550 gallon fowlr in wall diary

[clekchau]

hey everyone, since everything is finally coming together i guess it's time i share with the forum. note, this is not a sexy sps build or even rare
fish or fully adult fish cruising everywhere build, but from scratch fowlr build to keep my favorite fish in a decent size environment so they can
thrive, the goal is to start with small fish and watch them grow.
history:
This started as a 600 gallon acrylic mixed reef about 8 years ago and has gone thru several iterations of fish, soft corals, some easy to keep LPS,
predator reef and then a major tank crash, due to someone sticking their hands in my open Rubbermaid 150 gallon stock tank which was plumbed into
the main tank and contained a really cool 10 inch clown trigger that spit water on people when wanting food. Within 1 week, 95% of the fish were
dead, around $2500 worth of fish probably.
here is a shot of the mixed tank at the time 8 or so years ago:

 

[clekchau]

ok not sure what i did wrong with posting pics here?

 

[meowzer]

You have to post them w/o the img tags

 

[rainbow grouper]

Following.

 

[clekchau]

Ok I did that and it didn't work, I guess I have to attach the pics directly ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///t/388784/550-gallon-fowlr-in-wall-diary#post_3430885
You have to post them w/o the img tags

 

[clekchau]

fast forward to today, due to numerous scratches some major and having to walk on eggshells everytime i clean the tank, got a great deal on an all
glass tank, 8 x 3 x 3 to replace the acrylic with.
tank in truck, feel sorry for that truck lol

 

[jerth6932]

Quote:
Originally Posted by clekchau http:///t/388784/550-gallon-fowlr-in-wall-diary#post_3430946
fast forward to today, due to numerous scratches some major and having to walk on eggshells everytime i clean the tank, got a great deal on an all
glass tank, 8 x 3 x 3 to replace the acrylic with.
tank in truck, feel sorry for that truck lol


Not feeling sorry for the truck so much, but the poor saps that gotta carry that bad boy in!!!! Good luck! Will be fun to see your progress! Your old tank was nice,so I know you will do great things with this one!

 

[clekchau]

tank is really heavy so we had someone remove part of the fence and the window so they can back it right into the fishroom, i was amazed at how easy
the tank move was, no lifting at all, just pushing and pulling with suction cups.


Viewing area height expanded to accomodate the taller tank

Tank set in place

With water, rock and fish from old 600g

 

[clekchau]

Equipment:
Four Sunlight Supply Tek Light 4 Bulb T5 Fixture (48 Inch, 4x54W) mounted to custom aluminum canopy pulley system, this was already in place for the 600:

Volcano Skimmer with dart needlewheel built by Spazz, this was also built back in the day before needlewheel skimmers became the rage and Spazz was still experimenting, needless to say this thing works great

Skimmer feeds a 150 gallon stock tank that feeds back into the sump, full of live rock

The sump is about 200 gallons and has 3 sections, one contains about 800 lbs of live rock, the other contains a uv sterilizer that came with the 550, crappy pic but ...

Aquacontroller junior for controlling lights, monitoring temp

 

[clekchau]

Cabinet was built with the ability to open from the front, ease for cleaning and feeding:

Got 1000 lbs of live rock from Marco Rocks, these are extremely huge and awesome pieces some weigh over 100 lbs dry! note coke can for reference:

 

[clekchau]

My current attempt at aquascaping yesterday, don’t mind the pumpkin lol

 

[clekchau]

inhabitants:
Vlamingii Tang (14 inches): 5 inches and grew like a weed, he is very thick about 4.5 inches at his maximum and eats like a pig. Drawbacks ,he is skittish and startles easily which startles the other fish. Still a great fish that attracts the most attention from first impression, mainly due to his size and cool turquoise color with neat blue spots

 

[clekchau]

Blue tang (5.5 inches): bought at 2 inches, one of thesurvivors of the crash. Super hardy, nicecolor, personality and has gotten really thick and is a pig almost as much asthe Vlamingii. I conclude that is whypeople love tangs so much, always out in the open, swimming looking for foodand colorful.

 

[clekchau]

Chrysurus Angel (6 inches): Bought or should I say rescued this poor guy from some local reef guy at 3 inches. When the beautiful fish started nipping on his corals, I think he aggressively caught him and stuck him in the sump until he sold him, barely fed him probably because he was very thin. I almost didn't buy him but felt bad for him. Now he is a very fat and healthy fish and my biggest angel, although he is somewhat shy, probably from how he was caught and handled beforehand

 

[jerth6932]

Very nice, how long was your turn-a-round?

 

[clekchau]

Juvenile Angels:
French and Emperator came in together from Diver’s den and were eating from day 1, they hang out together and even clean each other, it’s hilarious. Emperator is especially very responsive always coming front and center begging for food and following you around. French also is a character, he wags his tale when swimming and my wife and daughter get a huge kick out of this, I need to videotape it someday.
Blueface, Annularis and Mac also came from Diver’s den about 2 weeks later. All were also eating from day one. Mac was tank raised and bred (I believe) and swimming around the tank like he owned but doesn’t hang out with the French or Emperator, also it’s incredibly difficult to get a shot of the Mac because he doesn’t stay still. Annularis and Blueface are a bit shy, both are not as outgoing but beautiful also, I think with time they will be just as much of characters as the other two. They have only been in the tank for a short while and already eating so I can’t ask for much more

 

[clekchau]

do you mean after the crash? it was rather sad, fish all died within 2 weeks, the rest took another 2 to 3 months to fully recover with alot of backbreaking water changes, hypo, etc .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerth6932 http:///t/388784/550-gallon-fowlr-in-wall-diary#post_3430963
Very nice, how long was your turn-a-round?

 

[clekchau]

snowflake moray, also a survivor of tank crash, he is really tame, he eats out of my hand, no feeding stick required, i just swish the shrimp or squid in the water a few times and he smells it and comes up, sometimes the big vlamingii steals it lol. here are a few pics of him popping out:

 

[clekchau]

marine betta a really cool fish, super hardy survived the tank crash, perches on rocks like a grouper (i think they are groupers?)

 

[clekchau]

1 inch royal gramma, so spunky for such a little fish, always moving so hard to get a good pic, here is a blurry pic of him in his huge territory of cavey live rock