Finally taking the plunge into saltwater

Okay, so I have a fair amount of experience keeping freshwater planted tanks with fish like rams, apisos, angelfish, rainbow fish and so on. I am finally getting ready to try salt water. I am limited to a 20 gallon tank and want something fairly easy to care for. I have a fluval g3 for the filter a cobalt neotherm heater and a coralife light fixture to run on the tank. I need some help getting going tho and what to get. I was thinking something like a large piece of live rock, Xenia pulsing coral (grows like a weed from my understanding and that perfect). However I need help with stock (fish, inverts, other corals), additional equipment, lighting, perimeters to maintain, what kind of substrate, and what kind of salt to get. I use RO water so that needs to be factored in, meaning I need to know what buffers to use. All live stock will need to be easy care. Thanks for any help!

 

I'm not sure what salt to use but you can have a clownfish and 2 clown goby.t here's two types of clownfish that can be kept in tanks under 30 gallons I will find the names.for the substrate there's sand that's for saltwater aquariums.

 

Our go to substrate is the CaribSea Arag-Alive FijI Pink (good grain size), and we use Coralife salt. Coralife is considered a 'budget' salt mix, but we keep softies, LPS, and SPS with it.

Depending on your coral load, you may be able to maintain calcium/alkalinity/magnesium/trace element levels with water changes, but you will need to test to determine that.

You could keep a clown pair and a small goby. Or you could keep a firefish, possom wrasse, and a small goby. There actually are a lot of choices for a 20 gallon tank : (look for minimum tank size of 20g). You could also keep a cleaner shrimp or a fire shrimp in there too. I would recommend a cleaner shrimp of the two as they are out a lot and fun to watch.

 

With the salt mixes do I just add those to the ro water or do I also need to add buffers? Also I'm not on a super tight budget so what's a good salt mix?

 

I have had bad luck with firefish you can try them but mine usually disappear after a month

You don't need to worry about buffers I've had my tank for 11 years and I've added nothing to it and it's fine

 

Do you use ro water tho?

 

Yes I do.it helps keep the salinity from getting to high,without it probably everything would die.

 

KISS. Keep it simple stupid. That's what I would advise.

20gal tank, use plain Instant Ocean salt. Mix that into RO water and that should be all you need to add. Do regular water changes (plan on once a week and adjust accordingly?) to export nutrients and replenish the good stuff. Run your filter bare (or at the very least clean it every WC), or get an HOB filter. I don't want you creating any nitrate traps in a canister filter. I don't like them personally for this reason, some people have no issues...read up and decide yourself! So IMO run it bare just to act as like a powerhead pushing water. I'd still get another small powerhead for the tank though. Water movement is critical in SW.

I think you are right on the money stock wise. Again KISS. Xenia, Green star polyps, mushrooms, leathers, and zoanthids/palythoa are all easy to keep and would make a pretty attractive softie tank. A pair of clowns would work well for your tank, go to choice IMO. Underrated fish even being so common. Add a small goby or blenny if you want.

 

Could he have a pistol shrimp and a watchman goby?

 

KISS. Keep it simple stupid. That's what I would advise.

20gal tank, use plain Instant Ocean salt. Mix that into RO water and that should be all you need to add. Do regular water changes (plan on once a week and adjust accordingly?) to export nutrients and replenish the good stuff. Run your filter bare (or at the very least clean it every WC), or get an HOB filter. I don't want you creating any nitrate traps in a canister filter. I don't like them personally for this reason, some people have no issues...read up and decide yourself! So IMO run it bare just to act as like a powerhead pushing water. I'd still get another small powerhead for the tank though. Water movement is critical in SW.

I think you are right on the money stock wise. Again KISS. Xenia, Green star polyps, mushrooms, leathers, and zoanthids/palythoa are all easy to keep and would make a pretty attractive softie tank. A pair of clowns would work well for your tank, go to choice IMO. Underrated fish even being so common. Add a small goby or blenny if you want.

So I already own the g3 so id like to use it. Currently its set up for freshwater ie it has mechanical media and then is packed with bio pellets and then a carbon block, what would you advise for salt? the g3 has a lot of cartridges available for it like phospho ban and other things. Also what about lighting? I have a 23" coralife dual bulb fixture but what bulbs should I put in it?

Also what about other inverts/ Clean up crew? in the way of snails, shrimp, crabs, starfish ect?

Currently for fish I'm thinking a clown pair, a firefish, and a goby of some sort. Would that work?

 

Halloween crabs are cool so are electric blue crabs.turbo snails are good at cleaning alega.I think rhe clownfish and some type of goby sounds good,mabye a neon or clown goby.

 

As far as I'm aware Halloween crabs are land crabs so wouldn't be suitable as they need access to land to burrow, red or blue legged hermits would be good though.
Although I no longer have a salty tank, I still have a soft spot for clown gobys.
This was Godfrey, he was quite a character




Btw pulsing Xenia does grow like a weed & will take over the tank if you don't thin it out regularly.

