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Cultivated Reef

Fluval 13.5 on a Husky Cart


pricewayne

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Updated: 05/09/2019

 

Established: 02/2019

Latest FTS: 04/22/2019

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Tank Specs
Display: Fluval Sea EVO, 13.5 gallon AIO

Stand: Husky tool cart - I've loved it and snatched it for $100 from Home Depot
Lighting: NanoBox Mini Tide Plus M -- custom 
pink
Heater: EHEIM 75W (and have a PENN PLAX 75W backup heater)
Primary Pump: Sicce Syncra 1.0, 251gph
Wavemaker: IM Wavelink DC Wavemaker - Desktop 165-1500 GPH & use eFlux wave pump foam filter covers to protect my anemone
Skimmer: None -- no plan to add
Filtration & Media: DIY egg crate basket in 1st chamber: PolyFill in top compartment + 0.8 ROX carbon (change every 2 weeks) & SeaChem Purigen in mid-compartment + stock Biomax
Dosing: ESV 2-part using BRS 2 part dosing pump
Test Kit: API SW Master kit + Red Sea Reef Foundation kit
Salt: Aquatic Life 4-stage RO/DI + AquaForest Reef salt

 

Livestock

inverts // clean-up-crew:

•    3 black snails
•    5 hermits
•    2 turbos

•    3 bristle worms (hitchhikers)
•    1 pencil urchin, named Rod 
returned to LFS 05/01 -- kept going for my leather corals
•    1 fire shrimp, named George

•    1 emerald crab returned to LFS 04/25 -- also kept going for my leather corals & grew much too large after first molt

•    1 pom pom crab

•    1 staghorn crab, named Lance

•    3 small nassarius snails

•    2 tongan nassarius snails

•    1 fighting conch

fish:

•    2 black darwin ocellaris

•    currently holding off on any additional fish -- considering a mandarin once tank has proven mature & pod population is proven sustainable

 

Corals

SPS:

•    Pink grafted montipora cap

•    Pink/Green grafted montipora cap

•    Mystique montipora cap

•    Mystery montipora (branching)

•    Reef raft tropic thunder monti

•    Birdsnest

LPS:

•    Alveopora

•    Duncan

•    Meteor shower cyphastrea

•    Gold/green hammer

•    Green torch

Softies:

•    Finger leather

•    Kenya tree leather

Other:

•    Lazer bubble tip anemone, named Gwen

 

Startup Cycle Process//Notes

Spoiler

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Husky tool cart stand!

 

Fishless Cycle
*Week 1*
•    3 wet live rocks: I think the tall/wide brown one has been best source of beneficial bacteria
•    1 large dry live rock: the white long one that looks like the spine of an alien
•    Approx. 15lbs of live carab-sea sand
•    pH: 7.8, Ammonia: 0.25ppm, Nitrite: 0ppm, Nitrate, 20ppm


*Week 2*
•    pH: 8.0, Ammonia: 0ppm, Nitrite: .25ppm, Nitrate: 20ppm


*Week 3*
•    pH: 8.0, Ammonia: 0ppm, Nitrite: 0ppm, Nitrate: 20ppm
•    Performed about 30% water change, waited couple hours for water to pump cycle, retested and nitrates dropped to 10ppm

•    I'm still confused on what my goal nitrate levels should be… I’m reading lots of mixed feedback. Welcome input and I plan to keep researching.

 

 

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Diatoms!! Sorry so cloudy in this one -- was shortly after a water change so bit of a sand storm that was settling.

**I’ve drip acclimated all my livestock for at least an hour each (fire shrimp had an extended drip), with the exception of my hermits & snails**

 

 

Edited by pricewayne
05/16, added thumbnail
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Snow_Phoenix

Hi Price, welcome to NR! 

 

I know you're dead set on a toby, but you'll have to get rid of any inverts you like or they'll be lunch. Also, puffers have heavy bioloads and in a tank that small with 2 clownfish (which are poop factories), I don't think it's a good idea. You'll most certainly need to up your WCs to export nutrients.

 

A mandarin is a beautiful fish. But it also has a very heavy bioload and needs to constantly eat. They also need a stable supply of live copepods (so eventually you'll need a fuge and buy pods to seed your tank regularly) and if you want to keep one long-term, it's best you train them onto frozen food like mysis. 

 

Your tank is still fairly new though, so I don't think it can accomodate a mandy yet. Might I suggest a change in stocking to fish with lighter bioloads like YCGs, TSBs or even a Hi-Fin goby? Honestly, there are plenty of small, colorful, personable fish that would fit a nano tank your size perfectly (and give you less hassle). You can look at the various nanofish listings in the sticky in this forum or even visit LA to see how wide the selection is. 

 

I'd personally go with a small percher like a yellow clown goby (YCG), green clown goby (GCG), tailspot blenny (TSB), green banded goby (GBG) or neon goby for your tank, rather than the toby or mandarin. 

 

If you really, really persist on your list, I'd consider upgrading the tank and doing more research, especially on the dragonet. You can visit Banasophia's thread to see her progress, and both success and difficulties she faces in keeping her mandy. I know the US has biota mandarins available, but it still isn't easy to keep. 

 

If you have any questions, keep asking away and someone will answer. (I think most of our members are still asleep now). 

  • Like 1
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2 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Hi Price, welcome to NR! 

 

I know you're dead set on a toby, but you'll have to get rid of any inverts you like or they'll be lunch. Also, puffers have heavy bioloads and in a tank that small with 2 clownfish (which are poop factories), I don't think it's a good idea. You'll most certainly need to up your WCs to export nutrients.

