Hi everyone! I have just set up my first reef tank. It is a 20 gallon high w/ 130 watts of pc 1/2 actinic 1/2 10,000 K, heated w/ a good quality
submersible heater to about 78 degrees and I have a rio 180 powerhead for current. Right now it has about 6 pounds of live-rock (propagated Brazillian and Marshal island, all fully cured from the store where I work), a deep sand bed at 4", a healthy dose of grit/rubble from the bottom of the bin used to cure rock at my store, a few mushrooms that had strayed from their bases in the reef-racks, a 1" section of yellow gregorian that seems very happy, some tiny frags of button polyps and xinia, 6 tiny blue legs, 6 micro turbo snails, 2 tiny narcisis snails, a few pieces of various macro-algae and a tiny serpent star who could sit on a dime w/out touching the edges (it's so cute!). I haven't added a filter or skimmer yet (please don't kill me -I will be very cautious LOL), but I am not feeding yet either. The tank has been running for a week now and all of the readings are good and the animals are all looking good and are quite active (if you can call a mushroom "active"LOL).I am planning on adding a modified skilter which will have a lime airstone added to improve the skimming ability (getting it from a friend who is on vacation right now) and I was thinking about using my H.O.T. magnum as a live sponge/chemical/mechanical filter using the carbon basket for pieces of polyfilters and phosphate removing resin, the standard thin blue sponge around the basket and seeding a bunch of large bio-balls w/ various sponges from my stores sponge filter for the outer chamber. If anyone has any ideas about how to use this filter better please let me know. Any suggestions for small fish species would also be great. My boss has said he could try to get some triple-fins for me, and I know I would like a
green clown goby and possibly a manderin down the road but other than that I am out of ideas.
Please let me know what you think...I have the patience of Job but I would bet he made more money than me...however I am used to complicated dirt-substrate live plant freshwater tanks on a tight budget, so at least I am used to aquarium difficulties
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Thanks in advance for everyones imput,
Sandi
