a piece of the ocean

[reeftankgirl13]

I have a 20 g tank with a clean up crew of 6 snails and a hermit. There is about 2 in. of sand in bottom and 5.5 lbs of LR. My tank has been set up for almost 2 months and has cycled. pH 8.0 ammonia 0ppm nitrites 0ppm nitrates 20 ppm. I've done multiple water changes (20%)but think its the tap water that the nitrates are coming from. Going to the LFS to get water. Specific gravity is at 1.023. Aqua tech 10-20g filter(170gph) marineland powerhead 110gph heater set at 78F and 50/50 flourecent light 8hrs a day. Now with that out of the way I have some questions. What type of plants should I get to help keep my nitrates down? I also had a clownfish for about 5 days and then he died? His tailfin was ripped/disintigrated ish looking and he swam in the current the entire time. Died of exhaustion? When clownfish was in there the power head was not it was a circulation pump instead that put out 500gph. Please help I want to get another fish. P.s. snails and hermit are doing great so it can't be the water right?

 

[blue dog]

Make sure you not using tape water, going to the fish store is a good idea.
I used to go to wall mart and get distilled water to top up with.

 

[soutzee]

try some macro algaes that youlike how they look as there are a bunch to look from they will help you with that and phosphates. but with out a refugium i woulndt recommend you put a lot of macro cause i dont know if you want a macroalgae tank or an LPS or sps or mixed reef tank. is you are not shooting for macro algae tank try some chemipure and put chaeto in the hang on filter with a small light in it that is what ive done on my 10G

 

[ReeferBob]

That isn't nearly enough rock for that tank. Also you should adjust your flow and maybe crank it down a bit.

Some fish just die due to stress. I lost a clowns when I first started due to stress of being shipped. Haven't lost a fish since though.

BTW: Light schedule doesn't matter if you have nothing photosynthetic (Coral/Aneanomes). They are just for your viewing pleasure.

 

[reeftankgirl13]

That isn't nearly enough rock for that tank. Also you should adjust your flow and maybe crank it down a bit.

Some fish just die due to stress. I lost a clowns when I first started due to stress of being shipped. Haven't lost a fish since though.

BTW: Light schedule doesn't matter if you have nothing photosynthetic (Coral/Aneanomes). They are just for your viewing pleasure.

I cranked down the circulation pimp and put a power head in and I'm working on building up my rocks little by little (not a huge amount I can sink into the tank at once money wise) I got a cool looking plant thing today and some more rock. Might try the suggestion above and put chaeto in my filter for the nitrate problem. Thank you all for your inputs working toward getting another fish soon. What should I get?

 

[PepperDeath]

chaeto and more rock will help and definitely rodi water for top offs

 

[PepperDeath]

barnacle blennys are really cool little fish.

 

[renoeb]

I started with a 20L! Gotta love it!

 

[reeftankgirl13]

New additions to the tank peace sign rock and plant thing sitting on top of it can anyone identify the plant for me pleeeese snails and hermit love this new rock. 6.5 lbs of LR now

 

[PepperDeath]

Sweet! Looks like star polyps they are cool but can spread pretty fast

 

[reeftankgirl13]

I have a t8 50/50 light so I needed something sort of low light and I put it close to light like 5 in under the surface of the water. Do I have to feed it or anything?

 

[PepperDeath]

That should be a good place for it. Nope you don't need to feed them anything

 

[reeftankgirl13]

Okay thanks! I have a t8 50/50 light so I needed something sort of low light and I put him like 5in under water surface. Do I need to feed him or something?

 

[reeftankgirl13]

Pops posted twice lol

 

[PepperDeath]

Lol your welcome