Hey, I've had a 20g long tank since early october, kept it at my girlfriends house then moved it to my house on christmas eve. Partially restarted the tank cycle and killed the goby I got for it. Amonia and nitrates were toward the higher end (.5 and 10-20ppm respectively) and amonia has gone down. Havent tested for nitrates in a couple of weeks, but everything seems to be healthy. been doing about 4 or 5 gallon water changeouts weekly or every 2 weeks at the latest. Current setup:
Aqueon quietflow 30
Sicce Voyager Nano 1000
Aqueon cover w/light (fresh water rated, we'll see how long till it rusts out...)
Aqueon under rim 8" light, blue
3 decent chunks of liverock, small piece of coquina I picked up at the beach and several pieces of rock piled together
Random decor my girfriend put in the tank
Carabsea Arag-alive course aragonite
Thin stripe hermit crab we picked up on the intercoastal (reason we started this whole thing)
Mocha clown from LFS
Emerald crab from LFS
A couple of things I need ID'd:
Little sea flea looking things (amphipods?)
Tiny white specs swimming around (when I turn off current for feeding I see them zooming around)
Brown algae growing on the wall under the blue light on the side
Currently feeding twice per day, probably not the most nutritious but I'm trying to learn while being busy. I have:
Frozen mysis (LFS said to feed to clownfish every other day but have not had luck with him eating it, and they float so not certain how to feed properly)
Hikari marine pellets (what I feed the clownfish)
Aqeuon sinking shrimp pellets (for crabs, think it's for fresh water but they eat it right up)
Omega one freeze dried blood worms (for crabs, but they float so not certain how to feed them)
Tetra tetramin tropical flakes (to experiment with clownfish, he wouldn't touch them)
Definitely need help learning how to feed properly and have a healthy but not too involved diet for the creatures, having a lot of trouble with things just floating. Would a turkey baster help with more targeted feeding?
I currently have a aquaclear 50 HOB filter on the way that I am going to convert into a refugium. I think I'm going to put red ogo in since most people said it can double as food for herbivores and I plan on getting some one day. Hopefully the creatures that showed up are copepods and/or amphipods since those are apparently a really good sign. I was also considering getting a small protein skimmer as I think the top of my water is getting a little oily. The guys on another forum said to point the voyager nano at the surface to help with oxygen exchange so I did that. My SP has been around .022 or .023 And they said to bump it up to .024 minimum so I plan on doing that with this weekend's water changeout. I would like to start coral at some point soon, but I know the tank has to fully cycle and mature, so looking for thoughts on what should be present before attempting that. I do not believe I have any coralline in the tank except maybe on one rock that came out of the LFS tank.
Any thoughts or tips? Answers to my questions?
Pictures in a second
Aqueon quietflow 30
Sicce Voyager Nano 1000
Aqueon cover w/light (fresh water rated, we'll see how long till it rusts out...)
Aqueon under rim 8" light, blue
3 decent chunks of liverock, small piece of coquina I picked up at the beach and several pieces of rock piled together
Random decor my girfriend put in the tank
Carabsea Arag-alive course aragonite
Thin stripe hermit crab we picked up on the intercoastal (reason we started this whole thing)
Mocha clown from LFS
Emerald crab from LFS
A couple of things I need ID'd:
Little sea flea looking things (amphipods?)
Tiny white specs swimming around (when I turn off current for feeding I see them zooming around)
Brown algae growing on the wall under the blue light on the side
Currently feeding twice per day, probably not the most nutritious but I'm trying to learn while being busy. I have:
Frozen mysis (LFS said to feed to clownfish every other day but have not had luck with him eating it, and they float so not certain how to feed properly)
Hikari marine pellets (what I feed the clownfish)
Aqeuon sinking shrimp pellets (for crabs, think it's for fresh water but they eat it right up)
Omega one freeze dried blood worms (for crabs, but they float so not certain how to feed them)
Tetra tetramin tropical flakes (to experiment with clownfish, he wouldn't touch them)
Definitely need help learning how to feed properly and have a healthy but not too involved diet for the creatures, having a lot of trouble with things just floating. Would a turkey baster help with more targeted feeding?
I currently have a aquaclear 50 HOB filter on the way that I am going to convert into a refugium. I think I'm going to put red ogo in since most people said it can double as food for herbivores and I plan on getting some one day. Hopefully the creatures that showed up are copepods and/or amphipods since those are apparently a really good sign. I was also considering getting a small protein skimmer as I think the top of my water is getting a little oily. The guys on another forum said to point the voyager nano at the surface to help with oxygen exchange so I did that. My SP has been around .022 or .023 And they said to bump it up to .024 minimum so I plan on doing that with this weekend's water changeout. I would like to start coral at some point soon, but I know the tank has to fully cycle and mature, so looking for thoughts on what should be present before attempting that. I do not believe I have any coralline in the tank except maybe on one rock that came out of the LFS tank.
Any thoughts or tips? Answers to my questions?
Pictures in a second
