My First Salty Build! 20g Long

[reeferfoxx]

FWIW I went to pick up some Astrea snails from my LFS the other day. Didn't notice till I got home that pyramid snails were latched on. When buying snails from a LFS, look to see if they have tiny white snails latched on underneath the snail. These are parasites. They suck the blood out of the snail. They will continue to do so. The eggs hatch every 90 days.



I was already battling this in my old tank, so I just stuck them in there for my 6 line wrasse to eat.

Make sure you observe and get from a trusted source.

 

[Evan West]

They, like turbo snails, like green algae. If they are available in your area, i would get those instead of turbos. Or get at least one turbo. turbos are like Dyson vacuum cleaners. They get the job done. However, they knock everything over like elephants. Again, i would wait till after the diatom bloom, as they like a more established tank.

Lucky for me I do have them available to me!

 

[Evan West]

Small update today. I have started keeping a log book of tank parameters and any new observations I make and picked up another power head to mix salt water with. They cycle is coming along well and my efforts to speed up the cycle a bit seem to have worked as I have seen no ammonia spike, a very small rise and fall of nitrate and then a steady rise of nitrites since. While not pictured (Pictures from last Friday) I also seem to have allredy entered the diatom phase of the cycle. Time to get my CUC and let the rest of the cycle complete in the next few weeks. I have also noticed in addition to the multitude of feather dusters I have as hitchhikers, I have a few bristle worms and some asterina starfish.

 

[brandon4432]

Love seeing new setups!!! Curious to see how the G3 works for you. I have a small SPS dominated mixed reef( Kessil lighting like yours!) running in my bedroom aimed at being at quiet as possible. Currently running a old canister but have contemplated updating to a G3. All my other systems have sumps but for simplicity and quietness canisters work good if you only use chemical and mechanical media. I too know how it is to be a full time student while maintaining reefs! Anyways you may want to purchase some shades on that window, nuisance algae will come down the road otherwise

 

[Evan West]

Love seeing new setups!!! Curious to see how the G3 works for you. I have a small SPS dominated mixed reef( Kessil lighting like yours!) running in my bedroom aimed at being at quiet as possible. Currently running a old canister but have contemplated updating to a G3. All my other systems have sumps but for simplicity and quietness canisters work good if you only use chemical and mechanical media. I too know how it is to be a full time student while maintaining reefs! Anyways you may want to purchase some shades on that window, nuisance algae will come down the road otherwise

While not pictured I do have window blinds, but thanks for the suggestion! As far as the G3 goes I love it! Ive had it for a year running on freshwater and just put it on this tank when I started it. As far as saltwater use goes the incredible ease of cleaning the mechanical filter, its near silent operation and its ability to remind you to clean the filter make it IMO the best canister for salt as its super easy to avoid the detritus sink issue. Its plenty powerful in my 20L to serve as a power head as well so it means I only need one more small power head on the other end of the tank. The bio media baskets are large and can potentially hold media bags for additional chemical filtration or you can run live rock rubble like I do, I just have the filter set to remind me to swish it in water to clean the detritus off once a month,

 

[brandon4432]

While not pictured I do have window blinds, but thanks for the suggestion! As far as the G3 goes I love it! Ive had it for a year running on freshwater and just put it on this tank when I started it. As far as saltwater use goes the incredible ease of cleaning the mechanical filter, its near silent operation and its ability to remind you to clean the filter make it IMO the best canister for salt as its super easy to avoid the detritus sink issue. Its plenty powerful in my 20L to serve as a power head as well so it means I only need one more small power head on the other end of the tank. The bio media baskets are large and can potentially hold media bags for additional chemical filtration or you can run live rock rubble like I do, I just have the filter set to remind me to swish it in water to clean the detritus off once a month,

Perfect!!!

