20 Gallon Beginner's Reef

Greetings.

I'm getting back into the aquarium hobby & very excited! ;D For this setup, I've decided to create a small quite lagoon consisting of easy to keep "beginner corals", inverts, and fish.

Here's the materials list:

Aquarium: 20 gallon 'tall' (dimensions: 24 x 12 1/2 x 17 inches)
Stand: Stand (cabinet variety)
Protein Skimmer: Precision Marine HOT-1 Skimmer w/ Maxijet 1200 (pump installed within a custom-built internal surface overflow box)
Lighting: 2(65W) Power Compact Fluorecent Lighting Canopy w/ one 6500K/10,000K daylight & one 50/50 Actinic 03
Substrate: CaribSea Geo-Marine Florida Crushed Coral (total of 25 lbs.)
Circulation Pump: work in progress
Liverock: 18 lbs. cured (softball-sized pieces)
Mechanical Filter Media: NONE
Chemical Filter Media: A small bag of activated carbon... Maybe.
Additives: work in progress
Test Kits: work in progress

 

get some pics up

 

Congrats on getting back into the hobby!

Just make sure that you've weighed the pros and cons of crushed coral before you commit to it. We just changed out our CC after it was getting rather funky looking.

 

i agree, i regret starting with CC

 

I will as soon as my skimmer arrives next week. I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait! ;D

... and when I find my digital camera USB port in order to download the photos. :-[

 

Really? I never had any problem with cultivating live sand using coarser substrate.

 

i would go with the 10k bulbs on the fixture :]

 

The problem for me was the detritus that became trapped in the CC and the fact that it limited the livestock I could keep in my tank.

 

I would also suggest not going with the CC substrate.
Also to add, I would consider ditching the PC's. Get T5's. PC's are slowly being phased out of the industry for anything but fuges. Also, T5's will end up being cheaper in the long run.

 

yeah, this and now that it is covered in coraline, i miss the white look... it just looks messy now