Equipment for my tank

[Razoramus]

Hi everyone, this is my first post and I have never kept a saltwater tank before although I have 10+ years of experience in freshwater. I've decided to convert my 20 Gallon Long into a reef tank and need guidance on equipment. I have been reading up on reef aquariums for the last few weeks, many online articles and guides as well as The Nano Reef Handbook by C.R. Brightwell. I'm only going to keep zoanthids and mushroom corals with some inverts like crabs, snails, and shrimp. No fish. Please comment on my choice of equipment, if I should add anything or take away anything.

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Filter

Reef Crystals Salt Mix

Current Nova Extreme T-5 Fixture 24" Saltwater (48W)

Hydor Aqua Color Aquarium Lights (LED Moonlight - Blue)

Red Sea Hydrometer with Liquid Crystal Thermometer

Mardel 5-in-1 Test Strips 100ct

Salifert Calcium Test Kit

Seachem Phosphate Test Kit

Coralife Power Center - Single Digital

Whisper 40 Power Filter w/ only Seachem Purigen for chemical filtration and surface movement

Maxi-Jet 400 Powerhead

100W Visi-Therm Deluxe Fully Submersible Heater

CaribSea Aragamax Sand 30 pounds

LiveAquaria Fiji Premium Live Rock 30 pounds

No skimmer, no refugium, no phosban reactor, and no supplements, since it is a nano tank I will do weekly or bi-weekly water changes as needed.

Please comment.

Thanks =)
Razor

 

[rhino509]

can the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Filter,or get your water tested by a local fish store to be sure your tap doesn contain any of the unwanted.and i would do the water changes weekly if your opting to gowitout a skimmer...just my thoughts,hope it helps.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I agree, can the water filter, but dont use tap. Your just asking for problems. Ro/di is the only way to go. With a tank that small, it may be cost efficient to just buy your water from the lfs, or distilled water from walmart. Also the test strips arnt very accurate. You dont need expensive tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate though IMO. I just use an Aquarium Pham master test kit, as its cheap and fairly accurate. The hydrometer will work, but there is kinda an art to getting them to work right. I would get a $35 refractometer, they are well worth it.

 

[Razoramus]

Thanks for the feedback guys, the API Tap Water Filter is actually DI, the drawback is that cartridges need to be changed often. I've read that when the filtered water was tested everything came out to be fine for reef (near 0 PPM). I'll invest in a refractometer and go for the API Master Reef Test Kit instead of the kits I've listed.

More suggestions welcome.

 

[wildcrazyjoker8]

One mj400 is not going to be enough flow for a 20 reef. I would get a small tunze or koralia or maybe even a lager mj like a 1200. I personally run a koralia and love it. Another thing I would suggest is maybe a HOB refugium. It will save you TONS of money and time in the long run.
Keep in mind when buying stuff.......you will always want to go bigger because you will end up with hundreds of gallons of water when it is all said and done.
Good luck.

 

[wildcrazyjoker8]

One mj400 is not going to be enough flow for a 20 reef. I would get a small tunze or koralia or maybe even a lager mj like a 1200. I personally run a koralia and love it. Keep in mind when buying stuff.......you will always want to go bigger because you will end up with hundreds of gallons of water when it is all said and done.
Good luck.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

If thats DI then you should be fine. Just get a tds meter to test when the resin is expended. I agree though on the powerhead. Go bigger, or get 2. They have pretty cheap ($50) 2 channel wavemakers at premium aquatics along with other places. You would be great with a mj 900 on each side, later hooked to the wavemaker.