TheBigOs EVO 13.5g/20L DIY AIO - Rock Flower Garden

[JcSH2o]

4 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

Nice deal on rBTAs, but that Acan , just wow. 

Holy crap is that an ACAN?! Hot dang that's very cool.... 

[TheBig053]

Yep, thats an Acan stealing the nems thunder there. Its got a real nice teal color in the center and teal bands around the outside. I'll try to get a better pic tomorrow with lights on all the way. 

[Noinoi24]

Subscribed! Beautiful!

[TheBig053]

On 8/20/2017 at 8:20 AM, Melfy77 said:

Nice set up clownfish are just soooo fascinating!!! Used to have a pair of Clarkiis hosted by a carpet anemone. Had them for over 3 years then had to sell them. Setting up an Evo 13.5 to get a pair of occelaris this time. It's gonna be in the living room so everyone one can admire that tank. It's gonna be cleaner than my 8g mixed reef tank in my bedroom lol

Yeah, I keep my tank in the dining room/living room area so I see it all the time. I probably wouldn't take nearly as good of care of it if it was in the basement. ?

7 hours ago, Noinoi24 said:

Subscribed! Beautiful!

Thanks!

[TheBig053]

First tank video! Apologies for the dirty glass, need to break out the flipper. Anyways, enjoy the Team Umizoomi soundtrack!

 

 

[WV Reefer]

34 minutes ago, TheBig053 said:

First tank video! Apologies for the dirty glass, need to break out the flipper. Anyways, enjoy the Team Umizoomi soundtrack!

 

 

Everything looks so good! I would be scared to death of bumping that Montipora! 

[Leec02]

  Really enjoying your tank. Which test kit do you prefer using? 

[TheBig053]

12 minutes ago, Leec02 said:

  Really enjoying your tank. Which test kit do you prefer using? 

Thanks man. I use Red Sea for everything except phos which I use Salifert. I wouldn't say I prefer Red Sea over anything else because I haven't used anything else except for the Salifert Phos kit. I would like to try a hanna checker for Alk, Ca, and NO3, since these are the tests I run most often. If I come across anyone selling these on the forums I will probably pull the trigger. 

[mitten_reef]

4 hours ago, TheBig053 said:

First tank video! Apologies for the dirty glass, need to break out the flipper. Anyways, enjoy the Team Umizoomi soundtrack!

 

 

Nice choices of corals! Tank looks great!

[TheBig053]

On 8/31/2017 at 5:47 PM, WV Reefer said:

Everything looks so good! I would be scared to death of bumping that Montipora! 

Thanks! Got real dirty last weekend while I was out of town. Brown algae all over the glass when I came back.

 

Your fear is my reality. I bump it at least once every cleaning. Normally just brush against the edge. It will "fray" a little but heals up pretty quick. I've begun taking that whole rock out when scraping the back glass so its not in the way, but gotta move quick to get back in the water. 

[TheBig053]

On 8/31/2017 at 9:43 PM, micoastreefing said:

Nice choices of corals! Tank looks great!

Thanks! I am filling it up much quicker than I anticipated. My plan all along was to upgrade to a larger (100+ gal) system once we moved to a larger house, but I am starting to think an intermediate upgrade may be necerssary. Shhh, don't tell my wife!  

 

That or maybe setting up a frag tank with an old 20L I have stashed in the basement. 

[Nart]

I'm telling!

[TheBig053]

34 minutes ago, Nart said:

I'm telling!

You'll do no such thing!  Now I have to avoid you during Ben's opening/open house because she wants to go with me.  

[TheBig053]

Be warned! This is a long post with nothing of real consequence to share. Just a couple pretty photos of some of the more recent additions and a documenting some growth. 

 

Big piece of green cap with purple tips. Wish I could say I grew this all myself but it was about 4 x 4 when I acquired it at a local club meeting. Anyways, it has grown some and the tips have become a pretty nice purple color.

 

 

Purple/green millepora. This has to be the most tempermental coral on the planet. If anything touches it, breaths on it, looks at it funny, out come mesenterial filaments! I just got it off the rack and attached to the rock last night, so I am hoping a stable home life might help settle it down. Moody $h1t!

 

 

Strawberry shortcake thats been in the tank since late July. It has rebounded nicely from a small bout if RTN shortly after I added it to the tank. The spot that RTN'd has all new flesh and there is a lot of new growth from the base lately.

 

 

This red planet has been in the tank about a month and has absolutely taken off the past 2-3 weeks. When I added it to the tank it was just the single branch in the center and the base had covered the frag plug. All the new branches and buds have grown in the past 2-3 weeks. Real exciting!

 

 

Are you still with me? Ok good! The two most recent additions as of yesterday. 

