50g FOWLR Setup

[lcstorc]

It sounds like your cycle may be done. Did you ever see nitrites? If not and you are not in a hurry I would add another shrimp and hope for the amonia, nitrite, nitrate to go as normal. Your tank may have skipped a step but it sounds like you have a bit of time to wait anyway so that is what I would do.

[CMG]

Hello,

Well its been a long journey and its far from over. I went to Petco and bought a 55g because they had a sale $1 per gallon. So I have gotten rid of my pain (50g with built in wet dry) and it looks better on the stand too. Much more room to work with since I was really working with like 40 gallons.

Here are som pics of the new setup. I have 50lbs of live rock which I will be getting more of sooner or later. You have to remember this tank is going to be in my garage for some months before I can get it into the apt and ready for livestock.

I was able to just keep my 36" orbit light, it works really well. And The flow is the only thing I am worried about. Maybe I should buy some of those bendingy pipe thingys and hook them up to one of the pumps in the tank now. I currently have a maxi jet 600 on the left towards the bottom pointing right and the return pump from the wet dry is now in the top of the tank on the right pointing left.

I guess thats about it...oHHHH! I built a lid today! How could I have forgotten! I went to lowes and bought some "egg crate" (I think its really called light paneling). I cut it up into two sections since there is a brace on the tank in the middle and cut some out for the aqua c remora to fit. Eventualy, maybe this weekend, I will spray paint it black to match everything since its white.

Sorry for the reflections, its too hot to close the garage door! I cant figure out how to post the pics in the gallery right to the page without making them smaller.

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...11921/size/big

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...11922/size/big

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...11923/size/big

[CMG]

Well its been a really long time now sine I posted on this chronical. Much has happened and I am tired of waiting for a salt water tank with fish so Monday I am going to convert my 40g FW tank in the apartment into a FOWLR by emptying the 40g and moving verything from the 55g to the 40g. The 55 wont fit in the apt. so for now I will have to work with the 40g.

I plan on putting in some simple fish like a pajama cardinal after waiting a few days to see if there is a mini cycle from the move. If I can keep that little guy alive for a month or two then I will start to buy some fish (probably only up to 2 since its only 40g) that I really want.

These are the fish taht interest me:

Picasso Trigger
Yellowstrpied maroon clown
Snowflake eel
Watchman gobby

I will probably just end up getting the Picasso Trigger and just have him in there since he is aggressive. I know that he will outgrow the tank after some years but I will be in a bigger place by then. Ill take some pictures on moday when I start my quest! haha.

[ReefGuy69]

Aww thats too bad that 55gal setup looked nice.

[CMG]

Yaaay! I finished it all up yesterday. moved everything out of the FW tank, gave all my fish to the LFS, and then moved all of the LS, LR and water into the 40g. Now I just need to paint the egg crate black so it matches the tank.

So about 10 minutes into the project I went to get my camera and remembered that I had left it in the inlaws suburban during our ski trip back in Dec!!! AAAAAA. So I have no pictures at all! What a goof. I will take pics this weekend of the final product when I get my camera back!

[CMG]

I finally got my first salt water fish yesterday!!!!! I got 4 damsels. I want to make sure I can keep something like that alive for some months before I get an eel or a trigger.

I got a black tail or four stripe damsel, two yellow tail blue ones, and a margerated or margerate damsel? Its so cool to have salt water fish! Anyways, the camera is supposed to get home tonight with the fiance so pics will come soon!!!

[CMG]

Well I finally got the camera back, here are some full tank shots and some fish shots. On thursday I got 4 damsels from the LFS, one black tail, one marginate, and two yellow tails. If I can keep these little hardy guys (and gals?) alive then I will be confident in getting more interesting fish some months from now.

The black tail seems to have a mouth infection of some sort maybe? And the marginate (who I have named Herbert and acts exactly like the yellow tang on nemo around the bubbles in my tank) has only eaten on the day i got him and not since (3 days) so I am worried about him. I wil buy some new food at the LFS today to see if he likes something else. The coloration on him is very pretty, his body is pale/see through-ish, he has a yellow stripe from his nose to just past the base of his dorsal fin, and his bottom fins are deep black with bright blue stripes. Hard to see with the blurry photos.

The 2 yellow tails are just dandy though! Hope you enjoy the pics.

I can't figure out how to post large pics in the text so I am using links to the gallery, if anyone can explain that to me it would be great!

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...hpMgIlCmPM.jpg
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...13391/size/big
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...hpdNd2D7PM.jpg
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...hpUAzGBIPM.jpg
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...hpPjvvsZPM.jpg

[CMG]

Well the little black and white damsel died shortly after. I have begun to seed a sponge filter to set-up a QT tank 10g and I also got a3 snails and a golden coral shrimp on accident. I was trying to get a coral banded shrimp which I think are really pretty but I got this little guy instead with a golden belly.

