Reef or Fish Only???

S

Spotted Leopard

New member
So to start off, I would like to mention I am a HORRIBLE aquascaper. :P....so my tank looks horrible with any inverts such as seahares, shrimp, hermits, and other stuff in it. As a result, I am planning to turn it into a "Fish Only" tank, making aquascaping slightly easier. But I still need help deciding on whether or not I should turn it into a "Fish Only" and how I should aquascape the fish only tank.

The tank is a standard 50 gallon rectangle.
 
I have been very happy with my Fish Only tank. I keep it simple. A tree, a fake plant and a few rocks in different places for them to sleep.

Less rock, more room for fish. :D

And yes, I still use bioballs. Keeps ammonia in check. My fish don't much care whether the nitrates are high or not. :)
 
I've been happy with my FOWLR, as well. First off, its not as much money coming out of your pocket in the long run. And secondly, you can keep reef-safe AND/OR not reef-safe fish in there, with no problems. I think you'll be happy with a switch over.
 
You don't always have to give up coral/inverts completely to be a FO tank, FO implies that the majority of tank is fish. I some montipora and xenia in my tank right now. I just purchased some 10 dollar frags and didnt care what happened, now, they kind of make the tank look nice.
 
I had to let him go, Apartments kinda screwed me, I'm on the bottom floor, and people above me are allowed to have waterbeds that can have a max of 800 gallons, but I cant have a 600 gallon shark pond...The old management gave me the green light, and while I was piecing parts together in my garage, they switched management, my request was re-reviewed, then denied by the new management, I should be moving out sometime this summer, so hopefully I can start it up again and get me some eppies ^.^

I still have the the sump and cattle trough in my garage. So it shouldnt take to long to get it back up.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12288803#post12288803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Spotted Leopard
Pictures would be nice :)
Click to expand...

I'd some inexpensive corals in the tank before but I really wanted a pair of semilarvatus and from that point on the tank became fowlr. Every time seeing a beautiful reef tank on RC I get the itch for a reef. May be in the future I can have both but for now I love fish more.

I've a short video of my tank in my profile under homepage.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12291513#post12291513 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by limitedslip
I had to let him go, Apartments kinda screwed me, I'm on the bottom floor, and people above me are allowed to have waterbeds that can have a max of 800 gallons, but I cant have a 600 gallon shark pond...The old management gave me the green light, and while I was piecing parts together in my garage, they switched management, my request was re-reviewed, then denied by the new management, I should be moving out sometime this summer, so hopefully I can start it up again and get me some eppies ^.^

I still have the the sump and cattle trough in my garage. So it shouldnt take to long to get it back up.
Click to expand...

That sucks...:( But I'm pretty sure you'll eventually get that pond back up and running with those Eppies. Its funny, because I'm thinking about selling my bamboo to get an Eppie pup, too. Either that or a Coral Cat.
 
I don't have a FO tank, but I would be interested in starting one for the sake of keeping some of the larger angels/butterflies/triggers/puffers. With that being said, your case is interesting. A 50 rectangle isn't really enough room for some of my personal favorites, but you could certainly make a great FO with some dwarf angels and some smaller non-reefsafe fish.

On the other hand, that would be a great size for a really vibrant coral tank - small enough that it would be easy to provide each coral/invert the care it needs. You could also hone some skills at reefkeeping before moving up to something substantially bigger.

I think either option would be great!
 
I think it's just a matter of taste and what kind of fish you want to keep.

LR certainly does a great job but you need enough of it to maintain adequate ammonia levels in the tank.

That said, I still use bio-balls and therefore do not need tons of live rock. More room for my fish to swim. :D
 
Re: Reef or Fish Only???

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12288548#post12288548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Spotted Leopard
So to start off, I would like to mention I am a HORRIBLE aquascaper. :P....so my tank looks horrible with any inverts such as seahares, shrimp, hermits, and other stuff in it. As a result, I am planning to turn it into a "Fish Only" tank, making aquascaping slightly easier. But I still need help deciding on whether or not I should turn it into a "Fish Only" and how I should aquascape the fish only tank.

The tank is a standard 50 gallon rectangle.
Click to expand...

Fish ONLY! Dont over extend yourself. I say start with fish and then gradually work your way up with equip. etc to finally flip it to a reef. Just dont taint it with chemicals. Get a quarantine tank.
 
Well it's not that I don't know how to keep a reef because I have kept lots of reef stuff successfully. It's just that I have no idea how to do aquascaping (so everything messy eventhough water parameters are great and everything is doing fine) and I am currently a Junior in high school so I'm devoting a lot of time to study like mad for the AP, SAT II, ACT, and SAT I tests and not enough time to take care of my reef.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12298544#post12298544 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
I think it's just a matter of taste and what kind of fish you want to keep.

LR certainly does a great job but you need enough of it to maintain adequate ammonia levels in the tank.

That said, I still use bio-balls and therefore do not need tons of live rock. More room for my fish to swim. :D
Click to expand...

For you FO tank do you have any LR in there? Because I have a 75G tank that I think would make a great FO tank so any advice? Im setting everything up now
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12298544#post12298544 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
I think it's just a matter of taste and what kind of fish you want to keep.

LR certainly does a great job but you need enough of it to maintain adequate ammonia levels in the tank.

That said, I still use bio-balls and therefore do not need tons of live rock. More room for my fish to swim. :D
Click to expand...

For you FO tank do you have any LR in there? Because I have a 75G tank that I think would make a great FO tank so any advice? Im setting everything up now
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12298544#post12298544 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
I think it's just a matter of taste and what kind of fish you want to keep.

LR certainly does a great job but you need enough of it to maintain adequate ammonia levels in the tank.

That said, I still use bio-balls and therefore do not need tons of live rock. More room for my fish to swim. :D
Click to expand...

For you FO tank do you have any LR in there? Because I have a 75G tank that I think would make a great FO tank so any advice? Im setting everything up now
 
I have no live rock. I have some pieces of rock that I had made small places for my fish to sleep. Other than that a tree stump and a fake plant or two. Thats about it.
 
That said, I still use bio-balls and therefore do not need tons of live rock. More room for my fish to swim.
Click to expand...

Personally I don't really like bio-balls because they only decompose ammonia and not nitrate or nitrite...in a FO tank, is it possible to just do overkill on mechanical filtration?
 
Bio-Balls break NH<sub>4</sub> down into NO<sub>2</sub> then converts it to NO<sub>3</sub>. That is the biological process. They do this the same way live rock does it.

Nitrates (the end product) have to be removed through through skimming and water changes and just plain good husbandry. Even live rock does not remove nitrates.

The nitrate problems people have with a bio-ball system is when they allow fish waste and uneaten food to get past the pre-filter and into the chamber housing the bio-balls.

I use a pre-filter in my overflow and a polypad covers the entire top of the bio-ball chamber. My NO<sub>3</sub> runs between 40 and 60 ppm all the time. I could get it lower with a little more work, but I see no need to. My fish are happy and healthy and my water is crystal clear.
 
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