Costa Randy
New member
i was thinking of setting up a 20 gallon tank, i wanted to know if a 20 gal would be worth it or not?
my 20 gal
- Thread starter Costa Randy
- Start date
Dtking
Member
From my experience so far, nano tanks have no room for mistakes, you must know what you are doing, any little mistake you make to a nano wont obsorbe the mistake as well as a bigger tank, but i have a 10 gal right now, its only 1 month old, and I love it, but..... watch out closely, make sure you monitor every little thing on it!
MyMonkey
Persona Non Grata
I say a 20 long is a perfect nano size. Dtking is correct in that smaller tanks are less forgiving. Although, I had a 10 gallon running for about 8 months and it was relatively easy. I suppose it simply depends on what you plan on keeping in it. I only kept a few button polyps, crabs, and snails. Within 3 months it was full of pods and small feather dusters. I may set one up again. Although, this time I will use on of those 12 gallon curved corner tanks. 
janderson8
Moved On
I think the smallest have seen is at aquariams in edmons. it is 2 Gallons and awsome with a high fin goby with a pistol shrimp
dummyterminal
New member
what do you use for lighing to keep the corals living on a 20g ??
captbunzo
Premium Member
I have a 130W PC fixture made by corallife on my 20G tank. That's a 65W Actinic and a 65W 10K bulb. My current coral collection in that tank includes:
1. Green Button Polyps
2. Orange Zoanthids (Small)
3. Hammer Coral
4. Kenya Tree
5. Xenia
6. Finger Leather
7. Green Star Polyps
8. Ricordea
All corals are not only surviving well. Several are growing very nicely.
* The Kenya tree tripled in size over the last month (ok, not hard for Kenya Tree) and I traded the majority of the colony in at a LFS for credit.
* The Finger Leather started as 2 frags that were about 1/4 inch around and 3/4" long. Now the whole colony has COUNTLESS branches and is about the size of a baseball when fulling inflated. It has probably (literally) multiplied in size by a factor of 100. At least. That took place over the course of around 6 months.
* The Xenia has overall grown pretty slowly. However, I have noticed a big increase in it's growth recently. I think it is finely starting to really settle in and be happy. It has been in there the least amount of time of all corals in the tank.
* The hammer coral started with 2 small heads. They have added much mass to themselves and one of the heads is splitting. It is very nice.
* The Ricordea has doubled in size since it has been in there for the past several months. It may actually be newer then the Xenia.
* The green star polyps, as they will do, have spread off their initial rock (which was about a 1 inch inch diameter circle-ish shape) and onto the rock they are sitting on. The size of that colony has pretty much doubled.
Anyhow, I probably am breaking all the rules of coral species density. But it is doing well and is very pretty.
Now, yesterday I actually brought that tank home from my office and put it in my bedroom as I am starting a new job in a week. Everything made the transition fine. Hopefully the growth that things were experiencing does not slow down too much due to the trauma of the move.
Anyhow, now that it is at home and my other tank (55g) seems to be almost overflowing with corals, I may actually stick a small Acropora nana colony up on top of the rocks near the lights and see how it does.... Sort of as an experiment. I will at least give the tank a couple of days to a week to stabilize, and maybe wait longer.
Anyhow, there is a long-winded answer to a simple question...
1. Green Button Polyps
2. Orange Zoanthids (Small)
3. Hammer Coral
4. Kenya Tree
5. Xenia
6. Finger Leather
7. Green Star Polyps
8. Ricordea
All corals are not only surviving well. Several are growing very nicely.
* The Kenya tree tripled in size over the last month (ok, not hard for Kenya Tree) and I traded the majority of the colony in at a LFS for credit.
* The Finger Leather started as 2 frags that were about 1/4 inch around and 3/4" long. Now the whole colony has COUNTLESS branches and is about the size of a baseball when fulling inflated. It has probably (literally) multiplied in size by a factor of 100. At least. That took place over the course of around 6 months.
* The Xenia has overall grown pretty slowly. However, I have noticed a big increase in it's growth recently. I think it is finely starting to really settle in and be happy. It has been in there the least amount of time of all corals in the tank.
* The hammer coral started with 2 small heads. They have added much mass to themselves and one of the heads is splitting. It is very nice.
* The Ricordea has doubled in size since it has been in there for the past several months. It may actually be newer then the Xenia.
* The green star polyps, as they will do, have spread off their initial rock (which was about a 1 inch inch diameter circle-ish shape) and onto the rock they are sitting on. The size of that colony has pretty much doubled.
Anyhow, I probably am breaking all the rules of coral species density. But it is doing well and is very pretty.
Now, yesterday I actually brought that tank home from my office and put it in my bedroom as I am starting a new job in a week. Everything made the transition fine. Hopefully the growth that things were experiencing does not slow down too much due to the trauma of the move.
Anyhow, now that it is at home and my other tank (55g) seems to be almost overflowing with corals, I may actually stick a small Acropora nana colony up on top of the rocks near the lights and see how it does.... Sort of as an experiment. I will at least give the tank a couple of days to a week to stabilize, and maybe wait longer.
Anyhow, there is a long-winded answer to a simple question...
dummyterminal
New member
wow... thanks for the info... and lots of it
dummyterminal
New member
definitly was... im gonna order one this week for a 20 as well... it will make a prefect QT
