then start to cycle the tank with damsels. (yes I know that is not the best way, but remember that was 15 years ago) The first night the tank had fish in it, I sat in the living room watching it , well pretty much all night. I was hooked. Reefing was sure to follow. Haven't looked back since, I've spent more money on this hobby than a luxery car!!! But it has been worth it, to me.
My current reef tank is a 20g long mixed nano reef.
Equipment
-AllGlass Aquarium 20 long aquarium
-DIY HOB refugium run by a Rio 1100 pump
-Aqua-C Remora skimmer with MaxiJet 1200 pump
-Surgemaster wavemaker
-MaxiJet 1000 powerhead
-MaxiJet 600 powerhead
-Rio 800 powerhead
-Custom Sea Life Prism Pendant ( 1 X 175W MH [CoralVue 12K lamp] and 2 X 32W PC CSL "true" actinics)
-DIY open topped canopy to reduce light spillage
-6" clip on fan to cool the water
-100W Visitherm heater
-Tropic Marin Salt
Live Stock
-32 lbs of Live Rock (5 pieces; 1 piece of Tonga and 4 pieces of Aquacultured)
-1.5" CaribSea Seaflor special reef grade sand
-1 Redlipped Blenny (Ophioblennius atlanticus)
-1 Yellow Watchman Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)
-1 TR True Percula Clown (Amphiprion percula)
-Lots of Stomatella Varia snails
-5 Keyhole limpets that I've seen
-6 Nassarius snails
-4 Cerrith Snails
-8 Trochus snails
-Chaetomorph in fuge
-Red Mangrove in the fuge
-Halimeda in the fuge and in the tank
-1 Maxima clam (Tridacna maxima)
-Green Star Polyps (Pachyclavularia vioacea) all over the tank (including the back glass)
-3 Orange Ricordea
-1 Green Ricordea
-1 Tridacna maxima clam
-1 Horn coral frag (Hydnophora rigida)
-1 blue tort (Acropora tortuosa)
-1 Teal tort (Acropora tortuosa)
-1 “Bali” Green Slimer (Acropora Yongei)
-1 purple tipped Acro frag (Acropor spp)
-2 Colonies of green zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 colony of green, lavender and orange zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 colony of Avocado Zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 Colony of Mauve Zoos with pink centers (Zoanthus spp)
-1 Colony of Flame Zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 Green Montipora spumosa
-1 Green Monti (Montipora digitata)
-1 Purple Monti (Montipora digitata)
- 1 Pink Monti (Montipora digitata)
- 1 Brown Monti (Montipora digitata)
-1 Elkhorn Monti (Montipora hirsute)
-1 Anacropora frag
-2 Orange Monti’s (Montipora digitata)
-1 Green and brown Pocillipora (Pocillipora damicornis)
-1 Orange M. cap (Montipora capricornis)
-1 Green cap with purple rim (Montipora capricornis)
-1 Red Birds nest frag (Sieratapora hystrix)
-1 Pink Birds nest frag (Sieratapora hystrix)
-2 green and Pink Acro frag (Acropora millepora)
-1 Blue tipped Staghorn Acro frag (Acropora spp)
-3 yellow scroll (Turbinaria reniformis)
-2 Colonies of green button polyps (Protopalythoa spp)
This tank utilizes the "Berlin" method of filtration allowing the live rock and live sand to biologically filter nitrogenous waste from the water, as well as the use of a protien skimmer. The incorporation of the refugium has reduced the pest algae in the tank considerably since I set it up in January 2003. I run carbon on this tank 24/7, replacing the carbon weekly. I do water changes on the tank of 10%-20% every 3 to 4 weeks adding dry calcium chloride as needed to adjust the ionic balance of the new water. I add kalkwasser nightly to replace evaporation and I feed my fish, critters and corals a home made fish food once per day.
Wow, that's a long list for a 20g tank. One of the things I am proudest of with this tank over previous tanks is the small impact it has made on the natural reefs. The majority of items for this tank have been TR, only 1 piece of rock, 2 fish, 1 starfish, all the snails and hermits and 4 corals were not TR. It is not a 0 impact reef, but it's pretty close.
Now I'm just showing off, I was playing with the cam today, trying to figure out how to take a pic of my tank that shows the actual color...didn't work, but I got some nice shots, LOL.
Close, but a little bluer
Christmas morning....we set up the tank, complete with UGF and about 25lbs of crushed coral. Well, the quality being what it is when you get it from Walmart...it leaked. Tear it down, return it and start all over again. I really did not like this hobby! Set up the new kit, let it sit for a day and guess what...this one leaked too!
