Lob Stark's 20 gal Reef Tank

[Lob Stark]

Hello everyone,

Very recently I took a trip tot the North-Pacific coast and had the incredible opportunity to do a serious amount of hiking along the coast. I had never seen reefs, or the creatures that inhabit them prior to the trip and when I arrived home I decided to build a tank after much research. This is what I've built up with so far.

Equipment
Aqueon 20 gallon tank
Aqueon Quietflow Power Filter
Aqueon Submersible Water Heater 100W
Current ORBIT Marine LED 24"-36' (Dual Actinic & 8k/12k)
Rio+ 200 Powerhead

Livestock
A few Turbo, Narcissus, Cerith, and Margarita Snails
An Emerald Crab
A Reef Lobster
A hitchhiking Brittle Sea Star (I believe; the last photo is of one of it's arms sticking out of the crevice it hides in, please let me know if anyone knows exactly what it is! I haven't been able to spot its body yet.)

Goals
As it is my first one, I hope to build an all around tank with some of everything, maybe a couple of fish, some zoas & mushrooms, LPS and SPS corals. My absolute favorite thing so far are the vast array of softies I have seen online. Future plans also include building a 15 gallon sump with a skimmer and refugium. I hope to keep a single small mantis shrimp in there also (most likely a green one, as they don't get so big.) Any comments or suggestions are appreciated!

 

[DianaKay]

Cheers for starting a Tank Thread!
Saltwater is pretty much a growing addiction & somehow I already see a BIGGER TANK in your future.
Do you have a test kit for Ammonia, Nitrite, & Nitrate?
Those will be needed during your tank's initial nitrogen cycle.
A refractometer is also a good purchase if you don't have one yet.
Please feel right at home here and ask questions about anything that your are unsure of. There's lots of nice "been there, done it" members who would love to you be successful with your new little reefing adventure.

It sure looks like you have a micro-brittle star...hope it survives the cycle
I have lots of them in my tank....the ones in the LR very seldom come all the way out. They will accept a flake of food or a piece of mysis shrimp if offered it from a pair of long tweezers. But hand feeding them is not necessary.
Your rock scape looks great!! Hard to believe that's only a 20gal tank.

 

[Pat24601]

Love the start up photos!

 

[Lob Stark]

Thanks! I certainly see a larger tank in my future too haha... I do have a full test kit and have been monitoring all the levels daily, and doing a 25% water change every 7 days or so. Before I added any of the inverts, I made sure that my ammonia and Nitrite were at 0 ppm and I believe the Nitrate is currently somewhat below 10 ppm (sometimes its hard to tell with the color matching in the kit.) I believe this means the Nitrogen cycle is complete? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I also lucked out with the refractometer I have from my home-brewery and my SG has been sitting at an even 1.022. So it's a micro-brittle star? Thanks! Will he make more of himself? I was very surprised to get a hitchhiker so soon.

 

[Lob Stark]

Oh and i forgot to mention that I put about 12 lbs of live rock in there and cured it first, and then I stopped by Something Fishy in Levittown, PA and scored another 12 lbs of cured branch rock, which I added Sunday. That's where the micro-brittle star is from.

 

[DianaKay]

Your SG is a little low for a tank that will have corals...very slowly raise it. You can do so by just topping off with SW instead of RO-Di water daily until it gets to 1.025 or 1.026
Here is what your little micro-brittle looks like:



(these are ones I rescued from my chaeto trimming in my sump)
They grow from very tiny to the size of the larger one pictured.
I'm not sure if you need more than one to reproduce but I think if you see one, you will more than likely have several hiding in your LR.

Your cycle is complete only if you saw a rise & fall in ammonia & nitrite over a few weeks time. (Say 3 to 6 weeks at least) Your tank will need lots of time to become stable so don't add fish or other live critters to quickly.

 

[Lob Stark]

Oh wow, that's awesome, I hope I do have a few more. Will I have to worry about them tanking over anything? And, I got my tester kit something like 5 days after I set the tank up with rock and live sand to cure. By the time I started testing, my ammonia was slightly above 0, Nitrite at 1.5, and Nitrate at 40 ppm. I then saw the nitrite drop and the nitrate rise over the next few days, with ammonia at 0. After a 25% water change on Firday, my Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 and Nitrate is around 10 ppm. It's been 10 days since I put the live rock and sand in to cure for the first time.

 

[DianaKay]

Nope, the micro-brittle stars won't take over, they are very good CUC (clean up crew) & eat left overs that get falls into the LR holes. They come out after the lights are off and to scavenge the sandbed in my tank.
You scored good getting LR with them in it.

 

[Lob Stark]

I feel pretty luck to have gotten something beneficial already! And the rock was cured and $3.99 a lb.