M-A-T-T-Y Fluval Evo 13.5

[andy3020]

Do you have something you could add to the tank to raise the water level temporarily?

 

How have you found the Eheim Compact 1000? The stock pump causes vibrations which gets very annoying.

[M-A-T-T-Y]

13 minutes ago, andy3020 said:

Do you have something you could float in the tank to raise the water level temporarily?

Oh great idea! Hadn't thought of that but I will find a tub or something to float in it.

 

26 minutes ago, andy3020 said:

How have you found the Eheim Compact 1000? The stock pump causes vibrations which gets very annoying.

It's excellent, much quieter in my opinion and the flow is perfect.

I'd highly recommend adding it, and I know if mine broke tomorrow I'd buy it again straight away.

[andy3020]

Yeah a  bag of water should work I think. Thanks for getting back to me, I was also debating between this and the Sicce. 

 

Has it fit in without having to take the guard off?

Did you have to use a different pipe or did the stock one fit?

 

[SeaFurn]

Since the tank is cycled you have biological filtration on the rocks and sand in the tank. You will be fine just running the pump inside the tank until you get more water. Just put the heater inside the display while you do that. 

Plenty if people run their tanks “dirty” like that. You may want to put a piece of tape on the tank to indicate the current water level so you can top it off to that mark as evaporation occurs. 

[Lugmos12]

You can get RO water from walmart (the Great Value brand galllon with green sticker on it).

I've had turbos in my tank before and they didn't knock anything over.

[M-A-T-T-Y]

16 hours ago, andy3020 said:

Yeah a  bag of water should work I think. Thanks for getting back to me, I was also debating between this and the Sicce. 

 

Has it fit in without having to take the guard off?

Did you have to use a different pipe or did the stock one fit?

 

I debated between this and the Sicce and ended up going with the Eheim because I've used Eheim products in the past and was always happy with them. The Eheim also has greater flow if I remember correctly.

 

Not actually sure what the guard your referring too is, but nothing was removed from the tank when swapping the Fluval Evo pump with the Eheim. So I am going to say no

 

Stock pipe/hose fits, takes a bit of force to get it over the pump outlet but it fits.

If I remember correctly I think the Eheim is a bit taller, so I had to trim the stock pipe/house (just with a pair of scissors), was quite an easy process swapping the pumps over though.

 

16 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Since the tank is cycled you have biological filtration on the rocks and sand in the tank. You will be fine just running the pump inside the tank until you get more water. Just put the heater inside the display while you do that. 

Plenty if people run their tanks “dirty” like that. You may want to put a piece of tape on the tank to indicate the current water level so you can top it off to that mark as evaporation occurs. 

Thanks SeaFurn, hanging out for tomorrow to grab more water from the LFS. Might get twice the amount I normally get and keep it in our units storage cage so that I don't have this issue happen again!

 

It's typically pretty easy to tell when the water level has dropped on the Fluval Evo as it has the pattern around the rim, I generally fill to that line and then top up as it drops. But only realised I didn't have enough water during my water change after I had dumped the old water down the sink

 

14 hours ago, Lugmos12 said:

You can get RO water from walmart (the Great Value brand galllon with green sticker on it).

I've had turbos in my tank before and they didn't knock anything over.

Unfortunately there is no Walmart here in Australia
 

I am thinking I might get 1 Turbo, they seem to be highly recommended!

[M-A-T-T-Y]

24 Apr 2018 Update:

Tested all water parameters, did a big scrub of all the glass, and did a ~30% water change last night.

Water Parameters are still looking great and have been for quite a while now so I am very happy with that!

 

 

Did find a large piece of Aiptasia which I will get onto tonight, the Lemon juice idea suggested by @SeaFurn seems to have worked a charm on all the old Aiptasia (much better than just boiling water). It has not come back where I used the Lemon Juice so I am very happy with that method of removal at the moment.

 

Unfortunately the LFS had no snails when I visited, so that is still on the "to get" list.

 

However while we were there we did buy a Royal Dottyback (Pictichromis paccagnellae) and a piece of Coral, I was not sure what it was at the time but my partner said "we needed it" and who am I to say no to her?  After some investigation I believe it is a Open Brain Coral (Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi).

 

Pictures of the Coral and updated tank shot:

 

 

[M-A-T-T-Y]

08 May 2018 Update:

Tested my water, all parameters were good except Salinity was down to 1.020 which is quite bad for Coral I believe.

Decided I would try my hand at mixing my own so I purchased some Red Sea Salt and mixed it up to about 1.030 and added that when I did a water change.

 

I will test the water again tonight to see if it has made much difference, hoping to get the water Salinity to roughly 1.025. 

As it was my first time mixing myself I just purchased a small bag, however it was relatively easy and I will probably keep doing it. I will be purchasing a bucket of the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt in the coming weeks.

