Proxo Fluval Evo 13.5

[Garf]

8 hours ago, Proxo said:

Alk is currently at 8, not sure what i'm aiming for tbh my water here is pretty soft but the pH seems to be running at 8 on the reef tank.
The corals have started to colour up though, i've even got some new growth on the acan but not the beautiful pulsing xenia 😄 haha!

I'll do some tests once i've played around with this light and try get some decent pictures of the corals as i could do with some proper IDs. 

Your target alk is what your saltwater mixes at. What salt are you using? You had said Red Sea before, but were running out. Did you switch? You should know what the salt params are supposed to be, the params in a freshly mixed batch of saltwater, and your tank params. Then based on this, you can adjust your water changes to keep your alk as stable as possible. 

 

What I do with a brand new bag of salt is to turn over the dry salt several times to mix it up.  Then I mix a batch of saltwater at desired salinity (1.026), raise temp to match tank, then test and record salinity, alk, calcium and temp in my log. If the salt is within the manufacturers stated params, then I go with my regular water change schedule (20% weekly), full speed ahead. Subsequent water changes with the same batch of salt, I just measure and record alk. 

 

If the saltwalter mixes high or low alk, I will adjust my water changes to make sure I do not raise or lower alk by .2 each water change. This is easy with our 13.5g tanks, with 10-20% water changes. 

 

I would not add any corals if your alk is not stable, as I have seen corals react unfavorably after a water change with a .2 alk difference. They don't need additional stress on top of the shipping and acclimation. 

 

This is why you want to use a salt mix that is consistent and rather stable, and to keep to a consistent maintenance routine. It is also why a lot of reefers like to target 8.5 - 9 alk, so they can more easily deal with a batch of salt that comes in with low or higher alk. 

[Proxo]

ah okay that makes sense, thanks for the help. 
I'll get right on it boss 😄 lol.

as for the tank update; I've added a black backing, a jebao sw2 and turned down the return pump as the back chambers where always getting empty.
had another fight with that aiptasia but think i finally won the acan has a new head 😮 

[Proxo]

Ok here's the full test results; Think my last water change was 3 days ago.

Temp: 25.2c
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.0 (maybe a touch higher i'm not good with colours lol)
Ammo: 0
Nitrite: 0
NitrAte: 25
Cal: 430
dKH: 8.6
Phosphate: 0.25-0.50 (Phosgaurd bag back in tank now).
Mag: 1140
N

[afcajax73]

looks good Proxo,

 

out of interest.. are you UK based?

[Proxo]

20 minutes ago, afcajax73 said:

looks good Proxo,

 

out of interest.. are you UK based?

Thank you, it's getting there anyway!
I'm in the UK yes, up north. 

[afcajax73]

On 6/14/2019 at 1:04 PM, Proxo said:

Thank you, it's getting there anyway!
I'm in the UK yes, up north. 

Ah nice, I’m UK too, midlands though. I did wonder with you saying about charterhouse. 

[Proxo]

1 hour ago, afcajax73 said:

Ah nice, I’m UK too, midlands though. I did wonder with you saying about charterhouse. 

Haha, yeah i've used them a few times but they "forgot" to refund me on some stuff i did eventually get it with a little interest though.
I'm not sure what they're like for corals though, you tried them? 

Also for topic update; Any ideas why i'm getting so much air bubbles popping through my outlet? 
I honestly thought it was the skimmer so i got rid of that but they're still here, it's driving me mad - almost looks like my freshwater tank with the co2 on lol.

[ninjamyst]

what light are you using for your chaeto?  looks nice!  

[Proxo]

57 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

what light are you using for your chaeto?  looks nice!  

It was just some cheap thing from amazon, nicrew fish tank clip on light it's called. I don't think it was doing much so i'm now using an old dennerle LED light i found amoung my fish hording stuff. 

[afcajax73]

On 6/16/2019 at 12:38 PM, Proxo said:

Haha, yeah i've used them a few times but they "forgot" to refund me on some stuff i did eventually get it with a little interest though.
I'm not sure what they're like for corals though, you tried them? 

Also for topic update; Any ideas why i'm getting so much air bubbles popping through my outlet? 
I honestly thought it was the skimmer so i got rid of that but they're still here, it's driving me mad - almost looks like my freshwater tank with the co2 on lol.

I’ve never bought corals from them, only hardware / chemical products.

 

regarding air bubbles... do you have filter floss anywhere near the top of your back chambers? I had a problem that I got tonnes of micro bubbles, then I found out it was air trapped in my filter floss and being dragged through. It was floating to the top and almost sucking air in. I weighted down the floss and haven’t had an issue since 

[Proxo]

Corals have arrived from jbsmarines recommended by @Ratvan.
I ordered 6 corals, received 9 - i'm not sure what they are though 😄Will get some pics up soon as possible.

