The kid's 20 gallon fusion

pgravis · Jan 16, 2017

my 2 year old daughter has been pretty obsessed with our fish tank for as long as I can remember her moving around. Finally decided to set her up her own tank. Initially I was thinking just a little freshwater setup-but she kept asking for a black and white nemo and an orange one. So , found this fairly new fusion and got it for next to nothing. Has the skyye lights (which I anticipate changing at some point). Used about 13 pounds of real reef rock ( my favorite rock by far!) and seeded it with some sand, rubble and water from my main display (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/60-cube.160759/page-4#post-3359731). I am going to run purigen and chemipure elite in the back, also picked up some marinepure ceramic media to add back there as well. Tank came with an extra eheim 600 pump that I need to install for a little extra flow. The focus of the tank will be common softies that are hardy, easy, and provide good movement. Also planning the obligate clowns (probably some snowflake versions), and maybe some sexy shrimp and a Pom Pom crab (she also looks he's crabs, ever since we found one on the beach in Oregon). Tank hasn't been setup long, but with the additions from our main display, and a bottle of bacteria, I'm hoping it's a short cycle. Added a test frag of green implosion palys today.

Her at our local aquarium

Bob Escher · Jan 16, 2017

Nice good setup for a youngster

SantaMonicaHelp · Jan 16, 2017

That is so cute and amazing that a 2 year old is already so obsessed with a tank

Awesome first tank!

Sandra

pgravis · Jan 17, 2017

Yeah. It is really fun. One day we picked up some rock nems and the owner of the lfs "gave" them to her to carry out and to this day she identifies them as her coral and points them out to anyone who looks! I'm excited for the day we go get her fish

meir · Jan 17, 2017

pgravis said:
Yeah. It is really fun. One day we picked up some rock nems and the owner of the lfs "gave" them to her to carry out and to this day she identifies them as her coral and points them out to anyone who looks! I'm excited for the day we go get her fish

And I'm excited for the day (far in the future) where my kids fall for the hobby the way I have

Waters · Jan 17, 2017

Looks good.....that clam in your second to last picture is huge lol.

govolsguy31 · Jan 17, 2017

Waters said:
Looks good.....that clam in your second to last picture is huge lol.

That was the first thing I noticed too. That thing is bigger than she is!

revhtree · Jan 17, 2017

How sweet!

pgravis · Jan 18, 2017

revhtree said:
How sweet!

Thanks!
Tank is coming along. Test frag of palys looked good today. Added a couple snails, hermits, and 2 mushrooms. We will see how things look in the morning.

Also, the marinepure media showed up today. Added it to my main sump to seed for a couple days. I figure it is similar to seeding a sponge filter for a quarantine, so leave it for a day or two? Any feedback here would be helpful.

pgravis · Jan 18, 2017

Checking her tank first thing in the morning!

Added the eheim pump, which almost doubled my flow. Coming from an sps tank with ridiculous flow-it still seems a bit low, but we will see how things play out . On that same note, I think the lights will get replaced by something a bit stronger. Looking at the AI prime. Seems like the perfect light for these tanks at a reasonable price . I love the radions (have a gen 3 on my display and an xr15 freshwater on my vivarium-but it might be overkill for this small tank, and costs a bit more than the prime)

pgravis · Jan 19, 2017

Found her pondering her future tank by watching the old one!

pgravis · Jan 22, 2017

More corals added:

For all you anemone keepers, I have read a couple different things on adding them to newer tanks. I've heard they are ammonia sinks, and that they can not only do well in a new tank, but also help the tank by absorbing any ammonia spike. But, there is also a ton of people saying that the tank needs to be x months/years old before adding them. I hear this without much science backing it up, other than needing a stable tank, which imo age alone doesn't Make a tank stable. It seems to approach repeated dogma. I'm not one that thinks they can outsmart what has worked for others, but The nurse in me likes to see the science behind the reasons. Please share your thoughts.

cody2cannon · Jan 22, 2017

pgravis said:
More corals added:

For all you anemone keepers, I have read a couple different things on adding them to newer tanks. I've heard they are ammonia sinks, and that they can not only do well in a new tank, but also help the tank by absorbing any ammonia spike.

So my tank is 1 month and a week old it is also a 20 gallon fusion, I have 2 clowns in there now. At what point did you add nems to your sons tank? I was going to add zoas for my first corals but if you have had success I may try nems first.

pgravis · Jan 22, 2017

@cody2cannon, I haven't added a nem yet, a handful of lps/softies though are doing well. No fish yet either. More of a planning ahead type of question about the nems. Your tank looks great btw

cody2cannon · Jan 22, 2017

Thanks yours as well! I've been looking around and asked the LFS they say adding a nem about 6-7 week mark is not a bad idea and that they do help reduce ammonia