New SW Tank!

I just yesterday bought a 20 gallon long sw tank. I bought the fish tank, 20 LBS of livesand, and thats about it! I already have 2 30 gallon filters (bio-wheel), 2 35 watt light fixtures (no coral this time just thought it would be good for the tank), a glass lid, a 100 watt heater, and some air bubbles.

History for me of my other tanks:
Started off with a 10 gallon simple freshwater tank. in about a month, that turned into a freshwater. then, i transferred all that into a 20 gallon tall saltwater tank because the 10 gallon got a hole in it. It was considered a Reef Tank. I had a couple frags in there and other stuff. After i took that tank down after a year or so, i started a freshwater tank again. I know some things but i know theres a lot more stuff out there to know so as my tank is cycling, im researching more and more.

My intentions for this tank is to buy dry rock (about 20 pounds) and let my livesand take over the biological cycling for the 4 or so weeks. Any day (maybe even tonight) im going to get the dry rock. I know i need it ASAP. My next trip to the store im also going to buy some powerheads to help the water flow.

Tell me what you think of the whole dry rock stuff and about the tank!

 

Hey! Welcome to 3reef! yeah get base rock(dry) and a few nice pieces of live rock. Also, I'd take the glass lids off and take out the air bubble, you don't need them for salt water. Get a pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits and you should be good to go. Oh yeah Salt, you're gonna need salt and a refractometer(measure the specific gravity)

add: the lights you have a good for fish only

 

Looks good.
BTW, if you go with base ("dry"), there is no need to do it ASAP. It will not re-kick a cycle like live rock does. With base, it's perfectly fine to keep adding, even years after the tank has been established
The only thing I would suggest is ditching the glass top. Gas exchange is crucial in SW. Also, your going to want to take the wheels off of the filter, or count on changing them CONSTANTLY.

EDIT: I noticed you don't have any powerheads. Your going to need a few to create a good flow in the tank. And I will have to go against Linda with the airstone They only have benefits, all of which are exaggerated on smaller tanks. I know I won't go without IMHO leave it in there

 

elaborate on the wheel on the filter? why do i not want that? and for the glass top, if i take that off the saltwater would evaporate like crazy wouldnt it?

 

The wheels catch and trap large pieces of waste, and do not hold the proper surface area to support the bacteria to break that waste down, spelling nitrates down the road
And yes you will have more evaporation with out the glass top. But with that on there, you have very little gas exchange going on inside the tank, which is crucial in salt water. Doing daily top-offs is part of the game

 

but i thought the point if the bio-wheel was to ELIMINATE nitrates and nitrites not create them?? haha ive used these bio-wheel filters my whole "career" and it actually kept the nitrites and nitrates at a nice level. (knock on wood), ive never had a nitrate or nitrite problem in any of my tanks. salt or fresh. now im confused haha

 

Thinking about your reasoning Pack, I will agree, with the air stone on a smaller tank. Isn't there a certain kind of stone you should use with salt water? Way back when I first started on 3reef, somebody said something about one and they were told there was a special one to use?????

 

its not really a stone its more a tube. you can see it in one of the pictures

 

IDK. I have heard the wooden ones being more efficient, supposedly. I have ran the blue ceramic "tube" ones just like in this one for a while now without problems though There nice, take 'em out and you can scrape the coraline and algae right off of them and use them again.

 

Well cool. I probably could have used one on my 55.