20 gal. w/fuge?

[JBReef]

I curently have a 20 gal. sitting around just begging to be used. I plan on running a 24" T5HO fixture, (Has anyone tried the "GLO" brand? I hear they are amazing?). I"m not going to be running a sump I have an aquaclear70 that is freed up right now an thought I could make a fuge out of that.

The fuge would consist of 2" crushed coral, LR, Cheato, and I saw a great idea of a small betta light as it's owne seprate light and that seemed to work nicely.

I don't plan on packing it with fish so I was planning on skiping the skimmer for now. This tank will mainly be coral, maby a fire fish and a watchmen and a few other small things.

That's my idea so far. is there anything anyone can see wrong ???

[JBReef]

O and another quick question, for flow, I was planing on just turning up the aquaclear70, but in further reading I found that you want your fuge returne to be fairly slow so would I be better off just running a small power head?

[Gourami Swami]

Yeah, I would go with a cheap 10g powerhead. As for the light, T5HO's are beastly. My neighbor has the 48" set on his 90 reef and he can grow whatever he wants

Good luck

[Scuba Kid]

Originally Posted by Gourami Swami

As for the light, T5HO's are beastly. My neighbor has the 48" set on his 90 reef and he can grow whatever he wants.

They're not THAT beastly, and unless he has a wicked amount of them, I doubt he can grow whatever he wants.

As for lighting, MH is the way to go if you want to keep the more light-demanding corals like SPS and the more light-demanding LPS corals. With T5s, you can keep some really nice soft corals and some easier LPS, like frogspawn. IMO, a 20 would make a nice soft coral or even an all zoanthid tank. I've seen some kick-ass zoa tanks.
What kind of corals are you planning on keeping? This will help determine your lighting. As for what T5 fixture to get, I visited a local reefer's house recently and he had an amazing 75 gallon setup with beautiful soft corals and very simply set up. He ran a Nova Extreme T5 fixture and said he loved it.

The fuge should work very nicely. I've seen many setups in which people turned HOB filters into simple fuges which worked well. I don't think you need to add a powerhead to it, just keeping the flow in the aquaclear nice and easy should make for a good fuge.

Skipping the skimmer would be okay in this tank with just coral and inverts as long as you do weekly waterchanges, but if you plan on adding fish, I would recommend a small skimmer.

[JBReef]

Thanks for all the info.
Got it all today, starting to set up and I'll be sure to post pics.

[JBReef]

Well, the tank is up and running, Still working on the slainity. If my salinity is low, to add more, can I just take the water out of the tank, add salt, and returne the water?

Another question I had that I couldn't really find....... The sand at the bottom is left with alot of little air pockets, are these ok to leave or will they be a cause for bad bacteria to grow?

Other than that the tank is going good. I had to jimmy-rig the aquaclear70 so that some of the water is re-directed back to the tank before it enters the fuge 'cause it was throwing my cheato all over the place, even on the lowest setting.

I took pictures but have to work in the morning so I'm hittin the sac.
Cloudy pic's for everyone tomorow!

[Scuba Kid]

You'll definitely want to stir the sand a bit to get the air bubbles out as nasty stuff will build up in there and can cause problems. That's why you'll want to get some sand-stirring inverts as part of your clean-up crew.

[JBReef]

OK, new quick question......

The tank is up, I have 20lbs of LS and 10lbs of LR, about 2lbs of LR and a fist full of cheato in the fuge (geting some CC and shells for the fuge from a buddys tank this weekend) So the cycle has begun.

The question I have is that the aquaclear 70 I have running as the fuge pushes about 300 gph top end and I have it set as low as possible, but it still seems a bit much. I put a mesh gard to divert some water back to the tank so there would be less flow in the fuge but it still seems like it's running fast. is there a way to slow it down or will this be ok?

Thanks.

[Scuba Kid]

Have you tried using some filter foam or sponge to slow down the water?

[JBReef]

Wile I was out last night I got some thicker Filter foam then I had origionaly got and it seemed to work much better. I picked up my test kit and took my first reading of.....

Ph-7.8
Alk-240
NitrAte-20
NitrIte-.05
Ammonia-1.0
Salinity-1.023

So now is the hardest part, I have to sit back and wait.

Well, I'll keep testing and taking pics (wich I still have to post)

oOo befor I forget, I picked up a power head just to add more water movment but I don't know exactly where to place it. It seems no matter where it is it toesn't go behind the LR thats aginst the glass.
anyone have there's where they find best wana give me the heads up?

Thanks again for all the help and good info wile starting my first SW tank I really appreciate it!

-Josh-

[Scuba Kid]

What kind of powerhead is it? Some like Koralias are nice because they have a ball-and-socket sort of joint that allows you to move them all around.

Its hard to tell where exactly it should be placed...best advice I can give is to just play around with it a bit until you find a spot that works.

Something like this might also help: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...3&pcatid=11363

[JBReef]

Finaly!

[JBReef]

Hit the wrong botton.....

It's like christmas!!!


Waiting......


Finaly clear...


Actinic


And these I took to see if anyone knew what they were, I know it's eairly to tell but maby someone will recognise what it is




I know the feather duster on the right but on the left..... it's got a brown stem like base. Mind you this tank has only been runing for a week so I'm guessing it's something hardy?

And I'm sure it wasn't like that when I bought it so it is growing.