how to? new tank!

Hey, I really wanna set up like a 20 gallon to try to get clowns to pair up. Would having the tank with like 20lbs live rock and good water flow with like 20lbs live sand be an adequate filter system. I don't plan on buying a filter, or sump or refuge, and possibly not a protein skimmer. Just lights, live rock, and good water flow. Whats the experts opinion on this? please inform me, i really wanna do it.

Sterling

 

If you understock and keep to softies you might have luck. How often will you do water changes? What do you want to keep in this aquarium? Small water volume will make it challenging regardless.

 

Water changes would be atleast 10% a week. I would be planning on having a bubbletip with 2-4 clowns until two pair. Also would have a bunch of snails and hermit crabs for cleaning crew. For coral, probably stick to polyps, and zoos. Ive always wanted zoas but never found any at the lfs's worth purchasing. Are they hardy corals and such?

 

i would recomend a small exterior pump filter for removal of particals and biofilter. also allows you to put a carbon filter in if you ever needed it will also help move water and remove any cloudyness.

 

Having a Bubbletip Anemone in a small tank like that combined with the fact that it is not an established tank and being the novice aquarist that you are, I would hold off on the anemone addition for the time being.
As for the Clownfish and pairing them up, it takes time to do as the clowns are all the same sex...Females, until the dominant one changes to the alpha male. Also, to do it you can't just place four Clowns in a tank and expect the four to team up and become two pairs. To do it right, it is best to purchase four or five juveniles all at once and let them pair up naturally, which may not even happen! And the old urban legend stating that you must have an anemone to maintain a pair of Clowns in captivity is a big false assumption.
Their are many species of Octocoral that make suitable tank additions, though care needs to be addressed regarding husbandry, and also placement within the tank to reduce the chances of chemical and toxic warefare being portrayed.
Zoanthids, Xenia, Kenyon Tree, Colt, Sinularia, Sarcophyton and certain species of Gorgonian make suitable, yet easy, tank corals.
I would continue to read and ask questions here on 3reef for help and guidance with a tank.
Filtration will be a key component in the success of your tank combined with the water changes and possible carbon addition. Maintaining and religiously testing your water parameters are crucial to the success of your tank and its inhabitants especially in a small sized aquarium.
Good luck and hope this helps you in some small way...

 

hey, thanks for the advice coral_reefer. I already have a 30 gallon reef tank which holds a maroon clown. I bought a bubbletip for it which it hosted. I decided to buy another maroon clown and a new bubble tip and i put them into a container inside the tank where that bubbletip hosted the maroon. I left them in the tank for about 4 days and then i released the maroon with its new anemone. Unfortuntaely, my original maroon still hated him and killed it. I now have a maroon with two bubble tips, and it in habits the newer one of the two. lol I wanna mate some perculas and i just wanna do it cheaply but still effectively.

 

what are good anemone for perculas?