Did I do something right or am I missing something?

We finished setting up and cycling our 20gal. tank and over the course of a few months we placed in two fish. A beautiful clown fish and bi-colored angelfish. Along with those, we have 2 hermit crabs and 5 snails to help with some maintenance work.

Our tests over the past two weeks of adding the second fish have been perfect. Ammonia is steady at 0 and nitrates never go beyond 5. I understand that you want to do water changes once a week/when the nitrates reach up to 20 but they never do. We haven't done a water change yet but should we be doing that if the nitrates never even rise? We also have about 5 or 6 pounds of live rock if that's making a big difference.

Some pictures! :^: In the first picture you can see a bit of a diatom outbreak we had but it's gone done a ton since we made some feeding/lighting changes.

 

Glad to hear that your tank is doing so well, but you should still do a water change at least once a month just for that sake of removing organics. I would also say to water change for the sake of replenishing trace elements & so on, but you don't have any corals. BTW, Nice Tank, but ditch the plastic stuff!

 

You need to do water changes more often to keep levels like your phosphates, calcium, and KH in check. Test at least once a week and you will know how often you need to do your water changes

 

Hey there!
You're going to need a bit more rock in your tank, around 1-2 pounds per gallon is what you should be shooting for. Also those decorations look like they are made for freshwater, and can degrade over time in saltwater tanks. I would take them out if I were you.
Also +1 on the water changing.

 

+1 take out the plastic plants if you dont want algae issues...

Sources: Personal Experence

 

Great advice! Do you think the vase would still be safe or go with something else? The LFS said not to worry about that but who knows =/ . I wouldn't mind getting rid of the plants though, I'm not specifically a fan but I'll talk to my girlfriend about that. What do you think would be a good/inexpensive replacement?

When it comes to the live rock though, I'm not sure I have enough room to add more but if you guys think I should ditch the vase then that will definitely add some more room.

 

If the vase is what's keeping you from adding more rock, then ditch it. I think you have plenty of room in there for more rock.
A cheaper alternative is to add dry rock instead of live.

 

Personally I would ditch the vase, put some live rock in it, and at the very least you can have some very simple yet easy to care for things like zoas in there. I even put my Chaeto in my tank and it offers a bright splash of color in it and something pretty to look at

 

If i tied the chaetos to a piece of rock and left it on the bottom will it survive?

My light is : 60 gallon , 54x2 T-5

 

Good question, I'm very interested in adding some plant life now

 

I have a 29g. With smaller tanks you can get away with a 50% change once a month. I like to add lots of cal to the make up water.

 

+1 :mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

I got 108,000 miles out of 1 oil change before. :shock: Lasted just over 4 years. Then it put 7 rods thru the side of the block!

Water changes are one of the easiest things to do for me so far. Like you, mine have been spot on since day one and I plan on them staying that way. One question for the masses, wouldn't that vase actually become live rock? Not very porous, but still rock.