I named the snails Hoover and Hoover Jr. and the Yellow tail Damsel's are named Chuck & Larry since they sleep in the same hole in the LR everynight. I still havent named the shrimp yet.

The marginate damsel turns out to be a black damsel (neoglyphidodon melas) and is supposed to grow up and be mean. He is my favorite right now and his name is Herbert. I love his coloration. Everyone seems really healthy right now too. I feed Formula One and sometime Brine Shrimp and also I have something else I cannot rememeber the name of! haha.

There is a huge diatom problem right now and so the rock is all bronw but the snails are saving me!

[CMG]

Yesterday I got home from work and my larger snail, Hoover, was in the intake of one of my maxi-jets since I forgot to put the filter part back on it! So I turned off the pump and pulled him outa there. I think he was heavily tramatized but alive. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it. I put him on a piece of rock in the middle of the tank to keep an eye on him and he never moved before lights out so I was worried. But when I got up this morning I saw that he had infact cleaned the rock (I have the diatom bloom so its obviouse when they clean) even though he had kept well within the vicinity. Yay! Hopefully he makes it ok.

[BigAl07]

Excellent! That reminds me I need to re-install the "Grate" part of my MaxiJet on one of my tanks. *Writing a note on my palm*

Glad he made it! I lost my "Buggz" (Sea Hare) a couple of weeks ago due to this same thing!!

[CMG]

The snail (hoover, on the left in the shot with both) is doing fine or appears to be doing fine still, cleaning away all my diatoms. Hoover Jr. on the right in the pic of both fell over twice yesterday or was it thursday? Anyways i flipped him back over both times. What a goof. I think I will buy a few more snails since these two cant handle it all. Below are some pictures of what looks like snowy mountains. You can see how dirty diatoms have made my LR.

A sea hare....hmmmm looking that up...oooo wow those look neat. I bet he didnt even have a chance, they look soft, no shels or anything! yucky.

Water change tomorrow! OOOOOOO how could I forget....I bought an RO/DI unit on ebay today!
eBay Express: Reef Aquarium RO DI Reverse Osmosis Water Filter 75 gpd - Description
I got a $200 bonus from work and I was thinking hmmm. should I fix my car mirror that got ripped off...nawww..get a transmission checkup...nawww....ooo something for the finace...nawww..hehe..Ill get fish supplies!!
That should help with the diatoms and my water quality. My tap water with dechlorinator weems to work fine and is what I used on FW setups but I eventually want to do a semi reef for some color and for a clown fish anemone. I really really want a solid black and white one (no orange face) I think those are the percs?

[CMG]

Today I went to Lowes and got some velcro and a shelf to make my messy cabinet a little neater. I used the velcro to hang the shelf, so I would have to use screws and incase I ever wanted to easily move it and also to hand my power strips from.

Then I went over to the LFS and got 3 more nerite snails to help with my algae. I also had some pre mixed salt water in a 10g tub with a heater and powerhead from sat. morning. I do it inside to keep it at a good temp its too cold outside even with the heater in there!

Here are some pic's of my new stuff, acclimation, my messy cabinet, and water change bucket. And my soon to be Qt tank.

[Tru2nr]

man all i gotta say is good luck to ya sounds like ur coming along..you don't want to use tap water to long in a saltwater the phosphates and silicates will create an algae bloom like no other*mainly hair* I started the same way when i got my tank i was planning on having maybe a couple corals and a bunch of fish untill being on here and seeing reef tanks and seeing my gf's dads tank i got bit by the reef bug. All i gotta say is must be nice to be able to fit towels in your stand i have a 55g AGA stand that is jam packed and have a hard enough of a time when i get something small and new under my tank..this is what im dealing with after my most recent clean up and removing two big jugs of calcium

[lcstorc]

Looking good.
As far as the pic posting part just copy the img tag (next to the copy to clipboard button) and then paste it into the thread. I know these are not exactly new but here are your pics.

[CMG]

Well I am lucky enough not to have a sump or refugium under my tank so I can fit some extra stuff in there. But once I get to the point where I am ready to start reefing (probably after I get into a house which wont be for a year or two) I will have no room under my tank for all those extras.

This diatom/algae bloom is defenetly a bioooootch! hehe. I hope my ro/di filter gets here soon. I ordered some lock line for directing flow in the tank and the usps screwed it up and I still dont have the package so hopefully they dont screw me on this one too.

I ended up setting up a photobucket account and I am pasting from there. Thank you for helping though!

I am just exited to have some damsels, snails and a shrimp at this point! I live in an apartment and will be moving soon and then moving again after that so I try not to go to overboard, plus I am in school and in the reserves still so I keep things simple incase I need the fiance to feed them for a few days. Someday I will be settled down and be able to make a reef!