Anyone have a fish only tank?

[BowieReefer84]

I was wondering if anyone on here has fish only tanks? Puffers, tangs, triggers, wrasse? I can not seem to find any builds for them. Seems like everyone has reef tanks.

[Chad]

I don't have one currently, but I have had many and taken care of LOTS (as these were the majority of the maintenance tanks that I looked after)...

 

IMO, just run a wet/dry filter, put on a really large skimmer, and add LR like you would for a reef. Most of the fish are the "larger predator" type and pretty messy... Consider running a stout CUC (hermits and snails) and keeping tabs on them and replacing as needed.

 

The tanks are pretty simple and, compared to a reef setup, rather boring to blog about.

[Glenn]

^what he said :-)

 

My FOWLR was a 5' 120g tank with 5-6 med/lg Lionfish and a couple dwarf Lions. As Chad said, it was actually pretty boring .. I think it lasted for about a year before I sold all the fish and switched it to a freshwater African cichlid tank.

[BowieReefer84]

Yea, I think some of the non-reef safe fish are pretty cool though. Some of the large angels and puffers are neat looking and very unique. Just seeing if anyone had a setup like that, and their thoughts.

 

Hearing two responses with the word "boring" suprises me. Is is the lack of coral you find boring, or is it something else?

[Chad]

I think the tanks are awesome! Sorry, let me try to explain... I was referring to the setup, not the livestock.

 

I think in a reef tank, the equipment is much more intricate and in many ways unique to a specific reefer... so many folks are interested in seeing specific technical details of the setup and equipment. IME, the setup on a FO or FOWRL tank is much more simple (wetdry, skimmer, standard lighting, sometimes a carbon reactor, but that is about it)... so the focus is more on the livestock rather than the equipment and setup.

 

One of the most stunning tanks I have ever seen was a ~300g FOWLR setup with a group of ~7 semilarvatus butterflyfish, a pair of bannana wrasses, and some other stuff that I don't remember. But that group of butterflyfish was just awesome.

 

 

[Brian Ward]

I used to have one. I was initially focusing on triggers but then got interested in butterflies. Unfortunately most butterflies don't convert to captivity easily.

 

copps (John Coppalino, sp?) has an awesome FOWLR angel tank. It's about a 180gal with an unbelievable number of fish for the size of the tank.

[Saltwaterworx]

Other than maintaining and supplying them, I dont have any of my own. I believe depending on the theme of the tank, you can make a pretty nice FO. Easier to maintain, but yes, tends to bore quickly. Unless the tank is very large. Black tips and zebra octopus are cool to look at. Of course not in the same tank!

[TonyD]

I have a dedicated tank with a porcupine puffer and yellow boxfish. I threw in some of my pest corals like GSP, zoas, xenia and blue mushrooms to see how they'd do. Does that not make it a FOWLR tank anymore?

[Hoyden]

I have a 210 FOWLR with a large Desjardini tang, an evil rescue domino damsel and a Scamp Grouper we call Siete. I have plans for additional fish but only after Siete goes to her next home. I have a small porcupine puffer and a small Niger trigger, both in a 40 breeder, that will go to the 210 when the grouper goes to live at NADC. I like fish - the other things that live in my reef tank are just background for the fish:). My ultimate stocking plan will include the trigger, the puffer, the desjardini, an angel and a tusk fish. Eventually, I'd like to have a 10' FOWLR and then to the above fish, I'd add a rock hind or v-tail grouper. I love groupers, but I have learned not to add one until all of my other fish are in and have grown to adult size.

[BowieReefer84]

I have a 210 FOWLR with a large Desjardini tang, an evil rescue domino damsel and a Scamp Grouper we call Siete. I have plans for additional fish but only after Siete goes to her next home. I have a small porcupine puffer and a small Niger trigger, both in a 40 breeder, that will go to the 210 when the grouper goes to live at NADC. I like fish - the other things that live in my reef tank are just background for the fish:). My ultimate stocking plan will include the trigger, the puffer, the desjardini, an angel and a tusk fish. Eventually, I'd like to have a 10' FOWLR and then to the above fish, I'd add a rock hind or v-tail grouper. I love groupers, but I have learned not to add one until all of my other fish are in and have grown to adult size.

 

 

Sounds really cool. Do you have any pictures? I did not see a tank build looking through your posts. Even just a FTS? I am really leaning towards FOWLR on my next tank. I get much more satisfaction out of fish than coral (and less stress).

[RJT]

I had a fowlr tank a few years ago. It was a good tank with a niger trigger, snowflake eel, lion fish, yellow tang and porcupine puffer. Keeping it clean was super easy even with a hob filter as the only filtration.