Fishfreak2009's 65 Gallon

[Fishfreak2009]

Figured I'd start the build thread for this tank. Finally got the fancy goldfish (orandas, ryukins, and lionhead) moved into their 150 gallon stock tank, so started this tank up! This tank will be eventually be a mixed reef (once I upgrade the lighting) and will be run sumpless, using a canister and refugium.

Items used:
1. 65 gallon Marineland Ensemble
2. Eheim Jager 300W heater
3. Eheim 2217 Canister with biomedia and filter floss changed every 3-4 days
4. Around 60 lbs of dry rock (carib sea, all dry rock, with a few painted pieces)
5. 50 lbs of caribsea dry aragonite, 10 lbs of caribsea fiji pink live sand
6. Fluval AC110 HOB filter, with all media removed, instead filled with some dry rock rubble and live Caulerpa to act as a refugium.
7. Lighting: 2x 36" Aqueon Optibright LEDs, which will eventually be upgraded to Viparspectras like my other reefs once I decide to add coral to this tank (probably after I finish stocking corals in my 47 gallon and both fluval evos).
8. Refugium lighting: using the stock light that came with one of my fluval evos. Seems to grow Caulerpa really well.

This tank was filled with water as of 2 days ago, and the first fish were added yesterday. It was seeded with live bacteria using both BioSpira and Microbacter7, the same way I have started all my other setups.

So far, the stocklist includes:
1 Helfrichi Firefish
2 Brown Saddleback Clownfish

I am open to any other suggestions on fish for this setup! They need to be reef safe, as I will be keeping a variety of corals in here eventually, including plenty of SPS, LPS, and zoas.

 

[CoralB]

I would be more patient , I wouldn’t have added any fish with tank only been up for 2 days . This tank needs to cycle and your risking killing these fish .

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I would be more patient , I wouldn’t have added any fish with tank only been up for 2 days . This tank needs to cycle and your risking killing these fish .

Not worried about it. This is not my first tank doing it this way. See my 75 gallon tank if you're curious. I've been starting tanks this way for quite a while, including my old 380 gallon setup as well. These fish have been at my house for quite some time in a quarantine tank before moving into this setup.

 

[CoralB]

Quarantine isn’t my concern it’s the ammonia spikes during the cycling process that is the risk. You asked for any suggestions and that would be mine .

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Quarantine isn’t my concern it’s the ammonia spikes during the cycling process that is the risk

Never had any issues with it following my method of using a variety of bottled bacterias. I also monitor the tank, but again, this will be the 6th tank I've started this way, and they are 3 small fish in 65 gallons of water. Again, my 75 gallon was started the same way, with 3x as many fish added the first 24 hrs after setup, and even adding some Acropora corals within the first week (all of which have grown quite well). It may not work for some people, but it works for me, and I'll continue to do what works well for me.

 

[blaxsun]

Not worried about it. This is not my first tank doing it this way. See my 75 gallon tank if you're curious. I've been starting tanks this way for quite a while, including my old 380 gallon setup as well. These fish have been at my house for quite some time in a quarantine tank before moving into this setup.

Bio-Spira works great to insta-cycle your tank (I've used it successfully myself). And two fish is a drop in the bucket for a 150-gallon tank, so to speak.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Bio-Spira works great to insta-cycle your tank (I've used it successfully myself). And two fish is a drop in the bucket for a 150-gallon tank, so to speak.

Yup! I use Biospira, Microbacter7, and PNS ProBio normally. Haven't added the PNS yet, but will order some next week.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Diatoms are in full swing on the 65 gallon, but the helfrichi firefish and saddlebacks don't seem to mind!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

A few updates:

Update number 1: Added 2 big mexican turbo snails a few days ago for the diatom bloom. They're really making a dent in the algae, but don't seem to care about the massive clumps of Caulerpa I added from my refugium on the 75 gallon, which is great since I want it to take off in here. I also added a few pieces of rubble from my 75 gallon, along with a bunch of grey and white sponge I harvested off the bottoms of the rocks in there. You can see in the first picture the impact that the 2 turbo snails had after only 2 hours in the tank, leaving vivid white stripes where they were grazing.

Update number 2: While working yesterday, we had an amazing looking batch of balloon mollies come with the fish shipment. So I bought a few to work on the algae in this tank. Acclimation consisted of temp floating, then straight from freshwater to saltwater. I've always had better luck transitioning mollies using this method. The saddleback clowns were a little rough on them at first, but they seem to be getting along fine now. The mollies are already hard at work on the diatoms and the little bit of hair algae growing on the Caulerpa.

Update number 3: Wifey took me to a LFS today to go window shopping, with no real plans to purchase anything. We ended up coming home with 2 fish! We picked up a female grey bellied regal angel (Pygoplites diacanthus) roughly 3.5" long from Singapore, and a female xanthurus cream angel (Apolemichthys xanthurus) around 3" long, also from Singapore. Both fish arrived at the shop earlier today, but seemed very inquisitive and alert. They have good body condition and don't seem lethargic by any means. They will be going through a modified treatment plan of sorts. They are currently going through a 90 minute bath in Ruby Reef Rally Pro, then will be added to the display. Tomorrow they will be treated with praziquantel, which will be repeated every 7 days for the next 3 weeks, and on the days it is not being dosed, I will be running an appropriately sized UV sterilizer with proper flowrate for protozoans. And if necessary, I will pull the fish from the system and copper treat them in a quarantine system, but I'd rather give them the chance to pick at some rocks, live sponges, and macroalgae in the main tank where they will feel more comfortable.

