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75g FOWLR - Orange spot filefish castle


d9hp

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TheUnfocusedOne

You realize the forum is call "nano-reef" for a reason... Your tank is neither itybity or coraly. We don't take kindly to your type comin' round here :angry:.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jokes, nice set up. :happy:

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You realize the forum is call "nano-reef" for a reason... Your tank is neither itybity or coraly. We don't take kindly to your type comin' round here :angry:.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jokes, nice set up. :happy:

 

Thanks. I actually added a mat of GSP right under the light yesterday to see how it does. So it's officially coraly.

 

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looks good man! so your not going to make this a reef?

 

Thanks twister.

 

This won't be a reef. My current one sort of started to decline and I think that in order for me to do a reef right I have to completely rebuild it with a sump and a good fuge. This tank was designed to be a FOWLR and will eventually be a display fuge for my dream tank, which will be 8ft long and potentially 10ft depending on the house I move to next. This will house two flame hawks and the lions and all the friendly fish (that don't eat shrimp) will move to the big tank. I want ten skunk cleaner and ten fire shrimp in that tank...which is FOREVER away.

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ok, sound cool. You don't need a sump and fuge for a reef, my 75 gallon reef has no sump or fuge. By the way, I will be doing my thread today since im off work.

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ok, sound cool. You don't need a sump and fuge for a reef, my 75 gallon reef has no sump or fuge. By the way, I will be doing my thread today since im off work.

 

Awesome I look forward to seeing it.

 

I know you don't have to...but for the way I want to approach it I think it's a necessity. I also want to incorporate a larger water volume because I like the look of having lots of small fish in a big reef. I just need to have a better method of removing nutrients than constant water changes (more than once a week)

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looking good man, i like the duel mountain scape

 

Thanks Polscot. It's finally cleared up I'll have to get some pictures up other than this one:

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So I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the Orange Spot Filefish but they are regarded as almost impossible to keep. The ones that the diver's den has available from time to time are relatively weaned and stand a better chance. This pair I got last night looks great, though the male is a little thin. I am hoping I will be able to get them both quite filled in.

 

Here they are:

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MP40 comes at the end of the week. Doing a big 50% water change tomorrow in order to prepare for the fish.

 

CUC and macro algaes also come this week. Lots of feeding in the next few weeks...and even more water changes. I went ahead and got another 200g box of reef crystals since I will have to do 30g changes at least twice a week for a while the way I'll feed this crew to fatten them up.

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Don't these guys eat sps polyps? Just buy some brown acro's for them to pick at. I also vaguely remember reading about someone having success feeding them live mysids so that could be another option.

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They do eat SPS polyps...that's actually their only diet in the wild but some people have had success with them eating other prepared foods. I've actually only seen one of these that looked fat but hopefully I'll have two fatties in my own house.

 

If they do not eat anything in the first few days I already have a few acros from the reef I can provide that are near the grave as it is. I also have spoken with an LFS owner who has some "rescue" corals I am welcome to buy for $20/colony...which I imagine would last at least a week before experiencing STN in my tank.

 

I'll look into the mysids thanks for the tip!

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I couldn't find the article, but you should try talking him down lower for the browned out acros.

 

http://www.reedmariculture.com/mysidshrimp/index.asp

 

This is the best source for live mysids I've used them many times and always received great shipments and customer service. I believe the trick would be to first get them eating the live ones then start mixing some frozen ones in with the live and eventually just frozen.

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I couldn't find the article, but you should try talking him down lower for the browned out acros.

 

http://www.reedmariculture.com/mysidshrimp/index.asp

 

This is the best source for live mysids I've used them many times and always received great shipments and customer service. I believe the trick would be to first get them eating the live ones then start mixing some frozen ones in with the live and eventually just frozen.

 

Thanks..I'm hoping I don't ever need any acros. I have a few small frags from my reef I could let go if necessary...they somehow survived the AEFW infestation I got.

 

Clean up crew is still scheduled for tomorrow along with a lot of macros. I am considering getting a small waspfish for the fuge, but I am worried about weaning. I guess it wouldn't be an issue if I can get it at the same time as my lionfish. I need to see how well the filefish behave before I commit to adding anything else to the tank though.

 

The replacement UV bulb came in today. They are $55 on marine depot but I found another vendor with the exact same bulb. $15 after 2-day shipping. Incredible. It looks exactly like the old one and I'm sure it functions the same.

 

So tomorrow should be pretty exciting...three packages. I should get the fish around 9AM (being held at FedEx this time...screw waiting until 3PM for dead fish) and have them in the tank by noon.

 

Lights will be out until 4 or 5PM depending on how well I can observe them.

 

Frozen food should be in between 10AM and 2PM. CUC around 3PM or so.

 

I'll get some pictures tomorrow and hopefully I can get them eating out of the gate...but I am not going to get too worried until late Thursday or Friday if they aren't eating. I have a few backup plans just in case.

 

I'm also going to pickup some Prime today just in case the tank isn't ready for the huge bioload I'm about to put on it. I'll probably be feeding 10-15 times a day for the first two weeks. I have a 32g BRUTE trashcan that I will keep ready with water for bi-daily changes during this period.

 

I am placing the order for the MP40 this evening....which was a LOT longer than I had planned on. I've been using two other powerheads in the mean time but those need to be allocated to water mixing duty ASAP.

 

Here goes...

