Things to spruce up a FOWLR tank

[Sea Squirt]

I'm planning on just running a FOWLR setup in my 100gal and I was wondering what kinds of non-photosynthetic things folks are using in their FOWLR set ups.. I'm planning on using macroalgaes and I love Hawaiian Featherduster worms, so I'll have lots of them.. Anything else out there that can be put into low light conditions??

Thanks for any help!!

[joanadam]

Most sponges are low light inhabitants.

[Sea Squirt]

Hmmm...

I'll have to look some up.. I've never kept any sponges on purpose.. Just the ones that managed to hang on to the liverock..

Thanks for all your quick responses, joan :)

[joanadam]

Your very welcome. :D

[Sea Squirt]

Sponges like these?? Or are these a little too enterprising for my tank??

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seasky.org%2Free flife%2Fsea2a.html

I need some sea squirts.. It's only fitting..

[joanadam]

I forgot to mention. Some fish eat sponge like angels. One of the things you need to do if you are getting sponges is look at the fish compatibility. Otherwise you may just be providing expensive lunch. They are also filter feeders so you will have to supplement the feedings with filter foods like phytoplankton.

Ive seen the Red tree sponges and yellow sponges, but have not ever seen the other ones. There is all types of ball sponges and tree sponges.

[Sea Squirt]

Gotcha.. I plan on adding a Coral Beauty, but that's the only "angel" I'll be wanting for the tank.. I'll do some research over the next couple of days and see what I can dig up.. Thanks for pointing a direction.. I appreciate it..

[Biotech]

starfish (sea stars) are colorful and are good addition to FOWLR

[kate]

i love the bumblebee snails, they are black with yellow on them, look on liveaquaria.com. i plan on putting them in my tank, they are small but add a little color

[edawg]

Does anyone have expierence w/ sythetic corals? How do they look in the aquarium real or hoaky? Drs foster & smith have a large selection in thier catelogue

[texastrigger]

How about sea urchins? That is a question not a suggestion

[Sea Squirt]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks!! I appreciate all the input..

I definately love the bumblebee snails, but I want blue leg hermits so I'm a little worried that they might not last very long.. Guess I could give it a whirl and see how it goes, but a friend told me when I first started marine that bumblebees ended up pretty low on the food chain..

Definately want some starfish or serpents for this tank.. I haven't added any to the 46gal reef that I've got so I'm really looking forward to having at least one of those.. Right now, in the 46gal, I've just got those tiny white micro stars and they're nifty, but not quite as cool as seeing a starfish roaming around the tank..

I love blue tuxedo urchins and since my rockwork isn't precarious, I'd think that would be a fun addition.. I think the way they "collect" decorations for their spines is a hoot..

Thanks again :)

[fishers]

I have a chocolate chip star. They're cheap, hardy & fun to watch; he'll eat from my hand. I also have some button polyps that are doing fine with no care at all (80 watts of NO lighting over a 90-gn. tank, & nitrates in the 80-100 range!). I also had some anthelia that did fine for well over a year, until the star killed almost all of it. I moved what was left over to my reef. Feather dusters was a good suggestion too. How about a coral banded shrimp?

[Scubaman]

Sea Urchins are cool, but be really careful because most species eat coralline algae which is the good purple algae you want. I found this out the hard way by buying two urchins which I thought were really cool (and they were) only to wake up the next morning and find my rocks covered in white scars where the sea urchins ate the algae off. Brittle stars are an interesting addition and some macro algae will add some greenery to it.

[Sea Squirt]

Thanks for the suggestions, Fishers.. I'm not so sure about the coral banded shrimp since I've read/heard alot of stories about them going really aggressive.. I really can't have any photosynthetic corals either.. I mean there is literally nothing over this tank.. Only a 40watt light strip so I can see where the rocks are, LOL!! My husband wants to build me a canopy for the lights though, so I'm sure that sooner or later I'll be able to stock this tank up with some nice corals..

Scubaman, yup, I've read quite a bit about urchins munching coralline algae.. I figure I'll wait on the purchase of the urchin until I have some coralline algae to spare.. I've been introducing spores from my 46gal tank though, so I'm hoping that it will take the opportunity to spread for me.. There's Halimeda in the tank right now and it's doing okay.. I really should add another NO striplight onto the tank for it though.. At least until I upgrade :mrgreen: