Fluval 13.5

[St3]

My tank is 14 months old I am running the skimmer in chamber 2,

HD Prime

carbon,

jebao sw2 wave maker

compact 1000 return pump 

 

 LIVE STOCK                                CLEAN UP CREW                  CORAL 

blue damsel                               3 hermit crabs                      ZOAS 

black and white clown.              5 snails 

2 chromis

pistol shrimp goby pair

algae blenny

 

been doing 2 gallon water change once a months for nearly a year, things are about to change tho, 

 

 have lots of corals ordered so my tank is in for a big change, I have been really busy sins i borro got the tank moving house etc,,,, so now I have time to put some work in, hopefully the next picture will be better,

 

WHAT ARE YOU GUY’S RUNNING, 

WHAT FOODS ARE YOUS USENG

WHAT LIVE STOCK HAVE YOUS GOT 

WHAT CORALS HAVE YOU GOT 

[paulsz]

Cool tank! :)

 

What kind of corals are you getting? One thing I learned is that a test kit is a must if you're going to keep plenty of corals. Testing Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium will be the most important. Of those three, the one that requires the most attention is Alkalinity. Not only does it get used up faster (or at least it did for me), but it will also cause the most damage if it goes up and down. 

 

 

[Clown79]

I have 3 tanks.

 

25g- 2 clowns, midas blenny, corals. Aio, floss, carbon purigen. AI HD, heater, kps, mighty jet return pump

 

10g- 1 clown, cleaner shrimp, aio, floss, purigen, carbon micmol light, mj600 return

 

5.5g - 1 bicolor blenny, ai light, aqueon 600 pump, same media

 

I feed:

Corals reef roids, frozen cyclops, mysis ro corals 1 time a week. All tanks

 

Broadcast feed reef roids 1 additional time to 10g and 25g.

 

Aquavitro fuel dosed 1 time a week

 

Fish fed: omega or new life spectrum pellets daily. 2 times a week frozen mysis or seafood blend frozen.

 

Test alk 2 times a week.

 

Dose 10g and 25g every other day 2ml 2 part esv to maintain alk drops.

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @St3! 👋

 

Looking forward to seeing all your new coral additions 🙂 

[Friendly]

looking good! what skimmer are you using...you mention it's in chamber two, but nothing about make/model. 

[St3]

Clown79 you have a lot going on lol, 

 

paulsz I have 12 different zoa frags and 2 sps on there way should be here for Thursday but that’s just the start, I will be doseing but I won’t be going crazy with it the testing as 2 peace’s of sps shouldn’t make a real difference, 30% water change a week and maybe at 10-15mil of each half way thought the week,  I do appreciate your input, but one thing i don’t do is chase number, in my experience that is when problems starts, if it was a bigger tank I wouldn’t Evan put the 10-15mil of each in half way though the week

 

friendly its the skimmer that’s comes with the tank think it’s called ps2 

i will also getting a ATO and a net lid 

 

and chris thank you 

[Jimbokro]

My 13.5 has been running for 15 months with a large clown, big Monti, 2 softies and 100+ zoos.  Filtration is a 100m vertical filter screen and heater in the first section, an algae turf scrubber (ATS) in the center and a return pump in section 3.  No GFO or GAC.  I do a 3G water change weekly.  ALK/CAL/NO3/PO4 are 8.0/430/0/3ppb.  The tank was set up for the pieces that survived a hurricane induced power failure that destroyed the ecosystem in 60G.  So far it works for me.  I feed fat boy a half cube a day and broadcast feed everything else a few times a week.  Glass gets a wipe once a week but the efficiency of the ATS doesn’t allow for much of any green growth outside the scrubber.  

[paulsz]

4 hours ago, St3 said:

 I do appreciate your input, but one thing i don’t do is chase number

I don't believe that dosing alk/cal/mag is considered chasing numbers. It would only be used to replenish what the corals are consuming, if your water changes are not enough. 

