20T setup and help

[palmer373]

hey i am fairly new to saltwater fish and corals. currently i have a 75 fowlr (with 1 kenya tree frag, 1 fire and ice frag, and 1 polyp (not sure what king) frag waiting to be moves) with crappy lighting setup for about 6 months. ive wanted to setup a reef for a while and a member in my local reef club has a light for me. its a 96w coralife CF. here is the link http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1323

im planning on setting up a 20T with softies and zoas becuase that would be the easiest for me. i dont have anything yet (hopefully buying the light from the guy soon) so i would like some help on equipment and such. i have some dead sand in a bucket and was going to use a cup or so of sand from the 75 and some LR (i have toooooooooooooo much). i am not going to use a sump becuase of space issues so would a HOB work and if so what would you recomend? im not planning on a skimmer but i can always get one. could you just throw out ideas of equipment i should use? i have bought nothing for the tank yet so options and opinions appreciated :cool:

thanks

[LSBoogie]

for my 20L that I am setting up it was reccommended to run an aquaclear 70 or 110 with a fuge mod. I have also been reccommended running no filter but instead just a hob skimmer such as a remora aqua c.

I am no pro but I have seen some nice tanks with anyone of those.

[LSBoogie]

Just found this link while scanning.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...=how+to+DIY+an

[palmer373]

the guy i am getting the light from is also thinking about the aquaclear fuge mod and i might think about it. i probably wont do a skimmer becuase of money issues. i would like this to be the cheapest while still being the best setup i can. also on that link, is it supposed to take me to the archives?

thanks

[Lance M.]

That light should work well for you, if you're just planning on mushrooms, zoas, and softies.

I have a 130 watt Coralife pc over my 20H at home and I have a bta at the very top, mushrooms, fungia, etc.

My other 20H in my apartment I have a 48 watt (two bulb) T5 Icecap retro kit over it and I can easily say it is the same if not more intense than the 130 watts of pc. I plan on adding two more bulbs in the future though....

For basic equipment, you now just need a heater, thermometer, and something(s) to move the water around. I would recommend the aquaclear mod if you are good at diy things.

Here is what I have on my 20H's-

1. 130 watt Coralife pc
- 2x 50 watt heaters
- Rena XP1 cannister filter
- Marineland 280(?) HOB filter, full of lr rubble
- 2x Aquaclear 20 powerheads
~20lbs of sand
~50lbs of lr

2. 2x 24 watt Icecap T5 retro kit w/ SLR's (both bulbs ATI Aquablue's)
- 100 watt heater
- 2x Aquaclear 50 HOB filters, both full of lr
- 2x Hydor Koralia nanos (will switch to the new models w/ wavemaker soon....)
~20lbs of sand
~20-25lbs of lr + foam wall on back

Hope this gives you some ideas.

[palmer373]

wow thanks for the info! for water movement i found a powerhead at a LFS , it looks smaller than a koralia nano and is cheaper and uses a suction cup with a lock on it. i need to check that out again cuase i might use that. if not ill probably use a MJ400 or koralia nano. what brnad of heaters are you using? i dont think im going to use a canister filter but thats an option. do you recomend the marineland bio-wheel filters? im thinking of getting 1.

thanks for your help!

[Lance M.]

I use Visitherm (Marineland) and Aquaclear for heaters. They are both relatively cheap and I've never had any problems with any of them.

I used the Marineland Biowheel filter just because it had a large amount of space to put live rock in. I never used the bio-wheel on it. The only thing I don't like about it is if you happen to not top off the water for awhile, it starts to splash and salt gets all over the light fixture. It's been going strong for 5 years.

Also, I normally always buy equipment online because it's a lot cheaper, sometimes half the price if I bought it at the lfs.

[palmer373]

sweet im 99% sure i use marineland heaters on my 75, i guess ill use one for my 20T cuase of its awesomeness lol. so did you just take off the biowheel then? also where did you put the LR?

i have 2 freinds who own and run LFS's in my area and i would rather support them but you are right about online being cheaper!

[java]

i have probably the same 96W light on my 20H and it been fine, i did add another one of those little 9W bulbs just cuz i had it kicking around

[MikeandNicole]

We also run our 20 high sumpless. We added a CPR HOB fuge (small) and the aqua c remora skimmer. I love both of them and would recommend them in a heart beat. From what you want to keep PC bulbs would probably be fine. I am more partial to T5, but that is my opinion.

[palmer373]

i guess i have to back track, im going with a 10 instead of 20T becuase of money issues. I am still planning on using the same equipment as the 20T tho.
java- sweet i was thinking about adding another smaller bulb too. would you recommend like a moonlight diy?
mikeandnicole- great to hear! i was thinking of a HOB fuge but to order one is not cheap. i could probably do one DIY.

[Lance M.]

One of my ten gallon nanos (lol) has the 96 watt Coralife pc fixture over it. I think it's the perfect light for that size tank for most people. You can keep softies, lps, and montipora and I even had an acro growing in mine with good color. The only downside is the space.

For the biowheel, I just took it off and never used it. I put the lr in the big open chamber after taking out all of the filter media.

[palmer373]

lol sweet good to hear some plusses about the light! and oh ok ill just see what works best for me then.