45G FOWLR Tank

[fladiver]

Well, that’s escalated quickly.

Tank now has:
2 clowns
1 Bangai cardinal
1 firefish
1 yellow watchman goby
1 royal gramma
1 banded coral shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
1 rose pincushion urchin
1 brittle star
Various trochus/nassarius/cerith snails
Various blue leg hermits

Also took the plunge and added some green star polyps and zoas. So far so good and loving the new colors.

Still doing every-other-week water changes.

 

[fladiver]

Well, that’s escalated quickly.

Tank now has:
2 clowns
1 Bangai cardinal
1 firefish
1 yellow watchman goby
1 royal gramma
1 banded coral shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
1 rose pincushion urchin
1 brittle star
Various trochus/nassarius/cerith snails
Various blue leg hermits

Also took the plunge and added some green star polyps and zoas. So far so good and loving the new colors.

Still doing every-other-week water changes.

Been a busy last month. Continued to add soft coral and a few LPS. Tank now has 5-6 zoa frags, toadstool leather, Duncan, toxic green cabbage, and sympodium.

Also acquired a Kessil a360w light that I was able to make a DIY mount for thanks to a fellow R2R’s post. Trying to dial those in now.

Tank was initially designed thinking I’d only do FOWLR, so there was not much thought into ensuring maximum surface area for coral placement. Any ideas to increase the area?

View attachment 4255954

 

[fladiver]

Few more additions...added WWC Solomon Hairy Leather, a few mushrooms, and christmas favia. Also was able to get the Kessil DIY stand completed. Coming along!

 

[fladiver]

Few more additions...added WWC Solomon Hairy Leather, a few mushrooms, and christmas favia. Also was able to get the Kessil DIY stand completed. Coming along!

Well, it has been almost a year since last update. There have been some positives and negatives...I'm currently on what I hope is the tail end of battling GHA. My phosphate was consistently at .3 which I have suspected is the primary cause. I've since cut back on feeding, tried rinsing the frozen food, and eliminated the coral gumbo, which recently got me to .15 for phosphate. Hoping that trend continues. GSP got super ticked during phosphate spike and were basically AWOL for what seemed like weeks. But once the downward trend started, I started seeing some activity and it seems it is slowly coming back.

I apparently have a soft spot for voracious and aggressive inverts, as I had a brittle star for a little while until it killed multiple fish/inverts. Some fish just disappeared. Ultimately traded him, then scored a reef lobster that is a total ****** but is super cool to watch. Just can't have any more crabs in the tank.

Inhabitants are currently just the two clowns and the cardinal. I've been adding here and there to the coral situation.

Biggest equipment upgrade was the recent addition of a second a360x which allowed me to get rid of the reefbar pro on top. Light distribution is noticeably better and I'm currently doing max 25 intensity for the time being to allow everything to acclimate. But, this should open up some coral opportunities not only with the elimination of the middle dark spot but also in case I get the itch to go for some higher PAR corals...