 

A mandarin is a beautiful fish. But it also has a very heavy bioload and needs to constantly eat. They also need a stable supply of live copepods (so eventually you'll need a fuge and buy pods to seed your tank regularly) and if you want to keep one long-term, it's best you train them onto frozen food like mysis. 

 

Your tank is still fairly new though, so I don't think it can accomodate a mandy yet. Might I suggest a change in stocking to fish with lighter bioloads like YCGs, TSBs or even a Hi-Fin goby? Honestly, there are plenty of small, colorful, personable fish that would fit a nano tank your size perfectly (and give you less hassle). You can look at the various nanofish listings in the sticky in this forum or even visit LA to see how wide the selection is. 

 

I'd personally go with a small percher like a yellow clown goby (YCG), green clown goby (GCG), tailspot blenny (TSB), green banded goby (GBG) or neon goby for your tank, rather than the toby or mandarin. 

 

If you really, really persist on your list, I'd consider upgrading the tank and doing more research, especially on the dragonet. You can visit Banasophia's thread to see her progress, and both success and difficulties she faces in keeping her mandy. I know the US has biota mandarins available, but it still isn't easy to keep. 

 

If you have any questions, keep asking away and someone will answer. (I think most of our members are still asleep now). 

Hi! & thanks for the welcome 🙂

 

Totally hearing you on the livestock warnings, and I'll definitely look into your recommendations. Prob my biggest callout is I'm planning to hold off on any livestock additions for a while (know for a fact I'll hold off on the mandarin or a dragonet for quite some time). I'm loving just having my two clownfish and fire shrimp!

 

- First priority is ensuring my tank is balanced and fully established after at least 6-12 weeks of running (this is week 4).

- Second priority is adding beginner friendly corals.

- Third will be long-term care/maintenance -- establishing my weekly and monthly habits based on the things I know to look out for in my setup. Core equipment installed (RO/DI purchased & salt mixing mastered), decide if I need a refugium with copepods to harvest etc.

- & finally fourth will be taking on new livestock. Know the Leopard Toby's are the smallest marine puffers, often the most reef-friendly (though still a risk that should be monitored). I've already planned on weekly water changes (I held off on them while my tank ran its first cycle). Now that I have livestock, I've started weekly changes and am testing daily to ensure I don't have any surprise spikes that need to be addressed.

 

I live in LA, btw!! I'm in the weho area. What are your favorite shops?? I've been to so many over the past few months prepping for this tank! Would love your thoughts on the best around.

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Snow_Phoenix
1 hour ago, pricewayne said:

Hi! & thanks for the welcome 🙂

 

Totally hearing you on the livestock warnings, and I'll definitely look into your recommendations. Prob my biggest callout is I'm planning to hold off on any livestock additions for a while (know for a fact I'll hold off on the mandarin or a dragonet for quite some time). I'm loving just having my two clownfish and fire shrimp!

 

- First priority is ensuring my tank is balanced and fully established after at least 6-12 weeks of running (this is week 4).

- Second priority is adding beginner friendly corals.

- Third will be long-term care/maintenance -- establishing my weekly and monthly habits based on the things I know to look out for in my setup. Core equipment installed (RO/DI purchased & salt mixing mastered), decide if I need a refugium with copepods to harvest etc.

- & finally fourth will be taking on new livestock. Know the Leopard Toby's are the smallest marine puffers, often the most reef-friendly (though still a risk that should be monitored). I've already planned on weekly water changes (I held off on them while my tank ran its first cycle). Now that I have livestock, I've started weekly changes and am testing daily to ensure I don't have any surprise spikes that need to be addressed.

 

I live in LA, btw!! I'm in the weho area. What are your favorite shops?? I've been to so many over the past few months prepping for this tank! Would love your thoughts on the best around.

The leopard toby will most likely eat your shrimp, or at least rip its legs/antennae off. 

 

Oh, by LA, I meant = Live Aquaria, the website, not Los Angeles, California lol. I live in Malaysia. not the US. 🙂

 

I think it's good you're planning it out. Any type of coral you're interested in? Beginner stuff would be mushrooms, softies and some zoas. Mushrooms especially, are usually quite hardy and come in a variety of colors. They're also quite forgiving. 

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7 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

The leopard toby will most likely eat your shrimp, or at least rip its legs/antennae off. 

 

Oh, by LA, I meant = Live Aquaria, the website, not Los Angeles, California lol. I live in Malaysia. not the US. 🙂

 

I think it's good you're planning it out. Any type of coral you're interested in? Beginner stuff would be mushrooms, softies and some zoas. Mushrooms especially, are usually quite hardy and come in a variety of colors. They're also quite forgiving. 

Lol -- so many acronyms in this hobby!! I'll keep reading up on Live Aquaria for sure.

 

And mushroom is exactly what I think I'll start with. Have seen it pop up numerous times as great for beginners (and I love them). Thinking either a toadstool leather mushroom or a plating sponge as my first.

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Hey, welcome. I live in Los Angeles, as well.

 

Good thing about SoCal is the endless options of LFS. Being in WeHo, you are pretty much in the middle of Unique Corals, LAX Aquariums and UltraGem. All three got a pretty good selection.

 

It looks like you’ve done your research but you may need to re-think of your fish goals. 4 big poopers in a 13? Even four nano fish would possibly too much, not only for the bioload but also for potential territorial issues.

 

Also - I don’t mean to spam your thread with a sale but should you be in need of a powerhead for mixing salt, then I have an unopened Hydor 240 for $15. 

 

Daniel

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9 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

Hey, welcome. I live in Los Angeles, as well.

