Joshifer September 17, 2016 Share September 17, 2016 (edited) Okay two questions in one. First. Chaeto. I have it in the rear of the IM fusion 20. I super glued a little gate kinda thing to the baffle I'm not using and threw a golf sized ball in there. I ordered a small 3 wat 6500k LED on strip eBay. ($1) and a power supply ($1) But while I wait for that. I have a desk lamp with a 5500k daylight LED bulb on a timer to light the chaeto at night. Their is no vinyl on the back it's completely removed and can see into the whole back chamber. My questions on this is. How many hours at night should i light the chaeto. Is this light OR the little diodes I ordered gonna make crazy nuisance algae growth in the back Second question. I got another 15lbs of old cured purple live rock and it's in a bucket of tank water and a power head and a heater gonna monitor it before putting it in. Today it read .25 ammonia but that might be the prime. I didn't wanna kill anything in there. But it did process 2PPM over night. After adding that rock once it's done. How long should I wait before adding a small fish? and what can I add to a 20 gallon? (It's odd I only added 15 gallons without sand or rock and it was totally full. I don't know why they market it as a 20 gallon) So my questions are. Algae growth. And how many and which fish can I add and how long after adding rock. Currently I have 2 baby clowns. And a bunch of micro hermits. Maybe 4? 5? And one trochus. I think I need more snails later. But gonna wait on snails tanks too clean they'll starve. Hermits are fine they eat the left overs from the fish and the snail is living off the green coralline algae Oh and like 8 pieces of coral. Hammers frogs Xenia GSP. Pipe organ. My original 6lb rock handles them very well. Last I checked ammo trite 0 trate 5. Bonus questions Royal gramma. The purple and yellow. Are they mean? Do they hide all day? I want something with color. That stays under 3" Differences between yellow clown goby and citrinis goby. Any Personality differences? I want one to perch on my frogs/hammers. I had an azure damsel. Never faught with anything. But that was in a 60G. I don't know about this smaller one. Is their a less aggressive damsel that can put up with a female clown when she gets her moods? lol Skunk cleaner shrimp. Again does it hide all day. I don't want more than one. I like the coral banded but I hear they go evil and catch fish and pick at corals. Edited September 17, 2016 by Joshifer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSKN5 September 17, 2016 Share September 17, 2016 Okay two questions in one. First. Chaeto. I have it in the rear of the IM fusion 20. I super glued a little gate kinda thing to the baffle I'm not using and threw a golf sized ball in there. I ordered a small 3 wat 6500k LED on strip eBay. ($1) and a power supply ($1) But while I wait for that. I have a desk lamp with a 5500k daylight LED bulb on a timer to light the chaeto at night. Their is no vinyl on the back it's completely removed and can see into the whole back chamber. My questions on this is. How many hours at night should i light the chaeto. Is this light OR the little diodes I ordered gonna make crazy nuisance algae growth in the back Second question. I got another 15lbs of old cured purple live rock and it's in a bucket of tank water and a power head and a heater gonna monitor it before putting it in. Today it read .25 ammonia but that might be the prime. I didn't wanna kill anything in there. But it did process 2PPM over night. After adding that rock once it's done. How long should I wait before adding a small fish? and what can I add to a 20 gallon? (It's odd I only added 15 gallons without sand or rock and it was totally full. I don't know why they market it as a 20 gallon) So my questions are. Algae growth. And how many and which fish can I add and how long after adding rock. Currently I have 2 baby clowns. And a bunch of micro hermits. Maybe 4? 5? And one trochus. I think I need more snails later. But gonna wait on snails tanks too clean they'll starve. Hermits are fine they eat the left overs from the fish and the snail is living off the green coralline algae Oh and like 8 pieces of coral. Hammers frogs Xenia GSP. Pipe organ. My original 6lb rock handles them very well. Last I checked ammo trite 0 trate 5. Bonus questions Royal gramma. The purple and yellow. Are they mean? Do they hide all day? I want something with color. That stays under 3" Differences between yellow clown goby and citrinis goby. Any Personality differences? I want one to perch on my frogs/hammers. I had an azure damsel. Never faught with anything. But that was in a 60G. I don't know about this smaller one. Is their a less aggressive damsel that can put up with a female clown when she gets her moods? lol Skunk cleaner shrimp. Again does it hide all day. I don't want more than one. I like the coral banded but I hear they go evil and catch fish and pick at corals. Ok let me take a stab at answering all of these questions haha... As for the light, if it shines through the back and into the display it will almost certainly cause algae... if it grows cheato well (which is the point) it will grow nuisance algae well... block the light from the display... I would let the rock sit a couple more days at least.. ideally you don't want to use prime etc.. it should process down to zero ammonia.. as u know ammonia even in small amounts can be deadly... give it some time, shouldn't take long.. Once it's ready and in the tank I would wait a week or so (while testing) and make sure everything settles in (corals, existing fish etc) then consider another fish... As for how many in a 20 gallon... I would say if you select the right fish you could add another 2 (maybe 3 if tiny).. giving you 4 total.. but you will need to stay up on water changes and light feedings to manage nutrients... I would wait another month or so before adding the 4th fish.. Gramma is ok.. very pretty, but they do get larger than I would think that tank can accommodate.. I have seen some huge ones... but they were old... so a small gramma would be ok... they do tend to hide for a while.. and even when settled are somewhat stationary in nature... so that's your call.. No on the damsel... I am not one of those "no damsels in any tank they are all evil" people.. as I have 3 in my 120.. but I did a TON of research.. selected the mildest mannered of them all and added 3... the problem with 1 is they get bored and turn to picking on their tank mates... in a small tank this is multiplied... my 3 chase and bicker with each other, but mostly ignore the other fish... in addition I have