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Both have arrived alive.

 

Male is really thin and is a concern for me. Definitely going to need to get him eating in the next two days.

 

Female looks better than she did in photos and appears to be a nice size actually.

 

Bravo, diver's den on packaging. I look forward to doing business with them again although I am a little disappointed in the male being so thin. If he eats well tonight or tomorrow I won't worry about it though.

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How are they acclimating?

 

They're in and appear to be fine, though I was certainly more stressed during their acclimation than any others I've done. Their water temperature was right around 70 degrees when they got in...and my tank stays at 78.5. That was rough and slow...but they're in there now. I'm glad I had them held at the facility because my frozen package didn't come in until 3:15PM. I can already tell I'm going to be doing water changes every 10 minutes with this tank until they both have some weight...what strange eaters.

 

Now the good news... I added some nutramar ova and I watched the female pick at it for at least 30 seconds. The male seemed a bit interested but wasn't eating like the female was. Definitely ATE! So awesome to see. I have tried a number of other foods without any luck so far from them but hopefully in the next few days they will broaden their menus. These are some craaaazy looking fish!

 

It's going to be quite a bit of work to get them fat but I knew that. The female is small and very thin but appears to be super interested in foods, so that's a plus. The male is a little thicker than I had imagined but is not as enticed by the ova as the other. All of the reef fish LOVED all the new foods though. I'll have to change that water soon as well but every single thing in the tank exploded after adding some of that...corals included.

 

If you haven't heard of it get some Rogger's Coral Plus food...it's insane. I got it from DFS but theyir shipping is only $25 for frozen food, which I think is reasonable.

 

one day i want to do a fowlr...

 

I kept saying that and kept saying that and now I have one that's temporary before the BIG one. I hope to always keep the 20L as a reef but I'll never have a larger one unless I win the lottery or something. Too much work for things to look the way I want them to. Well, too much work unless you have an unlimited budget.

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So the female is eating well...destroys ova. She spends most of her time on the sand picking up eggs (it appears) and I squirt 10-20 in every other hour or so to keep her occupied. The male is a little less interested in all the foods. I got a great reaction from the Rogger's plus when I first tried it but not from anything else in my arsenal until today.

 

I hadn't tried the spirulina enriched brine shrimp because it seemed like a gimmic. Gosh was I wrong. I put a tiny blip in the baster, sucked up some water and shot it down into their preferred corner or the tank and he DARTED over to it and was eating it FROM THE WATER COLUMN. Insane. The female joined in a little but the male was voraciously picking at it. I couldn't really tell how much he was actually eating but there was a definite response to that stuff...so I'm excited about him having a go to fall back food now.

 

Enough talky you want to see the female's post shrimp and eggs pooch belly...right?

 



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Mr:

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Thin Mrs. OSFF...but no worries because she's so haungry.

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Filefish pair continue to eat brine very well. The female has actually nibbled on a few pellets as well. The male thought about mysis shrimp but backed away...I'm hoping I can slowly mix mysis into the brine until he eats both.

 

The MP40 came in yesterday! That thing is a beast. So damn expensive though...I was expecting it to be plated in gold. I like paying for good customer service and a one year warranty that a company stands by is hard to beat...so I'll stop complaining about it. It did make a nice wave but then I got scared I'd break the tank so I toned it down.

 

The tank exploded with detritus when I put it on full blast constant...which was pretty awesome to see.

 

I got 400g worth of reef crystals salt today since I'm going to need to be doing water changes every other day for a few weeks while I fatten these fish up.

 

Since I have the 32g trash can available I think I'm going to do a MASSIVE change on the reef too just to see how it responds. I'll still do it one gallon at a time over the course of an entire day sometime this week. I figure if I do 20-25 one gallon changes over 7 or 8 hours the fish and corals will respond the same as a drip acclimation and I can assume I've changed most of the water in the tank. Sorry...back to the 75g!

 

I am hoping that the petco $1 per gallon sale is this weekend so I can get a 20L to use as a quarantine tank. I am just going to put it in the closet. I am just worried I may need to go with a 40B since I am going to be ordering at least another 5 fish at once from Blue Zoo in about two months. I don't know if anthias would be okay for 3-4 weeks in such a small tank. If there's room I still want two skunk clowns and two hawkfish..but I don't want to absolutely slaughter the bioload in this tank.

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awsome fish!

 

Thanks! They are really awesome...getting bolder each day.

 

MP40 is in and on the tank...it's great but very expensive.

 

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those fish are really cool! I have never seen them before.

 

Thanks twister...I love them. You're welcome to see them anytime you're in south raleigh or near Cary. I'm right off the highway.

 

I don't know if it's the carbon or the UV or a combination but I've seriously never seen water this clear. I also LOVE the effect that a single stip of lights has with the black background. On the reef you can tell distinctly where the back pane of glass is but in this tank is just looks empty like you're looking at the edge of the reef (though there are only two corals, waving hand pink anthelia and GSP....)

 

Files are eating heartily. Water quality is absolutely suffering and I'm definitely testing the bacteria population with this constant barrage of frozen food. I did not do a water change today but will tomorrow and the following day most likely. These may not have been prohibitively expensive fish when I first ordered them but the food and salt are going to add up over the next two months while I fatten them up! I want them to look silly they're so fat before I stop feeding like I am because I need to have a safety net if I plan on adding any other fish to the tank.

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