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Cultivated Reef

Another Fluval Evo 13.5 reef project - SPS growth pics under stock lights


hyoib

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Great job!  The SPS I have tried that haven't had any problems in the same tank with same lights are Bird Of Paradise and Montis.  If you want your first SPS for this tank get Montis.

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16 hours ago, Jim80 said:

Brilliant thread. I’m looking forward to adding some softies and LPS to my evo now. 

Thanks. Been very hard work this year, battles with algae have been at points demoralising. 

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Found this washed up on a spit of land called Spurn Head near me yesterday.  Decided he was too big to put in my fluval evo....... so fortunately managed to get him back in the sea and see him swim off!

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  • 1 month later...

Branched out to new horizons yesterday. Picked up two small frags of SPS (Red Montipora Digitata and Green plating Montipora capricornis) and a small frag of cyphastrea.

 

Still running the stock lighting on this system. I see only a few other fluval evo owners have tried montipora with stock lights (with mixed success), I'm looking forward to documenting if it works out (or even if it doesn't). I've also ditched the protein skimmer, have tried some chaeto in chamber 1. A 7 watt LED light is arriving tomorrow to light that chamber up.

 

My Randall Goby jumped out the small hole of the fluval lid and was found crispy the next day on the carpet ☹️ That's the second one to do that through that tiny hole. Won't be rushing to get another goby any time soon.

 

Will post full tank shots tomorrow. Here are some of the new coral frags.

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I have 2 Tyree Toxic Green Montis, A Red Cap Monti, A Setosa, and A Season's Greetings Monti in my tank.  I also have a Green Goblin Acro which was stung by a hammer and is trying to recover.  Note that this is in a Fluval 13.5 with stock lighting.  I recommend to give it as much lighting as you can, since this light isn't the best.  I have had great luck and if you're parameters are good, I would get more sps.  Also my tank is only like 5 months old lol.

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Well slightly delayed update. Everything going well. SPS colonies haven't died (yet) 😂

 

I've been dosing red sea's alk and calc supplements. Alk is taking 3ml daily (to keep dkH around 8.4), calcium is taking 4ml (every other day to keep around 420ppm). Other maintenance is 5g water change with red sea coral pro salt once a week.

 

I'm not sure if its just me thinking it, but the colours of the corals are appearing brighter and less brown. But that might just be my eyes deceiving me.

Its a shame I can't take any good photos on the blue lighting. Its looking great with the actinic lights on.

 

Anyway let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

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Orded  Jebao DP-3 doser today as heading to the galapgos for a few weeks in May and don't trust my fish sitter to dose appropriately!  😂Anyone else have a doser set up on their evo? If so, how have you attached it and to what section?

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32 minutes ago, soeminpaing said:

Uh... that's an aiptasia you got between the zoas. Sorry about bad news. Though someone else already told you by now. 

oh yeh i know. its been there for about 1 year. Not been able to get it to with all the zoas. I work in a hospital so going to take some fine medical needles and syringes to get to it with lemon juice!😂

51 minutes ago, DRGN said:

@hyoib Did you ever try the stock fluval pump for noise? I'm wondering if I should be ordering the eheim compact 1000 before I set up.

Yep I did get it, but upgraded almost a soon as I got the tank. It was quiet, but low flow. I tried the sicce pump but that was too noisy, the eheim compact has had no issues!

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I've got a Jabeo SW-2  wave maker coming for added flow, would you still suggest that I upgrade the pump? I'm placing another order for various bits tomorrow so could add the eheim pump as it's showing as in stock. 

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2 hours ago, hyoib said:

Orded  Jebao DP-3 doser today as heading to the galapgos for a few weeks in May and don't trust my fish sitter to dose appropriately!  😂Anyone else have a doser set up on their evo? If so, how have you attached it and to what section?

I have 2 of those dosers.. not the most accurate at the lower dosing levels.. assuming we are talking about dosing two part what I did was dilute my alk and ca two part with rodi at a ratio of 1:1 . Then I could actually have the doser move a higher dose and it seemed more accurate.. any ways good luck!

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8 minutes ago, Weikel said:

I have 2 of those dosers.. not the most accurate at the lower dosing levels.. assuming we are talking about dosing two part what I did was dilute my alk and ca two part with rodi at a ratio of 1:1 . Then I could actually have the doser move a higher dose and it seemed more accurate.. any ways good luck!

Excellent tip, thank you very much. I've been loving your own build by the way Weikel!

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12 minutes ago, DRGN said:

I've got a Jabeo SW-2  wave makercoming for added flow, would you still suggest that I upgrade the pump? I'm placing another order for various bits tomorrow so could add the eheim pump as it's showing as in stock. 

Unfortunately I have no experience with those wavemakers. I guess though it depends on what you're hoping to stock? I've got the hydor koralia 240 in mine which has been given me plenty of the flow I need.

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43 minutes ago, hyoib said:

Excellent tip, thank you very much. I've been loving your own build by the way Weikel!

No prob really did help me out because my new tank is so new I only dose 4ml a day so now with it diluted i can dose 8ml and my levels seem to stay spot on... oh and thanks for the shout out on my tank I didnt think anyone really read the thread haha😊

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Ok I've set up the Jebao DP-3 Doser tonight (see photos). I've followed @Weikel's advice and used a dilution factor to get more accurate dosing. Would appreciate someone checking my maths though...

