10-20 Gallon tank setup

[ntexfossilguy]

Hey, I am truly new to the marine aspect of the hobby, but I've got several successful planted tanks under my belt and I've done a fair amount of reading. I just want to use your experiences as far as cost and maintenance to buy the best possible setup for my buck.


Here are my criteria for you to answer with equipment and approximate costs:


-I want a 20 gallon tank, primarily invertebrates, probably must/should have a lid and stand. Don't care the height really. I like the old style with oak stands, but the self-contained nanos are cool too.

-I like Metal Halide lights and I'm willing to shell out the expense if it would give me better growth conditions. If its not necessary for this size, then thats cool. I want lots and lots of inverts.

-Probably will want a skimmer that has the valve not the airstone.

-Maybe will have a 10 gallon refugium with some of that green stuff(what is that?) and the small critters to help with the bioload. Shrimps and what-not.

-Probably 1-4 fish. Whats best for a small tank like this that will give them plenty of space?

-I want oolite live sand, and I'm not sure on the DSB method or not; your thoughts on that?

-Thoughts on live rock are welcome too, who/where is the best cost effective. Who sells rock that doesn't have undesirables on it and plenty of welcome polyps? What are good beginner corals that can make it through tank cycling, or should I wait? Is there a better way to cycle the tank?

-Also any chemicals I should buy to start off with.

I want to build a budget and plan this thing out. I'm not doing my own RO so ignore that aspect, I understand about the cost which is why I'm going with a 10-20 gallon. If you write me a book as a response that is okay! lol


Things I have:

Several small filters, one is a "penguin 40," the other is an old one rated up to 50 I think.

I have three powerheads, only need one at most probably.

Have a wetdry from a 55 gallon and a X looking protein skimmer, but these I'm going to probably trade or sell. I do not have room nor do I want a 55 gallon reef at this time.

 

[Taqpol]

By inverts do you mean shrimps/crabs/snails or corals/clams? If you want corals then I would suggest getting a quality T5 fixture with individual reflectors (my personal preference, but I'm a T5 guy) or MH fixture if you're prepared to deal with potential heat issues in a small tank (fans that cause evaporation that needs to be topped off, expensive chillers...).

A skimmer/sump combo will always be good if only for the fact you can hide more equipment and any kind of overflow skims off all the oily gunk that otherwise builds up on the waters surface. By the green stuff do you mean Chaetomorpha algae? Thats always good to have, great at sucking up nitrates.

A pair of clowns seems to always be what gets people into this hobby and they would do fine in a 20g. I would go for a shrimp goby/pistol shrimp pair because they are so neat to watch along with two or three active swimmers like chromis or firefish.

If you use oolite sand you will have plenty of surface area and won't need a deep sand bed. In fact a lot of people are starting to think that deep sand beds cause more problems then they solve and it would just take up too much real estate in a 20g.

Hope that helps!

 

[ntexfossilguy]

I want to get into corals, I would like the other snails/shrimps as well. Probably not clams or crabs as they would outgrow my tank pretty fast.

Chaeto is right, I read about it later on, there were three macro algaes that I read about.

T-5 sounds the most affordable, but the system that I found was cheapest has reflectors for two lights at a time. Its the Hagen, or I could order the german one that one of the guys in my aquatic plant club praises all the time. I already have a sunpod so I might transfer it, the heat issues are probably going to bother me though.

Oolite sounds good. That's what I was figuring on. What depth? 2 inches? 4 inches? I just want to be sure I have the right amount of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. But I do fear the dreaded cyanobacteria. I've seen a devastated reef before and its not a happy sight.

 

[Taqpol]

I love T5. Slightly less initial startup cost, unlimited choices of color combinations that all produce good PAR, lower wattage so lower power consumption over time, less heat transferred to the water... All that being said to make them even remotely more useful then normal fluorescent bulbs they have to have some sort of individual reflectors for the bulbs. I started with a 20g tall and used this fixture for a long time. It doesn't have individual reflectors, but the one reflector is individually contoured around the bulbs, and its fairly cheap. Quality T5 light fixtures would be ATI, Tek, or Geisemann, or you could retrofit one using a kit if you have some kind of canopy over your tank. Regardless, www.reefgeek.com is the place to go for lighting in my opinion.

MH heat can easily be countered by having an open top with a fan blowing across the top of the water to cause evaporation. The only problem is that you will probably want to have some kind of auto top off to counter this so that you don't cause a large swing in salinity in such a small tank. ATO's can be constructed cheaply if you are comfortable with DIY: http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html

I like shallower sand beds, as it seems to take much less sand to reach anaerobic conditions then previously thought. I would do 1" to 2" maximum.

 

[young_skywalker]

yeah the heat and evap can be a real problem. with a tank that small the evap is going to be pretty fast to begin with. I have T-5s over my 15, and I top it off once a day. However, part of that depends on where you live