 

Good thing about SoCal is the endless options of LFS. Being in WeHo, you are pretty much in the middle of Unique Corals, LAX Aquariums and UltraGem. All three got a pretty good selection.

 

It looks like you’ve done your research but you may need to re-think of your fish goals. 4 big poopers in a 13? Even four nano fish would possibly too much, not only for the bioload but also for potential territorial issues.

 

Also - I don’t mean to spam your thread with a sale but should you be in need of a powerhead for mixing salt, then I have an unopened Hydor 240 for $15. 

 

Daniel

Thanks for the welcome!! It's so great having SO many options for LFS -- haven't made it to Unique Corals (maybe I'll check it out this weekend)! My two black darwins are from LAX Aquarium and my CUC is from Bob's Tropical Fish in east LA -- so far I've found these two shops to be the cleanest and most helpful staff.

 

Good note on the waste factor with 4 large fish -- hadn't thought that through yet so I'll add as a factor. Definitely pushing any livestock additions to my back-burner for now. I'd much prefer stocking slowly with carefully researched cherry picked breeds over a full stock right after my cycle (plus I have plenty to keep me busy with corals, equipment and maintenance in the interim lol).

 

Not spamming at all and I'm absolutely interested!! -- free this weekend to meet? 

Still want to research affordable RO/DI systems -- any recommendations for a tank this small? I've read up on salts and think I'll go with Tropic Marin Pro Reef Sea Salt. May end up purchasing RO/DI water without salt, buy the salt and at least get my own mixing at home until I get the RO/DI system. Any other thoughts//tips?

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1 hour ago, pricewayne said:

Not spamming at all and I'm absolutely interested!! -- free this weekend to meet? 

Still want to research affordable RO/DI systems -- any recommendations for a tank this small? I've read up on salts and think I'll go with Tropic Marin Pro Reef Sea Salt. May end up purchasing RO/DI water without salt, buy the salt and at least get my own mixing at home until I get the RO/DI system. Any other thoughts//tips?

 

I like Bobs too - got my water from them in the beginning. However their selection in corals are not always the best and their mark up is pretty high.

If you are willing to put in the drive/pay for shipping, an alternative is San Diego based AquaSD. Quite often, they’ll have a 20-40% sale, where you can run away with very reasonable priced frags.

 

In regards to RODI unit, I only started mixing my own water 2/3 months ago but I have had great success with RO Buddie, which is cheap and user friendly. Perfect for my weekly water changes (I have two tanks) and my TDS comes out at 0.

The unit from BRS is also a hit with a lot of people.

 

Tropic Marin is great salt, Bobs uses it as well but I eventually switched to Red Sea Blue and my corals have been happier and it’s easier for me to control parameters.

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Also, I think most people get into the hobby for the fish but that slowly becomes a secondary factor when the coral bug bites... Just beware lol

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Made some great progress -- can't believe it's only been a week since my first post!

Started a new instagram to track frequent progress: https://www.instagram.com/reef_evo/

 

Latest Scape:

Moved a couple of the smaller rocks around a bit and really like how the overall scape is coming together. Trying to keep real estate available on the sand bed, low, mid and high rock areas to support a blend of coral types. Diatoms are almost all gone -- my turbo and hermits did some fast work on them.

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Equipment Updates:
Light Upgrade: NanoBox Mini Tide Plus M -- ordered yesterday!

Here's my mock up of the custom case color and Vivid Lid kits (think I'll go with the blue lid for some contrast).

@DaveFason was incredibly helpful and prompt at answering my questions!

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Wavemaker: Innovative Marine Wavelink DC Wavemaker Powerhead - Desktop 165-1500 GPH

Took a few days maneuvering to find the best spot for the wavemaker. This little guy packs a punch -- want to find some others who have tried this model and what their preferred settings are on the wave mode, speed & frequency options. Currently have mine set to:

- Mode: Pulse (A)

- Speed: 1

- Frequency dial: Max (max time distance between pulse waves)

 

Skimmer: Decided not to add a skimmer, at least in the foreseeable future. My wavemaker + stock pump + upgraded filtration seem to be doing a fine job.


Upgraded Filtration: DIY egg crate basket

Made my egg crate chamber and added poly fill. I think I need to buy some bags and increase the amount of carbon and BioMax media -- there's room for both in their chamber compartments?

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Corals:

Added 4 frags... I'm already obsessed. All opened up within 24hrs of adding and appear happy! Planning to remove or hide the plugs and glue to my live rock eventually -- for now I've been slowly trying out spots I'd like them to be placed and monitoring how well they do in those areas.

Fuzzy mushroom & Duncan added on 03/07. Torch & Cabbage Leather added 03/10.

 

Torch and Cabbage Leather just above//behind the torch

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Fuzzy Mushroom

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3 headed Duncan (and I can already see two new heads starting to grow from the base)

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Next Projects:

- I've been researching lid options for when my NanoBox arrives. I may do a cheap DIY one and then upgrade to a nice Safe Top Lid eventually. Want to look at other Fluval lid ideas -- will dig into it more this week.

- RO/DI & at home mixing: need to make a purchase plan and figure out where/how I'll setup and store in home.

- Maintenance calendar: want to get a calendar setup to plan and manage my weekly, monthly and annual maintenance.

- Want to research dosing. Lots to learn on this topic.

 

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Looks good - I really like the torch.

 

For lid, unless you are willing to splurge on a fancy glass one, do some research on DIY - insanely easy with some mesh netting and window frame from homedepot. That’s what I, and several reefers, did.

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11 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

Looks good - I really like the torch.

