Starting a FOWLR System

mgilger · 01/14/2011, 01:43 PM

First off this is my first time writing on reefcentral, I do have a 34 gallon red sea max that has been up running as a softy and lps reef for 9 months now, So I am not new to the hobby.
I was wondering I have just recently purchased 95 gallon acrylic hexagon aquarium, at a great price, It is reef ready, and I want to turn it into a FOWLR tank. The specs of the tank are 36 inches high and 24 inches wide. With this kind of a set up would I have enough room to possibly keep a trigger and a snowflake eel? i really want to keep a porcupine puffer but I believe this tank is to small for one.
Any information on this would be great thank you.

TMF89 · 01/14/2011, 02:37 PM

Take everything I say with a grain of Instant Ocean (ha, see what I did there?), because I don't even have my tanks up and running yet! But I think with the Trigger it'd come down to swimming room. I'm not sure that 24" is enough for him, to give you an idea of what I mean I'm starting up a 29 gallon that's 30" long, and I'd like to put a flasher wrasse in. Well I've been told by mutliple people that even though the gallonage is fine, the tank is too short for the wrasse to feel comfortable because they're such active fish. I'm pretty sure Triggers are as well, but somebody who actually has one will definitely chime in though. I think you'd be alright with the Snowflake eel though. Maybe instead of a trigger you could do a dwarf lionfish or something?

MrTuskfish · 01/14/2011, 02:39 PM

Just my 2 cents: The shape of this tank just isn't very good for anything other than smaller fish. Triggers, etc. need horizontal swimming room and this tank has very little. A trigger would eventually go nuts with only 24" of swimming space. Lack of space=stress=aggression. I know very little about eels, so will do the right thing and shut up.

viggen · 01/14/2011, 02:42 PM

yea, way to small for a porc. puffer, they get over a foot long

usually triggers and eels aren't the best tankmates especially in smaller tanks, triggers can get nippy with eels

Also most triggers will get to big for the tank, unless you stick with one like a picasso or something like that. But as they get older they will more then likely show some agression towards all tankmates.

Possibly a sargassum trigger would work in there? I think they stay small & are not agressive

DoubleM 10 · 01/14/2011, 02:49 PM

well i agree with most of above. a trigger would not work being they would not have enough swim room

a set of dwarf lions or something like that would be good.

SFE would be fine but you would have to be able to reach the bottom to get him his food. lions are mor aggressive feederes than eel. only because eel cant see verywell. they have a really good sence of smell.

also a PP would be ok until they get large. i have seen one in a 120 hex and it looked happy and healthy. IDK how it would do in a 95 hex.

matt

mgilger · 01/14/2011, 02:50 PM

Yeah that was kind of what I was thinking the answers were going to be, but what other fish do you guys believe that I can keep in the tank? Or should I try to sell it and get a longer tank like a 125?

j4mypets · 01/15/2011, 05:44 AM

If budget allows and those are the fish you really want. Go as big as you can. I have a 180 and my porc puffer is 1 1/2 yrs old and is getting big fast. I am wanting to upgrade to a 340 just for him along with some of my other fish who are getting big including a trigger. Good luck

viggen · 01/15/2011, 09:28 PM

if you can & considering the fish you want I would sell the tank. Like mentioned above go as big as you can & it will still be to small. Been saying that for almost 20yrs now.... 29g to present day 220g & 475g... yea... they are to small

If I was in the market I would get a 6ft tank as a minimum, if you have room for something bigger/longer get it. A 125g isn't the best dimension wise, a 150 & especially the 180 or 220g takes up the same length with a little more depth & height & is a MUCH better tank. The variety of tangs, angels, triggers & puffers you can add with the larger tank is totally worth it.

mgilger · 01/16/2011, 01:37 AM

I'm convinced on the 180 or 210, you just have to convince my Wife

LOL. She says she'll never see me with a tank that big. Huh... with time I'll wear here down.... maybe. But for now 125 or about that is all she'll allow me.

