New 210 gallon FOWLR Tank

[Marsh980]

Hi all,

Due to time constraints and my second son arriving in the next 3 weeks my wife and I have made the decision to change our existing mixed reef tank to a FOWLR. My wife also prefers the FOWLR fish to reef fish as she wants a puffer, regal angel, emperor angel etc.

My LFS has already agreed to buy all my corals and existing fish that I can't keep for the FOWLR. My knowledge of FOWLR stocking is limited because I've always considered whether the fish were reef safe.

I want to transfer my existing fish below:

Foxface
Marine Betta
Blue Throat Trigger
Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasse

The below list - I'm on the fence. Do you agree I should transfer the below or start again as they're maybe better more appropriate fish for the FOWLR tank.

Flame Hawkfish
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Adorned Wrasse
Red Lined Wrasse
Ocellaris Clown (pair)
Leopard Wrasse (large male)
Yellow Tail Tamarin Wrasse

What fish would you recommend getting as my wife has has given me a list of the fish she loves (see below). Obviously i won't be getting all of these but are there any here you would say are 'must haves' or 'must avoid or not put together'

Harlequin Tusk
Golden Puffer
Emperor Angel
Regal Angel
Blue Faced Angel
French Angel
Queen Angel
Striped Squirelfish
Cuban Hogfish
Yellow Tang
Kole Tang
Naso Tang
Purple Tang
Orange Shoulder Tang
Aiptaisa eating Filefish
Melanarus Wrasse
Picasso Trigger
Niger Trigger - Not sure about this one

What Butterflyfish work best in a FOWLR and with the above.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - especially with stocking so I don't overstock.

Cheers

 

[Devaji]

nice move I think you guys will be happy with the choice you made. when life gets busy I see alot of ppl get out why not simplify the tank?

I hope to be setting up a large 300+ fish only in the next year or so too.
mine will be butterfly diamante with a few angels and tangs in the mix.

what is your filtration like? if you dont have one I would make or buy an ATS . IMHO tho

must haves for me in that tank size would be a
~regal angel
~emp angel
all other large angel get to bif IMHO
~golden puffers get $$$ but I like porcupines but if you got the money got for it!
~ yellow tang

that and the fish you are have above would fill her up. but if you want others i think you would have to rehome a few from what you have.

I like tusks and the nano tang.
curious to see what others say.

oh BTW there is a pretty active FOWLR group on FB join if you have not.

 

[Marsh980]

nice move I think you guys will be happy with the choice you made. when life gets busy I see alot of ppl get out why not simplify the tank?

I hope to be setting up a large 300+ fish only in the next year or so too.
mine will be butterfly diamante with a few angels and tangs in the mix.

what is your filtration like? if you dont have one I would make or buy an ATS . IMHO tho

must haves for me in that tank size would be a
~regal angel
~emp angel
all other large angel get to bif IMHO
~golden puffers get $$$ but I like porcupines but if you got the money got for it!
~ yellow tang

that and the fish you are have above would fill her up. but if you want others i think you would have to rehome a few from what you have.

I like tusks and the nano tang.
curious to see what others say.

oh BTW there is a pretty active FOWLR group on FB join if you have not.

Thanks and the thought of leaving the hobby never crossed my mind.

I have a set up designed for a reef so have a bubblagus filter roller, carbon media reactor, bubblemagus G9 skimmer and UV steriliser. I’m looking to add another UV steriliser too.

I also have 4x MP40s and 3x Vortech XR15 Pro lights.

When you say Adding the other fish do you mean the first list or all of my existing fish shown on the 2nd list?

Cheers

 

[Devaji]

Thanks and the thought of leaving the hobby never crossed my mind.

I have a set up designed for a reef so have a bubblagus filter roller, carbon media reactor, bubblemagus G9 skimmer and UV steriliser. I’m looking to add another UV steriliser too.

I also have 4x MP40s and 3x Vortech XR15 Pro lights.

When you say Adding the other fish do you mean the first list or all of my existing fish shown on the 2nd list?

Cheers

having 2 UV would be nice. something i have thought about to just there pretty pricey.
as you know your lights are way over kill but if your tank is already established you might not need to turn them down to much. the good news is you no longer have to think about par now just what is pleasing to the eye and what makes the fish pop

yeah I was thinking both the 1st and 2nd fish list. I love wrasses too my reef will be wrasse dominate but my FOWLR will only have a cpl of the bigger ones.

I know its a hard choice stocking a fish only as you can have them all know. personally if you plane to keep if fish only for a while I would get all the fish you've always wanted like the large a large angel, puffers and others that are not reef safe.



one wrasse you might want to add to the possible list is the Red Coris wrasse I think there beautiful fish some are reef safe some are not but one is going in my fish only for sure!

 

[Marsh980]

having 2 UV would be nice. something i have thought about to just there pretty pricey.
as you know your lights are way over kill but if your tank is already established you might not need to turn them down to much. the good news is you no longer have to think about par now just what is pleasing to the eye and what makes the fish pop

yeah I was thinking both the 1st and 2nd fish list. I love wrasses too my reef will be wrasse dominate but my FOWLR will only have a cpl of the bigger ones.

I know its a hard choice stocking a fish only as you can have them all know. personally if you plane to keep if fish only for a while I would get all the fish you've always wanted like the large a large angel, puffers and others that are not reef safe.



one wrasse you might want to add to the possible list is the Red Coris wrasse I think there beautiful fish some are reef safe some are not but one is going in my fish only for sure!

My LFS said it would be worth getting another UV installed so will go ahead with that. It’s my very first ever SW tank and happy to buy what’s best for the fish.

It’s certainly an expensive hobby haha

I may just transfer the fish from the 1st list plus the yellow coris wrasse and like you say get some of the larger wrasses. That red coris wrasse looks awesome. It’s been added to my wish list.

 

[CookieRdReef]

Following! I would love to do fowlr one day for butterfly fish and a puffer. My grandfather had Latticed Butterfly, Pearlscale Butterfly, Longnose Butterfly. All are beautiful fish! Good luck with the build!

 

[kennyymacau]

With fowlr tanks I recommend you to use ceramic rings, I run only ceramic rings and a skimmer for my fowlr tank. I noticed in western countries people use live rock for fowlr tanks too which I really do not understand, live rocks are the best at absorbing medication since you can add medication in a fish only system. Try to put as much ceramic rings in the sump as possible since you want so many kinds of fish. Because in Hong Kong and Macau that’s what we do and we have crazy dense tanks haha with fish happily eating and surviving many many years

 

[kennyymacau]

I currently have a passer angel, scribble angel, emperor angel , blue angel, yellow tang, powder blue tang, Naso tang, 2 small blue hippo tang 25cm maldives treadfin butterfly, 2 unknown butterfly, One damsel and a black clownfish