 

For lid, unless you are willing to splurge on a fancy glass one, do some research on DIY - insanely easy with some mesh netting and window frame from homedepot. That’s what I, and several reefers, did.

Sweet, will do. I've noticed a few forums and youtube vids have this as a topic so I'll check them out for sure.

 

And am loving the torch!! Clowns have been curious about it too lol.

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I really like your scape! I also love that husky stand too 🙂 

 

Two clowns, a mandy, and a toby is a huge bioload in a tiny tank. No way you can keep the mandy fed on copepods alone either. Teeny actually removed his toby from his 10g (and the clowns I think too?) and put him in the 30g and made some changes because his nitrates got out of hand. He has two small fish in it now. I feel like stuff like that is important to note when pushing the boundaries. 

 

I would have suggested something in the 30g range for your proposed fish. I tend to pick out fish 1st then buy system to match them.

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38 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I really like your scape! I also love that husky stand too 🙂 

 

Two clowns, a mandy, and a toby is a huge bioload in a tiny tank. No way you can keep the mandy fed on copepods alone either. Teeny actually removed his toby from his 10g (and the clowns I think too?) and put him in the 30g and made some changes because his nitrates got out of hand. He has two small fish in it now. I feel like stuff like that is important to note when pushing the boundaries. 

 

I would have suggested something in the 30g range for your proposed fish. I tend to pick out fish 1st then buy system to match them.

Thank you!!

 

Yeah, reconsidering live stock additions since my initial post (one reason I'm glad I started a journal). I'm in no rush to add any additional livestock -- want to get my NanoBox light setup, an RO/DI system//setup at home and tons more coral research before I'll dive back into possible new fish. Love the toby's but if they aren't sustainable in this setup, I don't want to force one into a stressful environment (on the toby or on me lol!). Maybe once I have better footing in the hobby I'll consider getting another larger tank 🙂 but I'd imagine that'll be months to years away from today hahaha. I've had so much fun with this one and can already tell I'm just getting started!

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Another productive week!
 

Updates:
Filtration: replaced stock carbon with Chemipure Elite. I took a 50g pouch and mixed the media into a large bowl, then filled up 4 jewelry organza pouches with the mix. Calculation for my 13.5g actually comes out to 3.7 pouches, so I rounded up to 4 -- read a lot of reviews that Chemipure in nanos can clean up your water too much. Within a few hours I had noticeable a difference in my water clarity. Seeing mixed advice on exactly how often I should change this out -- anywhere from every 4 weeks, to every 2-6 months. My plan is to give this bag at least 2 months and swap it out if I have any noticeable decline in the water clarity//water test results.

 

RO/DI: ordered my unit (delivering today) -- I went with the Aquatic Life Twist-In 4 stage 100GPD unit for ease of use, smaller footprint and cost. Hoping to set it up and start making my water tonight. I'll prob need to connect and breakdown my unit each time I use it (don't have washer/dryer connections and hesitant to setup permanent under sink connection since I rent my condo unit -- may be a future project depending how difficult it is to setup and breakdown).

 

Salt: read up on salt mix and ended up ordering Aquaforest salt. Think I've read every single forum post on here about salts at this point lol. While no one seems to have negative opinions on Tropic Marin salt, the two primary players seem to be Aquaforest and Red Sea. Read a lot of mixed (heh, pun intended) reviews on Red Sea -- seems it's hit or miss. Salt delivers from BRS on Friday so I'll have my first home-mixed salt ready for my water change on Saturday.

 

Corals:

My birthday was on Monday so I did a little splurging and snagged some small frags, a finger leather and I pulled the trigger on a lazer bubble tip anemone.

 

Finger Leather

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Lazer Bubble Tip Anemone

Tried starting it out in my little "grotto" like rock (it has a cave-like opening on top of the rock) and it opened up beautifully within two hours of adding to my tank. Once the lights went out for the night though, it took a stroll over to my back rock lol. Know these guys can take a few "strolls" before finding a spot to hopefully stay in, so I've held off on gluing any of my frags down (one exception is I'd glued down one of my montipora's a few days previously) until I feel confident the anemone is in a solid spot (fingers crossed). Kept my powerhead off for the first night since I knew it was on the move.

 

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Found a spot on my back rock piece over night and, so far, has stayed in place. Power heads turned back on day 2 and today while I've been around to monitor (ordering panty hose to use long term -- I don't want to run the risk and cannot deal with the ongoing anxiety it might make moves when I'm not around lol). Both clowns have started hosting and I'm loving the show they're putting on.

 

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O/ small frags I've added:

- Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

- Leather Coral w/ Pink Nepthea (nepthea seems to be slowwwwly opening up -- first polyp starting opening this morning)

- Grafted Montipora (can see in the last photo above the anemone)

- Reef Raft Tropic Thunder Monti

 

Planning to hold on anymore additions while I start testing CA/ALK/MAG and evaluate if it's time to start dosing. Fish, inverts and corals all appear quite happy so far. Only exception is the pink nepthea... really hope it opens up! My duncan has three new heads already sprouting lol.

 

Dosing Plan:

CA, ALK, MAG Test Kit: ordered the Red Sea foundation kit -- again, lots of mixed reviews on Red Sea vs Salifert. Full disclosure, I decided on the Red Sea kit bc the kit looks sleek. Also saw a post by @Clown79 mention their replacements are more eco-friendly, so seems a win-win. Have to give Clown79 a BIG thank you and shoutout for being so active and helpful in the forums -- seriously dishes out so many nuggets of wisdom!

