Justreefinit's 1st Reef Tank (20G)

[justreefinit]

Hello fellow reefers,

I'm new to the reefing community. I posted for the first time last week about the start to my reefing journey. With the help of my friend (Honestly couldn't have done this without him) I finished cycling my tank and just added clownfish and 3 corals. My tank is 20 gallons and it has more height than depth. I used 15 lbs of wet live rock from a LFS and my tank cycled in no time. I'm using a cheap light which I intend on buying either a kessil blue tuna A80, Nicrew 30, or an AI Prime 16 HD (I also have to take into account that I need to step up the filtration so I might have to spend less in one of the two areas). I have an Aquaclear 20 with a sponge an bio balls. I for sure need to step this part of my tank up. I don't really have the space for a sump so I'm leaning towards a hang on refugium. If y'all have any thoughts please toss them my way. Anything helps.

My levels are good pH 8.0, ammonia 0ppm, nitrites 2ppm, and nitrates 10ppm. I don't have the proper testing supplies for Ca, Mg, or Phosphate yet. That is another thing to pick up on my list.

Current occupants in the tank as of yesterday:
- 1 Clownfish (Ocellaris)
- 1 Green Mushroom
- 1 GSP
-1 Greenbay Packers zoa (ironic cause I hate the Packers lol)

I need to pick up some snails and crabs in the near future.

Also, I'm big into 3D printing so I'm stoked to be able to merge these two hobbies of mine.

Today is day 2 with the new inhabitants. I can't wait to get a proper light so they can truly start to grow. Thank you all for sharing this journey with me!

Justreefinit

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[boacvh]

welcome to our addiction! Look forward to lots of pics!

 

[Karen00]

Very nice! I look forward to seeing your tank grow out. I had a cheap black box light and my corals hated it. I picked up a used AI Prime and my corals love it. I learned that good quality lighting is very important.

 

[justreefinit]

Hey y'all,

Just tossing an update about my tank. I allocated some money towards a new light, a refugium, and I'm considering a Wavemaker. I bought a Nicrew 30w light for the tank and its working beautifully so far. It's perfect for my current set up and I can tell the corals love it so far. I have it on a duel controller with light recommendations for my buddy. I started it off with 5% white light for 5 hours a day with 50% blue for 12 hours. I'm doing my research into scaling up the percentages over time.

I just purchased a Fiji box HOB refugium that will be coming in next Wednesday and I am stoked for that. The only issue is that algae barn is sold out of chateo and it seems to be constantly sold out. I'm worried about using other types of Macroalgae based on what I've heard on other posts especially the sexual phase of other types of Macroalgae. So if you have any trusted sources for Chateo besides algae barn please pass it along.

Finally, I'm looking into a wave maker for my tank. It's only 20 gallons so something in the 600-800 gph range would be suitable. That being said I've been told time and time again to keep in mind scaling up in the future which is definitely going to happen. So if you have any recommendations on wave makers that won't require an arm and a leg please let me know.