Looking for some advice?

I have a 20g low light reef tank, I'll go through the equipment I have and the set-up process I went through.

Equipment
- 55w heater
- light 36 watts, you'll need a higher wattage if you want corals
- aquaclear 70
- 315 g/hr (1200l/hr) powerhead (you want a total turnover over 10 times an hour)
- salt mix (I use Red Sea but Instant Ocean is supposed to be the best)
- refractometer (a hydrometer is cheaper but the refractometer is much more accurate)
- test kits (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity)
- crushed coral substrate (there are lots of options for a substrate out there, some better and more expensive than others)
- live rock, there are lots of guidelines for how much live rock such as a pound per gallon but I just go by what looks good

Set-Up
1. Add substrate, mix up salt water to an sg between 1.024 - 1.027, run all equipment, test parameters (temp, pH etc), run for a day or two.
2. Add Live Rock, if uncured a fair amount of die off will occure and you will have to monitor ammonia levels, if the live rock is cured the ammonia and nitrite spike should be minimal. Some people say do a water change if ammonia gets too high, some say don't but the fact is if the ammonia gets too high it will kill some of the organisms on the live rock.
3. Monitor the cycle, roughly 4 weeks but it will vary depending on the live rock.
4. Add a clean up crew (eg snails, hermits).

That is just a quick run through of how I set-up my tank to give you an idea, do plenty of research and you shouldn't go wrong.

20G for two clowns should be okay. A little more info would be.

after the tank has been set up (live rock, argonite sand or live sand) the sg, specific gravity. should be between 1.023-1.025 you dont want to go above .025 (since this is what seawater is) Temp for the tank should be 78-80 deg. I would advise in adding live rock rubble (just small chucks of live rock) into the filter box or any place that has a high water flow. The cycle will take anywhere from a month to a couple of weeks. Depending on if you LR is cured or halfcured. The lights do not need to be on while the tank is cycling. I would add a clean up crew made up of snails,crabs, and shrimp halfway through the cycle. After the tank cycles I would add the two clowns introducing them together and making sure one is bigger than the other one. Just so they dont fight for dominance. If I forgot something Im sure another member might pick up my slack Welcome to the Salty Side

People have run tanks with a SG of up to 1.030, while this is high to most it can be done, so don't worry if you go a little higher than 1.025. I keep my tank at 1.026-1.028 and it is fine.

MikenDanielle said:

I've decided to get into the SW scene and just want to try it out before investing any major money. I currently have a 20 gallon tank not in use with a aquaclear filter suitable for up to a 35 gallon tank.

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I like the way you're going about this - way too many people just jump into this hobby on a whim, end up killing lots of livestock, and then giving up in frustration after some months

Good advice given so far, and I agree with most.

Personally, I would suggest leaving out the aquaclear filter, or just running it empty for water movement. A 3"-4" sand bed, using a fine graded sand, (such as sea sand, play sand or aragonite) would be better than crushed coral. Add about 20% - 30% of the tank's volume of live rock.

If the live rock is uncured it will create quite a stink whilst cycling, but this will go away in two to three weeks. If you are using cured live rock, I would suggest you add a small (dead) coctail shrimp (human food shrimp) to the tank for about one week. This shrimp will decompose and start the nitrogen cycle. Eather way, start testing for ammonia after about one week. The ammonia level should climb and peak after about 2 weeks. Once the ammonia level starts to drop, you can start testing for nitrite, and about one week later start testing for nitrate. Once the nitrite level has dropped to zero, you can do a 50% water change, and then add you fish after another day or two. The nitrate level should start to climb as the nitrite level begins to decrease, and if you have adequate live rock and live sand, it will reach a peak after another 2-4 weeks, and then slowly drop to a low level (usually less than 10ppm).

One word of warning: DON'T be tempted to add an anemone for your Clowns. They don't need one, and anemones are hard to keep and require excellent water conditions, lot's of water movement, and specialised lighting (metal halides or T5's...) Rather wait until you're ready to upgrade to a larger marine tank before adding hard corals or anemones.

Hennie

jojo22 said:

People have run tanks with a SG of up to 1.030, while this is high to most it can be done, so don't worry if you go a little higher than 1.025. I keep my tank at 1.026-1.028 and it is fine.

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True, but not suitible for two clown fish. You can always tell when the SG is too high anyways as they tend to swim sluggishly (sp) something around 1.023-1.025 is better suited for clown fish.