 

Dosing Plan: my test kit will be here tomorrow -- going to test daily to evaluate if it's time to start dosing. I've been told I should look into either Triton or ESV by a LFS, but haven't been able to dive too deep on this yet. Also been told I "need" a doser system or machine or pump or I'll end up a slave to my tank? Going to spend time this week looking into what products I should use, and how I should plan to manage (manual or with a pump or otherwise) -- really hope I can find info specific to nano setups. I already suspect there to be big differences in how to dose a large tank versus a nano.

 

Next Projects:

- Still looking into lid options. Definitely want to go the affordable DIY route, but debating on what size mesh or alt materials I may want to use.

- Dosing plan, as mentioned above.

- Want to get my sand level down. Was concerned initially I went too high, and I think that instinct was right -- planning to slowly vacuum out with my weekly water changes and do it in "zones" (week 1, back left corner - week 2, back right corner etc.) to avoid picking up too much substrate all at once.

- Shop hardware to hang and mount my NanoBox when it comes in. The Husky tool cart I'm using as a stand actually has a metal peg board that stands up on the back side -- think I'll attach horizontal pipes from the peg board and attach the NanoBox's wire cords from the pipes to hang.

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3 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

 

Another productive week!
 

Updates:
Filtration: replaced stock carbon with Chemipure Elite. I took a 50g pouch and mixed the media into a large bowl, then filled up 4 jewelry organza pouches with the mix. Calculation for my 13.5g actually comes out to 3.7 pouches, so I rounded up to 4 -- read a lot of reviews that Chemipure in nanos can clean up your water too much. Within a few hours I had noticeable a difference in my water clarity. Seeing mixed advice on exactly how often I should change this out -- anywhere from every 4 weeks, to every 2-6 months. My plan is to give this bag at least 2 months and swap it out if I have any noticeable decline in the water clarity//water test results.

 

RO/DI: ordered my unit (delivering today) -- I went with the Aquatic Life Twist-In 4 stage 100GPD unit for ease of use, smaller footprint and cost. Hoping to set it up and start making my water tonight. I'll prob need to connect and breakdown my unit each time I use it (don't have washer/dryer connections and hesitant to setup permanent under sink connection since I rent my condo unit -- may be a future project depending how difficult it is to setup and breakdown).

 

Salt: read up on salt mix and ended up ordering Aquaforest salt. Think I've read every single forum post on here about salts at this point lol. While no one seems to have negative opinions on Tropic Marin salt, the two primary players seem to be Aquaforest and Red Sea. Read a lot of mixed (heh, pun intended) reviews on Red Sea -- seems it's hit or miss. Salt delivers from BRS on Friday so I'll have my first home-mixed salt ready for my water change on Saturday.

 

Corals:

My birthday was on Monday so I did a little splurging and snagged some small frags, a finger leather and I pulled the trigger on a lazer bubble tip anemone.

 

Finger Leather

IMG_2780.thumb.jpeg.49e69ab8865dc9ed4a80b9d8d758b076.jpeg

 

Lazer Bubble Tip Anemone

Tried starting it out in my little "grotto" like rock (it has a cave-like opening on top of the rock) and it opened up beautifully within two hours of adding to my tank. Once the lights went out for the night though, it took a stroll over to my back rock lol. Know these guys can take a few "strolls" before finding a spot to hopefully stay in, so I've held off on gluing any of my frags down (one exception is I'd glued down one of my montipora's a few days previously) until I feel confident the anemone is in a solid spot (fingers crossed). Kept my powerhead off for the first night since I knew it was on the move.

 

IMG_2920.thumb.jpeg.872f139c416ed5f9f1fb29a51d30dc88.jpeg

IMG_2953.thumb.jpeg.1683ee2a4af09f94cbf6e80096f2b91a.jpeg

 

Found a spot on my back rock piece over night and, so far, has stayed in place. Power heads turned back on day 2 and today while I've been around to monitor (ordering panty hose to use long term -- I don't want to run the risk and cannot deal with the ongoing anxiety it might make moves when I'm not around lol). Both clowns have started hosting and I'm loving the show they're putting on.

 

IMG_3021.thumb.jpeg.f4f16606d38a6638f9d9a6576a28e8ea.jpeg

IMG_3032.thumb.jpeg.536a6434b5ac82a3d368e66c1e052acd.jpeg

 

O/ small frags I've added:

- Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

- Leather Coral w/ Pink Nepthea (nepthea seems to be slowwwwly opening up -- first polyp starting opening this morning)

- Grafted Montipora (can see in the last photo above the anemone)

- Reef Raft Tropic Thunder Monti

 

Planning to hold on anymore additions while I start testing CA/ALK/MAG and evaluate if it's time to start dosing. Fish, inverts and corals all appear quite happy so far. Only exception is the pink nepthea... really hope it opens up! My duncan has three new heads already sprouting lol.

 

Dosing Plan:

CA, ALK, MAG Test Kit: ordered the Red Sea foundation kit -- again, lots of mixed reviews on Red Sea vs Salifert. Full disclosure, I decided on the Red Sea kit bc the kit looks sleek. Also saw a post by @Clown79 mention their replacements are more eco-friendly, so seems a win-win. Have to give Clown79 a BIG thank you and shoutout for being so active and helpful in the forums -- seriously dishes out so many nuggets of wisdom!

 

Dosing Plan: my test kit will be here tomorrow -- going to test daily to evaluate if it's time to start dosing. I've been told I should look into either Triton or ESV by a LFS, but haven't been able to dive too deep on this yet. Also been told I "need" a doser system or machine or pump or I'll end up a slave to my tank? Going to spend time this week looking into what products I should use, and how I should plan to manage (manual or with a pump or otherwise) -- really hope I can find info specific to nano setups. I already suspect there to be big differences in how to dose a large tank versus a nano.

