My 20 gallon tank thread with pictures

[treesprite]

Looks great. Are you going to paint the back? It would only take a few minutes to put on enought coats of black or blue to make it look really nice.

 

 

I almost posted that question this afternoon and was in a hurry and at work, so I couldn't.

[lletellier]

yes I am going to black it out, probably with that plastic backing stuff instead of paint just because I want the option to change it easily. I would love to mount all my switches in my stand but there just isn't room without doing some major modifications. Plus with such a small space i'm worried about too much salty air getting on my connections if they are right inside the stand. I'll just deal with the black box next to my tank for the time being... maybe i'll put a cutting board on top of it and turn it into a little frag station so it serves a purpose

[lletellier]

First water test today... and what a mess (not literally).

 

Current system problems and what i'm thinking about doing to fix them.

 

1. My overflow can not handle the amount of flow from my return pump. It catches up right as the water goes over the edge of my tank... not where I want it! I'm sure a 1" bulkhead would have done the trick but I'm going to see if I can make the 3/4" work. I will probably end up getting a 1" one from dave either way since I think the hole is large enough for it. The only reason I'm going to try and make the 3/4" work is because I don't want to have to redo my overflow and plumbing.

 

So my solution is that I need to drain the tank, pull out the bulkhead and take each groove of my overflow down about 1/4". Since the water will be hitting the drain sooner that should keep the water level down, right??

 

2. Bubble city in my sump! I had my skimmer running and it actually stopped working because there were so many bubbles.

 

I think the main problem is that my drain goes straight down into a 90 degree elbow and then flows into another 90 degree elbow that takes it into my sump. I think I have so many bubbles because the water is flowing so quickly down into the elbow and pulling air in. My only thought here is to replace the pvc with tubing and run the tube in a c shape down to my sump so that the water travels more slowly. Or perhaps I could replace the 90 degree elbows with 45 degree elbows, just not sure that would make enough of a difference.

 

I also had a question about my water. I rinsed it before I put it in my tank but the water is still very cloudy what is the best way to filter that out... or should I just do water changes till its gone?

[discretekarma]

I think it would be an easier solution to put a ball valve right after your return pump and just slow it down a little.

 

Any way you could take a picture of the sump with the skimmer on once you get the overflow fixed?

 

Thanks

[jason the filter freak]

Try using a filter sock or reverse duruso

[lletellier]

I think it would be an easier solution to put a ball valve right after your return pump and just slow it down a little.

 

Any way you could take a picture of the sump with the skimmer on once you get the overflow fixed?

 

Thanks

 

good call

[lletellier]

what should I do about the cloudy water??

[Rascal]

So my solution is that I need to drain the tank, pull out the bulkhead and take each groove of my overflow down about 1/4". Since the water will be hitting the drain sooner that should keep the water level down, right??

 

An even easier solution might be to just rotate the elbow to the side until the water level came down to where you want it. You might as well switch the bulkhead out for the 1" one now though. You'll probably end up doing it later if you don't.

 

what should I do about the cloudy water??

 

A filter sock like Jason said or just wait and it'll clear up by itself.

[dandy7200]

what should I do about the cloudy water??

 

 

Throw some carbon in that reefpack.

[lletellier]

good news everyone, my tank is up and running and all problems have been resolved for the time being! My water is crystal clear, the overflow is working great and for whatever reason the bubbles stopped being so bad after I fixed the overflow. I think i'm still going to use a filter sock but no rush. I will post pictures tonight.

[lletellier]

Picture time! I got my fish yesterday, 4 clowns (2 flase percs and 2 b&w) and 1 jewel damsel (g/f choice). Already pulled a clown out of the sump since I don't have my overflow protected yet but i'll get there. If someone could tell me where to get that gutter guard stuff or at least show me what i'm looking for i'd apriciate it. I am using some plastic netting stuff I found lying around but that is only temporary. The clowns are doing very well and have been swimming all over the place from the very second I dropped them in. The damsel is probalby the most boring fish i've ever seen.. it just sulks behind a rock I don't know there behavior so is this ok? She looks very healthy just doesn't move much. These pictures are from filling up, until right before I got my fish so no shots of them yet. I'm getting some more of my corals tonight so i'll post pictures after that.

 

sand storm... this is even after I rinsed the sand!

 

starting to calm down

 

Sump NOTE:I raised the water level in the return section so it is covering the entire pump since I know i'll get comments about that!

 

rock and 3 corals ( slimer frag from yauger since all he has is sps, green mushroom and green/red speckled palys)

 

overall shot

 

I also took everyone's advice and put a black background on the tank, def looks a lot better than being able to see through the tank. More to come later...

[jnguyen4007]

NICE!!!!

 

 

James

[zotzer]

Tank looks great, but I am surprised to hear you put four clowns in a 20g together.

I don't think multiple pairs of clowns do well together even in huge tanks. Are they all babies?

 

Keep us posted!!

Tracy

[lletellier]

I didn't think so either but the more I read I didn't see a problem with it. I had heard that you couldn't keep different types of clowns together but so far I can not seen anything other than them swimming together and getting along. I guess we'll just see what happens

[lletellier]

 

bad pictures cause i'm still fighting the bubbles but you get the idea... the damsel is starting to come out more so maybe she just needed to adjust a little.

