Halvenators FOWLR to Reef Tank!

[halvenator]

Hey everyone!

Stating this thread to document some of the changes that I am making to my tank to turn it from a FOWLR to a Reef Tank.

Tank Details:
29 gallon
~30lbs of Bahamian Oolite sand
35-40lbs of live rock
Penn Pax Cascade 700 canister filter
Various power heads creating around 600 gph of flow.
Aqueon Modular LED light - all 3 slots have Day white bulbs.

Stocking:

Ocellaris Clownfish - been with me since the beginning
Green Chromis
Six line Wrasse
Diamond Goby
CUC consisting of Mexican turbo snails, hermit crabs and nassarius snails.

Upgrades:

Light - I ordered a Current Marine IC Pro on Black Friday. The light should be here some time next week.

Flow - tank turnover rate is about 42 times an hour. I’d like to bring this up to 50 times. One of the power heads that I have is a cheap 80 GPH one from Amazon. I am looking to replace this with either the Current so that I can use the Loop system or a Hydor Koralia.

Some day I would like to upgrade the whole tank. I like the look of a bow front aquarium but there are more size restriction.

I would also like to upgrade the canister filter to a sump, but right now I have limited space and this isn’t really an option.

I started the tank about 8 years ago and had no idea what I was doing, I just wanted a saltwater tank. I didn’t research much just what the basic needs to get a tank up and running.

The tank started its life put as a 20g Long. With a HOB filter, crushed coral for the substrate and literally no live rock. I slowly added the live rock and some how managed to find a some success. I moved to a new home and saw that as an opportunity to upgrade the tank size, I wish I would have gone bigger at that time!


Here is the tank as it sits at the start of this adventure!

 

[reef lover]

Looking good!

 

[halvenator]

Looking good!

Thanks! I have been planning this for about 8 years now. I figured it’s about time to make the plunge!

 

[CasaReefer]

Looks Awesome... What other fish you gonna put in there...

 

[halvenator]

Looks Awesome... What other fish you gonna put in there...

I’m not sure. A lot of the fish I would like to get require a larger tank and I’m not a huge fan of rehoming once a fish has out grown my tank. While I do plan on upgrading the tank it would be in a couple years.

I have thought about adding a second clownfish but I worry about my current clown if I did this.

I have also considered adding a couple more chromis and a royal gramma.

It mostly depends on what my LFS has in when I am feeling impulsive!

 

[halvenator]

My Current Marine IC pros came a couple days ago and I finally got around to get everything installed!

I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on with having a light like this! I know that Currents aren’t to if the line or anything too fancy, but having the ramp up and ramp down option is really a game changer for me! I had been manually switching on my blue lights and then switching over to the whites when turning on and then vice versa when turning off.

It’s also cool to be able to customize the colors of the light. I haven’t dialed in what I want yet and it may take some tike to get there but having the option to make these changes is amazing!

If anyone out there has a Current IC pro, I’d love to hear what you have yours set at and see what your tank looks like!

The lower profile of the light also makes it more aesthetically pleasing. The Aqeuon that I had previously didn’t look awful it was just bulky.

Next on my to do list is making a new lid. I was cleaning my glass one and broke half of it. This isn’t the first time I have broken one so I think I am going to try and make one out of acrylic.

Things are looking good with the tank and I think I will be ready to add some corals in the next month or two!

 

[reef lover]

Sweet!

 

[halvenator]

It’s been a while since I have posted an update. That’s probably because there really hasn’t been a lot going on. Turns out there isn’t that much that goes in to turning an already established tank into a reef tank!

I made an acrylic top to replace the glass one that I hade broke. That didn’t work out as expected as the acrylic is pretty flimsy. Luckily I had half of the old glass top so right now I am running a half acrylic half glass top. I still plan on. Going full acrylic, I just need to find a way to stiffen it up.

I ordered some upgraded testing supplies. I have been using a swing arm hydrometer and I have a refractometer that will be here in a day or two. I also ordered some upgraded test kits. I was using the API saltwater master kit which I hated using. Coming on the next couple days will be the Red Sea foundations pro test kit and Salifert Nitrate test kit.

Once I have these new testing supplies I will get an idea of where my tank is at and start adding coral!

Lastly I added some white reef saver rock at the end of November, it’s not very white any more!

 

[reef lover]

Nice corraline growing there!

 

[halvenator]

Today is the day that I have been working towards for a long time.

I finally bought some corals and added them to the tank!

Thanks to all of the nice people on the forum I was able to ID them as Duncan and Acan! I am extremely happy with my purchase and excited to watch them grow!

I now see how this is an addiction. I had to hold back on not buying more and nothing says that I won’t be back tomorrow picking out a couple more that I had my eye on.

I am still deciding on placement for these two and I may try a couple different places out over the next couple months before o make my decision.

 

[halvenator]

Frags are still just chilling at the bottom of the tank while I decide where I want to place them. I think I have narrowed down a couple locations that I might start to play around with.

 

[halvenator]

It’s been a while since I posted an update but that’s mostly because there hasn’t been much going on.

I placed the coral on the rocks and the are thriving! I am seeing good growth on both and am I am super excited about that!

I have decided that I am not going to add any more corals until I find ones that I really like, thinking that I want to add some Zoas but I have not seen any at the LFS around me. I thought about ordering some from an online seller but if that is the router I take I will wait until spring.

Lately I haven’t liked how one side of my aquascape looks, the rocks are to small to do anything that looks nice with. I also don’t see any good coral placement locations on those rocks. I will probably be getting some dry reef save rock to try and build up that side and make it a little more appealing.

I am also considering adding another fish. I am thinking something like a Royal Gramma but I am un decided. I am open to recommendations!

Lastly, I started designing and planning for a sump. I have an old 10 gallon tank that will fit in the cabinet of the tank stand. I just need to figure out the overflow, plumbing and return. I wish I would have gone to a sump instead of a canister filter! I have been more diligent about changing the filter media and it is proving to be a pain with the canister.

Here is a picture of the happy coral and the whole tank!