Johnny Reefer's FOWLR

[goby1]

Hey Johnny,

I went FOWLR when I started my tank 2 years ago though I went a lot smaller, 46 g. I run a Remora C skimmer (that I have had a love/hate relationship with over the years) and I have 50 lbs of live rock. I ran a filstar canister filter on it for the first year and a half until it leaked and I disconnected it. I did order the part I needed but I never did get around to connecting it up again. I don't have the messy eaters you have (2 clowns, a royal gamma, a bi-colour angel, keyhole angel, goby) but man I have to say I love running that tank without that canister. I routinely do a 10% water change every two weeks and at first there was a bit of brown stuff on the glass (cyno I guess) but after the initial adjustment, the tank is way easier to maintain. My nitrates are down, the sandbed is white and the tank well, looks as good as it ever has - even better. I do have a good clean up crew that includes 2 shrimp, a sandsifting starfish and various crabs/snails that you may be can't have with your fish.

As a note, I did clean out the filter every two weeks. I would empty, rinse the foam pads and clean it out every time I did a water change. It grew to be a real PITA and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to hook it up again.

[Chaloupa]

Hey Mark! Your tank is looking/looks really nice! We are in the process of setting up our FOWLR 120 and was looking through your thread for ideas on stocking it....LOVE your trigger selections especially the Pink Tail. I think that's what we are going to get and your pics confirmed it.

[Johnny Reefer]

Well it's been two months since my last post so I thought it's time for an update.

Sarah: Thanx for the good words. I think you'll be happy with a Pinktail. I know I am. It's my fave. The Clown and the Humuhumu are the toughest in the tank and they exhibit some interesting behaviour toward each other at times, particularly at feeding time. A little agressive, competitive rough housing, but nothing serious.

Goby1: Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the website know as CanReef, my friend. Ah yes....nitrates. A problem, yes, but I think I have that at acceptable levels in my tank. More below.

So....the Green Brittle Stars....uh, not a good idea with Triggerfish. At least not Clown and/or Humuhumu Triggers. The legs on both were pretty much devoured. I put them in the sump of my Reeftank, but as they had no legs they couldn't move around to get food. Lesson learned.

Nitrates. To help with this problem I bought and hooked up a Rena XP3 solely for the purpose of using Kent Nitrate Sponge and filled this filter with said product. It worked. Got the nitrates down from 50mg/l (and climbing) to 20mg/l. Stiil high, I know, but better than 50.

Cyano: That got real bad in late May so I did a Chemi-Clean routine on the tank. It worked, .....but it looks like it's coming back.

Anyhoo, maybe I'll pull the camera out again in a day or two and post another pic. (Although it kinda looks the same, really).

(Typing like mad right now to beat the time-out!)

Cheers,

[reeferaddict]

Heya Mark...

50 mg/l Nitrate = Cyano...

I gotta get down and see it someday!

[goby1]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the tip (re: nitrate sponge in the filter). I was just running it with the foam pads that came with the filter. If my nitrates go up and I decide to run the filter again, I'll have the option of running something different in it. I just hated cleaning that thing and as long as I keep up with the water changes, things seem to be going okay without it. I just have to watch I don't overfeed the tank.

[Johnny Reefer]

Just wondering why there are no longer any pictures in this thread.
Were they removed for some reason?

Thanx much,

[muck]

Check your links... maybe Photobucket changed something..?!?

or did you delete them from your Photobucket account..?!?