 

As far as I'm aware Halloween crabs are land crabs so wouldn't be suitable as they need access to land to burrow, red or blue legged hermits would be good though.
Although I no longer have a salty tank, I still have a soft spot for clown gobys.
This was Godfrey, he was quite a character

View attachment 196916

Btw pulsing Xenia does grow like a weed & will take over the tank if you don't thin it out regularly.

did you order your clown goby or get it from you LFS? there's terrestrial and aquatic Halloween crabs I was suggesting the aquatic one.

 

So I already own the g3 so id like to use it. Currently its set up for freshwater ie it has mechanical media and then is packed with bio pellets and then a carbon block, what would you advise for salt? the g3 has a lot of cartridges available for it like phospho ban and other things. Also what about lighting? I have a 23" coralife dual bulb fixture but what bulbs should I put in it?

Also what about other inverts/ Clean up crew? in the way of snails, shrimp, crabs, starfish ect?

Currently for fish I'm thinking a clown pair, a firefish, and a goby of some sort. Would that work?

Canister filters are fine as long as you clean them regularly. I don't know how many cartridges you can put in that filter, but I would at least run bio pellets and carbon. Running phosban is probably not a bad idea and shouldn't hurt anything, but I would be inclined to wait and test what the levels are in your system.

For cleanup crew, my favorite snails are ceriths, nerite and banded trochus snails. I would be hesitant to put a turbo snail in a small tank due to IME there not being enough food. Banded trochus are awesome because they can usually right themselves without assistance!

If you want hermit crab, the least aggrsesive (least likely to kill the snails) IME are scarlet leg hermit crabs. I would stay away from zebra legged hermit crabs, also known as left handed hermit crabs, as they get large enough to fit in big turbo shells and can be snail killing machines. I had to remove all of these from our big reef as they wiped out the snails... We still have one though in its own specimen tanks. It is over 6 years old now! Blue legged hermit crabs stay small and many people do not have problems with them so that is another option. Although electric leg hermit crabs get fairly sizable, they are supposed to be herbivores so those are a good choice too.

As far as starfish, the ones I have had survive the longest are serpent stars. They don't tend to be out often but are extremely cool and should be OK in your tank as long as you keep the nitrates down. Brittle stars are fairly hearty to, but avoid the green ones as they are known fish killers. I do not think there is enough food available in small systems for something like a fromia and would avoid those.

Crabs tend to go after fish once they get a certain size. IMO the safest ones are emerald crabs if you have to have one.

You could keep a fire shrimp or a cleaner shrimp but I would not keep both.

Your stocking list looks good, but as the clownfish mature they often become more territorial. If they start picking on the firefish you may have to remove him, and if you didn't know have a tight fitting lid for firefish and gobies as they are expert carpet surfers!

Good luck with your system! Are you planning on having a protein skimmer too?

 

Would you recommend a skimmer in a system like this? Also what wattage per gallon of light should I target?

Currently I'm thinking for stock:

2x clowns
1x firefish
1x clown goby
1x cleaner shrimp/emerald crab (both possibly??)
#x Banded trochus (how many should I get?)

Coral:

Xeina
GSP
Orange Green Zoa

 

Would you recommend a skimmer in a system like this? Also what wattage per gallon of light should I target?

Currently I'm thinking for stock:

2x clowns
1x firefish
1x clown goby
1x cleaner shrimp/emerald crab (both possibly??)
#x Banded trochus (how many should I get?)

Coral:

Xeina
GSP
Orange Green Zoa

you might be over stocked

 

I thought 2 clowns a goby and a firefish was okay?

 

I think just the clowns and the goby.

 

I think just the clowns and the goby.

Okay then how many snails should I get and can I have both the shrimp and crab?

Also I hate to nag this question but it has yet to be answered, what should I do for lighting, I have a 24" coralife dual bulb fixture I just need to know what kind of bulb to run and wattage.

 

The crabs might kill the snails,do one or tue other.I use a florescent bulb and I think you need 2watts per gallon.

 

Okay then how many snails should I get and can I have both the shrimp and crab? .

IMO you can get both the emerald crab and the shrimp, but you will really need to watch nitrates as inverts are a lot more sensitive than fish. Also the crab may go after the snails but he may not... is the benefit worth the risk to you?

IMO I would get 3 banded trochus snails total.

A protein skimmer is never a bad idea as long as you can manage to fit one without micro bubble issues. Without one, you will need to do more frequent water changes. The frequency will depend on what your tests tell you.

Also I hate to nag this question but it has yet to be answered, what should I do for lighting, I have a 24" coralife dual bulb fixture I just need to know what kind of bulb to run and wattage.

If you are talking about a t5 fixture, you don't have a choice for wattage as bulbs for a 24" fixture are 24 watts. There are LOTS of bulb choices, but if you are wanting lots of growth, I would get one 10k color temperature and maybe one ATI Aquablue Plus for some nice fluorescence. You could probably get away with 2 Aquablue Plus if you want a lot of fluorescence.

Watts per gallon is a really hard rule to guage especially with LED fixtures coming out... kind of like lbs of live rock per gallon. It depends. How deep is your tank? Do you have a glass lid? What type of corals do you want? etc. And you already have a fixture you want to use so these questions are immaterial at this point.

 

It a standard 20 gallon long so not very deep, the lid is glass, and I have no idea how much live rock to put in. I want to keep it simple so I was thinking 1-2 big pieces. As far as corals go its just what I listed above.