December 27

Well I want to start a journal of my 55 gallon saltwater FOWLR tank. I am going to use a spare 55 gallon I had in my garage. Shall we begin?

Equipment

55 gallon All-Glass tank(48"Lx13"Wx20"H)
Wood stand
Aquaclear 110
Remora protein skimmer
3 Maxijet 1200's
Current Satellite 2x65watt Power Compact light system
1 100watt All-Glass heater
30lbs of base rock from hirocks.com
4-5lbs of live rock
40lbs of white sand

Livestock

Fish

1-2 False Perculas
3 Blue/Green Reef Chromis
1 Sixe Line Wrasse or 1 Carpenters Flasher Wrasse
1 Bicolor Angelfish or 1 Half Black Angelfish

Inverts

Either 1 Skunk cleaner shrimp or 1 Fire shrimp
Snails and crabs I have not decided on the number, but there will be quite a few of them.

Empty tank on stand

January 4

I painted the back and it looks 100% better than the background. Also I received the Remora and the Three Maxijets.

January 5

Pictures

Added the water and the salt


Water started to clear up


Side shot


Added the sand


Moonlights


The powerheads are creating great flow throughout the tank and the light makes the tank nice and bright. I will post a better full tank shot once the water is completely clear.

January 7

Here is a cool angle shot.

January 13

Here is a new full tank shot.

I have been rethinking my plans for this tank. This tank was going to be setup as you see it now as a FOWLR, but now I am thinking of slowly turning this tank into a reef. I have not added any livestock so it gives me time to make a decision about what to do with this tank. Here are my new plans for this tank.

1. Add overflow box, drained to a 10g fuge( LR, sand, macro algae), then gravity drained to another 10g containing my Remora protein skimmer, finally being pumped back to the display tank.

2.) Upgrade lighting. Possibly Metal Halide and VHO combo installed into a canopy.

3.) Add around 20-30lbs of Fiji Live rock.

All of these changes will happen slowly.

:)

Very nice. It looks taller than a 55 though... maybe it's just me.

It is a standard 55 gallon made by All-Glass 48"Lx13"Wx20"H, but yeah it does look quite tall in the pictures.

Well a couple weeks ago I had the light fixture off the tank so I could move around the powerheads and I accidentally knocked over the fixture breaking the bulbs so I will have to order a couple more. I used the 18w fixture from my 2.5g and placed it over the 55 gallon and took some pictures.







I added a couple Margarita snails, and Hermits. I will be ordering two more bulbs and about 10lbs of fiji live rock in the next couple weeks.

i love that light how it is like a spotlight on the coral

I have no coral in the tank yet. :)

That is a cool effect... I wonder if it would actually work with a halogen light or something... hmm... <_<


Ok I REALLY need to quit DIYing everything...

i know almost nothing about SW so give me a break lol

Can't wait to see some updated pictures on the tank!

PerfectBlue, how is your 55 FOWLR coming along? Have any recent pics for us?

The tank is doing great. I still don't have the PC bulbs for my fixture, however I placed my 18w PC light fixture and a 18" No fluorescent fixture with a Marine-Glo bulb over the tank to provide temperary light.

Kool tank you have there. Very nice :D :up: keep it going!!!

Update: Over the last week I have added a couple fish to my tank including a tiny Ocellaris Clownfish and a Firefish which have settled in quite well and are eating like little pigs. :lol2: I plan on adding another Ocellaris Clownfish and a Sixline Wrasse but that wont be for awhile. I'll try and take a few pics of the fish and then I will post them. :)

Here are a few pictures I took of my new Ocellaris Clownfish and Firefish. They aren't very good pics because these fish are fast and hard to take good pics of.

They are heaps cool fish

Here is a pic I wanted to share. It is my collection cup from my AquaC Remora protein skimmer and what it pulled out.



Doesn't it look yummy? :lol:

Wow. That is dirty :P How much was that skimmer of yours. I might order one too if its cheap. Since it has a very large collection cup. :D

It was $165.00 and I ordered it from Marinedepot.

That is crazy why does it cost so much.

Wow. I think that it is cheap. Since a seaclone skimmer is already 100 around my place. And it could skim up to 75 gallons only. How many gph is that remora?

Update: Well I finally received my two 65w PC bulbs, which arrived today. I'm so glad to finally have my Current USA fixture up and running again. I also added a small Sandsifting Goby a few days ago, and he settled in quite nicely. I have taken many pictures of my tank and of the new Goby.

Full Tank Shots








Pic Of Tank At Night With Moonlights On


New Sandsifting Goby

Looks like it is coming along great! :up:

I'm just a freshwater person, though!

I'm enjoying your pictures!

Update: Well I setup my 20g fuge, connected it, and it is now running perfectly. The fuge is going to accomplish two things:

- Added water volume
- Will have Cheato which will consume nutrients and hopefully keep Nitrates down.
- Protein skimmer, heater, and thermometer is placed in the fuge to eliminate the clutter in the main tank.

I set up the fuge alittle differently then the typical method. Instead of having gravity or siphon drain water from the main tank to the fuge and using a pump to return the water I have a Maxijet 1200 pump water from my 55g into the fuge then the water drains back via hole drilled in fuge. I am also going to raise the PVC pipe that pumps water to the fuge so there it eliminates the chance of the water backflowing or siphoning water back into the tank and overflowing the tank if there is a power outage.

Here are some pictures I took:

Wow. That is really intresting. :D

All I can say is WOW! I have a coupla tanks the size o' that fuge! :lol: :up: Nice job too!

Update: I recently added another small Ocellaris Clownfish to give my current Clownfish some company. When I first added the new Clownfish there was some aggression from my current Clown but after awhile they settled down and are now swimming around the tank together. Here are a few new fts and pics of inhabitants.

Without Flash


With Flash




Misc Fish/Invert Pictures

amazing! are you going to fil the refugium with live rock?

I really do love that tank :)

Nope it is only going to have Chaeto.

Wow, I really like how u re-arange you rocks. You planning on any corals or anemone or etc....?

Thanks and no I am not planning on having coral at the moment but I hope to upgrade my lighting and will begin to stock the tank with coral.

Here is a cool pic I wanted to show you of my lighting fixture:

Great Looking tank PB, What kind of maintenance do you
have to do? It looks great!

Here is a list of some of the maintenance I do:

- Weekly water changes of around 10-15% although it varies from week to week

- Top off wth RO water evey few days

- Clean collection cup from skimmer every few days

- Clean powerheads every month or so.

- Test Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, and pH as well as measure salinity every so often.

Well I took down the 55 gallon and downgraded to a smaller tank but let my explain how this tank came into play. I've had my 55 gallon FOWLR tank running for about 6-7 months which is great but I really wanted to keep coral and I would have needed to upgrade my lighting which would have cost alot of money. My room was also getting a bit cramped expecially with this larger tank in the room. I decided to go with a 20 gallon long as it has nice dimensions imo. I took apart the Current USA fixture and will be mounting the lights into a custom canopy I'm in the process of building. I used everything from the 55 including the water. I only added the Firefish to this tank, but don't worry the other fish found good homes with local reefers.

I will either continue with the new tank in this journal or start a new one. :)