Wanting advice on my 20L nano build

TryingToLearn · Aug 12, 2016

To start off I have an aqueon 20 gallon long aquarium. It has been up and running for 7 months. I am going to turn this into my nano reef.. love the looks of them.

I used 20lbs of black Nature's Ocean bio active live sand.. no LR. Only filtration is an AQUATOP PFUV-40. Only 2 hydor 240gph powerheads.. probably need to upgrade for more flow. I had a cheap skimmer on it for a while but took it off due to breaking it trying to clean it. I do a 5 gallon water change bi weekly so 25℅. There is now one 10lbs piece of pukani LR in there, has been for about 4 months. Just don't have a picture with it in there. I have 70lbs of dry rock I just got done curing about a week ago and I plan on using around 20-30lbs of it.
My first question is. DRILL AND SUMP the tank or leave It Be ? I will probably add about 20-30lbs of small dry rocks to the tank for my aquascape. I plan on doing corals only... Mainly zoanthids, Duncan's, kenya... Etc
Right now I have a Current USA orbit light on it. Next question being.. Do I need more light? I have a 30" 300w Mars aqua dimmable black box I can use if so

Any advice is appreciated!!!

webbl19 · Aug 12, 2016

I'm not a pro by any means. My experience is only a little over a year old, but you learn a lot in a year. But, I started with a 20g also. I made a DIY overflow out of pvc pipe, check YouTube for videos. I followed the overflow that's in there from the DIY king I think is his name. He had a regular one, but them made a revised version that works much better and actually had a pretty clean look to it in my tank.

I don't know how easy it is to drill a tank that is already up and running. I've thought about it, but it makes me nervous to drill my tank, so I work with a overflow box now in my 55 gallon.

Really it's up to you and how you want it setup. I see guys here running no sumps and have sweet tanks and see guys running sumps and have sweet tanks. I prefer the sump to keep my display clean of all the equipment.

As for your light, 300w is probably a bit much. I had my 165w black box over my 20g and was able to grow everything I had in there. Still using the 165w on my 55g, although I did just order a 4ft T5 fixture cause I'm not getting the spread I want, but everything is still surviving and growing with the lights around 75% blue and 50% whites. You should be fine with the corals you listed. I don't know much about the current USA lights. How many watts is it?

Check out my thread if you want to see what I've done to the 20g I had before i upgraded to my 55g.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/210929/

TryingToLearn · Aug 12, 2016

T

webbl19 said:
I'm not a pro by any means. My experience is only a little over a year old, but you learn a lot in a year. But, I started with a 20g also. I made a DIY overflow out of pvc pipe, check YouTube for videos. I followed the overflow that's in there from the DIY king I think is his name. He had a regular one, but them made a revised version that works much better and actually had a pretty clean look to it in my tank.

I don't know how easy it is to drill a tank that is already up and running. I've thought about it, but it makes me nervous to drill my tank, so I work with a overflow box now in my 55 gallon.

Really it's up to you and how you want it setup. I see guys here running no sumps and have sweet tanks and see guys running sumps and have sweet tanks. I prefer the sump to keep my display clean of all the equipment.

As for your light, 300w is probably a bit much. I had my 165w black box over my 20g and was able to grow everything I had in there. Still using the 165w on my 55g, although I did just order a 4ft T5 fixture cause I'm not getting the spread I want, but everything is still surviving and growing with the lights around 75% blue and 50% whites. You should be fine with the corals you listed. I don't know much about the current USA lights. How many watts is it?

Check out my thread if you want to see what I've done to the 20g I had before i upgraded to my 55g.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/210929/