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vwrock

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
164
Location
graham,wa
Hey everyone..... So I got the quote from Oceans By Design for my 20x20x15 cube with built in overflow. It was a little more than I expected....... But I have thought long and hard and decided that is the tank i want and who i want to build it and to hold off on the cube until it's financially possible. So for now until the funds are more readily available I have set up a 20 gallon long because I love the size and the look of them and should be able to use everything i get for the cube in the future. Some of the 20 longs I have seen are absolutely incredible. So i went to petco and bought a 20 gallon long on their $1 per gallon sale. And it is up and cycling right now. I have recently sold my 90 gallon set up and all the fish (except for my diamond goby that is still doing awesome), liverock, equipment and lighting. So i will post what all my tank has and what i have coming and any thoughts for improvements would be appreciated.

Equiment:

20 gallon long from petco for $20

marineland biowheel 100 filter ( i know i know, nitrate factory. But only going to use for clearing water after water changes and to run carbon when needed.) for $22

hydor koralia nano 425 for $25

hydor koralia nano 240 for $22

100W heater i had laying around (will be getting a jager eheim in the future) for $0

20lbs of black live sand (beautiful sand .... love it!!!!!) $28

25lbs-30lbs of coraline encrusted live rock from my 90 gallon tank for $0

24"-36" current usa marine orbit LED fixture with ramp timer pro (should be able to support softies and LPS with this shallow of a tank :) not interested in having any SPS. Just not my thing as of now) $148 Shipped

And in the future I plan on getting a Aquaticlife 115 nano skimmer (next 6 months) I will be doing weekly water changes until then.

Last but not least in a month or two i will be building DIY stand with a hood for about 65 dollars

So in total I have spent $265 for my equipment and set up including lighting. Not too bad I don't think

Livestock:

Diamond Goby ( I already have him and he looks amazing in the black sand. Took the transfer between tanks well and my ammonia is almost to 0 PPM after 4 days of a small cycle. Never getting close to .50 ppm. He is eating frozen mysis still and fat and healthy doesn't seem to be at all stressed)

1 turbo snail (from 90 gallon)

13 astrea snails (from 90 gallon)

10 nassarius snails (from 90 gallon)

4 nerite snails (from 90 gallon)

1 black and white occelarus clownfish (will get about a month after cycle is completely over and stable)

1 snowflake clownfish (will get about a month after cycle is completely over and stable)
the clowns will be added at the same time

high end zoanthids

silver xenia (will be grown on their own rock island to try to keep contained)

green star polyps ( want them to grow up the back glass of the tank for ease of fragging and keeping them contained)

frogspawn at one end of the tank

torch coral at the other end from the frogspawn (maybe not sure on this one)

Anyways this is my set up. The questions I have is when I put the 425gph and 240gph hydor koralia nanos in the tank do i need to still run the HOB filter for putting oxygen in the water?

And do I have enough current for a 20 gallon long with the corals i've listed?

And does everyone think I will have sufficient lighting for the corals i want?

Thanks every one let me hear the critiques and suggestions :)
 
lots to reply to haha.
my first tank was a 20 long and I have the aquatic life skimmer.
warning: tons of micro bubbles and needs to be only about six inches in the water to work right. so hopefully you will have a sump.
also I have a very basic stand with shelve spot for a ten gallon sump below if you want it and live in the area.
your flow seems fine and has long as you are breaking the surface with your flow you shouldn't have to worry about oxygen.
I don't know about that light so I'm not gunna say anything other then I have mine set up with 2 t5 bulbs and I was able to keep frogspawn no problem.
hope that helps my friend and if you live near Spokane and want that stand message me or something:)
 
Hey I appreciate the info. on the skimmer. Don't have room for a sump at this point in time. The tank is up lighting and everything is doing great. Just fragged my red blasto merletti because they popped out more polyps under the very large ones up top. So they were getting no light and were on a horribly ugly frag plug. So I fragged em and and put 2 polyps on one sea shell 1 polyp on another shell (will let grow for a month or two and make sure they are doing well, then will trade them off for other corals) and about 10 polyps on a piece of live rock to keep in my tank to let grow. I also got a great deal on some reddish orange eagle eye zoas ( 5 polyps on a blue sponge for $5) the store said they just happened to pop out on a nitrate sponge they shipped. The sponge started to look rough so i didn't want to take a chance of it dying and harming the rest of the tank so i took them off the sponge and mounted them straight to the rock they were beside. All 5 polyps have opened up in under two days and are looking great. Now for the last coral i have. I had a 2 polyp frag of blasto wellsi that looked like it wasnt going to make the tank break down and new start up of the 20L. It was down to almost the skeleton. Well since in my new tank and under the new light they have doubled in size and have started to gain some color. Starting to glow under the lunar nighttime led's. These guys were also on a ugly frag plug so I took them off the plug and also put them on some rock. Again the are looking very well. As far as the stand goes I appreciate the offer but you're just too far away. Also thank your for the response your the only person to respond and I very much appreciate it. Hopefully I will post some pics of everything in the near future. In the middle of switching jobs so I am very busy right now. So when I get some spare time I will post up some pictures.
 
I have a Innovative Marine 24 (AIO) and I love the look. It is long and low... I am unfortunately running out of room for the coral I want to put in it so I am shopping for the 6' 125. I think this was under $400...
 
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My tank being set up. First rock scape and final rockscape. New light with white and blue .. 2 new zoas drags, Duncan's from Nata, frogspawn from fragman.... love them all
 
And finally my diamond goby and my snowflake and black ocellaris clownfish pair. I also got some tubbs blue zoas from fragman and some flame algae.
 
Thanks alot! Nata hooked me up with that for an amazing price. My wife loved it so of course I got it. Adds some character to the tank.
 
So new update .... alot has been going on with the tank since I last posted. My zoas, duncans, acros, scans, hydnophora, frogspawn are all doing great! Lots of growth new polyps and everything. Upgraded my light last week built a new stand and hood and all around have my tank about where I want it to be. I got rid of the diamond goby :-( because he was just becoming to aggressive towards the clowns and in turn got a citron goby that seems to be eating well and becoming healthy. So here are some pics of the new stand, hood and tank.
 

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