LisaD · 01/16/2011, 10:05 AM

a 125 is a good sized tank. a 6' 125 was my first fish "big" tank. do realize you still can't keep the bigger triggers, puffers or angels - but there are species that would work fine. and you won't be able to have a whole lot of them. choose carefully. IMO 4 "big" fish (8-10") in a 125 is plenty. the number a tank can support varies on the activity level, aggression/territoriality, and capacity of filtration, but 4 is a good number, IMO. I have eight "large" fish in a 210, and that is plenty. In fact, I may be moving one or two to make room as they are approaching adult size.

if you want a trigger and a snowflake eel, you could get a huma huma trigger (or another in that genus) and the eel for the 125 with room for a few more fish. just be aware that most triggers (with a few species exceptions) can get quite aggressive as they mature. you will also want to select a trigger that gets no more than 10-12" at maturity. Undulate triggers are gorgeous, but pretty much need a species tank - they are compatible with just about nothing.

mgilger · 01/16/2011, 12:13 PM

You're exactly right, I was on lines with a Niger Trigger, Blue Jaw, or a Huma huma. I believe I just found a buyer for the tank, and I might be able to score the larger 120 or 125 tank, but I'm also considering that I might not get a trigger at all just because of how aggressive they are, and the size of the tank.

mgilger · 01/16/2011, 02:20 PM

I should mention that I am taking my time to setup this FOWLR tank, over the next 6 months I am trying to acquire the equipment that I need for this setup. The reason I am not setting up this tank yet is we live in an apartment, but I am purchasing a house in the next 6 months. So I am going to wait until i move so I do not have to move the tank. I have already purchased a protein skimmer off a guy on craigslist who never used it. It is a ASM G3 rated for 250 gallons w/ a sedra 5000 pump. I picked it up for 140 dollars which I thought was a great deal for a new protein skimmer. As I said early I am selling the Hexagon aquarium for a larger tank with more room for swimming around about 125 or so gallons. I've never had a FOWLR tank and wonder what other equipment people would recommend, Like should I go with a refugium or a open sump? is there anything that might help? Any information would be great thank you.

MrTuskfish · 01/17/2011, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgilger

I should mention that I am taking my time to setup this FOWLR tank, over the next 6 months I am trying to acquire the equipment that I need for this setup. The reason I am not setting up this tank yet is we live in an apartment, but I am purchasing a house in the next 6 months. So I am going to wait until i move so I do not have to move the tank. I have already purchased a protein skimmer off a guy on craigslist who never used it. It is a ASM G3 rated for 250 gallons w/ a sedra 5000 pump. I picked it up for 140 dollars which I thought was a great deal for a new protein skimmer. As I said early I am selling the Hexagon aquarium for a larger tank with more room for swimming around about 125 or so gallons. I've never had a FOWLR tank and wonder what other equipment people would recommend, Like should I go with a refugium or a open sump? is there anything that might help? Any information would be great thank you.

But moving a big tank is FUN! You really find out who your real friends are.

Stuart60611 · 01/17/2011, 12:35 PM

I have had a 6 foot 125 for a few years now, and I have had to move quite a bit of livestock in and out of the tank due to making some bad decissions as to which fish are appropriate for this sized system.

Lisa stated things well. You can keep triggers in this system, but if you plan on a community seting then you are very limited in terms of which triggers you can keep. A huma will not work in this volume unless you house him/her with only a couple of very aggressive tankmates. Otherwise, the huma upon reaching sexual maturity will beat up all of his/her other tankmates (experienced this on 3 separate occcassions until I finally accepted that this was the reality). In terms of triggers for a community tank for a 125, your choices are pretty much a saragassum, blue throat, or Indian. Every other species gets too large and/or aggressive for a community seting in a standard 125.

To give you some idea of what a fully stocked 125 can house (am fully and really a little overstocked), this is my stock list: indian trigger, yellow belly dogface puffer, blue dot toby puffer, one spot foxface, pinkface wrasse, Australian tusk, flame hawk, and yellow tail damsel. Most of these fish have lived together peacefully now for a couple of years, except the indian trigger has only been in the system about 8 months. They are all full grown or just approaching full grown size. For example, my dogface is about 7-8 inches, the Indian is about 7 inches, the tusk is about 6.5 inches. These three have a bit of room to grow. My one spot is full grown at 7 inches, and the pinkface, toby puffer, yellow tail damsel, and flame hawk are pretty much full grown also.

There is some minor aggression in my system, but nothing significant. The yellow tail damsel will take a shot at the toby puffer from time to time when the toby gets too close to the damsel's cave. Likewise, no love is lost between the tusk and the pinkface. They pretty much stay away from each other and do not fight. However, when they happen to bump into each other on occassion, the tusk will give a brief charge at the pinkface, but the pinkface is such a good swimmer that he easily evades the tusk and no physical contact occurs. The pinkface will in a very non-commited way give a brief charge toward the damsel or the flame hawk from time to time, but he really never makes much of an effort to do so. Suprisingly, my foxface will patrol the rocks and raise his spines at fish, including the trigger, when he feels they may be trying to eat algae from the rocks. Again, never any physical contact. Otherwise, everyone gets along very peacefully and have very little aggression in the system.