[treesprite]

finally some livestock in there. Tank looks great

[lletellier]

Ok, my damsel didn't make it... never started eating that I saw and the bag that she came in was deflated and almost all the water had leaked out during delivery. So I want to get a new fish and I am looking at a mandarin dragonet goby. My understanding is that for gobys to survive you need to have copepods being produced in your refugium and then swimming into your tank. How long should I wait before I give this a shot? Will they eat flake? Thx

[gastone]

Anecdotal advice on mandarins says to wait at least 6 months, preferably a year. You'll want a 75g or bigger with lots of liverock and no other pod "competitors", ie wrasses, other gobies, et al.

[zotzer]

Anecdotal advice on mandarins says to wait at least 6 months, preferably a year. You'll want a 75g or bigger with lots of liverock and no other pod "competitors", ie wrasses, other gobies, et al.

 

And no predators (ie: hermit crabs) in the refugium.

See if you can find one that is eating cyclopeeze or something. Might make life a bit easier for you (and the dragonet!)

 

Oh, and one more thing. If you plan to add an anemone for those clownfish, you may want to rethink the dragonet. Anemones have a tendancy to eat surface-dwelling/eating fish who wander their way. If clowns are hosting the anemone first, the dragonet might stand a chance, as the clowns will keep it away. That's what I've read on the subject, anyway. Maybe some members here have first hand experience with dragonets and anemones they can share.

 

Tracy

Edited November 16, 2007 by zotzer

[lletellier]

alright so no go on that... what is a colorful fish that I could add??

[lletellier]

Moved about 80% of my corals over, still have some mushrooms to get and my rbta. Space is really a big deal with only 20 gallons but I am getting used to it. I had a tiny hint of a cycle this week... some hair algae sprouted on the walls of the tank, nothing big, I scraped off what I could reach and it doesn't seem to be coming back. Here is everything so far... I didn't lose anything in the move and excuse my horrible picture taking skills.

 

 

I do have a question that I hope someone can answer. The water falling down my overflow tube is a bit noisy for my room and instead of replacing my pvc with tubing I was wondering if I could put bioballs in my overflow tube to soften the fall of the water and make it more quiet. If I do this will I have to clean them frequently or can I just leave them in there? If I leave them in will they cause a problem later? If not bioballs I was thinking a peice of filter that I could stick down there and then change when it gets nasty. Not really looking for the extra filtration just something to get rid of the waterfall noise. Its the only thing I can hear on my tank, everything else runs almost silently. Also still looking for 1 more fish to add to the tank and need suggestions... looking for color! As always any other comments welcome. Thanks.

Edited November 24, 2007 by lletellier

[davelin315]

Hey Lance, you'll discover that your clowns will have lots of problems when they begin to mature. Once you have two that are bonded, kiss the other two goodbye... They can be very aggressive and territorial towards each other once bonded, especially in such a small tank.

 

As far as the bubbling don't put bioballs in your overflow as that will simply cause you to have a problem with the water flow and also may cause a flood as the pipe won't be able to keep up. If it's too noisy, make a modified durso standpipe for the outside (basically install a T on the outside with an air valve and turn the overflow upside down on the inside of the tank and put a slip strainer on there). You'll eliminate an awful lot of the noise you have.

[lletellier]

Dave, thanks for the input, I am going to have to look into doing something about the clowns... anyone ever divided their tank before?? I have some plexiglass downstairs would that work if I cut overflows along the top??

 

I know what your saying about the pipe but the noise I'm talking about is not from the overflow in the tank.. it is from the water falling down the pvc pip into the sump. Bio balls would not clog it at all they would just give the water something to hit on the way down so it would trickle as opposed to drop straight to the bottom.

[vaironman]

Lance,

 

What do you think of using rubble rocks? Go to Roozen or BRK and pick out 10lbs or more of rubble rocks instead of bioballs for your fuge.

 

Advantage: don't need to clean, bacteria always stays the same level.

 

With bioballs, the disadvantage is: whenever you clean, we'll mess up the amount of bacteria already establishes required to handle your bioload and takes a couple weeks to build up back the good bacteria after cleaning the bioballs.

 

Nice setup and love your clownfishes.

 

KLee

[davelin315]

Replace the pipe with spa-flex to give it some gentle sloping and then have it exit into either a closed off chamber (this will significantly reduce the noise - ask Doug if he's got a picture of the sump at Cedar Lane or check through the Floris thread and see if there's any pictures of the final plumbing for the sump) or have it flow into a sponge or filter pad/floss so that the water is dispersed. If you do the durso, by the way, and end it underwater in a closed chamber, you should eliminate a lot of the noise. The durso will allow the air to escape at the top so that there's almost no backpressure at the bottom which should eliminate some of the splashing noise. You could also put a couple of 45 degree angles in your line so that it doesn't do such a long straight drop. I still think that the presence of bio-balls (unless I'm misunderstanding your placement) will be detrimental to your flow. The beauty of having a straight shot is that if something does get into the overflow, it'll go down and be in your sump. If you add bio-balls it'll get stuck, most likely die, and then clog your overflow so that you have water on the floor.

 

As far as using plex to divide the tank, I would avoid that. I think you'll end up with more problems than you save yourself from, plus, you're down to a 10 gallon tank on either side. I would pick the clowns you want now, remove the other two, and let nature take its course. As it stands now, you may not get a choice of which one turns into a female and which two bond. Plus, this gives you an excuse to set up another tank!