Bio load, 20 gal long

TAANG · 06/27/2013, 01:38 PM

Hello everyone. My husband and I are new to keeping a reef tank. We have a 20 gallon long tank which has been set up for about 4 months now. It has a 1.5 inch sand bed and about 23 pounds of live rock in it.

As far as equipment goes, we have an AquaticLife 115 mini protein skimmer in our overflow area, a rena xp2 filter which has, seachem matrix, flugen carbon, phosguard, and purigen, (no floss or anything other mechanical filtration in the canister) We have a heater to keep the water temperature at 76 degrees. Our lighting consists of a one dual t5 48” fixture equipped with ATI true actinic and coral plus bulbs.(108w) Currently have hydor Koralia 425 powerhead with the flow crossing the outflow of the canister filter, pointed toward the front glass. We are thinking of adding a second to minimize any remaining dead spots in the tank.

We do a one gallon (5%) weekly water change and the parameters seem to be spot on. Nitrates, nitrites and ammonia have been holding at 0ppm. I suspect the phosphate was a tad high, hence the reason for the phosguard. I was keeping the salinity at 1.023 at the recommendation of the LFS, but am in the process of gradually raising it to 1.025.We had 4 blue hermit crabs, 7 turbo snails, 2 true percula clowns, and 1 mandarin goby.

We ordered a nano reef combo online at reefs2go.com (definitely recommend them). The combo included 10 small blue leg hermits, 2 scarlet leg hermit crabs, 5 turbo snails, 5 nassarius snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 porcelain crab, 1 mini orange sea whip, 1 rock anemone, and 1 blue mushroom coral. (See link below)

http://www.reefs2go.com/product/INV_...ting-Crew.html

Due to a shipping mix up on their part, they sent us two of these, exactly one week apart. We put the first shipment in our tank last Thursday. One scarlet hermit wasn’t doing so well and passed the next day. The rest of the shipment seems to be doing great.We can't send these extra critters back, and the company told us to keep them at no additional cost. My question is, will this be too much of a bio load for this size of tank? We are not currently wanting to add any more at this time. However, we would like to upgrade to a bigger tank in the next 6 months or so.

Thanks so much for your help and comments

Curtis72 · 06/28/2013, 07:20 PM

I think it should be fine if you add the second shipment. If you are upgrading in six months then just do a bigger water change every week if you notice your parameters are going whack. Question is do you want all those critters in there? Really a personal preference. Myself I hate hermits because they crawl all over my coral. Or you can always turn them into your LFS for store credit??

raybyrne67 · 06/28/2013, 07:40 PM

10 hermits might be allot for a 20L. I had 3 hermits and one whent bad and almost killed my entire CUC.

Baconbandit · 06/28/2013, 08:08 PM

24 blue leg hermits and 17 turbos is a lot. as previous person said, consider selling to lfs for credit.

06/27/2013, 01:38 PM	#1
TAANG Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 40	Bio load, 20 gal long Hello everyone. My husband and I are new to keeping a reef tank. We have a 20 gallon long tank which has been set up for about 4 months now. It has a 1.5 inch sand bed and about 23 pounds of live rock in it. As far as equipment goes, we have an AquaticLife 115 mini protein skimmer in our overflow area, a rena xp2 filter which has, seachem matrix, flugen carbon, phosguard, and purigen, (no floss or anything other mechanical filtration in the canister) We have a heater to keep the water temperature at 76 degrees. Our lighting consists of a one dual t5 48” fixture equipped with ATI true actinic and coral plus bulbs.(108w) Currently have hydor Koralia 425 powerhead with the flow crossing the outflow of the canister filter, pointed toward the front glass. We are thinking of adding a second to minimize any remaining dead spots in the tank. We do a one gallon (5%) weekly water change and the parameters seem to be spot on. Nitrates, nitrites and ammonia have been holding at 0ppm. I suspect the phosphate was a tad high, hence the reason for the phosguard. I was keeping the salinity at 1.023 at the recommendation of the LFS, but am in the process of gradually raising it to 1.025.We had 4 blue hermit crabs, 7 turbo snails, 2 true percula clowns, and 1 mandarin goby. We ordered a nano reef combo online at reefs2go.com (definitely recommend them). The combo included 10 small blue leg hermits, 2 scarlet leg hermit crabs, 5 turbo snails, 5 nassarius snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 porcelain crab, 1 mini orange sea whip, 1 rock anemone, and 1 blue mushroom coral. (See link below) http://www.reefs2go.com/product/INV_...ting-Crew.html Due to a shipping mix up on their part, they sent us two of these, exactly one week apart. We put the first shipment in our tank last Thursday. One scarlet hermit wasn’t doing so well and passed the next day. The rest of the shipment seems to be doing great.We can't send these extra critters back, and the company told us to keep them at no additional cost. My question is, will this be too much of a bio load for this size of tank? We are not currently wanting to add any more at this time. However, we would like to upgrade to a bigger tank in the next 6 months or so. Thanks so much for your help and comments

06/28/2013, 07:40 PM	#3
raybyrne67 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Albuquerque Posts: 353	10 hermits might be allot for a 20L. I had 3 hermits and one whent bad and almost killed my entire CUC. __________________ Ray, Current Tank Info: 75G, Salinity 1.025, Temp 80.5, Ca 430, Alk 9, Mg 1260, mixed reef, Radion XR30w Gen 2 x2, MP10w ES x2,Vertex 130, Eheim 1260 return, Apex, Tunze ATO

06/28/2013, 07:20 PM	#2
Curtis72 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 379	I think it should be fine if you add the second shipment. If you are upgrading in six months then just do a bigger water change every week if you notice your parameters are going whack. Question is do you want all those critters in there? Really a personal preference. Myself I hate hermits because they crawl all over my coral. Or you can always turn them into your LFS for store credit??

06/28/2013, 08:08 PM	#4
Baconbandit Registered Member Join Date: May 2013 Location: 707 Posts: 48	24 blue leg hermits and 17 turbos is a lot. as previous person said, consider selling to lfs for credit.