 

Next Projects:

- Still looking into lid options. Definitely want to go the affordable DIY route, but debating on what size mesh or alt materials I may want to use.

- Dosing plan, as mentioned above.

- Want to get my sand level down. Was concerned initially I went too high, and I think that instinct was right -- planning to slowly vacuum out with my weekly water changes and do it in "zones" (week 1, back left corner - week 2, back right corner etc.) to avoid picking up too much substrate all at once.

- Shop hardware to hang and mount my NanoBox when it comes in. The Husky tool cart I'm using as a stand actually has a metal peg board that stands up on the back side -- think I'll attach horizontal pipes from the peg board and attach the NanoBox's wire cords from the pipes to hang.

I've just added a Jebao DP-3 to my fluval EVO last week. I had been hand-dosing the red sea calc/alk supplements but decided enough was enough as I'm going away for 2 weeks. The Jebao is a pretty cheap dosing pump, but to increase my room of error I've diluted the red sea supplements (by a factor of 10) so if there is a major malfunction and it does 10ml instead of 5ml for example, it won't nuke my tank!

 

Although if you're going without the fluval evo stock lid, you'll be having a fair amount of evaporation. Why not just use kalkwasser in your ATO?

 

I also use the red sea test kits. I like them. 

  • Like 1
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Just now, hyoib said:

I've just added a Jebao DP-3 to my fluval EVO last week. I had been hand-dosing the red sea calc/alk supplements but decided enough was enough as I'm going away for 2 weeks. The Jebao is a pretty cheap dosing pump, but to increase my room of error I've diluted the red sea supplements (by a factor of 10) so if there is a major malfunction and it does 10ml instead of 5ml for example, it won't nuke my tank!

 

Although if you're going without the fluval evo stock lid, you'll be having a fair amount of evaporation. Why not just use kalkwasser in your ATO?

 

I also use the red sea test kits. I like them. 

Lol, I literally just started reading your journal!

Sweet, I'll check the Jebao out.

 

Stock lid is getting tossed in about two weeks -- I totally caved and splurged on a NanoBox Mini Tide M. Cannot wait to get it up!! Haven't added an ATO yet -- I work from home most days so I've done it manually, but my evap is quite low. It's about every other day or every 3 days I've needed much topping off so far.

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1 minute ago, pricewayne said:

Lol, I literally just started reading your journal!

Sweet, I'll check the Jebao out.

 

Stock lid is getting tossed in about two weeks -- I totally caved and splurged on a NanoBox Mini Tide M. Cannot wait to get it up!! Haven't added an ATO yet -- I work from home most days so I've done it manually, but my evap is quite low. It's about every other day or every 3 days I've needed much topping off so far.

I'm not using an ATO, as I live in the UK (the weather is mild at best) and kept the lid so there's minimal evaporation. But if I went lidless, I'd definitely be getting an ATO as there is only so long I could last topping it up each day 😂 and you could kill two bird with one stone with kalkwasser.

 

I'm loving all the fluval evo builds at the moment on Nano Reef. Look forward to following yours!

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Great afternoon read - beautiful additions and lucky you on the anemone and clowns instantly hosting. Mine host everything but my anemone lol.

 

Where did you snatch these additions?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
8 minutes ago, hyoib said:

I'm not using an ATO, as I live in the UK (the weather is mild at best) and kept the lid so there's minimal evaporation. But if I went lidless, I'd definitely be getting an ATO as there is only so long I could last topping it up each day 😂 and you could kill two bird with one stone with kalkwasser.

 

I'm loving all the fluval evo builds at the moment on Nano Reef. Look forward to following yours!

Ha! Totally misread — thought you said, “since you’re keeping the stock lid” lol.

 

Guess I should add ATO unit to my project list, then. Honestly, no idea how I’d be doing this without these forums.

Link to comment
5 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

Great afternoon read - beautiful additions and lucky you on the anemone and clowns instantly hosting. Mine host everything but my anemone lol.

 

Where did you snatch these additions?

Snagged the finger leather from LAX aquariums and the rest were a big haul I did at Unique Corals! Was so awesome visiting their office -- super helpful and patient with my questions lol.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
49 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

 

Another productive week!
 

Updates:
Filtration: replaced stock carbon with Chemipure Elite. I took a 50g pouch and mixed the media into a large bowl, then filled up 4 jewelry organza pouches with the mix. Calculation for my 13.5g actually comes out to 3.7 pouches, so I rounded up to 4 -- read a lot of reviews that Chemipure in nanos can clean up your water too much. Within a few hours I had noticeable a difference in my water clarity. Seeing mixed advice on exactly how often I should change this out -- anywhere from every 4 weeks, to every 2-6 months. My plan is to give this bag at least 2 months and swap it out if I have any noticeable decline in the water clarity//water test results.

 

RO/DI: ordered my unit (delivering today) -- I went with the Aquatic Life Twist-In 4 stage 100GPD unit for ease of use, smaller footprint and cost. Hoping to set it up and start making my water tonight. I'll prob need to connect and breakdown my unit each time I use it (don't have washer/dryer connections and hesitant to setup permanent under sink connection since I rent my condo unit -- may be a future project depending how difficult it is to setup and breakdown).

 

Salt: read up on salt mix and ended up ordering Aquaforest salt. Think I've read every single forum post on here about salts at this point lol. While no one seems to have negative opinions on Tropic Marin salt, the two primary players seem to be Aquaforest and Red Sea. Read a lot of mixed (heh, pun intended) reviews on Red Sea -- seems it's hit or miss. Salt delivers from BRS on Friday so I'll have my first home-mixed salt ready for my water change on Saturday.