 

A nice chunk of mystic sunset monti.

 

 

And a piece of unnamed aussie acro. Its a real bright highlighter green/yellow on the tips.

 

 

Here is the colony it came from for reference.

 

 

Wow, I can't believe you made it this far.

 

As I mentioned above I gave toying with the idea of starting a new tank and I am pulling the trigger. The plan is to convert an old 20L I have in the basement into an AIO. I ordered the acryllic for the chambers the other day but won't be able to begin "construction" until I get back from a work trip to Dallas (yuck!) at the end if next week. I'll document the build here since I am not sure a frag tank deserves a new journal.

 

Tank plans include...

-bare bottom

-rock rubble in a chamber and possibly a block of marinepure if needed for bio filtration

-cobalt 100w (our basement is an icebox)

-sicce 1.0 for return pump

-hydor koralia 425 on the opposite end

-DIY egg crate media basket just until I can convince Steve over at InTank to start producing a nice acryllic one for my one of a kind/size first chamber (sarcasm font?)

 

The lighting is the one thing I cant make up my mind on. I've been looking at an AI Hydra 26, 6 x 24 ATI dimmable T5, and 24" reef brite t5 with mounts for LED strips. I am torn between just going for a used Hydra (or something similar) or just going for it and getting a big boy light that I can use on a larger tank down the road. BTW, I think I've decided that the larger tank in my tank future probably won't be as large as I had originally wanted. I'm thinking something like a 30 x 30 x 20-24 cube (70 - 90 gallons) is more realistic and manageable. I am rambling now. Anyways, what do y'all recommend/suggest? 

 

You made it to the end of this post! 

 

 

[TheBig053]

Tank turned 6-months old on September  17, but I haven't been able to get a new FTS because of a work trip to Dallas. Anyways, new FTS in the lead post of this thread.

 

I've decided to remove the chaeto fuge in chamber 2 since I don't think it was really doing much except adding to a brown algae on the tank glass issue I've been experiencing. When I took it out of the chamber I found a bunch of dead chaeto and detritus built up at the bottom of the chaeto ball. I will just have to be more sparing with my feedings and deligent with my regular maintenance. Nitrates have been at less than 5 ppm the last few times I've tested, so all good for now. 

 

Here are few shots of some recent additons and acan growth. All my Acans were purchased as single heads and have been growing like crazy as of late. Here are few shots of the new growth. 

 

Photobomb from a new duncan head.

 

The new heads on this one are almost mature

 

 

I caught my RFA in the act of eating a baby cerith snail and cleaner shrimp molt. Thats the cerith shell on the way out.

 

 

Here is a better shot of the unknown highlighter green/yellow Aussie acro from an earlier post. 

 

 

New addition! Picked up this piece of Suharsoni from my local coral guy the other day. The colony it came from looks  real gnarly, like a spooky dead tree from a haunted house. 

 

Frag

 

Colony

 

In reading back through my thread, I realize I never post pictures of my fish. Well here you go....

 

Wolverine the purple firefish

 

Pennywise and Capt. Spaulding my standard oscellaris clowns. 

 

 

And $h1thead the cleaner shrimp maning his post.

 

 

Quick update on the 20L frag tank build. I got the acrycllic cut for the AIO wall and baffles. I also drilled 1/2" holes in the wall for the overflow. I am waiting to drill the hole for the return and silicon everything in place until the plumbing (bulkhead, loc line, elbow, etc.) are delivered from BRS later in the week. I am also planning to spray paint the bottom black. Anyways, heres a few photos. My apologies for the poor lighting and mountain of laundry in the background! 

 

 

 

Thats the end of another loooooooong update. Thanks for reading.

[Nart]

I think the chaeto light was too strong for the small amount of space you had. I think it would've worked if you had covered up a few more LED lights, like by electrical taping the direct LED light so the chaeto gets the indirect lighting. It's a very powerful light.

[TheBig053]

On 10/4/2017 at 8:05 AM, Nart said:

I think the chaeto light was too strong for the small amount of space you had. I think it would've worked if you had covered up a few more LED lights, like by electrical taping the direct LED light so the chaeto gets the indirect lighting. It's a very powerful light.

Yeah, you ae probably right. I'll listen to you next time! Hah. 

 

The plumbing for the 20L arrived today along with the retun pump (sicce syncra 1.5) and heater (cobalt neotherm 100w). Final drilling and silicon application will commence tomorrow. I also found a light today! A 36" 4 bulb CoralVue T5 with actinic LEDs and 3 channels. Its used from local reefer but far kore busget friendly than the ATI or ReefBrite i was considering. More updates and pictures to come this weekend!

