My 210 FOWLR Turned Reef

[nonstophoops]

Then it was definatly the copper, but its good that there wasnt enough to kill everything off. If you want the powerhead to mount on thicker glass you can buy a stroger magnet for the back plate maybe?

Not sure this is possible or how much it would cost, plus it would proly affect performance and possible ruin the pump. I really have no clue, but magnets aren't cheap and by the time I bought 2 new magnets and a mp10 it would be creeping on buying a mp40. I have decided to hold off until I get the new rockwork done on the right side anyway to see if I will see need it. I started putting it together and drilled the shelf rock for spots to put frag plugs. Still kind of piecing some of it together to try to get the right height and shape that I want.

I went to Chicago today for a number of reasons including getting a 4" Fowleri Tang from a guy. This fish is super sweet and now in QT. I unfortunately didn't get any pics before getting it in the tank. The guy had this fish in a 125 gallon tank with...wait for it...

TANGS(all good sized, the Fowleri being the smallest)
Gold Rim
Huge Hippo
Lieutenant
Huge Orange Shoulder
Purple
Yellow
Very Large Naso

ANGELS
Queen
Majestic
Blue Face
Gray
Very Large Annularis

and a very large Sweetlips
and a very large Harlequin Tusk.

IN A 125!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I also went to Midwest Coral Farms, which I had never been to but heard a ton about so I had to stop in. I was very impressed. It is in an interesting industrial strip type building with a partial fish store feel and partial warehouse feel. They have 3 400 gallonish tanks full of LPS and Softies, another large tank with SPS frags and mini colonies, another big tank with all $10 frags of all kinds, a 400 gallon display with some cool fish, some amazing SPS, and huge surge tanks, another 1,000 gallonish top down viewing mostly softie display, and a large row of small and large fish tanks with fish for sale. They were pretty picked over in both the fish and coral areas I guess because they are actually closed Mondays and Tuesdays, but I was able to stop in and they still had a pretty good selection. Staff was very friendly and prices all around were quite reasonable. I ended up picking up a cleaner wrasse for $8 and a Blue Side Fairy Wrasse for $30. I got an additional 10% off for being a member of my reef club.

Brought everything home, the blue side wrasse and Fowleri are in QT now. The flame wrasse and new sunset anthias(1, the other did not make it thru QT) are now in an acclimation box in the display. The cleaner wrasse is in the display and already saw it vigorously eating(it ate at the store too). One anthias did make a run or two at it, but a few fish have already let it inspect them skittishly. Hopefully this guy makes it, looking good so far.

My Desjardini Sailfin is still in the sump and now I am not sure if he will be going back into the tank or be sold with me getting the Fowleri tang. The sailfin has always been pretty aggressive and I feel like that will continue even if it is the last fish added. Plus other fish I as of now want to add(and what I already have) to my tank still...

IN TANK(14 Currently)
Chevron Tang
Yellow Belly Hippo Tang
Bellus Angel
ORA Black Ice Clown Pair
Resplendent Anthias Pair
Carberryi Anthias Pair
1 Sunset Anthias
Midas Blenny
Cleaner Wrasse
Potter's Leopard Wrasse
Flame Wrasse

IN QT(2 Currently)
Fowleri Tang
Blue Side Fairy Wrasse

WANT TO GET(7ish needed)
Another Bellus Angel
Another Sunset Anthias
Another Wrasse(not sure what kind)
3 to 5 Blue-Green Chromis
ORA Mandarin

That is 23ish fish total, so I don't want to have too many big ones. I don't think the Chevy will get any bigger, but the Hippo and Fowleri will get much larger and the Bellus pair will both get decently sized, so I don't want too many big fish if I am going to have a whole bunch of smaller fish. I am sure many(including Fleshy) would say that I could get away will more, but I don't want to overdo it. What do you all think?

 

[Kevin8888]

Not sure this is possible or how much it would cost, plus it would proly affect performance and possible ruin the pump. I really have no clue, but magnets aren't cheap and by the time I bought 2 new magnets and a mp10 it would be creeping on buying a mp40. I have decided to hold off until I get the new rockwork done on the right side anyway to see if I will see need it. I started putting it together and drilled the shelf rock for spots to put frag plugs. Still kind of piecing some of it together to try to get the right height and shape that I want.

