20Long Build - Going With The Flow

[dndlyon]

A little thread to document my little tank.

I filled a 20 gal long with saltwater about 2 weeks ago...maybe 3...not sure when actually. I just thought a glass box of saltwater might be cheerful.

I modified an AquaClear 70 to act as a HOB (hang on the back) refugium / place to grow macroalgae.

It's actually a HOS (hang on the side) because I like the view better.

I seriously have no plan for this tank, and no timeline. I'm just here for the dopamine.

About a week ago, I added 20 lbs of Caribsea fiji pink sand (cloudy, cloudy, cloudy for a while) and then a few pieces of live rock.

Let's take a brief aside here...this may be the saltwater equivalent of 'get off my lawn', so hang with me for a sec

My live rocks were actually dry...and pretty 'dead'. The last time I had tanks, we only called wet live rock, 'live rock', and now we have live rock and life rock and...skimmers are so small now!!! My how some things have changed!

I knew what I was buying, btw, just surprised to hear it called 'live'.

Back to our regularly scheduled build...

As soon as my test kits arrived, I dosed some ammonia, overdosed, actually.

Who knew that dosing 4 drops per gallon as directed on the Dr Tim's ammonia package would blow out my ammonia levels?

Oh, yeah, a lot of you did. I read about it after I did it. I should have taken your advice before I read it.

I dosed enough for an 8 gallon tank, and after a 4 gallon water change, my ammonia hit the sweet spot of detectable, but not off the charts. Man, Am I good at water changes!

(Nope...made some Big Spills...highly recomend overdosing ammonia so you can practice your water change skills without fish looking at you in a mostly judgemental way)

This morning, I finally tested nitrate and nitrite and...drum roll please!

We have pink in both tubes!

So, I'll just be playing with my test kits for the next few weeks waiting to grow enough algae to feed a growing clean up crew.

I'll also be thinking about ways to cut this stock lid without breaking it because I'm cheap and I like to repurpose things.

Here are a few pics...boring compared to a lot of tanks, but the current view of my glass box brings me great joy.

 

[TX_REEF]

Welcome back and enjoy the ride! My last tank 10 years ago in college was a 20 long with a 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for a sump, great fun it was

 

[dndlyon]

Welcome back and enjoy the ride! My last tank 10 years ago in college was a 20 long with a 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for a sump, great fun it was

Thanks! I love a giant rubbermaid sump under a nano tank! I will probably add one here eventually, but I rent and I need to make sure the landlord is ok with that much water just sitting around.

 

[VintageReefer]

Landlord Schmandlord lol

A 20 long is a great platform. I got a guy that does custom lids - for reference…to get a 100% custom lid set, custom cutouts to my spec, covered feeding ports etc for my 75g it’s costing me 80$ Sooooo I wouldn’t think it would be too much for your 20 long if you wanted one. Pm me if you are interested and want a link

Edit - looked it up - 55$ for custom lid for 20g long. Here’s a sample pic. He can customize and put the door on the short side instead of long side and accommodate your side mounted fuge however you want

 

[VintageReefer]

The biggest advancement I would have to say is lighting. Led has come such a far way and prices have dropped. 100-150 can get a fantastic light for that tank

 

[dndlyon]

Landlord Schmandlord lol

A 20 long is a great platform. I got a guy that does custom lids - for reference…to get a 100% custom lid set, custom cutouts to my spec, covered feeding ports etc for my 75g it’s costing me 80$ Sooooo I wouldn’t think it would be too much for your 20 long if you wanted one. Pm me if you are interested and want a link

Edit - looked it up - 55$ for custom lid for 20g long. Here’s a sample pic. He can customize and put the door on the short side instead of long side and accommodate your side mounted fuge however you want

Thank so much! I'd love their contact info! I'm dragging my feet a bit on the cover as I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the tank, so not sure what lighting I'll end up with.

I'll be using an older set up that I had on a planted FW tank. Was overkill for those plants, so might get me by for a bit.

Thanks for the information!

 

[dndlyon]

The biggest advancement I would have to say is lighting. Led has come such a far way and prices have dropped. 100-150 can get a fantastic light for that tank

I got out when we were all still trying to build our own canopies for metal halide ballasts because you needed a second mortgage to light (and then cool) your tank.

At the end of the day, lighting prices drove me out, and they are the reason I decided to come back...lower lighting prices and a bit of seasonal depression, and viola! I'm back to looking at putting saltwater in everything in the house that won't leak!

 

[dndlyon]

Just a few pics of my very own marine snow to end this thread for 2023.

Ok, it's not technically snow - most likely a microbe film on my glass that I disturbed during a water change today.

Almost 1 month with lights off...hard not to feed the tank heavy and turn the lights on so the algae bloom can feed some inverts...kind of boring in there at the moment!

Pretty stable micro population (at least for now). I'm dosing ammonia regularly and it is converting pretty rapidly.

Just need more surface area as the tank is still pretty bare.

And...still not sure what is going to live here yet.

Happy New Year!