Let me first start out by explaining how this tank came into play. Well as some of you may know I have had a 55 gallon FOWLR tank running for about 6-7 months which is great but I really wanted to try my hand at coral but didn't want to spend alot of money on upgrading my lighting so I decided to downgrade to a 20 gallon long. I originally had 4 fish in my 55 which consisted of 1 Firefish, 2 Ocellaris Clownfish, and 1 Sandsifting Goby but obviously I couldn't keep all those fish in a 20g tank so I only kept the Firefish. Don't worry the other fish found good homes with local reefers. :)

I transferred most of the sand from the 55 which gave me a nice substrate depth of 1.5" to 2" in some areas. I am going to install 2x65watt PC's which came from my Current USA fixture. I would maybe like to add another small fish sometime in the future, as well as a Cleaner shrimp. I placed both Maxijet 1200's in the tank and turned them on and imo it is too much flow for only softies and a few LPS so I will place them on timers so only one powerhead will be running at a time. I will list specifications but Everything is from my 55 gallon tank including the water.

Equipment:

20 gallon long tank (30"Lx12"Wx12"H)
DIY canopy with 2x65watt PC lighting installed
AquaC Remora protein Skimmer
2 Maxjet 1200's
11lbs of Fiji live rock
Roughly 30lbs of fine white sand

Inhabitants:

1 Firefish
1 Strawberry Crab
1 Whelk
1 Strombus Snail
2 Cerith Snails
4 Nassarius Snails
4 Astraea Snails

Future Coral Plans:

I will keep softies and LPS in this tank. My rough list of coral that I would like to keep:

Zoos
Mushrooms
Candy Cane
Frogspawn or Torch
Brain
Favia
Xenia

Canopy is pretty much finished but I still need to purchase a couple hinges and will probably install a fan. Here are a couple pics of the inside of the canopy.







That is it for my introductory post on chronicling the process of my 20 gallon reef tank. Comments are always welcomed. :)

Update: I finished the canopy and placed a piece of acrylic over the tank to prevent splashing water. I took some full tank shots with the canopy I built, and yes I know the right top board lifts up but hey this is my first DIY canopy.












I still need to pick up a black background to hide the wires. :)

Very nice tank. I see your getting some diatoms in the tank?

Yet another great looking saltwater tank you people know how to put a nice tank together.

Update: The tank is doing good and I'm getting some good coralline algae growth. I have added a small Green Clown Goby which is doing well and is eating most of the foods I offer. I will be adding a few more snails to my tank and I should be adding my first coral to this tank soon. Here is a full tank shot and a few pictures of my Firefish

Full Tank Shot


Closeup Pics Of My Firefish

Great firefish and tank :)

Update: Here are a few pictures of my Zoa colony and new Cleaner shrimp I add to the tank.

Small Zoa Colony






Cleaner Shrimp

Those pictures are amazing and I looooove the Zoa colony its looking to become a great tank.

The tank has been doing great. I added a few more snails to assist with cleaning, and my last fish which is a small Fairy Wrasse. Also added two Mushrooms, and a Capnella coral.

A Few Tank Shots






New Coral

Looks great how much coral are you planning on adding?

Bartier: I'm planning on adding more Zoas, Mushrooms, Candy Cane or Frogspawn, Xenia, and maybe a Brain coral. Here are a few upclose pictures of the coral:

you have a nice tank i need ur help though :lol:

Whoa. Thats really great. I love your corals. Is that coral a xenia?

It is a soft coral called Capnella.

Update: Recently I added a small Pink Hammer coral to the tank, and it is doing very well. I took a few pics of the coral:

Wow, Pretty :) How much did it cost you?

I replaced the above pics with better ones I took.

It was $35 which is reasonable from what I've seen.

Yea, That is true, I seens a torch about the size of a dollar quarter and it was 75 bucks.

I changed the background to blue.

Update: Well I have not posted an update of my tank for quite a while now mainly because not much as happened. The tank is still doing really well and many different critters have started appearing including Brittle Stars, Amphipods, Feather Dusters, and various worms.

Adding coral to my tank has been rather slow and infact the only coral the I added since the last update is a Kenya Tree. I have plans to add more coral to my tank but it will not be for 2-3 weeks. This tank will house Softies, LPS, and maybe a Montipora Digitata frag.

The coral that I just recently purchased is a Kenya Tree that is very healthy, and is about 4-5" high. It adjusted to my tank very well with full polyp extension and has a faint green color to it. When I was observing the coral in the fish store I noticed a small encrusting coral attached to the piece of rock where the Kenya Tree was on. I'm not sure yet what exact species of coral it is

I have been using two Maxijet 1200's in my tank but with both running the flow seems a bit much for what I'm keeping. To solve my problem I shaved down the impellers on both powerheads and it work great. Now I can have them running at the same time and the flow is perfect. I'm still using 2x65watt PC's as my lighting but I may upgrade to a 150watt metal halide system sometime in the near future. I do need to replace my PC bulbs soon since I have been using them for quite awhile.

Here are the pictures I took of the Kenya Tree and the second coral I have yet to identify. I have not taken a full tank shot lately but will soon and when I do I will post it.










Second Coral That Was Attached To Rock

Very nice.

Here are a couple recent full tanks shots. :)

The way you have built the rocks up is looking great.

Update: The tank is doing extremely well and the corals are growing like crazy. The first Capnella coral that I purchased has split into two seperate stalks and is beginning to split again. The recent Kenya Tree that I added has also grown significantly. I've been eyeing a Mushroom rock at the local fish store that I will probably pick up within the next week. There have been some major changes to the stocking as I have given my Clown Goby to a friend and the Fairy Wrasse was being way too agressive towards the Firefish to a point of not letting him eat. I've replaced the Fairy Wrasse with a Sixline which has been very peaceful towards the Fishfish and is very interesting to watch. Here are some various pictures I've taken:

Full Tank Shot

Capnella Corals



Snails Eggs(Cerith)



Feather Duster

Great tank, as usual PerfectBlue. I'm really looking to start a nano-reef myself, on top of the 29 gallon reef I've got now. I've got the 192 watt over my 29 gallon, but I haven't really seen an enormous amount of coral growth. The corals are alive and well, no doubt, but just not growing like I thought they would. My feather dusters have certainly grown in number, though. Then again, I do only run 96 watts, since I only run one bulb... and come to think of it... it's for freshwater planted tanks anyways. Now that I think about it, they probably aren't growing because of the incorrect spectrum. Any ideas, PB?