[Ratvan]

4 minutes ago, Proxo said:

Corals have arrived from jbsmarines recommended by @Ratvan.
I ordered 6 corals, received 9 - i'm not sure what they are though 😄Will get some pics up soon as possible.

Sounds like exactly what happened to me. Got freebies and no idea what they were

[Proxo]

I'm still trying to find somehwere to order an ai prime hd, the bracket on amazon is like double the price than charterhouse but i think i'm banned from there, the checkout button doesn'twork 😄

[Proxo]

OKAY PICTURE TIME; I.D Please to confirm my noobness 😄
1. Kenya Tree? 

2. Orange & Omega Zoa? 

3. ?? 

4. Rasta Zoa? 

5. No Idea? 

6. Some sort of Dead/Half Dead Mushroom? 

Full Tank; 

[Daniel91]

2 - Blondies 

3 - Blasto maybe

4 - Not Rastas 

[Wonderboy]

Nice new stuff!

 

3 - is a blastomussa

4 - I think are watermelons

5 - also no idea ... a leather?

6 - give it time; those things can come back from near nothing

I'm not positive on others.

 

Looking real good in there!

Edited June 20, 2019 by Wonderboy

[afcajax73]

looks good! :)

 

good result on the freebies!

 

I got my prime 2nd hand from my LFS. They sell them direct at my LFS and had some on their display tank for a few months. But with the new RedSea lights, they changed their display and I nabbed their Prime HD and arm for a cool £100

 

It's made a huge difference to my tank.

[Proxo]

Thanks for the feed back and comments 😄 but right now, i need a reef medic;
I done a water change yesterday, roughly 20% - i tested the tank water and the new mixed salt water before so, they where pretty similar, so i went ahead and done a water change.
Today i tested the water, roughly 24 hours later and everything has gone pete tong (good movie btw).

Test results before water change;
pH - 8.0
Temp - 25.2c
Salinity - 1.026
Alk - 8.6
Mag - 1140
Cal - 430

Here's my results of today;
pH - 8.3
Temp - 25.6c
Salinity - 1.020
Alk - 6.1
Mag - 780
Cal - 300

What should i do? I do own the red sea supplements pack, cal alk mag but never used it yet!

[Daniel91]

Something went wrong in the water change or in testing.

 

Test everything again. If your parameters are the same, you need to work on your parameters with water changes.

Do not dose anything.

[TheKingInYellow]

Um did you accidentally change with pure RO instead of saltwater?  Your salinity dropped a ton which explains everything else being messed up.

[Proxo]

1 minute ago, TheKingInYellow said:

Um did you accidentally change with pure RO instead of saltwater?  Your salinity dropped a ton which explains everything else being messed up.

I'm drunk often but nope, the only thing i can think of is the salt wasn't mixed with the RODI water properly, giving me a false reading when i checked it.
I've got some water left over from the water change, i've switched the pump in there incase it was faulty and i'll test it again soon see if that was the problem.

Will everything be okay in the tank though? The fish seem fine, the corals too apart from the pulsing xenia (but most of you will like that LOL).

[Garf]

I would assume your water change was botched. Your params all fell, including salinity. With a twenty percent water change in the EVO, it almost looks as if half the amount of salt was put in your WC mix. I would not do anything other than another WC. Test tank water salinity, newly mixed water salinity and alk, and tank after the WC and document it. Never assume anything. 

 

Also, need more information, what salt are you using, how are you mixing it. 

[Wonderboy]

Everything will be fine - now that your salinity is down, try practicing control by raising it slowly (.001 - .002 at a time) each day.

[Proxo]

On 6/21/2019 at 6:15 PM, Garf said:

I would assume your water change was botched. Your params all fell, including salinity. With a twenty percent water change in the EVO, it almost looks as if half the amount of salt was put in your WC mix. I would not do anything other than another WC. Test tank water salinity, newly mixed water salinity and alk, and tank after the WC and document it. Never assume anything. 

 

Also, need more information, what salt are you using, how are you mixing it. 

Ok i found the problem, i always mix my rodi and salt in a water drum with heater and an old return pump - the pump had failed and most of the salt was sitting on the bottom (i didn't notice as the water drum is white). I had some left over and it was reading very low on the params when tested.

I'm currently doing some small regular water changes.

I'm using the Red sea salt (not the coral pro) but i'm thinking of changing.

[TheKingInYellow]

Hope everything pulls through!