Bendeng's 20g xh Nano Reef

bendeng · Apr 19, 2017

Hey everyone,

So this has been a long time in the making. I started with the idea of getting a 20g xH tank for my first reef tank after seeing one in a LFS.

A month later I pulled the plug and bought the tank, and over time have put in very small additions and modifications.

That was about 4 years ago when I actually first got into the hobby. I was distracted and financially drained from my 150g display tank that I also put together with my boyfriend, my nano was pushed aside and has collected a lot of dust and grime.

Fast forward to 2017, I am happy to say I have made major progress on the tank in the last couple months. I am [so] close to getting her wet (that is what she said)!

My 20g xH has been drilled,
Eshopps Eclipse overflow box installed,
SCA-301 skimmer has been tested (used temporarily when our 150g tank crash due to a failed skimmer so it definitely works great),
Ecotech Vortech mp10qd purchased (TY Craigslist!),
AI Prime HD purchased ($5 off retail on eBay),
Avast ATO,
Custom acrylic sump almost completed (including section for refugium, started with a standard 10g with baffles but it wont fit in the stand),
Metal frame stand (Petco, 10g stand, on sale plus off $5 pet perks).

We have an assortment of dc pumps that I will pick from to use until I decide on the right pump for my tank to buy, need to design/build the cabinet to go around the metal frame stand as well as for canopy purposes, screen top design/build from acrylic, LF Smart Micro ATO, LF Apex controller, and LF wifi-capable 1080p camera.

My zoas and shrooms that I want to center the tank around have been growing out in the display tank. I have a Mandarin waiting for his new home in the DT refugium.

Livestock Plans:

1) Mandarin
2) Clownfish pair (Wyoming, Lightning Maroon, or Phantom)
3) Zoas
4) Shrooms
5) Light SPS to fill

I am excited to get this up and running soon!!

I will update with photos this weekend once I start aquascaping.

40B Knasty · Apr 20, 2017

That all sounds great except 2 things. Mandarin and Maroon clown(s). Spotted Mandarin you can train to eat frozen foods. The green and red are so beautiful, but are not worth the risk unless you get them straight from the store 100% seen eating. Also have a refugium that is established(1 year running)pumping out copepods, because I have heard of so many times them eating frozen foods and then stop and go back to eating pods. Wipe out the tank & refugium. Then you are spending $20 a week to feed a fish which adds up to $960 a year. About the maroon clown(s). Nasty nasty fish when it comes to territory. A female will get up to 8 inches. That is a big big fish for a 20g tank. The mandarin will most likely get beat up or ANY fish that goes in the tank. Just throwing the heads up about your choice.

bendeng · Apr 20, 2017

40B Knasty said:
That all sounds great except 2 things. Mandarin and Maroon clown(s). Spotted Mandarin you can train to eat frozen foods. The green and red are so beautiful, but are not worth the risk unless you get them straight from the store 100% seen eating. Also have a refugium that is established(1 year running)pumping out copepods, because I have heard of so many times them eating frozen foods and then stop and go back to eating pods. Wipe out the tank & refugium. Then you are spending $20 a week to feed a fish which adds up to $960 a year. About the maroon clown(s). Nasty nasty fish when it comes to territory. A female will get up to 8 inches. That is a big big fish for a 20g tank. The mandarin will most likely get beat up or ANY fish that goes in the tank. Just throwing the heads up about your choice.

Yea, the Lightning Maroon was a recent idea and Ive been fighting in my head about it since I know maroons can be bullies. The mandarin has been living in the refugium of our main display tank and we have plenty of macro ready to plant in my tank once I start running water in it with pods seeded a couple weeks ago already flourishing.

The mandarin eats everything very well, frozen foods as he did in the LFS I bought him from and he has already been seen picking pods. We just moved him into a Biocube as he got the bad idea to swim into the baffles of the sump from a pesky damsel fish that is also in the main tank sump. The biocube has a couple of gobies paired with a shrimp, a pair of percula clowns, and another mandarin. My mandarin is just couch surfing until my tank is running, looks very healthy and getting fat from all the food he's been eating [emoji5]

I had never heard of the 1 year rule of thumb for the refugium. Our display tank had recently been redone about 5 months ago after a long time of neglect and we redid the refugium with a small batch of chaeto, so far it has flourished and the chaeto has quadrupled in size, tank is much cleaner now with all algae blooms completely gone.

I will definitely be cautious and move slow in adding livestock to this 20g, however, I got into the hobby 10 years ago and the numerous warnings of establishing this or that over the course of several months to years had discouraged me for too long and Im just going to jump in and get started lol.

Assuming parameters read well consistently after a couple weeks of seeding my dry rock with established tank water, I will slowly add my frags and the mandarin while I decide on the clown pairing I want [emoji3]

40B Knasty · Apr 20, 2017

Here is my Mandarin. He is a beast! Also my Last Bar Gray clown.
You never said what kind of dragonet you have?

bendeng · Apr 20, 2017

40B Knasty said:
Here is my Mandarin. He is a beast! Also my Last Bar Gray clown.
You never said what kind of dragonet you have?

Heres a quick pic of mine [emoji5]

40B Knasty · Apr 20, 2017

Female green, nice! Looks a little thin, but not dangerously thin.

bendeng · Apr 20, 2017

She just got moved to the Biocube but she definitely eats She is very tiny for sure. No bigger than my thumb at this point.

bendeng · Apr 22, 2017

Still waiting on the acrylic I ordered to finish our sump. Will have to wait until next weekend at this point. Some photos of the tank, sump, stand, and stack of equipment we've collected (Biocube in the background haha). Managed to snap a pic of my camera shy mandarin in the biocube. Will start messing with the aquascape over the weekend and see how I want to arrange the rocks [emoji5]