72 Gallon Bowfront Build

Well, went to the LFS yesterday and picked up some food, a pair of Clowns, a Coral Beauty Angelfish, and a small CUC. The guy threw in a small head hammer coral to give a try.

All in all, I hate this tank now. I can't get a good picture for anything with the curved front glass. Nothing is sharp. I might look for a standard RR 75g and move all this over to that.

Anyways, here's some pics that I did get.

The bigger of the two clowns. These were both TR so I hope the colors start to pop more with a better diet and home.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6823379971/" title="IMG_1339 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6823379971_baacbf7924_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1339"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6823406501/" title="IMG_1376 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7011/6823406501_37f328ffe5_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1376"></a>

Smaller one:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6823401917/" title="IMG_1374 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7174/6823401917_7cc470f1a7_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1374"></a>

Small purple tip hammer frag:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6823395689/" title="IMG_1366 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6823395689_5aced4daa4_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1366"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6823410713/" title="IMG_1386 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7162/6823410713_c34f8802e4_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1386"></a>

Coral Beauty:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6825182165/" title="IMG_1389 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6825182165_b1837702d8_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1389"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadharwick/6825188103/" title="IMG_1392 by iadubber, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6825188103_bd813a2553_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="IMG_1392"></a>
 
Hammer, eh? Not so FOWLR are we :P

I have a corner bowfront, and if I could do it all again I would throw this tank out the window. Bowed glass makes taking pictures terrible and once you get coralline growth it becomes a royal B**CH to clean. For the money I spent on a 55 corner I could have gotten a 90 or 120 rectangle. Lesson learned, blah.

Best of luck though. It looks like you have a crazy amount of rock. Don't be afraid to be minimalist about it, sometimes less is more.
 
gmate said:
Hammer, eh? Not so FOWLR are we :P

I have a corner bowfront, and if I could do it all again I would throw this tank out the window. Bowed glass makes taking pictures terrible and once you get coralline growth it becomes a royal B**CH to clean. For the money I spent on a 55 corner I could have gotten a 90 or 120 rectangle. Lesson learned, blah.

Best of luck though. It looks like you have a crazy amount of rock. Don't be afraid to be minimalist about it, sometimes less is more.
Click to expand...

Ugh, I really wish i could go back and start over with a 75. Not sure what I am going to do. I will probably just keep the tank for a year or so and upgrade after that.

I do plan on minimizing some rock in the future. Alot of the rubble that's laying in the tank is from PA to seed my base rock.
 
Fishnthecorner said:
Maybe not... But would you rather look at your tank? Or look at pictures of your tank? :) Just a thought...
Click to expand...

Everyone has a preference, for sure, and yours is bowfront setups, but I'd rather be able to look at my tank without the bowfront's optical distortion as well as shoot pix of it, but I digress...

I'll be really interested in how that skimmer works for you. The price is definitely right (I own an Eshopps, BTW ;) )...good find.
 
namxas said:
I'll be really interested in how that skimmer works for you. The price is definitely right (I own an Eshopps, BTW ;) )...good find.
Click to expand...

I'll reserve judgement for now. It's my first skimmer. But, it's been a real pain to get dialed in. Now that there's some stock in it, it's been getting better.
 
+1 on the skimmer. My buddy has that exact skimmer and he loves it! He uses it on a reef tank and tried to talk me into one for my fowlr, but I got a great deal on a reef octopus. Nice looking set up.
 
I don't know what to think anymore. I. Just. Don't. Know.

We lost our royal gramma. It was MIA for over 2 days. It was eating and roaming the tank for the first few days I had it. Then I didn't see it at all on Sunday or Monday. I figured it buried itself within the rocks. I moved a few rocks around and it never popped out. I searched with a flashlight before bed lastnight and didn't seen any purple or yellow.

I woke up today and there it is laying on the sandbed dead. No signs of ich, fungus, wounds, or anything. Just lifeless swirling on the sand bed.

I'm to the point I have no idea what to do. I've got alot of money wrapped up in this and the wife is not happy about it.

I don't know what else to look for. I've tried 3 LFS and have had deaths from two of them so it must be something I am doing. Water tests are spot on at 0,0,<5 and 1.024 on my hydrometer. The only thing I can think of is the hydrometer is off. I did order a refractometer from the slowest shipping ebay seller I've ever had the non-pleasure to deal with. I hope that comes in the next day or two. But I wouldn't think that even a too high salinity would cause spontaneous death.

My new clown (added yesterday with candy cane and some zoas), old clown, chromis and hammer coral have been doing fine. I can't imagine one clown, one coral beauty, and one royal gramma deaths in one month isn't a coincidence. All the fish that have died have eaten for me. The clown had ich, the beauty and RG showed no visible signs of trauma or sickness.

I guess I need to invest in a QT. I have a 10G hospital tank from my freshwater days I can use to QT from now on. Seems like a racket that LFS only provide 24 hour guarantees. Maybe I'll try LA when the temps come up a bit to at least get a 14 day guarantee.

Anything else I can look for in my tank?

sorry for the rant, it's just been a disheartening last month or two.
 
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