observed damsels territory preferences.. especially at night.. my 3 each have an individual rock island they claim each one is a good 1x1 or more space... as u can tell that wouldn't leave much room in a small tank.. Clown gobies are cool.. they just chill all day... don't swim around.. but I like fish like that.. make sure it's eating well as they are known to waste away... the yellow ones are notorious for it... I have a green one it's beautiful with the red lines on its face... Cleaner shrimp is cool... go for it.. mine is out regularly.. hangs in a spot or two but moves around for food.. cleans my arm when im working in tank.. neat critter, good cleanup crew member and low bioload... Here is my advice on fish... it's a small tank, any fish larger than 2" (gramma included) or so is going to look out of place and add too much on bioload... big fish small tank makes tank look small and out of perspective... I decided in my 120 not to add any large fish and I love it.. full of action and movement and looks like a section of the reef.. I would look at adding 2 maybe 3 nano fish... clown goby, masked goby, yashi goby and pistol shrimp, possum wrasse, barnacle blenny, neon goby etc... Hope that helps.. next question? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshifer September 17, 2016 Author Share September 17, 2016 Ok let me take a stab at answering all of these questions haha... As for the light, if it shines through the back and into the display it will almost certainly cause algae... if it grows cheato well (which is the point) it will grow nuisance algae well... block the light from the display... I would let the rock sit a couple more days at least.. ideally you don't want to use prime etc.. it should process down to zero ammonia.. as u know ammonia even in small amounts can be deadly... give it some time, shouldn't take long.. Once it's ready and in the tank I would wait a week or so (while testing) and make sure everything settles in (corals, existing fish etc) then consider another fish... As for how many in a 20 gallon... I would say if you select the right fish you could add another 2 (maybe 3 if tiny).. giving you 4 total.. but you will need to stay up on water changes and light feedings to manage nutrients... I would wait another month or so before adding the 4th fish.. Gramma is ok.. very pretty, but they do get larger than I would think that tank can accommodate.. I have seen some huge ones... but they were old... so a small gramma would be ok... they do tend to hide for a while.. and even when settled are somewhat stationary in nature... so that's your call.. No on the damsel... I am not one of those "no damsels in any tank they are all evil" people.. as I have 3 in my 120.. but I did a TON of research.. selected the mildest mannered of them all and added 3... the problem with 1 is they get bored and turn to picking on their tank mates... in a small tank this is multiplied... my 3 chase and bicker with each other, but mostly ignore the other fish... in addition I have observed damsels territory preferences.. especially at night.. my 3 each have an individual rock island they claim each one is a good 1x1 or more space... as u can tell that wouldn't leave much room in a small tank.. Clown gobies are cool.. they just chill all day... don't swim around.. but I like fish like that.. make sure it's eating well as they are known to waste away... the yellow ones are notorious for it... I have a green one it's beautiful with the red lines on its face... Cleaner shrimp is cool... go for it.. mine is out regularly.. hangs in a spot or two but moves around for food.. cleans my arm when im working in tank.. neat critter, good cleanup crew member and low bioload... Here is my advice on fish... it's a small tank, any fish larger than 2" (gramma included) or so is going to look out of place and add too much on bioload... big fish small tank makes tank look small and out of perspective... I decided in my 120 not to add any large fish and I love it.. full of action and movement and looks like a section of the reef.. I would look at adding 2 maybe 3 nano fish... clown goby, masked goby, yashi goby and pistol shrimp, possum wrasse, barnacle blenny, neon goby etc... Hope that helps.. next question? helped a lot thanks. The prime on the LR I didn't wanna kill hitch hikers from ammonia so I put a little in there. It should be gone by now it's been like 5 days. Gonna pass on the gramma and damsels. Might do a clown goby but I'll ask them to feed it first see if it eats and a skunk cleaner for color. And that's it. I didn't wanna add more fish that's more nutrients. But the two clowns. tank looks empty. Even tho their everywhere they don't host anything. They look more like fish food then fish their very tiny. I think she accidently got stubbys (the clowns were a birthday gift it so happened cycle finished a few days before my birthday) and they been doing great since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSKN5 September 17, 2016 Share September 17, 2016 Well the clown goby won't really help with the empty tank issue.. you will have to look to see him as they don't swim around.. look at the masked gobies... awesome little fish.. stay in the water column Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshifer September 17, 2016 Author Share September 17, 2016 (edited) Well the clown goby won't really help with the empty tank issue.. you will have to look to see him as they don't swim around.. look at the masked gobies... awesome little fish.. stay in the water column Looked at those don't care for them too much. What about a fire fish? The regular $12 ones. Or do those hide a lot too. Just want something to hang out in the center Edited September 17, 2016 by Joshifer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSKN5 September 17, 2016 Share September 17, 2016 Firefish would be ok... i like em Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshifer September 17, 2016 Author Share September 17, 2016 (edited) Firefish would be ok... i like em Fire fish and clown goby it is. Thanks. Ya think I can add the skunk cleaner now with the existing rock or wait for the new rock? Sorry for all the questions just don't wanna mess anything up. Edited September 17, 2016 by Joshifer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshifer September 17, 2016 Author Share September 17, 2016 As for the light. Dollar tree has black vinyl contact paper self adhesive. I can cover it all and just leave enough space for the LED to hit the chaeto in the baffle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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