Banasophia’s Evo V 🌀

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, Ocean_dreamer89 said:

Love this setup! It's a perfect desk setup 😎

Thanks, I’ve been really happy with it. ☺️ And it’s been fun to share the hobby with my coworkers since it’s in my background during all our zoom calls. 

[russell.dexter]

Hello again @banasophia

Compliments again on your amazing tank again!- my little Fluval has been set up for about two months now and I put in my first corals recently!

My Auto Aqua ATO is supposed to be here this weekend from Amazon- I'm really concerned though. Did you get the sensor, the pump and the heater all in that little second chamber? I don't think there is anyway I can get all of that in there- (although I haven't seen the size of the sensor of the ATO yet)

Any tips or sage advice would be appreciated! 🙂

[banasophia]

7 hours ago, russell.dexter said:

Hello again @banasophia

Compliments again on your amazing tank again!- my little Fluval has been set up for about two months now and I put in my first corals recently!

My Auto Aqua ATO is supposed to be here this weekend from Amazon- I'm really concerned though. Did you get the sensor, the pump and the heater all in that little second chamber? I don't think there is anyway I can get all of that in there- (although I haven't seen the size of the sensor of the ATO yet)

Any tips or sage advice would be appreciated! 🙂

Hey. Thanks again. Yours is looking good! 
 

Yeah, it is a tight fit! I had to take everything out recently to clean the pump and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get it back together again. 😅

[banasophia]

8 hours ago, russell.dexter said:

Hello again @banasophia

Compliments again on your amazing tank again!- my little Fluval has been set up for about two months now and I put in my first corals recently!

My Auto Aqua ATO is supposed to be here this weekend from Amazon- I'm really concerned though. Did you get the sensor, the pump and the heater all in that little second chamber? I don't think there is anyway I can get all of that in there- (although I haven't seen the size of the sensor of the ATO yet)

Any tips or sage advice would be appreciated! 🙂

Okay, found some setup pics. I know it’s hard to tell from the pics, but basically the heater is in the corner, the ATO sensor is down below the ATO hose and set at the point that makes the water level just above the minimum water line on the heater.

 

I’m wondering if you may need to use the intank media rack and surface skimmer to make this work, because the surface skimmer is what makes it so the water level is lower in the rear chambers than the display, and below that slot between the two chambers. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[russell.dexter]

Thanks so much for the explanation and all of the pictures @banasophia! I am using the stock sponge and media (well I upgraded the stock carbon to chemipure blue nano) but I did purchase the in tank surface skimmer and chamber plug, along with a pump upgrade - so the water level is lower in the back Chambers.

 

I'm thinking if I can get the sensor to fit in the back corner of the second chamber like yours I will be good to go.

 

It's my first time ever using an ato so I will have to figure it out when it arrives. If it can't fit - I'm assuming the hose can go in the back chamber and the sensor in the display tank? Do you think that will work?

 

Thanks again!

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, russell.dexter said:

Thanks so much for the explanation and all of the pictures @banasophia! I am using the stock sponge and media (well I upgraded the stock carbon to chemipure blue nano) but I did purchase the in tank surface skimmer and chamber plug, along with a pump upgrade - so the water level is lower in the back Chambers.

 

I'm thinking if I can get the sensor to fit in the back corner of the second chamber like yours I will be good to go.

 

It's my first time ever using an ato so I will have to figure it out when it arrives. If it can't fit - I'm assuming the hose can go in the back chamber and the sensor in the display tank? Do you think that will work?

 

Thanks again!

The sensor for an ATO has to go in the chamber that the water level drops in during evaporation, because it senses when the level drops and then adds more water. For me in this tank that is the second chamber. Once you get it I can can help if needed just let me know. 

[russell.dexter]

On 2/9/2021 at 11:57 AM, banasophia said:

The sensor for an ATO has to go in the chamber that the water level drops in during evaporation, because it senses when the level drops and then adds more water. For me in this tank that is the second chamber. Once you get it I can can help if needed just let me know. 

