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my 20 gallon set-up

13K views 97 replies 11 participants last post by  RSully 
#1 ·
Recently set-up a 20 gallon fowlr. Have slowly expanded to a few corals since fish are kinda not much of an option since I have aYellow Tail Blue Damsel. In the tank are 4 hermit crabs, 3 nassarius snails, 1 margarita snail, a coral banded shrimp, star polyp, hammer coral and a mushroom. Oh, and the Damsel. So far, eveything has done good. Only thing i've experienced is the loss of a hermit crab (not sure if he molted ot died as only found the exoskeleton and not the shell he was in. He also changed shells about 10 days ago). The shrimp has already molted after 2 weeks in the tank.

here's my current water test results:
PH 8.2
Amonia- less than .25 (I'd call it 0 but it may have a slight spike due to probably overfeeding last night trying to target feed my corals a bit of flake)
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- < than 5 but looks closer to 0
Phosphate- < .25 but looks closer to 0

Will be picking up a calcium test kit tomorrow.
 
#3 ·
lol, sorry. These first pics will be of display tank. I wanted to show what the margarita (correct me if I'm wrong) can do to an algae growth. The pics below were of a rock that was covered when I went to bed last night and as you can see, they've wiped out over half of it on this rock. Is this hair algae?

I'll get some more pics up later this evening.

 
#15 ·
New arrivals

OK, picked up a Kenya Tree and a feather duster today. I hate asking questions after the fact as it makes me feel a bit dumb. Can feather dusters and coral banded shrimp co-exist? The CB shrimp went straight at it and started picking away to where I had to reach in a get him out of the general area. The lfs said it wouldn't be a problem. Anyways, here's pics. One also of the HAmmer coral expanded.

Feather duster



Kenya tree still acclimating. Hoping that's a fairly calm spot otherwise I'll have to move it a little.



Hammer coral. I can never get a decent pic.


Hopefully, thefeather duster and CB will be fine. I really like the feather dusters and want to be able to put a couple more in down the road.

Sully
 
#17 ·
Started with the tube, then either a bit of feather ot the worm itself. Either way, the worm shot back in the tube and it freaked the shrimp out. Now the shrimps back hiding in his corner. The Kenya tree is slowly starting to branch out, when it does I'll get another pic.
 
#19 ·
Just finshedmy first calcium test- 360-380. I know that's low. I'm topping off with fresh and going to re-test along with test for everything else in a few hours. If it's still low, should I do a small WC or supplement if everything else checks out ok?
 
#21 ·
Well, I have to leave everything in someones hand until next Friday as I fly out for Florida in a few hours. I've left specific feeding instructions and to call if they see anything out of the ordinary. I'm actuall more worried about my FW tank ans the 2 leopard fish in there have gone through hell the last few weeks but they seem to be coming out ok. I even left out example amounts of how much food to feed for both tanks. No more no matter how hungry they might fool you into believing.

I did a few minor mods over the last 2 days 2 the 20 gal SW. Completely removed the standard HOB filter, added Chemi Pure and a Pura Filtration pad based on some advice of a lfs. He's been in the business for 40 years so I hope I'm not making any mistakes as theres nothing I can do until next Friday. I'll check in here while I'm gone.
 
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