fewskillz' 55 aggressive softy reef

[fewskillz]

That big ugly HOB filter isn't permanent, that was the help clear up the water after adding sand.

[animalmaster6]

Lookin good!

 

What do you feed this tank?

[fewskillz]

I feed all of my tanks a variety of frozen Mysis, sheets of nori, OSI flakes, New Life Spectrum pellets, frozen H2O Life Reef&Fish #1.

[animalmaster6]

Thanks, I was expecting something like that.

 

I love your lawnmower Blenny

[fewskillz]

You want him? He's yours. I liked my first Lawnmower blenny in my first tank, but they're kinda dirty fish and that's bioload I could dedicate to a prettier more active fish. I only have this one because it was my buddies fish and I took in his tank when he got laid off and had to move back to his hometown. All of this rock and the maroon clowns were his too. I've kept it separate from all of my rock because of the pests.

 

I've got the bubble algae under control, but the aiptasia is still pretty nasty. I'd love to try a copperband butterfly, I've always wanted one, they're beautiful fish.

 

The ultimate goal for this tank is a skimmer and more aggressive fish. I'd love to upgrade it to a 125 someday because I don't really have room for the front to back depth of a 4' 120 or 150. Until then though I'm pretty pleased with this little tank.

[animalmaster6]

Thanks for the offer!

 

My 125g isn't ready though and I'm getting a Red Spotted Blenny. They would fight to the death

[n0rk]

I'd be careful putting a CBB into a non-reef environment Chris, they're notoriously bad for survival in FOWLRs in my experience. That said, a Marginated Butterfly tend to do a lot better and look pretty similar...

[fewskillz]

UPDATE!!!!!

 

Last week I got a new set of lights for this tank. It's now a pair of normal output T8s in a cheap hardware store fixture. It's perfect for a FOWLR tank. Its a huge improvement over the daylight PCs that were on there. The new lights and my early Christmas presents (pictured below) were the motivation I needed to work on this tank this weekend.

 

I cleaned this tank up and moved it out of my office into the room with the 180. My office is decorated in mostly freshwater stuff. The walls are navy blue, dark red, forest green, brown, and tan (yes, 6 walls, 5 different colors). There are bass fishing pictures, thermometers, funny signs etc. on the wall, and a stuffed largemouth bass that I caught in middle school. A bright blue and purple saltwater tank was out of place.

 

A location reference:

Thats the 180 on the right with the Christmas lights. There is a couch on the right wall, across from the 55 and perpendicular to the 180. This is the saltwater room.

 

New scape, I was tired of the rock wall:

 

 

 

 

I got rid of the lawnmower and the male maroon clown disappeared a few weeks ago. No idea what happened to him...so on to the current stock list:

Gold Stripe Maroon clown

Lemonpeel Angel

Fridmani dottyback

 

and my Christmas presents from Elizabeth:

Diamond Goby

He is still skittish so he kept swimming away from me when I would get close.

 

Kole Tang (with a shot of his buddy, the lemonpeel)

The tang is tiny, like 2". He follows the lemonpeel around like a puppy. He's eating and active. He started getting a few spots of ick last night which is to be expected with a tang in a new tank. I have no worries about him making a speedy and full recovery.

 

There are no aggression issues at all. The angel is extremely curious about the goby and keeps trying to lay on its side and get under the rock with the goby. It's funny.

[spanko]

Picture from Skillzy! Hallelujah!

 

I like this scape.

 

 

The angel is a beauty. Well done.

[Captain Billy]

Tank looks great! I like the open scape, I just can stand rock walls!!

 

I was about to bust on you for the yellow fish with an I had one first but mines a mimic.

[fewskillz]

I like this scape.

Thanks!

 

I was able to get the one really big arched rock to stand up on its end (the biiiiig piece of the right side formation), otherwise the size of these rocks dictates a wall style scape. It's only 10 rocks, I'll do a sketch in paint. They're technically my friend's. He got laid off a couple years ago and had to move to his Dad's in Michigan. He was able to find work and has bought a house and started over up there. There are so many pests on this rock that he's not worried about getting them back. If I ever find a good deal on some more rock I will cycle them in a trash can and do one big swap and will let these rocks dry out. Then I can slowly swap the dead back in. They're really nice rocks so I'd hate to just toss them.

 

The big arched rock on the right, with the red stripes, usually dictates a big rock arch. I can't believe I got it to stand on its end like this. I'm very pleased with this scape.

[bitts]

Total, I own 16 aquariums:

 

2.5 (empty)

3 gal Picotope (in the planning stages...leaning towards SPS pico!)

5.5 (empty)

5.5 rimless (Elizabeth wants a planted FW nano, we'll see...)

10 (empty)

10 (Caribbean biotope, getting broken down soon)

15 (holding tank for a pair of clowns I'm giving away and the rock that the trigger is hiding in)

20h (fuge under the 125)

20L (holding some spare live rock at the moment)

30L (sump under the 125)

37 (tropical community FW, I should post a picture, it's pretty nice looking for a bunch of tetras)

40b (empty)

54 corner (now empty)

55 (peninsula style fowlr soon to be softy reef featured in this thread)

55 (mbuna African Cichlids, still being babysat at a friends house, I'm getting it back as soon as I paint the bedroom and giving her those clowns from the 15)

125 (my pride and joy)

 

That doesn't count the cracked 20h on the back porch. I am going to de-silicon it and keep the 3 good sides and bottom in case I need to make some baffles.

