Here it is... 20 gallon nano tank build

[ordi260]

Hey guys!

After a couple of threads...advices and lots of reading.  Here is my 20 gallon build!


I puchased what was missing today and started to assemble everything!


Pictures of what ive done today are incoming...
More later!

[JetJumper]

haha, oh what a tease that was..

[ordi260]

Haha here are some pics...i had a bad time trying to upload from work...

So here we have the list of stuff (preliminary) i still need to take some of the stuff out of storage...ill add it later!

-Stingray Stand (24 X 13 footprint)
-24" Dual Satellite    1 x 65 watt (6700K / 10K daylight) and 1 x 65 watt (460nm / 420 nm actinics)
-20 gallon tank
-Glass top
-Backdrop
-Natural wave powerbar / wavemaker timer
-Maxijet 400
-Maxijet 600
-(Not on pic) Koralia 1
-Salt
-15 lbs Aragonite sand (medium grain)

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[ordi260]

Stand building!

...

15 minutes later

...

Stand assembled...IKEA style by the way...pretty easy to do and NO PARTS OR HARDWARE MISSING   

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[ordi260]

Lets install everything together now!

Ah it looks good already!

Note that ive already installed the stuff in the cabinet (out of my wife's sight) haha 

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[ordi260]

Water test #1

Filled the tank about halfway...waited an hour, no leak...

Filled the tank to the top...waited another hour, no leak...(no pics)

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[ordi260]

Installed powerheads in it...making sure they all work 

Drained the tank becasue it wont stay in that room...

I will now start moving one of my tank to my brothers place before being able to go any further...

It was a pretty busy day but WOW it was exiting to go buy everything...its been a long time I was waiting for that day 
Now I can't wait to clean the aragonite sand and pour it in!!!

[Severum]

Congrats on the good start. The hardest thing you'll deal with over the next few weeks is patience.

[ordi260]

Congrats on the good start. The hardest thing you'll deal with over the next few weeks is patience.

Hehe i hope it will be the hardest...i usually am pretty patient but when it comes to fish its different! 
But i totally want to have great success with this build so ill take the necessary time!

[mikerobart]

Looks like a good start !

[ordi260]

Ok so on sunday ill move one of my tank to my brothers place so i can install the setup at its final destination and get it going.

I am thinking of buying the Reefkeeper lite...anyone has one?  Feedback would be appreciated.  The reason im looking forward to buying right now it is to control 4 devices (fans, daylights, actinics and moonlight) separately...(regular timers are sort of expensive IMO).  If i get it I might buy the Lab 2 later on to monitor PH and salinity...

Oh yeah and one more thing...is 8 inches clearance behind the stand enought or i should allow more room for further modifications??
One little question about filtration:  Would i rather get a small aquaclear so i can mecanically filter if needed or its unnecessary??? If necessary what model should i get?

So my match plan for sunday is:
1: installing the backdrop with the anti-bubble sealant
2: rinsing aragonite, install it
3: put powerheads in it 
4: Let it settle down

[barabe]

Looking good!!! I remember so well...

[salvini55]

the RKL is a great tool, I have one and i am happy for now. The RKL cannot measure salinity, only PH and ORP. For salinity, you need the Reef Keeper Elite. 8 in. behind the tank is plenty. Dont waste your money on an aquaclear, save for a protien skimmer!!! this is one item you have overlooked and is key. live rock will filter the water. Do a little more reading before making fast moves, it WILL SAVE you money!

[Hookup]

Great start.  I would suggest you get a two-little-fishes reactor, an MJ400 and some GAC (basic carbon reactor) and throw that onto your system while you save for your skimmer.  The main goal of Carbon is to filter-out DOC (Dissolved Organic Compounds) but uses a different method than a skimmer.  This should help your system both now and in the long run and it's an cheap and easy thing to do.

[White Lightning]

Looks great! I remember starting out in salt a little over a year ago and I can totally empathize with your excitement. What are you planning to keep in this tank. Corals? If so, were you thinking softies, LPS SPS mixed? Or were you planning a FOWLR tank? If you are going with corals, I don't know whether or not you want to keep that glass cover on your tank. In my opinion, it affects the amount of light that is able to penetrate the water to your photosynthetic corals.

[Funkmotor]

The RKL cannot measure salinity, only PH and ORP. For salinity, you need the Reef Keeper Elite.

The SL2 module measures salinity and now works with the RKL.
     http://www.digitalaquatics.com/saltwater/RKL

RKL will accept *any* module, except for NET.

Of course, the limit of 4 modules and a temp probe would be enough to drive most to the RKE if they were thinking of so many modules.

[ordi260]

Wow thanks for the carbon idea ill dig on the web to find how to do that!

And thanks for confirning me that sl2 works with rkl!  I have just stoped at rays place to get one! It looks awesome! Cant wait to start fiddling in the menus

[RossW]

RKL will accept *any* module, except for NET.

With the last firmware, the RKL now supports the NET module!

[salvini55]

The SL2 module measures salinity and now works with the RKL.
     http://www.digitalaquatics.com/saltwater/RKL

RKL will accept *any* module, except for NET.

Of course, the limit of 4 modules and a temp probe would be enough to drive most to the RKE if they were thinking of so many modules.

Good news for all then! NET module works too

[ordi260]

What are you planning to keep in this tank. Corals? If so, were you thinking softies, LPS SPS mixed?

I am actually planning on keeping softies, something to host a clown and some lps...im not thinking about hard corals or sps...i dont think light are gonna be strong enough...i might do some experiments tho...

any suggestions on nice corals to begin with?  I love those who move with the current and also those who glows when actinics are on!

Oh yeah and i was wondering if a 3/4 inches (3 quarter) sand bed will be good?  I read many confusing infos about sand beds...another thing, should i put eggcrate under sand to dissipate weight or its not worth it (heard it can trap bacteria on the long run...).

Anything else i should know before putting the sand and salty water in?