Thanks a lot! I will probably take you up on your offer. I am thinking that it would also be in the second chamber- but I always have to adjust the surface skimmer as it "slips" sometimes, and when I do, it changes the volume of water in the back chambers quite a bit - so I am thinking I made need to position or adhere the intank surface skimmer somehow so it doesn't move? Otherwise when that level changes suddenly, the ato will trigger on. 

Up until now I have been measuring salinity with a swing arm every two days and adding distilled until I achieve my 1.026 so I'm sure I will appreciate the ATO!

Thanks again @banasophia!

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, russell.dexter said:

Thanks a lot! I will probably take you up on your offer. I am thinking that it would also be in the second chamber- but I always have to adjust the surface skimmer as it "slips" sometimes, and when I do, it changes the volume of water in the back chambers quite a bit - so I am thinking I made need to position or adhere the intank surface skimmer somehow so it doesn't move? Otherwise when that level changes suddenly, the ato will trigger on. 

Up until now I have been measuring salinity with a swing arm every two days and adding distilled until I achieve my 1.026 so I'm sure I will appreciate the ATO!

Thanks again @banasophia!

Oh that’s interesting about the surface skimmer but makes sense. And I agree it could lead to variability in your water level and issues with the ATO... my surface skimmer fits snugly in place because the two little arms slip over the intank media basket. 
 

[salzwasser]

What a wonderful aquarium. I love the background! Might do something similar. 

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, salzwasser said:

What a wonderful aquarium. I love the background! Might do something similar. 

Thanks! If you end up trying it, I’d love to see pics!!

[jarviz]

On 7/30/2020 at 4:36 AM, banasophia said:

I swapped out my jebao slw-10 powerhead for a hygger mini powerhead because I was worried about the jebao sucking Hank in. It arrived next-day via Amazon Prime. The hygger is awesome!! Tiny, powerful, and highly programmable with 5 time periods throughout the day that can be separately programmed... I have it on the lowest possible settings for this small tank. 

How are you liking the Hygger powerhead? I have the jebao ow-10 for my 10g, which supposedly comes down to ~165gph... but i felt like it was too much flow for my tank. My fish and LPS corals were not too happy.... They mini hygger says that is can go down to 40% power from 1600GPH, so basically 400gph... how is this not blowing everything away in your 5gal lol

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, jarviz said:

How are you liking the Hygger powerhead? I have the jebao ow-10 for my 10g, which supposedly comes down to ~165gph... but i felt like it was too much flow for my tank. My fish and LPS corals were not too happy.... They mini hygger says that is can go down to 40% power from 1600GPH, so basically 400gph... how is this not blowing everything away in your 5gal lol

I like it... I’m using the very lowest/slowest setting and the torch sways really nicely. I have it on nutrition transfer, and use the same setting throughout all 5 time periods:

 

1  128

2 128

3 128

4 128

5 128
 

I think it may have a lot to do with the scape and shape of the tank. That being said it probably is on the higher side... my fish do get happy and swim around a lot more when I have the powerhead off for feeding at night. 
 

In the Facebook Biocube group I’m in, I feel like other people have had success with it in small tanks. 

[jarviz]

do you feed your gorgonian by the way?

[banasophia]

The only thing I feed this tank is Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet pellets once a day in the evening... I do one big pinch and crush the last little bit in my fingers. Both of the gorgonians are photosynthetic. 

[banasophia]

18 hours ago, jarviz said:

How are you liking the Hygger powerhead? I have the jebao ow-10 for my 10g, which supposedly comes down to ~165gph... but i felt like it was too much flow for my tank. My fish and LPS corals were not too happy.... They mini hygger says that is can go down to 40% power from 1600GPH, so basically 400gph... how is this not blowing everything away in your 5gal lol

 

Not too exciting, but here’s a video I just took for you showing the flow:

 

 

 

 

[jarviz]

Aw thanks for the vid. Your torch def seems to be loving that flow tho lol. and your candy canes too, which i thought enjoyed much lower flow. Interesting to see ~400gph blasting only a few inches away from them yet seeing them thrive. I just ordered my hygger so we'll see how that goes

[PR_nano]

Really nice setup. I literally picked this tank today to hold a breading pair of peppermint shrimp that decided to go rouge on some new soft corals. Might just setup this tank as a softy and leave the shrimp in the 20gallon. I was surprise by the size of the tank in person. Need to figure out if the spare live rock I have in buckets fits.  

