Switching from FOWLER to Reef seeking advice

Miller535 · Dec 11, 2019

Hello all. I am converting my 125 gallon Fowler tank to a reef tank. I have never kept coral before. I was wondering what advice those of you with experience would give? A little info about the tank. I have 4 Kessil 360X's, a Reef octopus 220INT, Carbon and GFO reactors, 55 gallon sump. Thank you kindly for your time.

BeejReef · Dec 11, 2019

Nice gear and nice sized sump!
You're giving yourself every chance to be real successful.

What kind of reef are you hoping to achieve? Are your existing fish reef safe?

SPR1968 · Dec 11, 2019

As far as keeping coral is concerned it’s just a matter of maintaining the correct and stable water parameters. Think of yourself as just a ‘water keeper’.

You might find this helpful

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

And Welcome to R2R by the way!

artieg1 · Dec 11, 2019

I did the same thing for my 200 gallon DT, which we started up 4 years ago. Started as a FOWLR (I always wanted a porcupine puffer), but eventually just had to have corals. I had everything in place (large sump, huge skimmer) for water quality, but my lighting was not adequate. If you are having issues, lighting is a very likely culprit. Those Kessils seem like the kind of lighting you would want, but I've never used them.

One last piece of advice. As I was switching over, I tried to keep my angels and it caused me no end of grief. I would remove any (*ANY*) angels you have, and any wrasses that are not clearly reef safe. I no longer introduce any fish that is "with caution" for reef safety. It is not possible to watch the angels 24/7, and if they nip at corals even once a day it can cause issues that you try to solve with other solutions and next thing you know you are down a rabbit hole… (been there, done that).