50g Semi-Aggressive FOWLR

[Wandering Albatross]

New build starting, tank gifted by father and his wife, tank stand by grandmother. I know the build thread is late, life got in the way of a full write-up.

Equipment and gear:

• 50g tank, 48"x12"x20, no sump, no drilling
• 60lbs brs dry rock
• 40lbs oceandirect special grade live sand
• 16lbs AF sand
• 55-75g tank stand (Amazon: 55-75 Gallon Fish Tank Stand with Power Outlet, Rustic Wood Aquarium Table with Cabinet and Shelf, Heavy Duty Metal Rack for Turtle Tank, Reptile Terrarium, 1000LBS Capacity, Brown)
• 200w Innovative marine heater
• magtool gyre max 4200gph
• hygger gyre max 2500gph
• HOB filter (there as backup, not yet used)

Proposed stocking (may be altered):

1-2 blue spot puffers
1-2 coral beauty angels
2 melanurus wrasse
2 purple firefish
2 purple stripe or neon dottybacks
2 skunk clowns (nem debatable)
1-2 flame/falco hawkfish or red dragonet
1-2 orange spot or starry blenny
2 engineer gobies or jawfish
1+short spine urchin
1+ linkia star
??? assorted CUC

Unlike my 150g reef, I used reef cement to lock the rocks together, given the vertical nature of this tank. I tried E-Macro-400 aquascaping mortar. It doesn't stick well on its own, so if you want gravity-defying towers, make sure to use additional supports to hold the structure in place during the curing process. It dissolves in water when freshly made, so this works best on completely clean, dry rock. If left totally untouched for 24 hours, it will cure with a strong hold. But IME, if added to water or 'tested' for strength before the full 24h, it will break loose, and you cannot rework it. Anyway, I was limited by the narrowness of the tank, so I had to use more arching type structures. I went with 2 freestanding islands over one large structure. Tank is held at 77 degrees, and is fairly low flow, compared to the 150. Poor quality pictures incoming.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

 

[Wandering Albatross]

The goal of this tank was a puffer, but since I had space, I opted to add other semi-aggressive fish, things that might not work in the reef. Right now, my first fish batch is in the tank, as of Feb 17th, 2 baby melanurus, and 2 baby purple firefish. They came in waaay smaller than I thought they would. The wrasse took a couple days to come out of the sand, one of the firefish I just saw today. Other is still MIA, but I know they're shy. I hatched baby brine directly in the tank, and that has been their primary food source. They are either too small or too unsure to take frozen yet, at least that I've seen. Every few days I'll add another pinch of brine eggs, so new ones are always hatching.

Not part of the plan, but my new CBBs for the 150 got in a little scuffle, so one had to be dumped in this tank to heal and strengthen up. They'll be reintroduced again with an acclimation box later on, but for now he fits really well in this tank, they both eat well, love frozen bloodworms and will chase them down. One of my spotted mandarins started causing problems with his brothers, so he is also sitting in here for now. He might get to stay because of his size, and that he eats frozen and pellets like a total pig. I think the other fish are actually helping the new guys get comfortable, considering they're both pretty passive towards non-related fish.

At present, this tank doesn't have a light, but there is enough light in the room to give them a kind of schedule. The only thing currently filtering this tank is the rock and sand, but a HOB is on standby. I might have to wait a touch longer than I expected to add my next batch of fish, these guys are so small still. Maybe the baby skunks would be okay. I'll try to keep these build threads updated.

Cheers