Need Info on 20-30gal Setup

[Rubicon06]

Hi,

About a year and a half ago I setup a 20gal/high, deep sand bed reef tank, it was setup for about 10 months, but due to having to move I had to tear my tank down. It was pretty basic; Remora skimmer, eheim canister, mag powerheads, around 30#s of LR, 4-5 inch deep sand bed, clown fish, couple fire shrimp, couple crabs, brittle starfish, conch, snails, frogspawn, brain, bubble, torch, shrooms... couple other things that escape me. I even had some coraline develop, the bubble grew massively, the frogspawn which was dying in my brothers' tank, started to thrive in mine.

Anyways, I never had a problem with my levels, only thing that ever happened that I disliked was this brown foamy stringy stuff. It would sit on top of my sand bed and gather air bubbles, then it would be blown off by a powerhead etc and float on the surface. I have no idea what that was, brown algae? (as far as I know it never looked like any Cyano I've ever observed)

Sorry for the long story, but what info I need is, I was thinking of setting up another 20-30gal (currently thinking 20gal long), with the same equipment, since I already have it. But going bare bottom or shallow sand, I do love the LPS like bubbles, hammers, brains etc, so I would like a few of those (I know brains need sand). Maybe a SPS or 2 (since it won't be nutrient rich as a bare bottom). Personally I like crustaceans over fish, but you always need a Nemo :rollface:

I would just like to know what I need to do to run a happy healthy tank. Any and all info is appreciated, thanks!

Edit: My light is a Coralife Aqualight Pro w/metal halide

[Agu]

[welcome]

Sounds like a good plan. The LPS and nuisance algae thrived because the like a higher nutrient environment. Also at 10 months your MH bulb is probably changing spectrum. You may want to look into replacing the bulbs.

[Sk8r]

Definitely.
Best place to start is the 'stickies' at the top of the thread list in the newbie forum. There are two of them, the threads with an * by them. Read those and you will find they answer not only the questions you have posed, but many you haven't asked yet.

In general: if you want corals, use live rock and sand only, or just a lot of live rock, no sand. Skip the filter.
Don't put an anemone into a new tank or into a tank with corals: difficult, very difficult to keep that way.
Before you buy fish and corals, buy testing equipment: a refractometer first, a ph meter, nitrate/ammonia test strips, an alkalinity test kit, and, once you have corals, a calcium test kit.
Your bulbs will last about 6 months. Replace them. Don't wait for them to burn out---I don't know how long that takes to happen, nor want to know, but your tank will be a mess long before that happens.
And welcome back and good luck to you!
Get a good book on reefing. Great bathroom reading.

[Rubicon06]

Ah see, I know most of the basic stuff, like avoiding anemones and mandarins etc, I have all the kits/chemicals.

I basically want to know if I can have a Lps coral setup (like hammer, and bubble), but in a bare bottom tank. I've read that bare bottoms are good for Sps corals, but I'm unsure of Lps's. Along with shrimp/crab... maybe a fish, although I know fish add a lot of nitrates, so I'd probably be better off avoiding a fish I think.

I've read that with a barebottom I won't need the canister for the carbon etc.

[Agu]

It would be fine to have a bare bottom tank with LPS but I personally don't like the look. A shallow sandbed seeded with live sand is what I have and it's not a problem. Tank has no skimmer or other mechanical filtration, just a small refugium. It also has two clownfish that get fed twice a day.

But then again I'm conscientious about regular water changes.

[Rubicon06]

Interesting, what size is your tank?

I like sand better too, but I don't want the amount of sand I had before, even though it probably helped with keeping everything ideal.

Previously I'd vacuum the sand when I'd do a 25%(probably more since the sand/lr) water change weekly.

I feel like I had a lot of everything before, I want to be more simple this time. Less sand, less rock, less cleanup crew etc...

My brother and I setup our tanks like a month apart before, but I lucked out and avoided the hair algae, the cyano, and the little brown things, forget what they are called, but he had all of it...