210 Aggressive FOWLR Setup

Perfect add. I started a 55 gallon aggressive fowlr and got a niger trigger. Congrats man

 

smart move man, clown triggers are among the top 5 most beautiful fish in the hobby hands down IMO.

 

What other fish do you have in the 55 SS? I love niger triggers. Have you posted any pics of that tank?

 

Not yet, I completley changed out the tank. I have a lionfish, niger, panther grouper and a snowflake eel. All are small because its only a 55. I'm moving soon so when I set it up again I'll start a thread.

 

sounds good. Boy, you are a busy bee! Moving soon and have 3 tanks!

 

clown trigs are great fish, but often get incredibly aggressive...

 

I have a hard time sitting around, lol. Once I move I'm gonna get rid of the bowfront and set up the red sea tank. I'm running out of room for my corals

 

You have to be really careful with impulse buys when you get into agressive tanks. The clown trigger is really a 50/50 shot on if it will turn psycho and go on a killing spree generally in the +8" realm. Odds increase with the size of the tank.

Keeping puffers and lions together are once again a risk and this time much larger risk than the clown. Triggers are severely known to nip at fins on lions. Quite honestly I would say bad idea. I've seen this fail several times by fellow hobbyists.

Personally I would consider swapping the tang for a foxface. They arent quite as big and serve the same omnivore purpose. Plus they arent as agressive, but have the venomous top fin to ward off being picked on.

I'm glad you dropped the ray from the list, they are for tanks that are far bigger and need alot more sand more than you currently have.

Be prepared for weekly water changes as a MUST. They fish you have particularlly the triger and puffers are very dirty eaters. Your skimmer while rated at 300 is 300 for a low bioload, its much less with high bioload. Combined with only 175lbs of rock, i'd say your right at the edge of barely enough. If you have room you might want to consider additional filtration like a algae scrubber, carbon reactor or even canister filter.

One thing that I found that helped is a healthy dosing of a clean up crew, or snack packs as call them in my tank. Hermits do great at scavenging the chunks left behind from trigs and puffers after feeding. Add them at night when everyone is sleeping and let them do their thing when they start getting snacked on and dwindling, just add another box worth. With regular feeding they arent massacred like people lead you to believe.

Another thing I found to reduce agression is either feeding two handed or having someone help you. Giving food in two locations keep everybody from crowding up, and thats when I see most nips, bites and problems occur. A nip during feeding turns into a grudge match later.

You dont need kalk or such big lights on a FOWLR, lights on a FOWLR are just for viewing purposes. I know some people than only run lights on when they are home for viewing purposes just to help aid in alage reduction.

 

khowst, could you possibly share your tank on the thread? I'd be very interested to see a pic along with a list of your livestock. It sounds like you have a lot of experience with predator tanks.

 

I'm up to 200 pounds of Dry Rock. I could add 20 pounds to the sump, Do you suggest More?

I bought a BRS GFO & Carbon Reactor – Deluxe and a Eheim 1000 from BRS. Small Particle Lignite Carbon and Bulk GFO mix. Will 1 reactor of that size be enough to make a difference?

Using Kalk to help keep the PH elevated. The range without Kalk is 7.6 - 8.0. I live on a farm so the well water PH fluctuates even with the RO/DI unit. Is there a better way to control PH?

What about Bio Pellets for additional filtration?

How long for a Clown Trigger to go from 1 5/8 to 8 inches?