Update 4: Obviously the regal angel and cream angel are going to eventually be too large for this setup. My amazing wife actually gave me the ok to watch for the right deal on a used 180 gallon locally to upgrade this system into within the next year or so. If we are not able to find a 180 gallon used for the right price with stand and canopy I have multiple large rubbermaid stock tanks I can use (anywhere from 150-300 gallons) until we do find the right glass or Acrylic aquarium. We plan on making it an angel and butterfly dominant display FOWLR.

And for those of you who made it through this small novel of a post, I'm sorry about the junk pictures tonight. I will try to grab some pictures tomorrow after I clean the glass up a bit and when the new fish are hopefully out and not hiding.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Added some more balloon mollies today. They're really going to town on the diatoms, and are excellent dither fish for the angels and helfrichi firefish.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Added a trio of camel shrimp, who are now hiding in the rocks and a sponge crab. Excited to add some of the more interesting inverts in here that I can't keep in my reef tanks.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update: The balloon mollies had babies already! I found 6 in the tank and have separated them off into a breeder net box. Hopefully they continue to grow and do well. Here are a couple pics from today.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

They may look tacky, but I threw in a bunch of plastic plants for now, both as a way to break up lines of sight and to give baby mollies a place to hide from the bigger fish.

I added a few fish today:
1 Koran Angel (Pomacanthus semicirculatus)
1 Latticed Butterflyfish (Chaetodon rafflesi)
1 Yellow Headed Jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons)

All 3 are already eating frozen, and the koran is already eating pellets and flakes. They seem to be doing well. There was some aggression from the regal at first (definitely the tank boss, but mostly just posturing), but that has pretty much subsided. The tank will be re-dosed with prazipro tomorrow after a 25% water change. UV is still running as well.

I'll grab some pictures in the morning once the lights are back on.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Not the best pics, but they're something. All the fish eat frozen, including the new butterfly. He ate frozen mysis and is picking at frozen clams on the half shell.

 

[Oldsman]

Good start ! Wife definitely wants a butterfly when we set up a fowlr 75 later this fall. She's pretty stuck on a pearlscale or similar size one , yours has fantastic markings

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Good start ! Wife definitely wants a butterfly when we set up a fowlr 75 later this fall. She's pretty stuck on a pearlscale or similar size one , yours has fantastic markings

Pearlscale are an awesome choice! We plan on adding one again when we can find an established fish that is eating well. Sadly that can be pretty difficult with butterflyfish. The Latticed butterfly (Chaetodon rafflesi) we currently have in here is pretty picky, but slowly eating more. Prefers to graze from rockwork vs eating frozen, which he prefers over clam on the half shell surprisingly. I'm probably going to move a better established rock with lots of feather dusters and sponges over to see if he eats better, and got some more Rod's food today which he hopefully likes better than mysis (ran out of Rod's 2 days before we picked him up, and most of my LFS don't carry it).

One of my better LFS (Moby's in Waterford for all you SE Michigan peeps), has some really nice butterflies in right now. Prices are kinda high, but the fish are gorgeous and eating well. Trying to convince the wifey into either the yellow longnose, the pearlscale, or the pakistani, but I'm pretty sure she's going to make me wait a while. I've spent a LOT on the tanks recently.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

So came home to find velvet on all 3 angels, the butterfly, and the mollies. I've now pulled the inverts who are in a 20 gallon long, along with all the Caulerpa from the refugium and will let them stay in there until a full 76 day fallow period is done. I turned off the UV sterilizer and dosed the first dose of cupramine tonight. Fish are breathing a little fast but not too bad, and I decreased the temp a few degrees, dropped the water level slightly to increase oxygen being added, and added an airline hooked to an air pump for the same reason. Lights are also shut off on the display until the 30 days are up. There is plenty of ambient lighting in the same room, so the fish can see no problem.

I will be treating them for a full 30 days with Cupramine. I also pulled all the fish again and gave them another bath in Ruby Reef Rally Pro to hopefully help prevent secondary infection and to help ease the current infection. I ended up changing roughly 75% of the water in the tank tonight while removing the 3 shrimp, the crab, and the 2 snails. I figured it was the perfect time to do a large water change before medicating the tank.

The only good news is that all the fish are still eating, even the butterfly is taking Rod's food much better then it took the frozen mysis or clam on the half shell.

 

[Oldsman]

Ohh sorry to hear about your velvet outbreak. Thats what effected our fish, and wham it happened fast.
Those longnose bf look fantastic, and would make a great show fish when we set back up. I'm hoping to use live rock from kp and gulf rock for the new tank

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update: fish are doing well for the most part in cupramine at full strength. The butterfly has gone off feed, but still looks relatively fat, so hoping it starts back up. The regal, koran, and cream angel all eat frozen from my fingers now, the cupramine hasn't affected their appetite at all.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update: butterfly took a turn for the worse last night and didn't make it. The other fish all seem fine. I don't even see any spots on the other fish any more, but will continue the copper treatment for the next 30ish days. The angels continue to eat like pigs, and all 3 now eat prime reef flakes from my fingers.

Also picked up 2 new additions (being quarantined in separate tanks from this). Got a really nice 3" juvenile sohal tang and a pencil urchin from another local reefer. The tang is by itself in a 20g long for now, and the pencil urchin is in with the rest of the inverts as they sit fallow for the next 76 days.