37 Gallon Extra-High FOWLR Tank!

ChrissFishes01 · Dec 23, 2019

Hey guys!

New here, so I apologize for any errors in this post in advance. I'm not to keeping aquariums, though. I've had freshwater, brackish, reef tanks, macro tanks, etc... I've never had a FOWLR tank, though! I've always wanted coral or macros or something like that in the tank. That said, I got this 37 XH tank (basically a 20 long, but super tall) for basically free, and I'm ready to start setting it up as a FOWLR tank. I gotta move my tiger barbs and my crawdad out of it tomorrow, and I think I'll be adding some rock and saltwater tomorrow night. Here's some basic info about the tank:

Equipment:
37 gallon Extra-High tank - 30"x12"x22"
Stock lighting (cheap LEDs - might replace with something else in the future)
Top Fin HOB (just there to run some media for a QT and maybe some carbon or something)
Aqueon 950 Powerhead (I have two - should I run both?)
Top Fin 150W Heater (cheap, but they last for a while)

Planned livestock:
3 Mollies (already acclimated, going to be the first additions)
1 Blue Spotted Puffer (already in QT)
2 Ocellaris Clowns
Possibly 1 other small goby or something like that

So, yeah. This tank should be pretty simple, and that's the goal - simplicity. I feel like sometimes I get caught up in enjoying my macros and coral and I don't always appreciate my fish to their fullest. I might eventually add a few macros to this tank, but I doubt this'll ever become anything much more than FOWLR.

Puffer in QT:

Any advice, comments, or concerns are more than welcome!

boacvh · Dec 24, 2019

Welcome to R2R!
Love that Puffer!. I have the same 37g XH Top Fin tank set as my QT. And I love it. I have also thought about making it a full time FOWLR tank, so definitely following this!

ChrissFishes01 · Dec 24, 2019

Glad to hear! I like the height, mainly due to the fact that I've never had that in an aquarium before.

I've added 12 lbs of live rock and around 20 lbs of "dry" (it was in a curing bin) rock, and it barely gets halfway up the tank. I'll probably add 10-20 more lbs of rock in the future, as right now, the tank looks pretty empty.

I went ahead and tossed in the mollies as well, as I felt bad for them in their bare QT. They had been in there for going on two months, so I decided they deserved an upgrade! I'll keep a close eye for ammonia of course, but I think it'll be okay. The rock seemed pretty clean-ish.

The puffer is doing great, too! Eating well and coloring up nicely.

boacvh · Dec 24, 2019

That looks great!, And yes the height looks like a challenge for the aquascape. I had been considering maybe using the shapes rocks from caribsea to build a tall structure....but for now it's just a plan

ChrissFishes01 · Dec 25, 2019

Thanks! I've never been much of a scaper, so I just sorta stacked it up and hoped for the best.

I'm thinking that maybe somewhere down the road getting some dead coral skeletons (or branching rock) and epoxying them to the top of the current scape might get me some more height. I've also considering doing some easy display macros at some point, too, and that could add some height.

I also added in a Yellow Clown Goby from my 5.5 gallon. I had two in there, and was trying to pair them, but had no luck after almost a month. They weren't fighting, but the bigger one was definitely dominating the smaller one. I think in a bigger tank I would have had more luck with getting them to pair - I just felt bad for the little guy, which is why he gets to go into this tank.

He's tiny, but the bright yellow really shines from across the room. In the 5.5, both of them stayed perched on the glass in corners to stay away from each other. I'm hoping both of them will start perching on the rock more often, and so far, the guy I moved over has already been much more active. You can see he's much smaller than even a young molly, and is actually a bit smaller than a krill. He started eating basically 5 minutes after he was added, so I think he'll fatten up and settle into this tank just fine.