Johnny Reefer's FOWLR

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by bulletsworld

Your my inspiration to make my reef, 110gal into a FOWLR to. Besides I think all the cool fish are not reef safe anyway.

Gosh, I'm flattered! Thanx much, and yes I agree, there are so many cool non-reefsafe fish.

Good luck when you get going on it and cheers,

[Johnny Reefer]

2 month update.

Bought another Trigger. A Pink Tail this time. Introduced it on Wednesday the 25th.
Freshwater dipped again, in lieu of QT. Beauty fish!

Also bought two Ladder Glider Gobies to stir up the sand, but unfortunately they became an expensive lunch for the Clown, Blue Chin and Humuhumu Triggers. Should have known better than to put the Gobies in before giving the others their Silversides lunch. Doh! I’m gonna research some various snail types for this instead.

The brown algae is still hangin’ around, a bit, and the green algae is increasing. Originally I was planning on getting a Tang for algae control, but I think I’m maxed out on the population capacity with the 4 Triggers. So, I bought a PhosBan reactor instead, for algae control. I’ll be hookin’ that up tomorrow. I’ll be runnin’ RowaPhos in it.

As for coralline algae...no signs of new growth yet.


Otherwise, not much to say other than there is either a Mantis or a Pistol in there. I can hear it clicking at night.


Algae Growth.



Algae Growth 2.



Pink Tail.



Feeding Time.



Cheers, (insert smiley here)

[Johnny Reefer]

4 months.
Some Cyano in the tank. Been there for about 4 weeks now.
I think it's part of the new tank syndrome and I think it's dissipating on its own. It's not getting worse, at least.
Treated my Reef Tank for Cyano with Chemi-Clean, but not this tank.



Also here...upper left and lower right.

[Johnny Reefer]

And the fish are doin' first rate.
They get mostly feeder Goldfish and Silversides, but I also feed them Krill, Mysis, and HBH Spirulina and Krill pellets.

Blue Chin


Humuhumu and Cleaner Wrasse

[Johnny Reefer]

Clown Trigger


And my favorite...the Pink Tail


Cheers,

[Palster]

This thread has been a great reference for me in the planning of my 135 gallon FOWLR. Great work so far on the setting up of this tank. It is looking real good. I have one question for you. How much live rock do you have in the tank? I know the live rock is highly effective for biological filtration but purchasing enough live rock for a 135 gallon tank is a very expensive endeavor especially when many of the LFS charge 10 dollars a pound for cured LR where I live. Might have to order a box from J&L or somewhere online and cure it myself.

[Johnny Reefer]

Hey, glad to hear your getting something out of this thread. That was my initial intent. Not so much as teachings, as I am learning SW too, but rather a documentation of my experience with setting up a FOWLR tank. Your feedback has made it worthwhile.

As for the LR I have in there....it is 136 lbs (1lb/gal.) of Bali LR. It's pretty good stuff and is not very dense. (Meaning lighter and more porous than some LR).

You don't have to stock all the LR at once. You could start with say 35-40 lbs and work up from there. Just make sure that your bio-load is very low to start with, too, if you do it that way. (IMHO). When I set this tank up originally as a reef, one year ago, I started with about 34lbs LR and 5 Chromis. The tank cycled right away. Or another way of looking at it is that it didn't cycle at all. The magic of LR.

Good luck and cheers,

[niloc16]

absolutely beautiful work. i really like the aquascaping. looks like you really took time to choose your rocks. nice job

[Johnny Reefer]

Introduced 2 Green Brittle Stars (Ophiarachna incrassata), last week, as part of the clean up crew. (Wanted more crabs but LFS's LR orders having been lacking in hitchhiker crabs, lately).
Nitrates are on the rise, as I suspected they would. There at 20 ppm now.
Bought a Rena XP3 canister today and I am going to run strictly Kent Nitrate Sponge in it. Settin' that up tomorrow. A temporary procedure, until I can get a sump going on this tank with a proper skimmer.

Cheers,

PS: Thanx niloc16.

[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.