 

There's also a 20 gallon keg bucket cooking some live rock. Oh...and a 32 gallon Brute trashcan for the RO unit that is scheduled for delivery Monday ...and 8 or 9 5-gallon buckets and gas cans. This spring I'm planning a 2-300 gallon pond for the new backyard, too.

 

 

 

I have full-fledged MTS. I don't think it's terminal though. I'm actually on the road to recovery, as soon as I'm done with the holding tanks I'm planning on selling anything of value that is empty except for the 40b.

 

The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

 

 

hey skills some how I feel better about my pile of fish crap. I must say that the new scape is an improvement & I love that lemonpeel. now you've got me considering one again. lol

[fewskillz]

hey skills some how I feel better about my pile of fish crap. I must say that the new scape is an improvement & I love that lemonpeel. now you've got me considering one again. lol

I did what I said I would. I sold off all of the empties of any value. The current tank list is:

 

2.5 (empty)

3 picotope (cycling planted FW pico!)

5.5 rimless (empty)

10 (empty)

10 (empty)

15 nano

20h (180 fuge)

30 long (180 sump)

37 freshwater

55 fowlr

180

 

11 total. Much better than my high of 18! The road to recovery is long, but as long as you're still moving forward you're ok. I don't really count the cichlid's 55 anymore. It's at a friends house and I don't have big intentions of ever getting it back.

[animalmaster6]

I love the new scape!

[bitts]

I did what I said I would. I sold off all of the empties of any value. The current tank list is:

 

2.5 (empty)

3 picotope (cycling planted FW pico!)

5.5 rimless (empty)

10 (empty)

10 (empty)

15 nano

20h (180 fuge)

30 long (180 sump)

37 freshwater

55 fowlr

180

 

11 total. Much better than my high of 18! The road to recovery is long, but as long as you're still moving forward you're ok. I don't really count the cichlid's 55 anymore. It's at a friends house and I don't have big intentions of ever getting it back.

 

lol somehow my delusion of not really being that consumed by my fish. just played tokyo.

[fewskillz]

Kole tang's ich is clearing up a little already. He's still eating and acting perfectly healthy!

[bitts]

nice.

[flick]

I'm lovin' the tank dude, especially the lemonpeel. How are they for captive tanks? I've heard they are sensitive and aggressive if I remember correctly (forget the source). I saw your good feeding list, looks awesome... and I'm wondering if thats your key to success with the lemonpeel...?

 

Anyways, keep it up!

 

Flick

[fewskillz]

Lost the Kole tang. Don't know why... His ich had cleared up and he was fine. Goby is still fine and actually gaining a little weight.

 

 

As for the lemonpeel I don't do anything special. I treat him like I do any other dwarf angel I've ever had. I think the problem isn't that they're sensitive fish it's that they're not necessarily good shippers. Once established in a tank they're fine. As for the aggression, it's a dwarf angel, they're all feisty.

[flick]

That sucks about the Kole. Thought he'd pull through for ya.

 

Thanks for the lemonpeel info. I wish I had a bigger tank than a 10g, or I'd attempt one for sure!

 

Flick

[fewskillz]

Well continuing the mysterious problems of this tank I lost everything except the GSM within a week or two of the Kole's death. I don't know if it was a parasite or what. I honestly don't really care about this tank anymore. The rocks are a nuisance mess, the maroon is a female maroon, I just give up. My freshwater fish were pretty crowded in their 37, so I swapped these tanks. I also moved this FOWLR tank to my parents house. My Mom and little brother will appreciate it a little more than I do and probably take better care of it. I'll just keep them stocked with RO water for topoff and take 5 gallons of salt over there every couple of weeks and do a quick water change.

 

I set it up for them Saturday and added 30 pounds of oolite Sunday night. It's settled pretty decently now but the rocks could use cleaned off. Rather than turkey basting it and clouding things up again I'll just siphon it off during the first water change. I've moved this tank around so many times that there isn't much left of what little bit of CUC this setup started with, so I ordered a 30 gallon quick crew from reefcleaners.org. It arrived yesterday and immediately went to work. Thanks John! Last night the parameters were all looking fine so my little brother and I went to the store and picked up a peppermint shrimp (for the aiptasia), a coral banded shrimp, and a yellow tail damsel. That should keep him and the rest of the family entertained for awhile. I want to add some cheap oddball crabs and shrimp and eventually a dwarf angel and a jawfish.

 

I was able to repeat a lot of the scape from the old 55 and only had 3 rocks left over to let dry out. I'm very pleased with how this very tall, narrow tank turned out. Maybe someday, if the pests every get under control, I'll turn this into a softy reef.

 

[fewskillz]

Added a big Royal Gramma. Everyone seems to be getting along fine.

 

I want to add a dwarf angel and some kind of bottom dweller.

 

Suggestions? Current stock: GSM, YTD, royal gramma, CB shrimp.

[Needreefunds]

I like the scape Chris!

 

Sorry about the losses.

[fewskillz]

I like the scape Chris!

 

Sorry about the losses.

Thanks. Me too, on both the sorry and the scape. Those were some nice fish I added the last time I tried to muster up some interest in this tank. I even moved the tank out into the living space of the house so it would get more attention than stuck back in my office. Then something got to the fish. Then I got stupid busy and quit putting in the effort for the one GSM who had proven she could live through anything.

 

My Mom seems to be enjoying the tank. I'm leaning towards another lemonpeel or a heraldi, just for the bright color. Maybe a flame, but those are awfully expensive. I'm also thinking jawfish. That's a pretty animated fish for a house with a 12 year old boy and his friends.

[animalmaster6]

Love the scape!