Wait... you talking Ecotech... ya not a good idea would effect the system. If it were a hydor, or other powerhead that's similar, you could definatly get a more powerful magnet without effecting it. From these guys http://www.kjmagnetics.com/categories.asp reasonably priced, and stupidly strong... But like I said with the ecotech it probably wouldnt be a good idea.

 

[nonstophoops]

Wait... you talking Ecotech... ya not a good idea would effect the system. If it were a hydor, or other powerhead that's similar, you could definatly get a more powerful magnet without effecting it. From these guys http://www.kjmagnetics.com/categories.asp reasonably priced, and stupidly strong... But like I said with the ecotech it probably wouldnt be a good idea.

Ya, I was talking Ecotech. Hydor's take up too much space and leave cords in the tank, plus they don't vary flow like vortech's, so whatever I add with be some form of vortech.

 

[nonstophoops]

Finally got a few pics, not good ones but pics nonetheless.

Fowleri in QT


Chevy with a flash


Lil Bellus


Flame wrasse and Sunset anthias in acclimation box.

 

[Kevin8888]

Nice group! Personal fav being the Bellus.

 

[nonstophoops]

Let the flame wrasse and sunset anthias out of the acclimation box. No aggression at all, in fact all my fish were out and about more than ever after those two were released into the tank. I am very relieved by this because my male Resplendent has been quite aggressive to other new additions of similar size and color.

The cleaner wrasse I picked up seems to have died, didn't see it yesterday. I am surprised, when I put it in the tank it was eating right away and I saw it clean a few fish. It was doing well, so I don't know why it now died.

I am redoing the rockwork today. Hopefully all goes well. I will post pics when I get everything put back together!

 

[cichlid_king]

Let the flame wrasse and sunset anthias out of the acclimation box. No aggression at all, in fact all my fish were out and about more than ever after those two were released into the tank. I am very relieved by this because my male Resplendent has been quite aggressive to other new additions of similar size and color.

The cleaner wrasse I picked up seems to have died, didn't see it yesterday. I am surprised, when I put it in the tank it was eating right away and I saw it clean a few fish. It was doing well, so I don't know why it now died.

I am redoing the rockwork today. Hopefully all goes well. I will post pics when I get everything put back together!

My LFS owner told me the other day that cleaner wrasses normally dont survive for more than 24hrs in a normal reef tank because there isnt enough natural agae for them to feed on. Has anyone heard anything on this to prove it to be true?

 

[Kevin8888]

My LFS owner told me the other day that cleaner wrasses normally dont survive for more than 24hrs in a normal reef tank because there isnt enough natural agae for them to feed on. Has anyone heard anything on this to prove it to be true?

I can't say I've heard that particular reason before... as far as I'm aware they are obligate cleaners, in the sence that they have to obtain the majority of their nutirtion from the process of cleaning other fish, via mucus, bacteria, skin cells etc. Many people have little success with them, but at the same time I have seen others have no trouble keeping them... I feel like the death toll may be more the result of poor capture/transportation/holding proccesses before arriving at the LFS or destributor then anything else.

 

[cichlid_king]

Okay. This is the same LFS owner that tested her water in front of me (because I bought about 200 dollars of fish at one time) and her Nitrates were redder than red. It was insane. Like 160ppm+. Needless to say Im not going there anymore. Just wanted to make sure she wasn't feeding me crap to get me to buy something she had in stock.

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[nonstophoops]

Okay. This is the same LFS owner that tested her water in front of me (because I bought about 200 dollars of fish at one time) and her Nitrates were redder than red. It was insane. Like 160ppm+. Needless to say Im not going there anymore. Just wanted to make sure she wasn't feeding me crap to get me to buy something she had in stock.

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She was feeding you crap. It isn't because there isn't algae. Like Kevin said above, its a combo of things, but mostly transport. Once settled in they are good to go for the most part. I know many people that have no problem with them. I was just surprised because it was eating like crazy when i was feeding. I would assume mostly going after the nutramar ova in my homemade food.

The nitrates in an LFS system are frequently very high like that. It is time consuming and more expensive to do water changes than to not do them. Couple that will overstocked tanks(which are needed to show as many products(fish) as possible and a lack of space/money/etc. for proper filtration for the systems and you are left with very high nitrates in most pet stores. While it can affect the health of a fish, delicate fish are proly the ones most affected, unless it gets way out of hand it isn't too much of a problem. IMO a healthy diet(really lacking at most stores), a tank without too much aggression/stress/competition, and highly oxygenated/moving water are things that are more important than water quality as far as organics.