Help reviewing my plans for 20g reef?

You will have way less evaporation issues with T5 or PC over a halide if all you want to keep is softies and inverts. I woud also look into some kind of ATO for your tank, and forget about trying to squeeze a fuge into a 10 gallon with a skimmer and return pump already in there. you could try for a visible 10 gallon fuge next to the main display, I always liked the way those looked.

For a stand you could just hit up home depot and get some 2x3's, wood screws, 1/4" plywood, hinges and cabinet hardware and make yourself something nice. Bondo and black oil based paint would help also. Don't forget to look at craigslist often for all kinds of cool deals.

~Will.

 

i recieved a Energy savers unlimited Coralife Super Skimmer 250 for a friend for free cause he didnt have any luck with it. i put it in my 130 gallon with my precision marines rl-150. I could say that it pulls out just as much skimmate.

 

very good point +

 

I have a 20 tall. It sucks. I have rock cooking in it getting ready to add to my display tank. There is no room to aquascape at all in the 20xhigh! Everytime I move anything I scrape the glass. Save yourself a huge hassle and get a different size. I vote t5s on the tank. I'm running the current 18" 2x18w T5 fixture ($50 new) on my 20g and it works great. I have kenya trees, shrooms and GSP growing on the bottom as well as some palys. They will work great for softies but I wouldn't try too much SPS and LPS with a tank that tall.

A 10g fuge will be quite a squeeze to fit what you need.

 

Well, this is turning out to be pretty discouraging... the 20g tall is all I've got, and I will be putting it in a place where I don't have much room, so a longer tank is not really an option. It's also unfortuante that a 10g won't be enough room for a fuge and a skimmer. Seems like what I was wanting isn't really viable at all. Sounds like this project is a no-go for me. Thanks for the input, guys.