We are not doing another kit! Go to the LFS, buy a 30 gallon tank and stand, set it up, let it run for 24hrs and then start to cycle the tank with damsels. (yes I know that is not the best way, but remember that was 15 years ago) The first night the tank had fish in it, I sat in the living room watching it , well pretty much all night. I was hooked. Reefing was sure to follow. Haven't looked back since, I've spent more money on this hobby than a luxery car!!! But it has been worth it, to me.
My current reef tank is a 20g long mixed nano reef.
Equipment
-AllGlass Aquarium 20 long aquarium
-DIY HOB refugium run by a Rio 1100 pump
-Aqua-C Remora skimmer with MaxiJet 1200 pump
-Surgemaster wavemaker
-MaxiJet 1000 powerhead
-MaxiJet 600 powerhead
-Rio 800 powerhead
-Custom Sea Life Prism Pendant ( 1 X 175W MH [CoralVue 12K lamp] and 2 X 32W PC CSL "true" actinics)
-DIY open topped canopy to reduce light spillage
-6" clip on fan to cool the water
-100W Visitherm heater
-Tropic Marin Salt
Live Stock
-32 lbs of Live Rock (5 pieces; 1 piece of Tonga and 4 pieces of Aquacultured)
-1.5" CaribSea Seaflor special reef grade sand
-1 Redlipped Blenny (Ophioblennius atlanticus)
-1 Yellow Watchman Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)
-1 TR True Percula Clown (Amphiprion percula)
-Lots of Stomatella Varia snails
-5 Keyhole limpets that I've seen
-6 Nassarius snails
-4 Cerrith Snails
-8 Trochus snails
-Chaetomorph in fuge
-Red Mangrove in the fuge
-Halimeda in the fuge and in the tank
-1 Maxima clam (Tridacna maxima)
-Green Star Polyps (Pachyclavularia vioacea) all over the tank (including the back glass)
-3 Orange Ricordea
-1 Green Ricordea
-1 Tridacna maxima clam
-1 Horn coral frag (Hydnophora rigida)
-1 blue tort (Acropora tortuosa)
-1 Teal tort (Acropora tortuosa)
-1 “Bali” Green Slimer (Acropora Yongei)
-1 purple tipped Acro frag (Acropor spp)
-2 Colonies of green zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 colony of green, lavender and orange zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 colony of Avocado Zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 Colony of Mauve Zoos with pink centers (Zoanthus spp)
-1 Colony of Flame Zoos (Zoanthus spp)
-1 Green Montipora spumosa
-1 Green Monti (Montipora digitata)
-1 Purple Monti (Montipora digitata)
- 1 Pink Monti (Montipora digitata)
- 1 Brown Monti (Montipora digitata)
-1 Elkhorn Monti (Montipora hirsute)
-1 Anacropora frag
-2 Orange Monti’s (Montipora digitata)
-1 Green and brown Pocillipora (Pocillipora damicornis)
-1 Orange M. cap (Montipora capricornis)
-1 Green cap with purple rim (Montipora capricornis)
-1 Red Birds nest frag (Sieratapora hystrix)
-1 Pink Birds nest frag (Sieratapora hystrix)
-2 green and Pink Acro frag (Acropora millepora)
-1 Blue tipped Staghorn Acro frag (Acropora spp)
-3 yellow scroll (Turbinaria reniformis)
-2 Colonies of green button polyps (Protopalythoa spp)
This tank utilizes the "Berlin" method of filtration allowing the live rock and live sand to biologically filter nitrogenous waste from the water, as well as the use of a protien skimmer. The incorporation of the refugium has reduced the pest algae in the tank considerably since I set it up in January 2003. I run carbon on this tank 24/7, replacing the carbon weekly. I do water changes on the tank of 10%-20% every 3 to 4 weeks adding dry calcium chloride as needed to adjust the ionic balance of the new water. I add kalkwasser nightly to replace evaporation and I feed my fish, critters and corals a home made fish food once per day.
Wow, that's a long list for a 20g tank. One of the things I am proudest of with this tank over previous tanks is the small impact it has made on the natural reefs. The majority of items for this tank have been TR, only 1 piece of rock, 2 fish, 1 starfish, all the snails and hermits and 4 corals were not TR. It is not a 0 impact reef, but it's pretty close.
Now I'm just showing off, I was playing with the cam today, trying to figure out how to take a pic of my tank that shows the actual color...didn't work, but I got some nice shots, LOL.
Close, but a little bluer
I hoep one day to have mine look half that good. 