01/14/2011, 01:43 PM	#1
mgilger Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Denver, Co Posts: 7	Starting a FOWLR System First off this is my first time writing on reefcentral, I do have a 34 gallon red sea max that has been up running as a softy and lps reef for 9 months now, So I am not new to the hobby. I was wondering I have just recently purchased 95 gallon acrylic hexagon aquarium, at a great price, It is reef ready, and I want to turn it into a FOWLR tank. The specs of the tank are 36 inches high and 24 inches wide. With this kind of a set up would I have enough room to possibly keep a trigger and a snowflake eel? i really want to keep a porcupine puffer but I believe this tank is to small for one. Any information on this would be great thank you.

01/14/2011, 02:39 PM	#3
MrTuskfish Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: The Wild Blue Yonder Posts: 8,887	Just my 2 cents: The shape of this tank just isn't very good for anything other than smaller fish. Triggers, etc. need horizontal swimming room and this tank has very little. A trigger would eventually go nuts with only 24" of swimming space. Lack of space=stress=aggression. I know very little about eels, so will do the right thing and shut up. __________________ If God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat. Steve Current Tank Info: 180, 2-240 FOWLRs, 240 reef

01/14/2011, 02:49 PM	#5
DoubleM 10 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Steamwood, IL Posts: 1,432	well i agree with most of above. a trigger would not work being they would not have enough swim room a set of dwarf lions or something like that would be good. SFE would be fine but you would have to be able to reach the bottom to get him his food. lions are mor aggressive feederes than eel. only because eel cant see verywell. they have a really good sence of smell. also a PP would be ok until they get large. i have seen one in a 120 hex and it looked happy and healthy. IDK how it would do in a 95 hex. matt __________________ Matt Lions, Groupers and Eels o my! Current Tank Info: Marineland 60Gal ReefReady cube, DIY led, Euroreef Skimmer Ins-80, Mag 9.5 return

01/17/2011, 12:35 PM	#14
Stuart60611 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 2,979	I have had a 6 foot 125 for a few years now, and I have had to move quite a bit of livestock in and out of the tank due to making some bad decissions as to which fish are appropriate for this sized system. Lisa stated things well. You can keep triggers in this system, but if you plan on a community seting then you are very limited in terms of which triggers you can keep. A huma will not work in this volume unless you house him/her with only a couple of very aggressive tankmates. Otherwise, the huma upon reaching sexual maturity will beat up all of his/her other tankmates (experienced this on 3 separate occcassions until I finally accepted that this was the reality). In terms of triggers for a community tank for a 125, your choices are pretty much a saragassum, blue throat, or Indian. Every other species gets too large and/or aggressive for a community seting in a standard 125. To give you some idea of what a fully stocked 125 can house (am fully and really a little overstocked), this is my stock list: indian trigger, yellow belly dogface puffer, blue dot toby puffer, one spot foxface, pinkface wrasse, Australian tusk, flame hawk, and yellow tail damsel. Most of these fish have lived together peacefully now for a couple of years, except the indian trigger has only been in the system about 8 months. They are all full grown or just approaching full grown size. For example, my dogface is about 7-8 inches, the Indian is about 7 inches, the tusk is about 6.5 inches. These three have a bit of room to grow. My one spot is full grown at 7 inches, and the pinkface, toby puffer, yellow tail damsel, and flame hawk are pretty much full grown also. There is some minor aggression in my system, but nothing significant. The yellow tail damsel will take a shot at the toby puffer from time to time when the toby gets too close to the damsel's cave. Likewise, no love is lost between the tusk and the pinkface. They pretty much stay away from each other and do not fight. However, when they happen to bump into each other on occassion, the tusk will give a brief charge at the pinkface, but the pinkface is such a good swimmer that he easily evades the tusk and no physical contact occurs. The pinkface will in a very non-commited way give a brief charge toward the damsel or the flame hawk from time to time, but he really never makes much of an effort to do so. Suprisingly, my foxface will patrol the rocks and raise his spines at fish, including the trigger, when he feels they may be trying to eat algae from the rocks. Again, never any physical contact. Otherwise, everyone gets along very peacefully and have very little aggression in the system. Last edited by Stuart60611; 01/17/2011 at 12:57 PM.

