My 65g FOWLR, pics and info

[ACBlinky]

Just posting some pictures of my tank, it's coming along nicely and I'm pretty happy with things. It's going through some new tank 'growing pains' like cyano, but the parameters are great (NH3, NO2, NO3 and PO4 all 0 thanks to the Caulerpa)

Feel free to let me know what you think :)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/FTS/65gFTSJan14.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/Reef%20fish/AngelJan14.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/Reef%20fish/Damsel_dbJan14.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/Reef%20fish/Damsel_gobiesJan14.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/Reef%20fish/HawkJan14.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/Reef%20fish/SG3Jan1.jpg

Tank info:
65g (L36" x W18" x H24")
300W PC lighting
XP2 canister filter
Prizm deluxe protein skimmer
2 - MaxiJet 1200 PHs
65lbs live rock

Fish:
1 - Chrysiptera taupou South Sea devil damsel
1 - Pseudochromis aldabrensis neon dottyback
2 - Valenciennea sexguttata six-spot sleeper gobies (pair)
1 - Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus coral hawkfish
1 - Apolemichthys trimaculatus three-spot angel

Inverts:
2 - electric blue hermit crabs
1 - electric orange hermit crab
3 - scarlet hermit crabs
10 - mini blueleg hermit crabs
5 - Hawaiian 'left handed' zebra hermit crabs
5 - Cerith snails
3 - Trochus snails
18 - Astraea snails
1 - Stomatella snail (LR hitchhiker)
4 - turbo snails

[Andrew]

Looks good! Your aquascaping looks great. :D

[Patchy]

very nice.... two thumbs up!

[Hattie B]

looks great.. I love your gobies..

[cmulawka]

Nice growth on the LR and the gobies :)

[Absint Reefer]

Very NICE! Do you plan on adding any coral to your tank you have enough light for it?

[ACBlinky]

Thank you all so much for the kind words!

I love the gobies as well, I feel incredibly lucky to have found a pair - they were actually separated by a glass pane at the LFS but looked like they were trying to get to each other. I took a chance and brought them home, and they've been inseparable ever since :D


The Carson - there's a Xenia frag in the tank now, it's growing like crazy in the reef so I figured why not try it out. So far the angel isn't bothering it, but flagfins aren't considered reef safe at all so I doubt I'll put in many corals. I may try a few, just to make the tank look better, but won't put in anything I can't bear parting with :)

[Cody Ray]

I really like your setup, especially the bubble calurpa.

[LisaD]

It's looking great, you got the colorful, personable fish you were looking for. :) I LOVE the angel.

[pitt_prodigy]

I really like the look of your aquascape....very natural. Great choice of fish too....colors really accent your tank. Nice work!

[michindi]

Great looking pair of gobies. Good luck with the tank in the future

[ACBlinky]

Thank you very much guys, I'm so glad it's going over well. I'm not surprised the gobies seem to be everyone's favourite - it took them about half a minute to win me over; they're absolutely loaded with personality, and who couldn't love a face like that? :)

ChinChek787 - thanks, I like the Caulerpa too... I think. It's neat looking, but holy cow it's invasive. I don't think I'd put this stuff in a reef, every stem literally grows about 1" a day. It's wonderful for nutrient export though!

LisaD - it didn't turn out exactly the way we'd envisioned, but we're happy :) The most colourful fish is only 1.5" long (dottyback), but WOW does he pop! I love the angel too (he's my favourite, don't tell the gobies), he was a find and a half. And to think, I nearly bought a lemonpeel - so glad I found this guy first :D

Just a side note, the flagfin has actually been in captivity for about four months - he came in to the LFS as an accidental, and an employee took him home. They managed to get him eating, and then for some reason decided to give him up. I absolutely, positively could not resist when I saw him.

[sean48183]

I like the tank but I would reduce the lighting by half. The stuff you have in there doesn't need alot of light and sooner or later hair algae will crop up and that is horrible to deal with. Even the caulerpa won't be able to keep up. The hair algae will grow right on top of it. I know this from experience. I had a very similar setup as you when I started. Caulepa and everything.

[jcopp24]

Awesome setup... I like the natural look that you took.

The gobies that you have look like one that I have at home... do either of those gobies have a black dot on their main dorsal fin? Mine look identical to yours except for the black spot.

I can not get that thing to stop cleaning and eating... I always hated having a sand bed in my 20GL Nano... it was hard to keep clean... then I bought that lil fella... my sand stays perfect... as a matter of fact he has a habit of pulling sand from the sides of the rocks... which makes it look more natural.

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

very cool looking tank...

[ACBlinky]

sean48183 - wow, thanks for that advice. I initially flip-flopped, couldn't decide whether to go reef or not, and I had the lighting anyway (this used to be a high-light planted FW tank) so thought why not... the 96W 10K/6700K daylight bulb is 12 months old, but the two 55W and the 96W actinic are brand new last month. I was actually going to replace the older bulb this week, guess I'll hold off on that! I'll have to think about the lighting, I'm not really keen on having everything covered in hair algae - there's natural, and then there's TOO natural, lol.

jcopp24 - same gobies, they've got black spots at the tips of their dorsal fins. Great little sand movers, mine like to make crazy piles too :D

ChAoTiCrEeFeR4U - thanks :)

[Boat Racer]

Very Nice:)

[cjvolitan]

nice tank.
i have one of thouse south sea devils and he is a TERROR!!!

[ACBlinky]

Really? Sorry to hear that - they're gorgeous, but not nearly as appealing when they misbehave.
My little girl's a sweetheart. She was the first fish in the tank and I expected some trouble when I added tankmates, but the worst thing she ever did was shake her tail at the gobies for the first day or two. She didn't bat an eyelash at the angel or the hawk (who also harassed the gobies for a while). She's a bright, friendly little fish but after everything I've read about damsels, I keep waiting for the day when my good fish goes bad :D

[I like Triggers]

nice tank. the gobies look really cool, and i love the damsel, im a big damsel fan.

[ACBlinky]

Thank you!
I'm a huge fan of damsels too; 'Jewel' is one of my favourite fish. So much colour, activity and personality wrapped up in a pretty little package :D

[sean48183]

Damsels get a bad rap but you just have to know how to deal with them. Don't mix shy fish with them and when adding new fish add a few at a time. IMO they're colorful, active, hardy and cheap. Can't beat em.