special juice's 240 gallons of FOWLR glory!- Not so FOWLRish anymore!

Discussion in 'Show Off Your Fish Tanks!' started by special juice, Sep 5, 2013.

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  1. Oryo

    Oryo Feather Duster

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2014
    Messages:
    223
    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I've been looking into adding artificial corals and been looking at OceanAquaria. The corals look real and love the pictures you posted of your tank!

    I also have a FOWLR tank and have no desire to add real coral because I won't have the time to take care of their needs and with 2 little kids I won't have the time.

    My tank is 36 gallons corner bow front so I'm limited in space and size of artificial corals. I just want to add some color to my tank. How did you stick the corals on to your rock?
     
  2. Click Here!

  3. special juice

    special juice Feather Duster

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2013
    Messages:
    225
    Its been quite a while since I have posted an update on my tank. It is now 18 months old and I couldn't be happier with the entire setup. The enjoyment for me and my family has made all of the hard wok well worth it. Since having the tank fully stocked, I have lost only one fish: a Bangai Cardinal. In retrospect, I am glad that I chose to stock only 16 fish. I believe that this has helped to minimize aggression and water quality issues. I am also really liking the artificial corals that I added about 6 months ago. They can't compare to the real thing, but they add some visual interest and color to the tank. None of the pieces are glued down, making them easy to remove for cleaning. Here is a new FTS:
    photo(1).JPG
     
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  4. special juice

    special juice Feather Duster

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2013
    Messages:
    225
    Its been quite a while since I have posted an update on my tank. It is now 18 months old and I couldn't be happier with the entire setup. The enjoyment for me and my family has made all of the hard wok well worth it. Since having the tank fully stocked, I have lost only one fish: a Bangai Cardinal. In retrospect, I am glad that I chose to stock only 16 fish. I believe that this has helped to minimize aggression and water quality issues. I am also really liking the artificial corals that I added about 6 months ago. They can't compare to the real thing, but they add some visual interest and color to the tank. None of the pieces are glued down, making them easy to remove for cleaning. Here is a new FTS:
    View attachment 68938
     
  5. DSC reef

    DSC reef Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Messages:
    3,817
    Location:
    Cocoa, Florida
    Looking good! Glad things are going good for ya
     
  6. chris adams

    chris adams Purple Tang

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2008
    Messages:
    1,828
    Location:
    Port Charlotte, FL
    need to post up some closeups of the fish!!
     
  7. special juice

    special juice Feather Duster

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2013
    Messages:
    225
    Wow! Has it really been almost 3 years since a post on this thread? I'm updating now since I am in the process of converting this tank to a mixed reef. The tank has been doing well but I just miss the feeling of a tank feeling "alive." Here's where I am in the process:
    - Removed artificial corals.
    - Re-homed my giant Maculosus Angelfish and Bannerfish. Saying goodbye to the angel was especially difficult. He was the show-stopper in the tank!
    - Reaquascaped.
    - Removed glass lids and replaced with screen tops.
    - Removed bioballs from sump over a 3 week period.
    - Ordered new lights: 2 Reefbrreders Photon V2 fixtures to replace Current Orbit fixture.
    - Added 3 liters of Seachem Matrix in filter bags under skimmer stand.
    - Raised salinity from 1.023 to 1.025
    - Performing 30% water changes every other day to help correct high nitrates and phosphates. Feeding will be drastically reduced as well.
    - Ordering a CUC from reefcleaners since I have very few snails at the moment.

    I was also planning to added a biopellet reactor. In fact, I had it set up and ready to install and got cold feet. Carbon dosing is something I have not used before and I am a little scared about it working too well. I have read and researched for 2 weeks the benefits of biopellets and I think I will hold off for now. Also thought about trying a product like Prodibio Biodigest, but on a 240g it gets very expensive quickly.

    Parameters as of yesterday:
    - Temp. - 77 degrees
    - Salinity - 1.025
    - pH - 8.0
    - KH- 9.3
    - Nitrate - 30
    - Phosphate - 0.20
    - Calcium - 450

    Another big water change coming tomorrow. It will take a few more I think to correct my 4 years of feeding my fish pretty heavily.
     
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  9. special juice

    special juice Feather Duster

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2013
    Messages:
    225
    After a lot of work to bring nitrates and phosphates down to zero, I am starting to make some progress on my mixed reef. Here is a new FTS:
    fts5.png
     

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