 

[brandon4432]

Oh also, in terms of flow. Your canister plus that pump should be sufficient BUT down the road when you start getting corals your going to want to have it more customizable and strong. I would suggest purchasing two Koralia Nano 420's and a control module! You won't regret it! Or a single Ecotech Vortech MP10 Quiet Drive. I have my eyes out for one of these punks right now

 

[Evan West]

Oh also, in terms of flow. Your canister plus that pump should be sufficient BUT down the road when you start getting corals your going to want to have it more customizable and strong. I would suggest purchasing two Koralia Nano 420's and a control module! You won't regret it! Or a single Ecotech Vortech MP10 Quiet Drive. I have my eyes out for one of these punks right now

The rest of my budget is reserved for fish and corals so it will have to due for now, tho observing the flow in the tank I think it will be fine for now. My birthday is coming up in a few months tho so

 

[brandon4432]

The rest of my budget is reserved for fish and corals so it will have to due for now, tho observing the flow in the tank I think it will be fine for now. My birthday is coming up in a few months tho so

Totally understand! Although remember that saltwater tanks require ALOT more flow than freshwater. Anyways go buy some fish and some corals when the tanks ready! The pumps can wait, but when you do get some nice ones!

 

[Evan West]

Totally understand! Although remember that saltwater tanks require ALOT more flow than freshwater. Anyways go buy some fish and some corals when the tanks ready! The pumps can wait, but when you do get some nice ones!

Currently I have bee oogling over the Ecotech MP10QD and the Tunze Nanostream 6040

 

[Evan West]

Well Todays update features a hermit crab and a trochus snail (of witch there are now 5 total in the tank). Also pictured is an asterina star and some feather dusters that came in as hitchhikers. Its hard to see in all but one picture but I have entered the diatom stage of the cycle. I do also appear to have some coraline algae growth so thats cool.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Another option for flow is two Jebao RW/PP-4's with Aqualink S1 controllers. You can set schedules for one pump then the other. It's a way to mimic tides. I'm getting my second S1 soon just to have intermittent flow. One pump will flow for 2 minutes then the other.

 

[brandon4432]

Currently I have bee oogling over the Ecotech MP10QD and the Tunze Nanostream 6040

Same man[emoji23]

 

[brandon4432]

Well Todays update features a hermit crab and a trochus snail (of witch there are now 5 total in the tank). Also pictured is an asterina star and some feather dusters that came in as hitchhikers. Its hard to see in all but one picture but I have entered the diatom stage of the cycle. I do also appear to have some coraline algae growth so thats cool.

Get rid of the starfish!! They overpopulated your tank and most likely eat Zoanthids and other corals when you add them.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Get rid of the starfish!! They overpopulated your tank and most likely eat Zoanthids and other corals when you add them.

Depends on the asterina. Most just eat coralline algae.

 

[brandon4432]

Depends on the asterina. Most just eat coralline algae.

Correct. But there is no way of identifying which ones are which.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Correct. But there is no way of identifying which ones are which.

True. However, the very very few that have encountered carnivore asterina say they are the darkest in color. That has yet to be proven, as it's not widely observed. His chances of having those are very slim. None the less, harlequin shrimp eat them.

 

[rebekwl]

Looks like it's coming along nicely!

 

[Evan West]

Get rid of the starfish!! They overpopulated your tank and most likely eat Zoanthids and other corals when you add them.

True. However, the very very few that have encountered carnivore asterina say they are the darkest in color. That has yet to be proven, as it's not widely observed. His chances of having those are very slim. None the less, harlequin shrimp eat them.

Well ill keep an eye on them as I suspect manual removal is gonna be hard so if they become an issue ill look into some shrimp. I value good coralline coverage more than those stars so they might need to go due to that but we will see.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Well ill keep an eye on them as I suspect manual removal is gonna be hard so if they become an issue ill look into some shrimp.

If my tank wasnt already infected with bryopsis, monti eating nudi, pyramid snails, aiptasia, and vermitide snails, I would have bought the shrimp for a few months.