New Aquarium setup

[Marine Newbie]

Hi all, i need some help here. I have a 20L with just a normal pump(sponge filter), sand and some live rocks. My fishes ( 1 regal tang and 2 Ocellaris Clown and 1 Cleaner Wrasse) were doing fine for 2 weeks but all died on the last 2 days. The temp and salinity are fine. I was wondering what caused the death of the fishes.

Do i need a protein skimmer? Some worms(white in color) are seen crawling out from the live rocks, are they harmful? What are the equipments needed other than what i have, hope some advice can be given. One last thing, any recommendation for aquarium store in the west area?

[Vinoth]

Have u cycled the tank? what is ur ammonia and nitrite level now?

[Marine Newbie]

My friend bought the tank as a present for me, it came with cycled water. So basically it came with the fishes and that was 2 weeks ago. Currently i do not have equipment to check ammonia and nitrite level, so i presume it's essential for me to get that? How much would a test kit cost?

[Golden Tooth]

Hi all, i need some help here. I have a 20L with just a normal pump(sponge filter)

Is this the internal filter?

Or bro..: http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2032

[ReDDeviLs]

looks like ur whole setup need to be changed.

[Marine Newbie]

It's an internal filter. Opps i washed the sponge with tapwater as i saw that it was very dirty, did that caused the death of my fishes?

[FuEl]

The thing which killed your fishes was ammonia poisoning. It is caused by stocking up the tank too soon..

[jd_n]

Read thru the pinned thread such as marine setup guide.... so tat u hav an idea of how ur setup differs.

[Marine Newbie]

Stocking up too soon? ok because the whole setup was bought so i presume the water quality would be ok. I will change my tank setup and start all over again, is protein skimmer essential? any recommnedations for marine aquarium store in the west area?

[ReDDeviLs]

its not a must for skimmer,but i think u need it.

go for at least a weipro not the air stone kind will be better..

west area go to marine life at west coast area.. henry the boss is a very nice and knowledgeable man. seek advise from him, u can learn tons of stuffs!

and dont forget to buy something from him too

[RAV-65]

Bro, tink it has all gone wrong.... IMHO, the skimmer is a very good piece of equipment to have.... unless u keep juz coral, i tink a skimmer is pretty important piece of equipment... u need teskits and maybe, honestly, no matter how naggy it gets, u need to read more about marine keeping...

[Siput]

Also, given the size of your tank (20 liters if I read u correctly), u shld just try to keep a couple of small fish (and I really mean a couple, as in two) only like damselfish. Definitely not a tang... U will also need to do rather frequent water changes due to the small water volume. And no corals unless u have some adequate lighting and definitely no anemone...

Sorry to be so negative, but it always pains me when something dies...

[aStRoBo|]

Stocking up too soon? ok because the whole setup was bought so i presume the water quality would be ok. I will change my tank setup and start all over again, is protein skimmer essential? any recommnedations for marine aquarium store in the west area?

do a cycling procedure, everything shld be fine. 20L not recommanded to keep any kind of tangs.. do ur own salt mix, reset ur tank. read up more, read my signature.

[Marine Newbie]

How to i clean the sponge filter when it gets dirty? shld i just take it out and wash?

[tineng]

20L is extermely diffcult to keep even clown fish!!!! The water parameter is extermly hard to maintain. I had 1 in my office, all it takes is just 1 long weekend and the salinty increase due to water lost wipe out my whole tank or more accurately 1 fish......

now i only use it to grow algae for fishes in my main tank at home!!!!

[Marine Newbie]

20 L tank so difficult to maintain? I read somewhere that people also had a nano reef tank that's only 20 L also. Then hopw abt just putting corals?

[[P]owder Blue]

20L is definitely harder to maintain if compared to a 200L tank. It is still possible to maintain a 20L tank, but you will need to watch your water parameters very closely as it tend to fluctuate more due to the smaller water volume. It will be better that you start with a bigger tank.

[surfedelic]

I used to have a 10 litres tank ... I tested out the tolerance level without changing water - the max is 2 weeks .... you need to change 30 percent of the water every week to be on the safe side, for 2 weeks without changing water you are already threading on a very thin line. All my fishes went to St. Peter after 2 weeks plus. I gave up finally and place a 20 litres sump tank to support the system. I have sinced teard down the tank, though the corals and fishes were flourishing healthily. It was a enjoyable experience.

For coral tank, a water change every week seems to be inevitable as well.

Monitor the Ammonia & nitrite and then your nitrate.

Good luck to your nano.

[aStRoBo|]

Nano are for expert man.. shld always start with at least a 2ft and above...

[hammy]

IMO, anything less than 2 feet is super challenging ... alot of thing to take care of .

[Marine Newbie]

opps looks like i am in for a challenging time, the tank was bought for me by my friend.... but nonetheless i will try to read up more and hope everything would be fine.. haha

[AlfaRomeo]

Bro, I am a newbie like yourself and i started off with 1000L tank and still have problems with the water quality issues so i think you better get as large a tank as you can..

[clownman]

hi,

just wanna share my experience.

i'm having a 20L tank currently too.

water condition is ok, just nitrate is on the high side.

ammonia - 0

nitrite - 0

nitrate - ? (too high to tell from chart, but Tetra Test known for super high nitrate readings)

calcium - 450

dKH - 11

pH - 8

sg - 1.022

i'm using a cannister filter and no skimmer cos no space.

have 6 fishes (5 chromis, 1 bristletooth tang) , 1 shrimp and 4 corals.

being with me for months and in good conditions.

anyway, my advice is to overkill on the filter.

get a filter that can handle a tank 2x or 3x your size.

and stuff it with good mediums.

in mine, i have (from bottom):

coarse wool

rowaphos

carbon

denitrate

polyfilter

biohomme

fine wool

i change 15% water every week.

hope it helps.

[clownman]

forgot to mention.

the only problem i'm facing right now is algae.

hairy algae overtaking me tank.

now my orange sponge looks like a !@#$% bonsai plant.

[Marine Newbie]

Thanks a lot bro, that's great envouragement. Is there anything else i have to take note?