 

The Royal Dottyback has gone straight to work digging the sand out from under one of the rocks! I am currently pushing it back in every few days but I might have to start gluing my Rocks and Coral to make sure I don't have any accidents. At the moment the Rocks and Coral are just sitting/balancing on each other.

 

Purchased another 2 small pieces of Coral from a new LFS we found, don't really have any idea what they are.

• One appears to be Orange Plate Coral (I believe eventually this may grow too big and I will have to sell it off)
• The other looks similar style to the Green Brain Coral we have, any ideas?

Similar to the Alveopora Coral and Open Brain Coral, I intend to target feed both of these 1x per week with Hikari Corilific Delite. 

 

 

 

Current Full Tank Shot:

 

[M-A-T-T-Y]

17 May 2018 Update:

Water parameters are much better now that I am mixing my own salt.

Salinity is higher which was my original goal (now sitting around 1.026), and an added benefit is Alkalinity and Calcium have risen to perfect levels!

 

Still have small Aiptasia, I have it under control but I read Peppermint Shrimp are happy to eat Aiptasia so I decided to get 1 Peppermint Shrimp to try it out.
What I apparently forgot to look up was how Royal Dottybacks feel about Shrimp... lets just say the Royal Dottyback wasn't a fan and I don't have a Shrimp anymore.

Other than that everything is going well, Coral and fish all seem pretty happy and active as far as I can tell.
However I think I have Colonial Hydroids on some of my Live Rock (pic below), research says they may have a sting to them so I should start trying to kill them off too right? Sorry for the crappy quality photo, quite difficult to get a picture of them.

 

[M-A-T-T-Y]

22 May 2018 Update:

Purchased a fantastic looking Coral over the weekend, Duncanopsammia axifuga (or simply Duncan Coral).

We love it, I have been keeping an eye out for Coral that flows in the current like the Alveopora coral and this looked great in the LFS.
It hasn't quite opened up like it had in the LFS, however it is getting a little more open each day.

 

We also purchased a Neon Velvet Damsel from the LFS simply because I love the color Blue and the LFS guy told me it doesn't grow too large.

Unfortunately once getting it home I noticed the Fish had quite a bit of damage to its rear, then the Royal Dottyback gave it about 2 days.

 

Came home today to find it was inside my Orange Plate Coral, the Coral seems to now be spitting it back out as of a few hours later but it has not come completely out yet.

 

  

 

I have also purchased some Selleys Aqua Knead It to plug the hole in the AIO Filtration on the back of the Fluval Evo.

I will perform this task most likely tomorrow night.

 

Questions

1. Should I be concerned about the Fish inside the Coral? Or just let it eventually spit it out?
2. Is there anything I can keep with the Royal Dottyback besides the 2x Clown Fish (which it appears to have no problem with)?
3. Any recommendations of Coral that are fairly easy to care for, don't grow too large, and flow nicely in the current?

Thank you!

[Christopher Marks]

1. The plate coral will either digest the fish or finish expelling it. You can remove the fish if it is released, otherwise you're best of letting nature run its course.

2. I think you've reached the limit for fish in this size system. Any new additions will likely receive a similar level of aggression, the dottyback is being territorial.

3. Xenia, green star polyps, zoanthids, ricordea, leather corals.

[M-A-T-T-Y]

7 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

1. The plate coral will either digest the fish or finish expelling it. You can remove the fish if it is released, otherwise you're best of letting nature run its course.

This morning I had a look and couldn't find any trace of the fish, so either the Coral digested it all or it released it and the Fish is stuck under a rock somewhere. I will have to have a better look tonight.

 

7 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

2. I think you've reached the limit for fish in this size system. Any new additions will likely receive a similar level of aggression, the dottyback is being territorial.

Bummer, that is a shame, we were really hoping for 1 more.
Seems the Dottyback hates everyone except the clowns, I am hoping he doesn't get fed up with them as well!

Do you think snails would be okay? We've considered getting a larger snail like a Trochus for the tank.

 

7 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

3. Xenia, green star polyps, zoanthids, ricordea, leather corals.

Awesome suggestions thank you! Those look great, we would be very happy with some of them :)

[SeaFurn]

4 hours ago, M-A-T-T-Y said:

This morning I had a look and couldn't find any trace of the fish, so either the Coral digested it all or it released it and the Fish is stuck under a rock somewhere. I will have to have a better look tonight.

 

Bummer, that is a shame, we were really hoping for 1 more.
Seems the Dottyback hates everyone except the clowns, I am hoping he doesn't get fed up with them as well!

Do you think snails would be okay? We've considered getting a larger snail like a Trochus for the tank.

 

Awesome suggestions thank you! Those look great, we would be very happy with some of them 🙂

Trochus snails would be fine. I have a couple of smaller ones in my 14g. They are my hardest working snail by far. I don’t think my tank could support more than two though.

