I am and have always been a freshwater fish keeper. lately Ive tossed around the idea of finally taking that first step towards keeping saltwater fish. So onto my question, I have a 20 gallon long aquarium Im considering converting. It has a standard hang on back filter rated for up to 30 gallons and a sumergable heater rated for up to 30 gallons that I already know can be used for salt with a good cleaning. i know I need new lighting, a protein skimmer, some sort of circulation, and live sand and live rock. But with each product I research, you get customer reveiws saying its junk, then another saying its the best on the market, all for the same product. What i want is someone with experience in small reef tanks to give me advise on what skimmer to buy, wether I should use compact fluorescents or halides or leds, and is a sump absoluty nessisary or are the hang on back refugiums enough. Any feed back will be greatly appricieated. Also, in such a small tank, I only plan on keeping one or two clowns, a single blue hippo tang, a couple of annemones, and some sort of coral, whateve can still thrive along side the anemones.
SALTWATER ANYONE?
- Thread starter MidWestMike
- Start date
Take a look at the link in my sig, it's 15 gallon with, the description in the video tell's what equipment I had in it, with regular water changes and a refugium/sump or in my case just a refugium you don't need a protein skimmer. Just do lot's of research, oh and no tangs in small tanks! Anemones need very well established tanks, one year at least is recommended.
small tanks small changes can crash whole system. Id recomend a 35-75 fowlr then once you get the hang of it spend the money on lighting and corals.
You dont need to buy "live sand" thats just a marketing ploy for companys to make more money. Think about it, how is sand alive in a bag on the shelf at petsmart.... the sand will become live once the tank is cycled and matured along with the dead rock you seeded with the live rock...patience is the key in saltwater.
