20 Gallon Saltwater Nano Reef Tank

Wow where have I been. Yayy you came to saltwater. I love how there's like 5 people on this forum (I know there's more) that know everything about salty tanks and when people make the switch they all come rushing like yessss....another victim...let me aid them on this path to a beautiful tank and an empty wallet.
This is obviously a joke...love all the help I've gotten from you guys.

 

Very pretty clowns. Never seen that type b4.

 

Skimmer installed.

 

Skimmer filled half way with “yellowish” tinted water after first 72 hrs. I think it’s working! Also started seeing small spots of algae that look possibly “orange-ish” possibly the start of Coraline? Maybe?

 

It'll take several days for the skimmer to be working optimally. Good to hear you have some already! It's gotta get that good slime coat in the body and then it'll really start rocking. If it's pulling water now, you may want to raise the cup up, ever so slightly, so you get a drier foam at the top of the neck. Just a suggestion - don't want you to get home from work and have yellow water all over your floor!

 

Starting to get more coralline algae growth! That picture was taken in regular sunlight also.

 

Update: added a frag pack with some LPS. Added three hammers. Been changing water every other week and doing top offs daily. Feeding once a day everyday. Fish get a marine cube with a mixture of different things as well as mysis because I can easily add that to the hammers diet as well when feeding. Also feed benereef to the corals every other day. Still learning A LOT from this tank and everyday is another step. Added a skunk cleaner shrimp a little over a week ago and it has been doing fun and even comes to the end of the tank for feeding time! (Which is at 6 when I get home from work) lol you should see these guys trying to jump out of the water! Maybe I will try to get a good picture or video one evening! Shrimp will literally reach into the long pipet and pull pieces of shrimp out if I hold it still enough! Didn’t think it would be that brave but learn something new everyday!

 

The 40$ skrimp lol can’t believe I paid that for it! Hopefully I get a full two years out of it or at least one in a half! Lol it’s a biggun though!

 

I had one for two years, my brother had it a year before I did, and I sold it to someone else...they can live a while! Mine eventually got brave enough to give me a manicure. He'd crawl right onto my hand and pick at my cuticles. You'll love him. They are worth every penny.

 

I had one for two years, my brother had it a year before I did, and I sold it to someone else...they can live a while! Mine eventually got brave enough to give me a manicure. He'd crawl right onto my hand and pick at my cuticles. You'll love him. They are worth every penny.

I really hope so! That’s so cool! The girlfriend was skeptical at first but once she saw him aggressively stealing the food straight from the tube she was hooked! Lol

 

Update: some hair algae started to grow so going to be taking care of that soon. Other than that corals are all doing fine. Nothing special a few hammers and zoas and some others I’ll have to list. Everything still small frags but growing. Added an emerald crab last week. He stays hidden for the most part. Clowns and damsel are doing great. Skunk cleaner doing good as well. Here’s a shot of the tank with some natural light.

 

Green is the last stage before the purple algae really gets a hold and starts going. You're doing great. I love your rock scape too!

 

My red tuxedo urchin doing a little cleaning today! Video credits to my amazing girlfriend who I’ve sickened into enjoying the hobby almost as much as I do! Bless her heart!

 

with all his lil tubefeet everywhere an' poopin' out the top of hims head. Love them so much.

 

with all his lil tubefeet everywhere an' poopin' out the top of hims head. Love them so much.

I knowwwww!!! So wild seeing all those little tentacles floating around! So interesting how they use them to scale any surface touchable! Definitely the highlight of my clean up crew!!

 

Some shots of the 20 reef.