01/14/2011, 02:37 PM	#2
TMF89 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota Posts: 238	Take everything I say with a grain of Instant Ocean (ha, see what I did there?), because I don't even have my tanks up and running yet! But I think with the Trigger it'd come down to swimming room. I'm not sure that 24" is enough for him, to give you an idea of what I mean I'm starting up a 29 gallon that's 30" long, and I'd like to put a flasher wrasse in. Well I've been told by mutliple people that even though the gallonage is fine, the tank is too short for the wrasse to feel comfortable because they're such active fish. I'm pretty sure Triggers are as well, but somebody who actually has one will definitely chime in though. I think you'd be alright with the Snowflake eel though. Maybe instead of a trigger you could do a dwarf lionfish or something?

01/14/2011, 02:42 PM	#4
viggen Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Dayton, Ohio Posts: 2,213	yea, way to small for a porc. puffer, they get over a foot long usually triggers and eels aren't the best tankmates especially in smaller tanks, triggers can get nippy with eels Also most triggers will get to big for the tank, unless you stick with one like a picasso or something like that. But as they get older they will more then likely show some agression towards all tankmates. Possibly a sargassum trigger would work in there? I think they stay small & are not agressive

01/14/2011, 02:50 PM	#6
mgilger Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Denver, Co Posts: 7	Yeah that was kind of what I was thinking the answers were going to be, but what other fish do you guys believe that I can keep in the tank? Or should I try to sell it and get a longer tank like a 125?

01/15/2011, 05:44 AM	#7
j4mypets Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Maine Posts: 452	If budget allows and those are the fish you really want. Go as big as you can. I have a 180 and my porc puffer is 1 1/2 yrs old and is getting big fast. I am wanting to upgrade to a 340 just for him along with some of my other fish who are getting big including a trigger. Good luck

01/15/2011, 09:28 PM	#8
viggen Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Dayton, Ohio Posts: 2,213	if you can & considering the fish you want I would sell the tank. Like mentioned above go as big as you can & it will still be to small. Been saying that for almost 20yrs now.... 29g to present day 220g & 475g... yea... they are to small If I was in the market I would get a 6ft tank as a minimum, if you have room for something bigger/longer get it. A 125g isn't the best dimension wise, a 150 & especially the 180 or 220g takes up the same length with a little more depth & height & is a MUCH better tank. The variety of tangs, angels, triggers & puffers you can add with the larger tank is totally worth it.

01/16/2011, 01:37 AM	#9
mgilger Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Denver, Co Posts: 7	I'm convinced on the 180 or 210, you just have to convince my Wife LOL. She says she'll never see me with a tank that big. Huh... with time I'll wear here down.... maybe. But for now 125 or about that is all she'll allow me.

01/16/2011, 10:05 AM	#10
LisaD That's not a salmon Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: central North Carolina Posts: 6,986	a 125 is a good sized tank. a 6' 125 was my first fish "big" tank. do realize you still can't keep the bigger triggers, puffers or angels - but there are species that would work fine. and you won't be able to have a whole lot of them. choose carefully. IMO 4 "big" fish (8-10") in a 125 is plenty. the number a tank can support varies on the activity level, aggression/territoriality, and capacity of filtration, but 4 is a good number, IMO. I have eight "large" fish in a 210, and that is plenty. In fact, I may be moving one or two to make room as they are approaching adult size. if you want a trigger and a snowflake eel, you could get a huma huma trigger (or another in that genus) and the eel for the 125 with room for a few more fish. just be aware that most triggers (with a few species exceptions) can get quite aggressive as they mature. you will also want to select a trigger that gets no more than 10-12" at maturity. Undulate triggers are gorgeous, but pretty much need a species tank - they are compatible with just about nothing.

01/16/2011, 12:13 PM	#11
mgilger Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Denver, Co Posts: 7	You're exactly right, I was on lines with a Niger Trigger, Blue Jaw, or a Huma huma. I believe I just found a buyer for the tank, and I might be able to score the larger 120 or 125 tank, but I'm also considering that I might not get a trigger at all just because of how aggressive they are, and the size of the tank.

01/16/2011, 02:20 PM	#12
mgilger Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Denver, Co Posts: 7	I should mention that I am taking my time to setup this FOWLR tank, over the next 6 months I am trying to acquire the equipment that I need for this setup. The reason I am not setting up this tank yet is we live in an apartment, but I am purchasing a house in the next 6 months. So I am going to wait until i move so I do not have to move the tank. I have already purchased a protein skimmer off a guy on craigslist who never used it. It is a ASM G3 rated for 250 gallons w/ a sedra 5000 pump. I picked it up for 140 dollars which I thought was a great deal for a new protein skimmer. As I said early I am selling the Hexagon aquarium for a larger tank with more room for swimming around about 125 or so gallons. I've never had a FOWLR tank and wonder what other equipment people would recommend, Like should I go with a refugium or a open sump? is there anything that might help? Any information would be great thank you.