New to saltwater 20 gal setup

[Hungster]

Hi all! I'm new to saltwater and have always been into freshwater. I currently have a 20 gal tank that has been cycling for 5 weeks now. It currently host 25 lbs of live sand and 25lbs of live rock. 1 turbo snail, 1 nass snail, 15 blue legged hermits, and like 10 sand sifting snails forgot what they are called. My filter system is a nano stage filter up to 30 gal with live rock and sand in it instead of the carbon and filter material. I am running a corallife t5 light system. I will post pics next but wanted to say hello and introduce myself. Definitely will be needing help stock it but so far I'm just doing lots of research.

 

[Hungster]

 

[Shell_Dweller]

looks good, what do you have planned?

I'm also new here.

 

[Convict2161]

Looking good. If I can be honest. I'd do something with the background. Maybe paint it black or blue? The outlet and cords are killing me lol.

Rock work looks good also.

What's the plan?

 

[Shell_Dweller]

Yeah painting is your best option imo. I used black tile paint and it brings out your fish and corals.

 

[Hungster]

Great idea painting the background I will do that soon. Right now I am just cycling the tank, I added livestock a week ago and it crashed... I didn't know better... I plan to have maybe 3-4 fish going with dwarfs or gobies not sure yet. I want to go with lots of soft corals maybe a little hard corals and create a reef tank.

 

[Hungster]

Thanks for all the welcomes! I saw this at my lfs and yet said these orange ones are super rare. Would they be correct or are they pulling my chain? I've never really seen these bright orange ones before at a lfs.

 

[Rhino]

Thanks for all the welcomes! I saw this at my lfs and yet said these orange ones are super rare. Would they be correct or are they pulling my chain? I've never really seen these bright orange ones before at a lfs.

I think they are called sun polyps. I am a noob so I may be wrong. I believe I remember seeing one in Convicts biocube so perhaps he can shed more light. I have not seen many tanks in the Web that has them so I an going to assume they are pretty rare.

 

[DWilliams]

Thanks for all the welcomes! I saw this at my lfs and yet said these orange ones are super rare. Would they be correct or are they pulling my chain? I've never really seen these bright orange ones before at a lfs.

Sun coral is not rare. Single heads should be $5 - $10 at the most. Also 15 blue leg hermits is way to much for a 20 gallon IMO

 

[Rhino]

Sun coral is not rare. Single heads should be $5 - $10 at the most. Also 15 blue leg hermits is way to much for a 20 gallon IMO

Dang I was way off lol. The problem though is my lfs only has a 50 gallon tank for corals and I have never seen more than a dozen corals at any time...and they are really high...stupid small towns.

 

[DWilliams]

I've had good luck getting corals at Petco.com free shipping if you spend a certain amount and you get a 14 day guarantee. They beat a lot of other sites prices also. I got a big piece of sun coral from them last month with over 50 heads for 39.99

 

[Convict2161]

This is a sunflower coral.







Are they trying to say its from Japan?

 

[Hungster]

This is a sunflower coral.

Are they trying to say its from Japan?

No idea they are trying to charge 50 bucks a head cause of the color, thanks for all the help that piece looks awesome by the way

 

[Hungster]

Sun coral is not rare. Single heads should be $5 - $10 at the most. Also 15 blue leg hermits is way to much for a 20 gallon IMO

Thanks for the heads up about the crabs I figure with all the rock it was okay to go heavy on a clean up crew

 

[Shell_Dweller]

For your clean up crew, I would highly recommend Mexican turbo snails they will graze through algae no matter how deep. Just 1 or 2 for a 20 gallon will be enough imo and a few Nassarius snails for the sand bed.

I would give back 10 of the hermit crabs and exchange the 5 for red hermits as the blue tend to kill the snails and use their shells. Also another concern purchase some bigger shells as they will fight one another for the shells as they grow.

My current tank is hermit-free although I do miss the little buggers.

 

[Jlsardina]

Thanks for all the welcomes! I saw this at my lfs and yet said these orange ones are super rare. Would they be correct or are they pulling my chain? I've never really seen these bright orange ones before at a lfs.

Those are dendrophilia- not as common as the tubastea corals which are often found online. dendrophilia are often more expensive than the later because they are harder to get. However- they are larger polyps than the tubastrea.

 

[Hungster]

Can someone id these stowaway? It's a worm like creature, is it safe in my reef tank?

 

[Schism]

Can someone id these stowaway? It's a worm like creature, is it safe in my reef tank?

Bristleworm. Not bad, but dont touch them, you will regret it.

 

[ktomminello]

howdy

I'm new to salt water too, have always had either fw or pond fish since I can remember. My dad, my sister and my niece have always had huge salt water displays. I just recently got my little GSP by surprise from my husband (about a month and a half ago) and I had no idea what I was about to dive into- no pun intended. I started him and 1 other in the same freshwater tank, according to walmart and my husband they were... The world can rest assured that I will never make that mistake again- rehomed one and brackish to saltwater for the other. Here's my thing- I don't know anything about coral- but I want a 10g sanctuary/ coral garden on the other side of base rock keeping my puffy puff on one side, but allowing crabs and shrimp access. Do you know what sort of base rock, live rock and coral I should start my build with (just moved puffer to a 30g from a 10g and am starting live sand and reef salt in 10g plus have a 40g cycling currently for my master build, ready by fall hopefully)? any help from anybody would be greatly appreciated

 

[Hungster]

So my second level check after the tank has been cycling for 5-6 weeks now ph 8.0 ammonia 0ppm No2 0ppm No3 10ppm. Somewhat new to levels but I should be good right? My first test yielded No2 5.0ppm and No3 160 ppm about 2 weeks ago nitrate levels through the roof.

Am I safe to start adding more livestock ?