 

Corals:

My birthday was on Monday so I did a little splurging and snagged some small frags, a finger leather and I pulled the trigger on a lazer bubble tip anemone.

 

Finger Leather

IMG_2780.thumb.jpeg.49e69ab8865dc9ed4a80b9d8d758b076.jpeg

 

Lazer Bubble Tip Anemone

Tried starting it out in my little "grotto" like rock (it has a cave-like opening on top of the rock) and it opened up beautifully within two hours of adding to my tank. Once the lights went out for the night though, it took a stroll over to my back rock lol. Know these guys can take a few "strolls" before finding a spot to hopefully stay in, so I've held off on gluing any of my frags down (one exception is I'd glued down one of my montipora's a few days previously) until I feel confident the anemone is in a solid spot (fingers crossed). Kept my powerhead off for the first night since I knew it was on the move.

 

IMG_2920.thumb.jpeg.872f139c416ed5f9f1fb29a51d30dc88.jpeg

IMG_2953.thumb.jpeg.1683ee2a4af09f94cbf6e80096f2b91a.jpeg

 

Found a spot on my back rock piece over night and, so far, has stayed in place. Power heads turned back on day 2 and today while I've been around to monitor (ordering panty hose to use long term -- I don't want to run the risk and cannot deal with the ongoing anxiety it might make moves when I'm not around lol). Both clowns have started hosting and I'm loving the show they're putting on.

 

IMG_3021.thumb.jpeg.f4f16606d38a6638f9d9a6576a28e8ea.jpeg

IMG_3032.thumb.jpeg.536a6434b5ac82a3d368e66c1e052acd.jpeg

 

O/ small frags I've added:

- Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

- Leather Coral w/ Pink Nepthea (nepthea seems to be slowwwwly opening up -- first polyp starting opening this morning)

- Grafted Montipora (can see in the last photo above the anemone)

- Reef Raft Tropic Thunder Monti

 

Planning to hold on anymore additions while I start testing CA/ALK/MAG and evaluate if it's time to start dosing. Fish, inverts and corals all appear quite happy so far. Only exception is the pink nepthea... really hope it opens up! My duncan has three new heads already sprouting lol.

 

Dosing Plan:

CA, ALK, MAG Test Kit: ordered the Red Sea foundation kit -- again, lots of mixed reviews on Red Sea vs Salifert. Full disclosure, I decided on the Red Sea kit bc the kit looks sleek. Also saw a post by @Clown79 mention their replacements are more eco-friendly, so seems a win-win. Have to give Clown79 a BIG thank you and shoutout for being so active and helpful in the forums -- seriously dishes out so many nuggets of wisdom!

 

Dosing Plan: my test kit will be here tomorrow -- going to test daily to evaluate if it's time to start dosing. I've been told I should look into either Triton or ESV by a LFS, but haven't been able to dive too deep on this yet. Also been told I "need" a doser system or machine or pump or I'll end up a slave to my tank? Going to spend time this week looking into what products I should use, and how I should plan to manage (manual or with a pump or otherwise) -- really hope I can find info specific to nano setups. I already suspect there to be big differences in how to dose a large tank versus a nano.

 

Next Projects:

- Still looking into lid options. Definitely want to go the affordable DIY route, but debating on what size mesh or alt materials I may want to use.

- Dosing plan, as mentioned above.

- Want to get my sand level down. Was concerned initially I went too high, and I think that instinct was right -- planning to slowly vacuum out with my weekly water changes and do it in "zones" (week 1, back left corner - week 2, back right corner etc.) to avoid picking up too much substrate all at once.

- Shop hardware to hang and mount my NanoBox when it comes in. The Husky tool cart I'm using as a stand actually has a metal peg board that stands up on the back side -- think I'll attach horizontal pipes from the peg board and attach the NanoBox's wire cords from the pipes to hang.

Thank you for the shout out.

 

Sounds like your tank is coming along nicely and looks good.

 

Definitely keep an eye on nutrient levels while using media. Too high is an issue, too low is an issue. 

Link to comment
51 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

 

Another productive week!
 

Updates:
Filtration: replaced stock carbon with Chemipure Elite. I took a 50g pouch and mixed the media into a large bowl, then filled up 4 jewelry organza pouches with the mix. Calculation for my 13.5g actually comes out to 3.7 pouches, so I rounded up to 4 -- read a lot of reviews that Chemipure in nanos can clean up your water too much. Within a few hours I had noticeable a difference in my water clarity. Seeing mixed advice on exactly how often I should change this out -- anywhere from every 4 weeks, to every 2-6 months. My plan is to give this bag at least 2 months and swap it out if I have any noticeable decline in the water clarity//water test results.

 

RO/DI: ordered my unit (delivering today) -- I went with the Aquatic Life Twist-In 4 stage 100GPD unit for ease of use, smaller footprint and cost. Hoping to set it up and start making my water tonight. I'll prob need to connect and breakdown my unit each time I use it (don't have washer/dryer connections and hesitant to setup permanent under sink connection since I rent my condo unit -- may be a future project depending how difficult it is to setup and breakdown).

 

Salt: read up on salt mix and ended up ordering Aquaforest salt. Think I've read every single forum post on here about salts at this point lol. While no one seems to have negative opinions on Tropic Marin salt, the two primary players seem to be Aquaforest and Red Sea. Read a lot of mixed (heh, pun intended) reviews on Red Sea -- seems it's hit or miss. Salt delivers from BRS on Friday so I'll have my first home-mixed salt ready for my water change on Saturday.