[TheBig053]

Finally got some more work done on the 20L build today. Got the hole for the return bulkhead drilled. This was nerve wracking since its a 1 1/4" hole and I'd already cracked one baffle drilling just a 5/8" hole, but I got it done with out incident. I was also able to get the baffles and false wall siliconed into place. I still need to silicon the baffles to the glass but this will require a smaller tub of silicon that I just ordered on Amazon. Anyway, here's a few photos on the progress.

 

Front with overflow and return

 

Rear chambers. The second chamber isn't as large as I'd hoped since I had to make the third larger to accomodate the Sicce Syncra 1.5, which is just a hair over 4" long and add a little more with the cord.

 

Set up with the new (used) light. 

 

Hopefully finally getting it wet next weekend. Still waiting on a final piece of plumbing from BRS since the local LFS didn't carry the connector I needed.

[Minmay]

Awesome!!! I wish I knew how to do that. Hey Mr. Big, dont you have a bunch of RFA babies? Maybe that was someone else?

[TheBig053]

4 hours ago, Minmay said:

Awesome!!! I wish I knew how to do that. Hey Mr. Big, dont you have a bunch of RFA babies? Maybe that was someone else?

 

I didn't know either, LOL! Lots of trial and error and one broken baffle later. It's not the greatest piece of craftsmanship, but I'll take it for a first time build. 

 

No, I am not the RFA breeder, but maybe soon since I have some more space now! 

[Minmay]

21 minutes ago, TheBig053 said:

 

I didn't either, LOL! Lots of trial and error and one broken baffle later. It's not the greatest piece of craftsman ship, but I'll take it for a first time build. 

 

No, I am not the RFA breeder, but maybe  soon since I have some more space now! 

Well, it looks pretty professional to me. Bah, I wonder who it was. Congratz on larger foot print. Hopefully one day i'll be able to upgrade to a larger tank.

[TheBig053]

2 hours ago, Minmay said:

Well, it looks pretty professional to me. Bah, I wonder who it was. Congratz on larger foot print. Hopefully one day i'll be able to upgrade to a larger tank.

Thanks. Some of the silicon application in the rear chambers is pretty messy but no one will see that but me ?

[TheBig053]

Tough day in TheBigO household. We had to put down our (almost) 13 yr old golden/aussie mix because of cancer this morning. She was a sweet dog for an alpha female and we will miss her dearly, but glad she is no longer suffering. I think the Nats loss on Thursday night was what finally did her in. She couldn't take anymore DC sports letdown and decided to check out. Sorry, using humor to avoid real feelings. 

 

RIP Luna, a.k.a Lu Dawg, a.a.k.a Sweet Lu, a.a.a.k.a Luna Tuna

 

Anyway, this happened the other night....

 

 

No, the anemone is not eating my clownfish! It's hosting it! Though I wish it would eat that damn shrimp....

 

Finally got the baffles of AIO chambers siliconed in the 20L, so it's getting wet tomorrow! 

 

The bew bulbs for the T5 were also delivered. I wanted a real blue look so I went with two ATI blue plus, one aqua blue special, and one purple plus. Here is a before and after between the used bulbs that came with the light and the new bulbs.

 

before/used

 

after/new

 

Gonna pick up pre-mixed water from the LFS to cycle the tank with and two pieaces of LR to conpliment the left over rock from EVO build that is now dry. More to come tomorrow.

[Lula_Mae]

14 minutes ago, TheBig053 said:

Tough day in TheBigO household. We had to put down our (almost) 13 yr old golden/aussie mix because of cancer this morning. She was a sweet dog for an alpha female and we will miss her dearly, but glad she is no longer suffering. I think the Nats loss on Thursday night was what finally did her in. She couldn't take anymore DC sports letdown and decided to check out. Sorry, using humor to avoid real feelings. 

 

Anyway, this happened the other night....

 

 

No, the anemone is not eating my clownfish! It's hosting it! Though I wish it would eat that damn shrimp....

 

Finally got the baffles of AIO chambers siliconed in the 20L, so it's getting wet tomorrow! 

 

The bew bulbs for the T5 were also delivered. I wanted a real blue look so I went with two ATI blue plus, one aqua blue special, and one purple plus. Here is a before and after between the used bulbs that came with the light and the new bulbs.

 

before/used

 

after/new

 

Gonna pick up pre-mixed water from the LFS to cycle the tank with and two pieaces of LR to conpliment the left over rock from EVO build that is now dry. More to come tomorrow.

Sorry about your pup! Glad the nem is hosting the clown though!

[TheBig053]

Thanks Lula. Updated the post with a photo of that goofball. 

 

Yeah, I was pretty pumped when my wife yelled from the dining rookm "hey babe, the anemone is either eating one of the fish or the fish is getting a massage from the anemone!" Hah.