Need Recommendations (20GL)

[baron1282]

Hello again! Been five years since I have been active on this forum.

I am back for recommendations from people with more experience than me. I have had saltwater tanks before, only FOWLR tanks. I wanted to do a reef tank, but I never had the opportunity being I worked out of town all the time. I had no time to maintain a saltwater tank anymore, so I gave up. Now, I am an office worker that can go home every single night and have 98% of my weekends off. So, I want to do something small and fun!

I have a 20-gallon tank. I have all the equipment and rock. I still have sand from my older tanks in a given gallon bucket. I know I need to clean the sand, but needless to say, all I got to do is buy one pound of live rock and I am good to go.

I am just wondering if my idea would be ok for a 20 gallon. I just want to do two clown fish and a frog spawn with a few other easy corals. Nothing crazy, maybe some shrimp. I don't want to overdo my tank and make it harder to maintain. Only two fish and a few corals. Cleaner shrimp and other saltwater maintenance crew for a 20 gallon. I know I could do a DEEP sand bed, about 4 to 6in if I wanted.

I have a fluval 206 filter, and power heads. I don't think I need a powerhead for a 20 gallon tank with the fluval 206 blowing water back into the tank. I do have a skimmer, but it's a reef octopus designed for a big tank. I don't think i'd need a skimmer for such a small tank. If so, i'll get a smaller more approprate skimmer for my tank.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!!

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello again! Been five years since I have been active on this forum.

I am back for recommendations from people with more experience than me. I have had saltwater tanks before, only FOWLR tanks. I wanted to do a reef tank, but I never had the opportunity being I worked out of town all the time. I had no time to maintain a saltwater tank anymore, so I gave up. Now, I am an office worker that can go home every single night and have 98% of my weekends off. So, I want to do something small and fun!

I have a 20-gallon tank. I have all the equipment and rock. I still have sand from my older tanks in a given gallon bucket. I know I need to clean the sand, but needless to say, all I got to do is buy one pound of live rock and I am good to go.

I am just wondering if my idea would be ok for a 20 gallon. I just want to do two clown fish and a frog spawn with a few other easy corals. Nothing crazy, maybe some shrimp. I don't want to overdo my tank and make it harder to maintain. Only two fish and a few corals. Cleaner shrimp and other saltwater maintenance crew for a 20 gallon. I know I could do a DEEP sand bed, about 4 to 6in if I wanted.

I have a fluval 206 filter, and power heads. I don't think I need a powerhead for a 20 gallon tank with the fluval 206 blowing water back into the tank. I do have a skimmer, but it's a reef octopus designed for a big tank. I don't think i'd need a skimmer for such a small tank. If so, i'll get a smaller more approprate skimmer for my tank.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!!

In reality, the corals you pick will determine if you need larger water movement and the proper lighting. Are they all doable in a 20 long? NO, some will eventually outgrow the tank. Same with the clownfish. Other than perculas or ocellaris clowns, the rest of them should be in larger aquariums with more floor space.
The deep bed method seems to have gone by the wayside since it's popularity 20 + years ago so I would not really consider it in such a small aquarium. One good accidental plunge into an anaerobic pocket and you could kill the tank. A thin layer of substrate is all you really need if you have enough rock to house your biological filter bed.
As for the skimmer, having one is better than not having one but not having one just means more frequent water changes since you will probably face a nitrate issue. If you are handy, an air driven skimmer is not really hard to make yourself since it's such a small tank but don't be fooled, 2 fish in a small tank can produce a lot of ammonia which will eventually become nitrate that the corals do not like . With a skimmer, it cheats the biological bed by getting rid of the ammonia before it has a chance to consume a lot of it.
Again, your coral selection and source water parameters will determine if you need to use RO water vs tap. Phosphates are a coral killer if there is too much present.
Sadly, there are just some items that you are going to need whether you are doing a 20 gallon tank or a 200 gallon tank which is partly why smaller marine reef tanks are costly. Are they doable? Absolutely!!! just a bit more difficult because a small issue can become a big issue quickly in such a small volume of water. I've done them from 1 gallon to 2,500 gallon systems and I'll tell you, the larger ones were less work.

Hope this helps.

 

[baron1282]

I agree! One of the reasons I'm ditching the 20 gallon long idea and doing a 29 gallon like I did before. I am going to use my reef octopus for the 29. I paid for it, might as use it. LoL

I had a 29 gallon and it was going great until I decided to upgrade to 120 gallon. I am buying a reef light and using the canister. I just want my old tank back. It was FOWLR before. My original idea was to put a small amount of rock in and just have a dwarf lion fish, but that went out the window when I started to learn more about fish size and salt water aquariums.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Andy Sager]

I agree! One of the reasons I'm ditching the 20 gallon long idea and doing a 29 gallon like I did before. I am going to use my reef octopus for the 29. I paid for it, might as use it. LoL

I had a 29 gallon and it was going great until I decided to upgrade to 120 gallon. I am buying a reef light and using the canister. I just want my old tank back. It was FOWLR before. My original idea was to put a small amount of rock in and just have a dwarf lion fish, but that went out the window when I started to learn more about fish size and salt water aquariums.

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, they are called "dwarf" lions because they don't get as large as say, Volitans but they are far from small animals. You also don't want to keep a sedentary fish like a lion or stonefish or leaffish in with corals or anemones which have stinging tentacles for killing whatever brushes across them. Those are better in fish only tanks.