Fluval evo 13.5-stock tank-8months

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

Hey everyone.  Just loving my tank these days.  My first ever salt water experience and TBH my first  fish tank ever on my own.  I'm 35.....   So my best friend has been in the hobby for a couple years and always loved staring at his tank so I took the leap last fall and started my first tank in October.  

 

Rushed things of course and had a clown and fire shrimp in there within a month but things have worked out pretty well I must say. I've started backing off the weekly water changes and am up to every other week and thinking about three weeks in between also.   I was dosing fusion one and calcium for a while but have found it isn't really that necessary.   Every month or so I also pull the stock filter setup of ceramic rings and carbon ( which I am still only on my second bag so I've changed it about every four months) from the big sponge (which everyone hates?) and ring it out in my dirty tank water from a water change.  

 

My my tank has really blossomed by finding the right places for my corals to thrive and grow and to really find the right foods for everything has taken time when considering all the other variables in making corals happy. I feed green flakes and pellets a frw times a week Mysis shrimp maybe once or twice and my new favorite brine shrimp-all my food thawed from frozen and never rinsed. I also do reef roids once a week with the filter jets turned off for about twenty mins or so. I direct feed with a pipet to specific corals or with long forceps.  

 

I should add that I used to have an arrow crab, which we loved,but traded back because it was simply too big. It molted three times and green from a quarter and a stretched out hand and fingers in about three months.  So yea full size quick.  Also had an identical black clown to the current one that I lost to a parasite pretty early on so I think I just bought a sick fish.  I also had a tail spot blenny that was amazing but died mysteriously after seeming to be super happy and healthy? Sad face. 

 

I just wanted to post post cause in proud as hell of what I've got going so far and what I have learned basiclLy from scratch.   This whole project has been done with my four year old son who knows the names of everything in the tank and my lovely wife that has been supportive of my spending habits at the reef store 🤑 And also been a great partner in putting things together. Things are boomin and wanted to share.  Hope you like. 

 

Fire shrimp-monster

orange clown-pretzel

black clown-bubbles

yellow clown goby-mustard 

green chromis-tuna

1turbo 3-5 nassarius 1cerith 7-9 Astra and astrid snails 

6-8 blue and banded hermit crabs

 

any corals I bought for 15 bucks or less so they were all small frags with the exception of the bubble tip which I just got for my birthday for 30 bucks and it split in two

 

greenish Zoas on left started 3 

teddish Zoas on right had 15

a purple tip torch

duncan coral started with 1 head

aussie toadstool?

cats paw stylophora 

green stylophora

goniopora flower pot coral (only unhappy guy in tank because of recent water change)

green button palythoa (got a single polyp for two dollars)

1 rocordia 

1 superman rhodactis 

orange leptospirosis (any tips on this guy would be great)

1 growing birds nest

1 bubble tip anemone into 2

a field of green star polyps 

 

[sadie]

wow! everything looks great!  NIce looking tank.

[Reefermadness2011]

That's a great looking tank 

[olig]

Nice tank, I'm in the process of setting my fluval up at the moment as my first marine tank. Have you made any changes to the lights that came with it?

[Reefermadness2011]

Personally I would get so prime just my opinion 

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

Thanks all.  To the lighting question-no I haven't changed out the stock light yet. I do clean the light every few months to keep salt creep buildup from blocking any extra light but that's it.  I have my tank on a 12 hour timer 9am-9pm so I can enjoy it and feed my guys when I get home from work.  

 

 

[vereef]

Inspiring job! 

[pmang6]

I almost bought one of these setups instead of going the diy route with a standard 10 gal. The thing holding me back was the light... apparently that is not as much of an issue as I thought. I just wish the spectrum had a touch more blue in it. My freshwater spec v has the upgraded light and im getting a bit bored with it anyway... Is 4 days after setting up my very first saltwater tank too early to start up my second saltwater tank? 😈

[LongBeachReefer]

The stock lighting that comes with the fluval was nice but the controllability sucked. That’s why I went with an AI prime HD. Nice tank btw. 

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

I do agree with the light.  The white is too white and the blue is too blue so the controllability leaves a lot to desire.  But it's growing all my stuff well.  I will upgrade the light and probably my pump when I'm ready to spend on that sorta thing.  People bashing the light-just about everyone that talks about this tank-well.  I'd say they're wrong to a degree.