 

Corals:

My birthday was on Monday so I did a little splurging and snagged some small frags, a finger leather and I pulled the trigger on a lazer bubble tip anemone.

 

Finger Leather

IMG_2780.thumb.jpeg.49e69ab8865dc9ed4a80b9d8d758b076.jpeg

 

Lazer Bubble Tip Anemone

Tried starting it out in my little "grotto" like rock (it has a cave-like opening on top of the rock) and it opened up beautifully within two hours of adding to my tank. Once the lights went out for the night though, it took a stroll over to my back rock lol. Know these guys can take a few "strolls" before finding a spot to hopefully stay in, so I've held off on gluing any of my frags down (one exception is I'd glued down one of my montipora's a few days previously) until I feel confident the anemone is in a solid spot (fingers crossed). Kept my powerhead off for the first night since I knew it was on the move.

 

IMG_2920.thumb.jpeg.872f139c416ed5f9f1fb29a51d30dc88.jpeg

IMG_2953.thumb.jpeg.1683ee2a4af09f94cbf6e80096f2b91a.jpeg

 

Found a spot on my back rock piece over night and, so far, has stayed in place. Power heads turned back on day 2 and today while I've been around to monitor (ordering panty hose to use long term -- I don't want to run the risk and cannot deal with the ongoing anxiety it might make moves when I'm not around lol). Both clowns have started hosting and I'm loving the show they're putting on.

 

IMG_3021.thumb.jpeg.f4f16606d38a6638f9d9a6576a28e8ea.jpeg

IMG_3032.thumb.jpeg.536a6434b5ac82a3d368e66c1e052acd.jpeg

 

O/ small frags I've added:

- Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

- Leather Coral w/ Pink Nepthea (nepthea seems to be slowwwwly opening up -- first polyp starting opening this morning)

- Grafted Montipora (can see in the last photo above the anemone)

- Reef Raft Tropic Thunder Monti

 

Planning to hold on anymore additions while I start testing CA/ALK/MAG and evaluate if it's time to start dosing. Fish, inverts and corals all appear quite happy so far. Only exception is the pink nepthea... really hope it opens up! My duncan has three new heads already sprouting lol.

 

Dosing Plan:

CA, ALK, MAG Test Kit: ordered the Red Sea foundation kit -- again, lots of mixed reviews on Red Sea vs Salifert. Full disclosure, I decided on the Red Sea kit bc the kit looks sleek. Also saw a post by @Clown79 mention their replacements are more eco-friendly, so seems a win-win. Have to give Clown79 a BIG thank you and shoutout for being so active and helpful in the forums -- seriously dishes out so many nuggets of wisdom!

 

Dosing Plan: my test kit will be here tomorrow -- going to test daily to evaluate if it's time to start dosing. I've been told I should look into either Triton or ESV by a LFS, but haven't been able to dive too deep on this yet. Also been told I "need" a doser system or machine or pump or I'll end up a slave to my tank? Going to spend time this week looking into what products I should use, and how I should plan to manage (manual or with a pump or otherwise) -- really hope I can find info specific to nano setups. I already suspect there to be big differences in how to dose a large tank versus a nano.

 

Next Projects:

- Still looking into lid options. Definitely want to go the affordable DIY route, but debating on what size mesh or alt materials I may want to use.

- Dosing plan, as mentioned above.

- Want to get my sand level down. Was concerned initially I went too high, and I think that instinct was right -- planning to slowly vacuum out with my weekly water changes and do it in "zones" (week 1, back left corner - week 2, back right corner etc.) to avoid picking up too much substrate all at once.

- Shop hardware to hang and mount my NanoBox when it comes in. The Husky tool cart I'm using as a stand actually has a metal peg board that stands up on the back side -- think I'll attach horizontal pipes from the peg board and attach the NanoBox's wire cords from the pipes to hang.

I like esv bionic for dosing. It's easy to use and keeps ca and alk balanced since it's a 2 part.

 

You can manually dose it too.

 

Dose only if you need to. So definitely test alk for a week.

Your target number is what your salt mixes at which should be similar/same as your tank after a waterchange.

 

 

For a lid. 1/4" mesh is normally used and sold by online reef supplies.

You can buy window framing kit at the hardware store to make the mesh lid. Cheapest method.

  • Like 1
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50 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I like esv bionic for dosing. It's easy to use and keeps ca and alk balanced since it's a 2 part.

 

You can manually dose it too.

 

Dose only if you need to. So definitely test alk for a week.

Your target number is what your salt mixes at which should be similar/same as your tank after a waterchange.

 

 

For a lid. 1/4" mesh is normally used and sold by online reef supplies.

You can buy window framing kit at the hardware store to make the mesh lid. Cheapest method.

One of your replies on a post is exactly what calmed my anxiety on "when to start" dosing lol. Had planned to get some solid index tracking my tests, so I'll take you up on getting a week of logs for alk -- in the interim am hoping to decide on and order either the Triton or ESV products to have ready to use once it's time.

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1 hour ago, pricewayne said:

One of your replies on a post is exactly what calmed my anxiety on "when to start" dosing lol. Had planned to get some solid index tracking my tests, so I'll take you up on getting a week of logs for alk -- in the interim am hoping to decide on and order either the Triton or ESV products to have ready to use once it's time.

We have all been a position of panic/anxiety at some point with our tanks. You're not alone😁

 

 

Dosing is something we all read about when starting out but its definitely not something always necessary and should never be done blindly.

 

A good app for keeping track of everything is Aquarium Note. You can document everything.

 

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  • pricewayne changed the title to Fluval 13.5 on a Husky Cart

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