75g 'finding nemo' themed FOWLR LOG

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vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
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Broken Arrow, OK
So now that I am settling in here I figured instead of making 100's of different posts with my pics and what not that I would just make a log. (Now that I even understand what they are. haha)

General background in regards to fish keeping...

I have kept freshwater on and off for most of my life. I always wanted to get into the saltwater scene but was always scared off by LFS's on the difficulty level. So when I was redoing my living room, I had this one spot that needed to be filled. The first thing that popped into my head was that a saltwater tank would look perfect there. So anyway the journey begin.

I ignorantly thought, I will start small and if I can manage that then I will upgrade to bigger and better things. So, I talked to a LFS here (not very good but gave me enough info to get me started) I layed down way to much money for a rather inadequate eclipse 12g system and some live sand.

I ended up with my humbug damsel for my original cycle and had some ugly plastic decorations. As I read more and more and started to learn more what I was doing I replaced the plastic stuff with live rock. After the tank had cycled, things were working out rather well so I went with the defacto Clown fish.

I have 2 younger kids. 7 year old boy and 4 year old girl so the 'nemo' fish was kind of a given.

The 2 fish lived in harmony with everything going well. However I had my heart set on bigge and better things. Mainly I wanted to be able to continue on the 'nemo' theme. So, I talked myself out of a bigger tank about a dozen times until my wife and I went into a LFS and they had a Oceanic 75g used setup with all the basic equipment. She said we should get it and well, how could I say no? hahaha. So anyway, knowing alot more this go around I started cycling the tank and working on the live rock. I actually mixed all of my salt water for this tank (one of my pre reqs) I added about 20 pounds of live rock and then added the 15 pounds from the 12g. At this point I migrated the fish over and left the 12g empty. It's still empty fish wise, once I get an extra 10 pounds of live rock I plan on using it for something!

A short time after migrating the humbug (deb) and the clown (nemo) I bought a small regal tang (dory), after everything was settled there I purchased a false gamma (gurgle) not the Royal Gamma thats in the movie but close enough. They didn't have any Royal Gammas at the LFS's I was shopping at until after the fact. Oh well! Somewhere after adding Gurgle I added my oddball short spined sea urchin and a small clean-up crew consisting of snails and hermit crabs. I plan on expanding on this later.

My latest addition (today) is a Yellow Tang (bubbles).

Somewhere in the mix I added a Sea Clone Skimmer but quickly returned it (it's junk) for a Coralife Super Skimmer.

Current equipment:

1 Emperor 400 Power Filter (Mostly just runs carbon off and on & biowheel)
1 Emperor 280 Power Filter (Uses stock filters w/ cabon and biowheel)
1 Coralife Super Skimmer
1 Stock 48" 40w light
I think thats it!

Future plans:

130w lighting (just something better than the stock crap, it should be here this week)
2 Hydor Koralia 4's (should be here this week)
At least 25 pounds more of LR.
Larger clean up crew.
DIY Sump.

OK.. I think thats it. I will add pictures from the other threads to this one and try to get some pics of the Yellow Tang. I tried to get some tonight but he is camera shy. He was literally swimming away behind the rock everytime I tried to snap a shot. Bubbles is doing good though other than the punk Deb doing her harassing orientation to him. She usually does that with all the fish that get added but gets used to them pretty quickly. He found the veggie clip pretty quickly (every other fish had except my regal). Then no sooner did I say that to myself I saw Dory feeding on it.
 
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emonemo420

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Jun 30, 2007
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pics pics pics...every log needs pics!!!
 

Reefscape

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Looks like you off to a great start...The only thing i would suggest is to take the urchin back ( if its real )...They will be zero food in the tank to keep this alive unless you are target feeding it...

Keep up the good work mate...well done...

Niko
 

ooja3k

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Jul 3, 2007
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great start!!

how much live rock are you planning on adding?? i would recommend about 100#s at least... I know its really expensive but you could bulk order online and get a good deal!!!

great start though, i want a bigger tank... but i live in an apartment, and i'm broke (college student)...
 

vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
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Broken Arrow, OK
i just saw the little tang hiding in the rocks lol it looks great
I really tried to get a better picture of him, like I said though, he was camera shy. Everytime I put the camera even close to him he would swim behind the rocks to the other side. Was kinda funny.

Looks like you off to a great start...The only thing i would suggest is to take the urchin back ( if its real )...They will be zero food in the tank to keep this alive unless you are target feeding it...

Keep up the good work mate...well done...

Niko
I had read up on some things when looking for a proper cleaning crew and the Urchin was something I considered and went with. My crew is rather small somewhat to allow the Urchin to pull a bulk of the work. He slowly moves around the tank throughout the day/night. He's one of my fav additions to the tank, what would be a good feeding supplement?

great start!!

how much live rock are you planning on adding?? i would recommend about 100#s at least... I know its really expensive but you could bulk order online and get a good deal!!!

great start though, i want a bigger tank... but i live in an apartment, and i'm broke (college student)...
I plan on adding at least another 25 pounds if not 40. Ideally I was planning on around 90 pounds. It's just a matter of when I get the money for it and my LFS stocks it. They get shipments in of some decent fiji but it goes fast at $4.99/pound.
 

Subliminal

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Feb 21, 2007
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Looks like a good start!

When you get the koralias, are you going to ditch the freshwater filters (emporers)?

I used to run those and finally ditched them, and couldn't be happier.
 

vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
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Broken Arrow, OK
Well... thats kinda been a debate in my head.

I am working on my DIY sump project, but I would like to at least keep one of them to run carbon/other media until I get my sump going . Plus I figured the biowheels might help with extra filtration since I only have 50lbs of LR.

Is 50lbs of LR and 60lbs of LS/Substrate good enough filtration for now? I installed the Koralias today, insane amounts of flow.
 

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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Umh, sorry it's about the urchin again. He's going to eat most or all of your coraline. It will pretty much scrape them bare so it that's the look you're going for keep it. They can help spread coraline but, that's only in very large well established set ups. I'd probably go with at very diverse clean up crew vs one or two large scavengers . I think they'll do more for you.
hth
max
 
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