Feather and Rocket's 55 gallon FOWLR aquarium

[Feather&Rocket]

Hello, hello! We have started a 55 gallon FOWLR saltwater tank. We are giving our tank a long, long time to cycle because we put a lot of tufa and lava rock in to cycle into the process of the tank.

We have a homemade (by us) sump running (from a 10 gallon tank) with a 200W heater and Quiet1One 1200 pump. We're going to be getting the Octopus 100 protein skimmer very soon. We also have 2 Penguin 550 powerheads running in the tank and some live rock (found a snail, a few brittle sea stars, bristle worms, some tiny snails, and other fun critters).

We've added stress zyme and a shrimp to the tank and are now housing two cute little orange-tailed blue damsels. We're letting the tank mature even more to start acclimating and adding in new fish. We may send the damsels back to the pet store once our tank cycles, too. Just in case their too territorial. Yes, we're naming them. They're Kita and Kati. All our fish will have French names, as Rocket and Rocket's family are very into French culture, all speaking it fluently and having relatives in France.

I'm really not sure what else to say here, so I'll put up pictures and if anyone has questions, let us know.

Picture list:
1. Rocket starting the syphon for the overflow.
2. Tank setup.
3. Cute little snail who hitchhiked along with the live rock.
4. Our two damsels, Kati and Kita after they were introduced to the tank.

-Feather

[Feather&Rocket]

Here are some updated pictures of the tank and stand features

-Rocket

[Mitchell0605]

Looks good so far!

[melosu58]

Nice looking tank.

[Feather&Rocket]

The tank is still cycling with shrimp, but the Ammonia and Nitrites are going down and the Nitrates are at about 20, so we are getting somewhere. We opted out of using Damsels and returned them within a couple days to the LFS. Other than the bubble algae, there really isn't much algae growth in the tank except some here and there on the overflow and a bit on the glass. There are a handful of tiny snails cruising around as well as a few bristle worms and tiny starfish.

Here are a few updated pictures of the tank, we rearranged the rock a bit. I got a little bored and took some detailed photos for entertainment value.

-Rocket

[Feather&Rocket]

I also restructured the sump, and added the test kit to the door for easy access and storage. (Previously mentioned algae on overflow also shown)

- Rocket

[Feather&Rocket]

So it has been about 3 weeks, and it seems our tank has finished its cycle. The ammonia peaked at 4.0, the nitrite peaked at 5.0, and the nitrate hit 20 before coming back down to 0. The pH is stabilized at 8.2, and the temp is 78.2. We will be going out to get out CUC and first two fish this coming tuesday. Here is a graph I made (because I'm nerdy like that) showing the entire cycle day by day. Hope you like it!

-Rocket

[thincat]

That's a great looking graph. More people should do this. My only worry is that Lava rocks can leach heavy metals into your tank.

[melosu58]

In that post from 12/25 that pic is not bubble algea. That`s a macro algea called Grape Calerpa. Some fish will actually eat it like tangs and angels.

[Feather&Rocket]

Awesome! Definitely good to know. Here I thought I was dealing with an overachieving algae that would take over my tank.

Oh, lava rock... we heard many things with opposing viewpoints on the subject. Some said it was the best thing over, and others said it was horrible. I guess we will just have to keep testing and keep an eye on things. As for the graph, it really made a difference when trying to keep track of the cycle. Looking at numbers can get a little boring, but the visualization really made it exciting. Progress is always good.

Thank you for the input, it is much appreciated!!

-Rocket

[thincat]

Rocket, watch the Grape Calerpa, this macro has the ability to take over also. google it!

[Feather&Rocket]

Yeah I figured as much, but there is more hope if its something that fish might be interested in.

[Feather&Rocket]

We got fish!! 2 Orange Ocellaris, one Black Ocellaris, a Mandarin Goby, 2 Cleaner Shrimp, and 10 Turbo Snails.

[thincat]

remember that unless your mandarin goby is trained to eat a different type of food it will only eat pods and when the pods are gone so goes the goby.IMO, I donlt think your tank is old enough to support a M. goby. It does not have enough LR.

[Feather&Rocket]

Yeah we asked the guy at the LFS about that. The M. Goby is eating carnivore pellets right now with no problem.

[thincat]

That is great to hear. So many M gobies die of starvation.

[Feather&Rocket]

Everyone seems to be doing really well and has adjusted with no problems. I'll take some more pictures soon, everything is continuing to mature and change.

[Aquarium1]

Wow, your tank looks great, I love those kinds of fish hahaha. Keep up the good work, really glad to hear the mandarin is eating

[dannyb]

Looking good, Thats good to hear about the M. Goby. I had one that died sadly, Have a pretty well established tank but he didnt seem to survive.
With the 3 clowns, You do know one will turn female and the two males will fight for the partnership. So just watch them, They may be ok. Ive seen a few tanks that have had sucsess, But most dont.

Looking good but!

[Feather&Rocket]

We are planning on getting another small clown, the LFS only had large ones and I didn't want to have a huge difference in size. I also didn't want to overstock the tank. We'll see what happens.

-Rocket