saints fan 420's 20 gallon build

so i got water and rock and sand and powerflow in the twenty gallon just now..pics will come in the morning..

im gonna use 110w of power compacts..500gph powerhead..and a hang on back filter..im also gonna eventually put a plastic thing with cheato and just have it grow off the display lights..

no skimmer, no sump..im using stuff i just have laying around...its mainly gonna be a frag tank or just a small extra tank,,a little live rock prolly around 20 pounds or so maybe..anyway i have more from main tank i could take out..

livestock might be a mantis or a goby and shrimp pair...

it has to be super low stocked, low bio load since i wont have a skimmer..

anyway i got a month or so, so lets get some ideas..

 

im gonna add some more sand but thats it as far as supplies..

and the scape is going to messed with..gotta get more sand to make everything more stable

 

so i was gonna make it mantis tank until i read this article about them..at least for the peacock that i wanted..

The mantis shrimp – the world’s fastest punch « Not Exactly Rocket Science

 

I am concidering a mantis tank and think if you know the right species that you can keep one just fine LOL.

 

but even ater reading what they can do to glass?? i would never be able to sleep, knowing there could be 20gallons of water on the floor just buy a little punch from the shrimp...they are supposed to be in acrylic..i know peacocks are what this article is referring too since they are the most aggressive, but they are also the most active and most popular..

 

That doesn't happen often. There are a number of people on here who keep mantis shrimp in glass tanks with no issues. Except for one guy who dropped a rock on the front glass of his tank.

 

you could get a smithii they are very attractive looking and not as powerful and do not get as big. I've been wanting to do a mantis tank for a while now.

 

You could get a T/R neon dottyback

 

Cool, looks good so far! As to the skimmer, I ran moderately stocked 20g for a few years with no skimmer. You don't need it on a small tank as long as you keep up with water changes. Heck, even if you do 30% weekly, that's only 6 gallons...

 

yeah water changes wont be a problem, i do them every week in my other tank..its only take 2 seconds to siphon out water and pour new in..