20 gallon reef suggestions

[Caleb]

I've had huge (1200 gallon) fish only saltwater tanks in the past, but now I want to try my hand at reef keeping.

I have a 55 watt compact flourescent, a 15 watt actinic blue.

An aquaclear 500 filter with just the bio sponge.

A seaclone 100.

I have a 20 gallon high tank with a glass top. all the chemical levels are correct (ph 8.2 ammonia etc at 0.)

I have 2.5 inches of sand.

I have 22 lbs of live rock. 10 of fiji premium and 12 of aquacultured.

I have 1 clown goby, 1 peppermint shrimp, 4 small (VERY SMALL) hermit crabs, and 1 turbo snail.

I want to put a flame angel, and a jawfish in there as well as corals, but what corals would do well??? And any other good suggestions on fish?? I want to put a sand sifter star in there as well and maybe another snail and thats it

Caleb

 

[MaroonClown]

You will need a little more light. You will be able to keep only softies, which will by the way be eaten by the flame angel.

 

[heedicus]

hello,
like maroon clown said you would probably want to bump up your lights, also a jawfish needs a 4-6 in dsb to make their burrows and make sure you have a secure lid cause they are jumpers.
what are your calcium and alk levels? those have a contributing factor to the wellbeing of your corals. how old is the tank? I would sugguest starting out with something cheap and go up from there=) Generally the hard corals (sps) need lots of light and current but softies you could get away with.
t

 

[jonah]

Mushroom corals will grow with the light you have. The flame angel really would be a problem with them. A royal gramma would work though. I used to keep one in my old 20g high nano. Some sort of goby would work too.

Of course a pair of percula are always good. They don't really need a host anenome and I definitly would not try keeping one anyway without more light. I've seen them host in a patch of mushrooms before.

 

[gcvt]

I disagree that a Flame Angel would absolutely eat soft corals. They might eat soft corals...maybe. I've had a Flame Angel in my reef tank since last April and it never nips at any of my softies.

Some people get lucky with this fish, some don't.

 

[jonah]

You're right, flame angels don't always eat corals, but I don't like the risk. I've got a friend that had one for a year and a half without trouble. Then it decided to start eating softies so it had to go. The change was practically overnight.

Do you think a 20g high is big enough for a flame angel, regardless of the coral question? That's only a 2 foot tank.

 

[gcvt]

I hope my flame continues to be well behaved - I'd hate to have to get rid of it. Next to my purple tang, he's my favorite fish. I think a flame would be okay in a 20 - they don't get any bigger than about 4" and aren't fast swimmers. He'll appreciate the live rock for grazing. However, personally, I'd increase the depth of the sandbed and get rid of the sponge in the filter.

 

[jonah]

I know, flame angels are one of the fish that attracted me to marine in the first place, but after investing so much in corals I decided to wait until I set up a FO tank. Mandarins, yellow tangs and royal grammas were the others and I have them in my 75g reef already.

I'm not sure there's much benefit in a deep sand bed with only 2 square feet of surface, but it probably wouldn't hurt. Besides in a tall tank it's hardly noticible. That's just going from what I've read on nano boards. I had a 4" sand bed in my 20 high. A DSB would help get the corals closer to the light.

Good call on the sponge, I forgot to mention it. When I ran my 20 I used an AC500 set at low filled with live rubble (no media). I don't remember the rating, but it's below 200gph set at low.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I have a 55 watt compact flourescent, a 15 watt actinic blue.

You can keep most any of the softies you want under that light. It is time to remember that Compact Fluorescent puts out TWICE the lumens per watt of normal fluorescent lights. I have not only kept most softies under similar lighting, but also had them grow very well.