hikebikebrew
Active Member
My first marine tank is a 4x2x2 120g that I've had up and running for 18 months. Its stable and doesn't have any issues but seems kind of dull now and I'm starting to loose interest in it. I enjoy watching all of my livestock, but it definitely doesn't hold my attention like it once did. Part of it likely is that I set it up as a FOWLR to help ease into the hobby which was a success. About 6 months ago, I set up a WB 90.3 as a mixed reef and that is really going well and certainly gets much more of my attention.
I'm at a point where I'm trying to decide what to do with my 120g going forward. I think there are four options: keep it FOWLR, take it down & just have 1 tank, take it down and replace, convert to reef.
Has anyone been here with a FOWLR tank before? What did you do? If you kept it FOWLR, what did you do to re-invigorate your interest?
Wife likes option 2. But the two tanks are in different places in our house - 120g is in the main living area, while the 90.3 is in our office upstairs. Not moving the tank downstairs to replace the 120g. So I'm not that big of a fan of this option.
I like the idea of taking it down and getting a different setup in its place as a reef tank. The draw there is that i could potentially go bigger with the space available. The price tag for that makes me (and the wife) not like that option as much though. Bigger does seem like a great idea though...
Last idea of converting my existing tank to reef seems to scratch most of the itches at the lowest tradeoff. I'd have to go through the livestock and trade what isn't reef safe, re-assess my lighting and update the aquascaping. I know some of my lifestock will need to be traded at some point anyway. This is probably the most likely option at this point.
Wanted to post my thoughts and get some input. Anyone else been here? What does everyone else think?
FWIW, current livestock in 120:
Sailfin Tang (~5")
Niger Trigger (~4")
foxface rabbit fish
princess parrot fish (4")
banana wrasse (6")
melanurus wrasse
Rusty Angel
mandarin goby
Cleaner shrimp
long spine urchin
chocolate chip star fish
hermit crabs
turbo snails
I'm at a point where I'm trying to decide what to do with my 120g going forward. I think there are four options: keep it FOWLR, take it down & just have 1 tank, take it down and replace, convert to reef.
Has anyone been here with a FOWLR tank before? What did you do? If you kept it FOWLR, what did you do to re-invigorate your interest?
Wife likes option 2. But the two tanks are in different places in our house - 120g is in the main living area, while the 90.3 is in our office upstairs. Not moving the tank downstairs to replace the 120g. So I'm not that big of a fan of this option.
I like the idea of taking it down and getting a different setup in its place as a reef tank. The draw there is that i could potentially go bigger with the space available. The price tag for that makes me (and the wife) not like that option as much though. Bigger does seem like a great idea though...
Last idea of converting my existing tank to reef seems to scratch most of the itches at the lowest tradeoff. I'd have to go through the livestock and trade what isn't reef safe, re-assess my lighting and update the aquascaping. I know some of my lifestock will need to be traded at some point anyway. This is probably the most likely option at this point.
Wanted to post my thoughts and get some input. Anyone else been here? What does everyone else think?
FWIW, current livestock in 120:
Sailfin Tang (~5")
Niger Trigger (~4")
foxface rabbit fish
princess parrot fish (4")
banana wrasse (6")
melanurus wrasse
Rusty Angel
mandarin goby
Cleaner shrimp
long spine urchin
chocolate chip star fish
hermit crabs
turbo snails