[banasophia]

20 minutes ago, PR_nano said:

Really nice setup. I literally picked this tank today to hold a breading pair of peppermint shrimp that decided to go rouge on some new soft corals. Might just setup this tank as a softy and leave the shrimp in the 20gallon. I was surprise by the size of the tank in person. Need to figure out if the spare live rock I have in buckets fits.  

Thanks! Yes, it’s really more spacious than I would have expected for a 5 gallon tank... seems like more room than I had in my IM Nuvo 10. Long tanks are so nice that way.

[jarviz]

From the vid you posted, what kind of coral is that in the far top right corner? the thing branch looking way swaying back and forth? Is it a gorgonian?

[banasophia]

5 minutes ago, jarviz said:

From the vid you posted, what kind of coral is that in the far top right corner? the thing branch looking way swaying back and forth? Is it a gorgonian?

Yes, gorgonian 

[jarviz]

14 hours ago, banasophia said:

Yes, gorgonian 

NIce! can you tell me which species that is and if it's photosynthetic? I've been wanting to add one into my tank, but i heard they can be hard to care for. 

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, jarviz said:

NIce! can you tell me which species that is and if it's photosynthetic? I've been wanting to add one into my tank, but i heard they can be hard to care for. 

I’m not sure which type... maybe Grubes? It’s photosynthetic. KP Aquatics is a really nice source for gorgonians and sponges. 

[jarviz]

do you have any special care requirements for it? or do you just treat it like any other coral? 

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, jarviz said:

do you have any special care requirements for it? or do you just treat it like any other coral? 

Just like other corals except I have to frag this particular gorgonian a lot... it’s very fast growing! I don’t feed it or anything and frags of it grow well in all three of my tanks. 

[banasophia]

Please send good thoughts my way for Finnick, my mandarin, he has stopped eating pellets and is suddenly wasting away. 😢

 

He and Hank had been back in this tank for about a month and a half now... they really seem to like staying together with Jack. They were all doing great, Finnick usually eats pellets like a champ and this tank also has a good population of pods. 
 

Anyway, I’d treated this tank with Reef Flux a couple months ago with some success, trying to get rid of the bryopsis, so I decided to do another course to get rid of the remaining bryopsis the weekend before last since it hadn’t fully eradicated it with the first treatment (unlike in my Biocube 32 where it fully removed the bryopsis in 2-3 weeks). Stupidly, I thought I would use a double dose because the directions say it works faster that way. 
 

Unfortunately the higher dose seems to have had a bad effect on Finnick. He totally lost his appetite for pellets, though he continues to eat pods. He started wasting away drastically within a few days of adding the treatment... terrible like the pictures you see of mandarins that are starving. 😢 The other two fish and the corals are fine and seem totally normal, but Finnick will not go near the pellets and he normally sucks them up.  I did a 50% water change, and Ive been adding tigger pods and fresh hatched baby brine shrimp in addition to the pods already in the tank.
 

I did see him try to eat one pellet yesterday but he did not seem to like it. Then I remembered, Reef Flux is fluconazole... I actually lose my appetite when I take it because it changes the way foods taste to me... And that is a known side effect in humans. I’m wondering if it did the same to my mandarin. 
 

I saw a post where someone mentions losing their seahorses after using Reef Flux, and someone else replied they lost their mandarin. 
 

The good news is that he’s still swimming around actively hunting pods. I couldn’t get him out to move him back to the Biocube just by netting him, so tonight I decided to pull the entire scape out to catch him and the other two fish. They are now all in the Biocube 16, I added more tigger pods in there, and just hoping I’ll be able to save him. It will be three years since I got him as a bitty baby on 4/2/18. 🤞🤞🤞