My new 800g+ pentagon FOWLR tank

LaloJ · Jun 20, 2022

Awesome tank and nice build, do you have any updates?

dca22anderson · Jun 30, 2022

Steve, How are you doing? How's the new system?

Simo2004 · Jul 16, 2022

Just seen this and wow

You thought about blue ribbon eels.. Should nab your fish and are lovely

Any pictures of the joints on the glass always wondered how they do them in funny shaped tanks lol

How thick the glass 21mm?

srcleary · Sep 25, 2022

Hi all,

Sorry for the long delay in writing. It's been a long (and hot!) summer. And the big news is I am starting a new build! A 1,100g shark/ray/eel tank. More on that later.

The tank is finally getting to where I want it to be. I have done some wire management but have quite a bit more to do. I ran into things as I was establishing the tank and changing things around a bit so I stopped the wire management until I know exactly what equipment and such I am going to run.

I added an Apex but having some issues with it. Honestly I haven't done much with it until I, again, decided how exactly I was going to st everything up.

I added a chiller which does a nice job as the water was getting warm running through the 120w UV and large Reeflo pumps. I keep the tank around 76-77 degrees (I wanted it a little cooler for my prized Wrought Iron Butterfly) . I wonder if I even need heaters. I guess I do if we have a power outage (and running on generator) but that would be the only time.

I added a Trident, but I am going to remove it. I was going to dose and try to grow Coralline but decided against it. I am now working toward getting the rock work back to mostly white. It is a process, but I am already over half way to controlling all the cyano and nuisance algae. If I can get the rock work 70% white, I will be a happy camper.

I was fighting with Nitrates and doing 200g water changes. However I tried a sulfur reactor and was impressed by the results. I actually added three! (Major overkill, I now know) and learned the lesson of what happens when you don't have enough nitrates for the sulfur. Yikes!

I am down to one sulfur reactors, running quite fast, and my nitrates hover at 10, without water changes. And we feed heavy. I also run two deep sand beds in the sump refugium chambers. I do not have any CUC. I am starting to add pods.

It also took me a while to get the water crystal clear. I fought with algae and bacteria blooms and the common issues of a new tank. But it is nearly perfectly clear now and what a difference! I didn't realize how clear water could get and the dramatic difference it can make.

Everyone says it takes time for a tank to mature and I know they are right even though I was impatient working through the process.

I lost some fish, which was very sad. I had a small queen angel, a small blue face and a maze that I lost. And they were some of my favorites. It was just hard on the angels that were too small and the freakin' male flame angel beat up and killed a number of other small angels even though the flame came last. We also were not feeding as much as we are now while we were fighting with nitrates. I can feed heavy now but I suspect I can never add another angel.

Which leads me to the current fish load. I currenty have 55 fish but 2 - 4 are in trouble. I have a Razor Wrasse what is new (three weeks) and won't come out of the sand. We see him rarely poke his head out and when he tries to come out of the sand, the Yellow Hawk chases him back in. And I have a Watanabei Angel that got bullied during a recent power outage and is hiding a lot. I cannot remove fish because of the rock work and I suspect we might loose both. I also worry about my two Whiteface butterfly as they are such timid eaters.

While there are fish I would like to add to the tank, I guess I should be done adding. Agree? Or add a few more?

Here is my current stocking list.

Anthais = 9
Bimacs x8
Blothcy

Butterflyfish = 3
Wrought Iron (prized fish)
Whiteface x2 (not eating great)

Wrasses = 6
Dragon
Red Coris
Malaysian Sunset
Red Cheek
Formosa
Razor (hiding in sand, bummer)

Tangs = 12
Black (show size)
Blonde Naso (large male)
Achilles
Powder Blue
Whitetail Bristle
Gem (small)
Purple
Dussumiere
Fowleri
Feckled Face
Sohal
Mimic

Angels = 14
Emperor (large, tank boss)
Emperor (juvenile)
Blue Phantom (Poma Labs)
Goldflake Hydrids x2
Maculosus
Flame x2
Majestic
Scribbled x2
Watanabei (females) x3 (one in hiding)

Triggers = 4
Crosshatch (L male, my first fish!)
Picasso
Clown
Linespot

Hawk = 5
Tahitian Yellow x2
Flame x 3

Other = 2
Darwin Jawfish
Cleaner Wrasse

I apologize for the poor quality pictures but just snapped these...

Appreciate all who have followed and encouraged me along the way! Happy to answer any questions and I am very excited about the new build!

Steve

rocket098 · Sep 25, 2022

Can you talk about methods you use to get the rocks white.

Ironwill723 · Sep 25, 2022

Hi... great build! Can you tell me where you purchased the overflow towers from?

srcleary · Sep 25, 2022

rocket098 said:
Can you talk about methods you use to get the rocks white.

My first attack was to lower the nitrates. But it seems like 10 is about as low as I can go.

A few weeks ago I started adding Microbacter Clean. I dose weekly. I think this has made the biggest difference.

srcleary · Sep 25, 2022

Ironwill723 said:
Hi... great build! Can you tell me where you purchased the overflow towers from?

I purchased from Custom Aquariums. It seems they were the only ones who made them. Which seems weird to me why other suppliers don't offer them. It works great to have 360 viewing and not have a large center overflow.

I covered the outside with sand and small rocks so they really blend in. However I had to do some work to get everything to fit. Custom Aquariums offers to pre insert the overflow and return tubes and I should have let them do that. Only I did not know the exact height I needed so I said I would install myself. I had to cut a few of the bulkheads to make it work. It wasn't easy or fun assembling them myself.

Jeffcb · Sep 25, 2022

Looking awesome!

Ironwill723 · Sep 25, 2022

srcleary said:
I purchased from Custom Aquariums. It seems they were the only ones who made them. Which seems weird to me why other suppliers don't offer them. It works great to have 360 viewing and not have a large center overflow.

I covered the outside with sand and small rocks so they really blend in. However I had to do some work to get everything to fit. Custom Aquariums offers to pre insert the overflow and return tubes and I should have let them do that. Only I did not know the exact height I needed so I said I would install myself. I had to cut a few of the bulkheads to make it work. It wasn't easy or fun assembling them myself.

Thanks for the info. I'm debating between making my new 300g build an 8ft island tank vs a peninsula. Not sure about a big overflow box tower in the center of the tank or doing the more traditional peninsula style overflow. By the way, how do you find the 16" of walk around space on the back side of your tank? Is that enough room to do maintenance?

srcleary · Sep 25, 2022

Ironwill723 said:
Thanks for the info. I'm debating between making my new 300g build an 8ft island tank vs a peninsula. Not sure about a big overflow box tower in the center of the tank or doing the more traditional peninsula style overflow. By the way, how do you find the 16" of walk around space on the back side of your tank? Is that enough room to do maintenance?

My new build (1,100g) is going to be a peninsula. But I do like the tower overflows in the 800g. I would recommend them as long as the supplier pre-installs the bulkheads, return and intake lines. Also, they are not cheap. I used a higher quality Hayward bulkhead (schedule 80) and I highly recommend it.

16" is tight for sure. I would probably recommend 18" but I couldn't push the tank out more and not hit a glass door. But 16" is doable. And I'm 5'-11" and a bit over 200lbs. I certainly wouldn't recommend any less.