iDad's 20 Gallon Long FOWLR Tank

Alright, so I keep seeing people post there tanks when they set them up so I thought I would do one as well. Also to help get some pointers.

As I mentioned in my intro thread, my wife wanted to get my son a clownfish for his first birthday since he enjoys finding nemo so much. So we picked up a 10 gallon tank and set it up. I have had the tank for going on two months or so far everything seems to be successful. The PH stays at 8.0 ppm and the Ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites have consistently been Zero, I have been pretty blessed so far with my first tank.

This is it.


I have one clownfish, 10 Turbo Snails, 10 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs, and 2 Peppermint Shrimp.

Hey Nemo!


I bought a 20 gallon long tank about a month after this one and I have finally gotten around to setting it up.

This is the new tank....


I got called into work before I could take a picture but I have put all of the live rocks into the tank, water heaters, HOB filter, and now my wife is taking over on transfering Nemo into the new tank.

Question, the lights I have now are hellaciously bright. They are the T5 Coral Sun, and Ocean Sun lights I picked up from Petco. Are there any other alternatives that are better? I see some tanks have a pretty blue light in theres. Also, with you guys knowing what I have in my tank, can you give me any suggestions on any other fish I could put in my tank, I know I can only put maybe one other one in this tank (IF maybe even that) But I would like to know nonetheless.

But thats my tank so far, when I get home I will take some pictures and hopefully everything is in there by the time I get back.

My son, Stiles.

Another clownfish would be all right. As long as there is a noticeable size difference between the two, they should form a bond and become best buddies. Best of luck too ya! :)

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Terry,
Nice start. You have a very wide option with fish and almost limitless with corals. For light, most use 2x10,000 or 12,000 K, referring to Kelvin, and 2x420 or 460 nm actinic (which are blue and blue-violet, respectively.) The Kelvin bulbs start at 3500, which is really yellow, to 6500 at natural (think warm white) daylight, 8500 is considered reef sun, 10,000-12,000 are cool (blues mixed in) white, preferred, all the way to 14, 16 and 20,000° K, which are (you guessed it!) blue, bluer and bluest! Okay, theyre not exactly "blue", but the hotter you get (again, read in "degrees Kelvin, referring to the Sun's surface temperature), you will definitely notice the blues becoming more pronounced, as you stated.

As for better quality, almost any T5 lights in the $175+ range should be great for any coral you could want. LED's are considered even beter by many, but being new technology, youll pay the price for brand name. Look up ReefBreeders and chat with them. Mitch has 2 and they look promising at $175 each. His are over a 125, if I remember, so you would need one; which would be a great way to do a reef dropoff setup with sps on one side, slightly lowering the sand level and blending to lps and then softies. Or sps dead center and lps on the edges. Or even better, whatever you want! (Just trying to help)

Whatever you choose to do, good luck and take it slow. Good things dont happen over night, only bad things. But you did pick the best place to come for help; plenty of great people to assist you and answer questions.

I finally got everything moved into the tank and positioned to where I want it. Tell me what you guys think!

Looks good!

I'm glad you took those fake plants out. They don't usually hold up too well in saltwater tanks.

Ha, yeah I know what you mean. Those didn't do too bad, I just had a big empty space on that side of the tank and wanted something to fill it up.

But I do agree

They're just not made to stand up to how caustic saltwater is (compared to fresh). They usually end up leeching all kinds of terrible things into the water.

oh.....good to know, thanks

Looks good, bud. Keep up the good work :)

what about some mushroom rocks? I know you want a FOWLR but it would add some color and you wouldn't need to upgrade any equipment

No, currently my tank is FOWLR. I would love to start adding some corals to my tank. What would I need to be able to successfully house an anemone?

Wait a long time and better lighting...also need prestine water conditions

6 months too a year, a 4bulb t5 ho fixture with two either 10,000-12,000k lights and two 420/460 Actinics, and very good water conditions would be all right. Stay away from Condy's though. Nasty buggers.

http://www.aquatraders.com/36-inch-4x39W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Fixture-p/52304.htm
http://www.aquatraders.com/36-inch-4x39W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Digi-Timer-Fixture-p/52324.htm
Either of those would be fine in a tank that size

Sounds good. I will take your advise. So I could get mushrooms and not need to upgrade any of my equipment? Are there any other good starters I could grab. Obviously not at the same time, but so I can get an idea of my options and such.

Adding corals doesn't add too the bioload. You can add as many as you want at a time. But, has your tank cycled yet? If not, I'd wait. Also, Zoa's/Mushrooms are very easy and add nice color too your tank :).

Yeah it has cycled already. I checked the levels and my PH is at 8.0 and nitrates,nitrites, and ammonia levels are all zero. I may look at some mushrooms coming up soon, any pointers on adding them to the tank and helping them maintain?

Stick em low and watch em grow. Just keep good quality water with a little light. Theyre easy.

Kbuser has you covered :)

So this is where I am so far, tank seems to be coming along pretty good. I just battled the algae film problem. I cleaned the tank, did a water change, and took out the live rock and scrubbed them with a tooth brush. I also bought a new filter. Fluval filter for 20-50 gallon tanks.

I just bought a cleaning crew from reefcleaners, and looking at picking up some zooanthids and/or mushrooms. My wife bought a blue/yellow tailed damsel fish and it looks to be enjoying his new environement

My water paremeters are all zero, except for the PH level of course which is at 8.2. I went ahead and checked my calcium levels again and it is steady at 420 ppm.

All and all I think my tank is chugging along pretty good. What do you guys think? I did get a little wavemaker, what do you guys think of the placement? Think I should move it or leave it where it is?

Tank is looking good, I wouldn't of got the Damsel though, I would of got another clownfish :p. Other then that, keep on, keeping on! :)