 

Currently I've been hand dosing 2ml of Red Sea's liquid Alkalinity (Foundation B). Red Sea's website quotes the concentration as "1ml will raise the Alk level of 100 litres (25 gal) by 0.036 (meq/l (0.1dKH)". I've been assuming therefore that in an EVO (given volume of 13.5 gallon) 1ml of Red Sea's Alk will raise dkH by 0.2dkH, so by having to dose 2ml daily, my tank has been consuming 0.4dKH a day.

 

Following Weikel's advice, the Jebao isn't accurate enough to dose 2ml of alk a day. I've therefore diluted the Red Sea Alk with RODI water by a ratio of 1:9 (that is 100ml of Red Sea's liquid Alkalinity Foundation B and 900ml of RODI water) to make up a litre of diluted alk mix.

 

Is my math right that with the dilution factor I've used, 20ml of my diluted alkalinity mix, should raise the dkH of my tank by the same amount as the 2ml concentrated Red Sea liquid alkalinity?

 

I was planning on dosing 10ml of my new diluted alkalinity mix twice a day to maintain the DkH with the new doser.

 

Would really appreciate any advice! If everything with alk works fine, I'll set up the calcium later this week.

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1 hour ago, hyoib said:

Ok I've set up the Jebao DP-3 Doser tonight (see photos). I've followed @Weikel's advice and used a dilution factor to get more accurate dosing. Would appreciate someone checking my maths though...

 

Currently I've been hand dosing 2ml of Red Sea's liquid Alkalinity (Foundation B). Red Sea's website quotes the concentration as "1ml will raise the Alk level of 100 litres (25 gal) by 0.036 (meq/l (0.1dKH)". I've been assuming therefore that in an EVO (given volume of 13.5 gallon) 1ml of Red Sea's Alk will raise dkH by 0.2dkH, so by having to dose 2ml daily, my tank has been consuming 0.4dKH a day.

 

Following Weikel's advice, the Jebao isn't accurate enough to dose 2ml of alk a day. I've therefore diluted the Red Sea Alk with RODI water by a ratio of 1:9 (that is 100ml of Red Sea's liquid Alkalinity Foundation B and 900ml of RODI water) to make up a litre of diluted alk mix.

 

Is my math right that with the dilution factor I've used, 20ml of my diluted alkalinity mix, should raise the dkH of my tank by the same amount as the 2ml concentrated Red Sea liquid alkalinity?

 

I was planning on dosing 10ml of my new diluted alkalinity mix twice a day to maintain the DkH with the new doser.

 

Would really appreciate any advice! If everything with alk works fine, I'll set up the calcium later this week.

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Ha I've only diluted my 2 part at the 1:1 ratio .. makes math that much easier. I THINK🤣 your math is correct though.. when I have fired up a new doser I always start with less of the recommended dose and just check the tank every couple days for a few weeks and adjust the dosage up and down until I find the sweet spot.. I feel the corals can handle a drop better then a spike so I dont mind dosing a little low at first while I dial it in..

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Your tank is awesome!! Corals are looking amazing and healthy. How did the ehiem 1000 work for you? My stock return is louder than my tv and it’s driving me crazy... I ordered one way too powerful so returning it and still in the air about what return pump to get. 

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4 hours ago, 748S911 said:

Your tank is awesome!! Corals are looking amazing and healthy. How did the ehiem 1000 work for you? My stock return is louder than my tv and it’s driving me crazy... I ordered one way too powerful so returning it and still in the air about what return pump to get. 

Yeh it works really well. No complaints at all! I’ve heard elsewhere that the eheim pump adds quite a bit of heat to the system but I’ve had no complaints. I do live in the UK though where it isn’t too hot!

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18 hours ago, Weikel said:

Ha I've only diluted my 2 part at the 1:1 ratio .. makes math that much easier. I THINK🤣 your math is correct though.. when I have fired up a new doser I always start with less of the recommended dose and just check the tank every couple days for a few weeks and adjust the dosage up and down until I find the sweet spot.. I feel the corals can handle a drop better then a spike so I dont mind dosing a little low at first while I dial it in..

Success! My dKH last night (after hand dosing) was 9.2, tested it just before the dose tonight and it was 8.7. Then tested it 30 minutes after it had automically dosed 20ml of diluted alk solution and it was 9.2!

Will keep checking daily over the next week, but it looks like success! As i've proven my dilution ratio was correct. I'll dose 10ml twice daily, instead of 20ml all at once. 

 

Thanks for your help Weikel. Happy reefing.

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7 hours ago, hyoib said:

Success! My dKH last night (after hand dosing) was 9.2, tested it just before the dose tonight and it was 8.7. Then tested it 30 minutes after it had automically dosed 20ml of diluted alk solution and it was 9.2!

Will keep checking daily over the next week, but it looks like success! As i've proven my dilution ratio was correct. I'll dose 10ml twice daily, instead of 20ml all at once. 

 

Thanks for your help Weikel. Happy reefing.

Ha well you did the homework buddy. Glad it worked out. Just got off a crazy 14 hour work day and am glad to hear some good news!! 😎

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