 

 

[St3]

What I mean by chasing number, is testing water for the 3 above and nitrates etc,, and then changing them to where they should be, I have done this before in the past and has always made it worse, the key to a long lasting tank is find what works for you, people who dose Get great results probably better than I ever will. But if I was going to dose what products would you recommend paulsz

 

I think we can all agree is patience and keep ya hands out the tank lol,

[St3]

Jimbokro I am sorry to hear that I bet you where gutted, have you made any plans in case this happens again. Like buying a back up battery for the tank 

[Clown79]

7 hours ago, St3 said:

Clown79 you have a lot going on lol, 

 

paulsz I have 12 different zoa frags and 2 sps on there way should be here for Thursday but that’s just the start, I will be doseing but I won’t be going crazy with it the testing as 2 peace’s of sps shouldn’t make a real difference, 30% water change a week and maybe at 10-15mil of each half way thought the week,  I do appreciate your input, but one thing i don’t do is chase number, in my experience that is when problems starts, if it was a bigger tank I wouldn’t Evan put the 10-15mil of each in half way though the week

 

friendly its the skimmer that’s comes with the tank think it’s called ps2 

i will also getting a ATO and a net lid 

 

and chris thank you 

Not really. My systems are very simple, basic equipment. No skimmers, no reactors, no dosers, no ato. Very little to fail besides me making a mistake.

 

I believe in testing anything you are dosing because fluctuations occur otherwise. You may dose too much or too little creating fluctuations.

Consumption of alk, mag, and ca changes, it doesn't stay the same so monitoring them is important.

 

Dosing any of the 3 elements should be done for what corals consume not for a magic number. Target numbers should be what your salt mixes at.

 

The mistake ppl make is trying to reach a particular number thinking that results will be better. 

[paulsz]

2 hours ago, St3 said:

But if I was going to dose what products would you recommend paulsz

I know a lot of people dose two-part for alkalinity and calcium. You can get it anywhere online and probably every LFS. Comes with two powders (hence the name two-part): one for Alkalinity and one for Calcium.

 

Magnesium doesn't get used up as much, so water changes is probably sufficient.

 

2 hours ago, St3 said:

I think we can all agree is patience and keep ya hands out the tank lol,

I agree with you 100%. The only thing i meant is that if your SPS grow large enough that they start consuming a considerable amount of Alkalinity and/or Calcium, you will have to find a way to replenish the amount that they used up. And water changes are a great way to do so. But at one point it may become so much that you'd have to replace a larger amount of water, or possibly have more frequent water changes. Which is why people tend to use dosing instead. By dosing you can replenish them without the trouble of doing a water change. 

 

2 hours ago, St3 said:

I have done this before in the past and has always made it worse

If you do replenish them too quickly (i.e. does too much, too quickly), it can definitely hurt your corals. Especially SPS who are more sensitive to nutrient swings. I've done this in the past and lost a couple of SPS frags. 

 

 

What kind of SPS frags did you order?

[St3]

I do agree with everything yous are saying, but 2 tiny frags of sps, I think I will be ok with just water changes for the next year or ( I hope ),

 

i am making a zoa dominated, have you guys any suggestions of other corals that are very bright that get along with zoas, 

[St3]

I will take a picture tomorrow whe I put the zoas in and then a will do a weekly update for you guys to see, they will be here for 12 noon tomorrow, it feels like Xmas lol

 

have yous got any recent pictures of your tanks and have you any suggestions of a filter so I can take a good picture off my iPad when the blues are on at a night time,

 

oh yer I really need a ato nano any suggestions, 

[St3]

Billy the kid and mr paranoid 

[St3]

Might look good in 6 months, what yous reckon, 

[Lugmos12]

I had this same tank for about 1 year 7 months. I now have a 20 gallon IM Fusion. I feed Hikari and New Life Spectrum pellets. Also feed Reef Chili and Reef Roids (maybe 1x week or 1x every two weeks). Also feed frozen pe mysis once in a while. 

 

I used to do 3 gallon water changes on my EVO every Sunday (sometimes 5 gallons to remove nutrients from overfeeding).  I would get some test kits to make sure your Alk is consistent.

[St3]

Have you any pictures of your fusion, I am thinking of getting a bigger tank, but not till I fill this one, did you have success in the evo

[Lugmos12]

44 minutes ago, St3 said:

Have you any pictures of your fusion, I am thinking of getting a bigger tank, but not till I fill this one, did you have success in the evo

My fusion journal: IM Fusion 20

 

 

The EVO was a very nice tank. I just got tired of the limited space. Corals grow fast. My GSP took over the entire rockwork. I also did not like doing weekly water changes. I saw a ton of growth in corals when I upgraded to an AI Prime HD.

 

 

[St3]

Did you have any sps I have just opened another chat about AI Prime setting’s I will look at the fusion now