 

Xenia and green star polyps can spread like wildfire. If you get them, place them on their own rock, not the main rock structure, so that you can keep them in check. 

[M-A-T-T-Y]

07 Aug 2018 Update:

Been a while since I posted here! Need to get back into it 🙂

 

Tank is doing very well, water parameters have been great for a while now and Aiptasia seems to be under control (for now).

I've decided to remove the sand substrate from the tank, it felt hard to keep looking clean and I've decided to just go bare bottom!

I think it will look nice once the sand has all been removed but currently it is half gone and half still there, so looks a bit rough at the moment!

 

Tank still has the following livestock:

• 2 x Ocellaris Clownfish
• 1 x Royal Gramma Basslet

A clean up crew consisting of:

• 1 x Trochus Snail
• 2 x Cerith Snails
• Stomatellas
• Bristleworms

The lighting has been fine for me so it is still stock, currently it is supporting my Coral very well! All my Coral is looking great I think:

• 2 x Alveopora
• 2 x Open Brain Coral
• Orange Plate Coral
• Duncan Coral

Questions:

1. With the Sand removed, will the Bristleworms and Stomatellas still survive? I ask because it appears they live under the sand during daylight.

 

As I mentioned, I am in the process of removing sand so please ignore how bad it looks with half of it gone.

Recently got a GoPro so I have been playing with some features. So I tried Time-lapse by recording myself doing a tank clean, here's the GIF: https://gfycat.com/PreciousSimilarConch

Here is some Full Tank Shots:

  

[M-A-T-T-Y]

Quick question.

Due to it being a pain in the ass to keep clean, I am considering replacing my LR with 1 giant piece instead of the 4-5 little pieces it is now.
Would doing so cause my tank to crash/face issues?

 

I have the feeling the answer is going to be a yes...

[SeaFurn]

7 hours ago, M-A-T-T-Y said:

Quick question.

Due to it being a pain in the ass to keep clean, I am considering replacing my LR with 1 giant piece instead of the 4-5 little pieces it is now.
Would doing so cause my tank to crash/face issues?

 

I have the feeling the answer is going to be a yes...

What do you mean by it’s a pain to keep clean? The rocks? The sand?

 

The key is that you don’t want to cause a mini-cycle. So if your larger piece of rock is coming from an established tank and the bio filter on it is already established, taking it out of that tank and putting it right in yours should be fine. If it’s out of the water for a period of time and there’s die off, it could cause a mini-cycle.

If there’s room you could put the larger rock in with the smaller ones for a period of time but I’d have some Microbacter 7 or something like that on hand and dose it and test ammonia frequently to ensure there are no issues. 

 

The other consideration is the surface area of the rocks. The smaller rocks may have more surface area than one larger rock so they have more ability to filter.  

But, you also have sand so you have a biofilter established there too so it’s probably not an issue - as long as the larger rock has an established bio filter. 

[M-A-T-T-Y]

On 10/10/2018 at 11:19 PM, SeaFurn said:

What do you mean by it’s a pain to keep clean? The rocks? The sand?

The Sand I have been slowly getting rid off to go bare bottom.
But since I went on a few weeks Holiday I am having big problems getting Algae & Aiptasia under control.
Additionally there is also a lot of "grass" (thats what it looks like) growing on the rocks that I simply cannot pull off.
 

On 10/10/2018 at 11:19 PM, SeaFurn said:

The key is that you don’t want to cause a mini-cycle. So if your larger piece of rock is coming from an established tank and the bio filter on it is already established, taking it out of that tank and putting it right in yours should be fine. If it’s out of the water for a period of time and there’s die off, it could cause a mini-cycle.

 

       ......

 

The other consideration is the surface area of the rocks. The smaller rocks may have more surface area than one larger rock so they have more ability to filter.  

But, you also have sand so you have a biofilter established there too so it’s probably not an issue - as long as the larger rock has an established bio filter. 

Understood, I don't think there is enough room to have the existing rocks and a new large single piece of rock.
Also the LFS has them just lying on the floor so save to say there is die-off despite them having lots of coralline on them.

 

Sounds like replacing all the rock with a new large single piece would be problematic. I will need to figure something else out.

[M-A-T-T-Y]

I've discovered the "grass" that has taken over is called Bryopsis and is apparently super difficult to get rid off.

 

I have also lost 2 of my corals (the sensitive Alveopora corals) in the last week.
At this point the LFS have told me they will take back my Fish and Snails; I am going to do a full rebuild.

 

Trash the current rock, fully clean the tank, replace the media and start again.

I am considering just doing a Shrimp tank if I can find a few species of Shrimp that could go together, I imagine it would be easier to maintain as well.

1. What is the best way to clean a tank? I am guessing just scrubbing the whole thing as you can't risk using Chemicals
2. What is the best way to ensure any new rock has NOTHING on it? Boil it? Cook it in the oven?