Fluval Evo 13.5 - Somewhat Budget First Reef

[DevilDuck]

Big update, I found some time to go to my local coral dealer to get a replacement for the torch that melted a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, he didn't have another black torch of similar size so I took a nice looking green frogspawn instead. As an early Valentine's Day gift, I also picked up a fire shrimp, tiger conch, and 3 small Rock Flower anemones (they are slightly larger than a US quarter), and a couple of more pieces of live rock to fill out the left side of the tank. 

 

Since my tank has so far been mostly algae free, I traded away 5 of the 7 hermit crabs in the tank.

 

 

 

This tiger conch is a ton of fun to watch. He's a living hoover vacuum!

 

 

 

The addition of the live rock meant I had to do a small water change to compensate for the water displacement. The rock changed the flow in the tank which made the existing RBTA and mini maxi carpet upset. They both took short walk, the RBTA a couple of inches over to the left and luckily the carpet nems went from the shady bottom of the rock arch the top making him finally fully visible. The fire shrimp quickly setup shop and took over the entire bottom of the arch.

 

 

 

 

After the water change I did a few tests and I'm concerned over the results. Alkalinity shot up, as did Mg, probably the results of dosing Tropic Marin All-For-Reef. I have now stopped dosing and hopefully Alk and Mg will drop back to lower levels.

 

Tested on 02/08/2021

alk: 10.5 dkh

cal: 430 ppm

mg: 1500 ppm

salinity: 1.025 sg

 

Any recommendations?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by DevilDuck
clarification

[geekreef_05]

Wow - the reef looks great! The frogspawn is a nice piece and looks super happy. 

Im glad to hear you traded those crabs away 🙂 All crabs are evil in my opinion! ahaha. 

 

As for parameters.. ya, Alk and Mg seem on the higher end, which is interesting, but not bad or harmful.  If you could maintain these parameters, it would be OK. 

With every reef you need to figure out the balance of what its consuming between those 3 key elements. This changes each time you add livestock and as the tank matures. 

 

So I recommend... keeping an eye on your parameters regularly. Your parameters are good right now. If you can keep them stable, all will be good. The key is to figure out how much all for reef you need to dose each hour to keep things stable. 

 

One footnote I can offer you is that my all for reef dosing is setup at 2ml/day, in 0.1ml increments during the day and increasing to 0.2ml when no lights are on the tank to balance out pH.

[DevilDuck]

1 hour ago, geekreef_05 said:

Wow - the reef looks great! The frogspawn is a nice piece and looks super happy. 

Im glad to hear you traded those crabs away 🙂 All crabs are evil in my opinion! ahaha. 

 

As for parameters.. ya, Alk and Mg seem on the higher end, which is interesting, but not bad or harmful.  If you could maintain these parameters, it would be OK. 

With every reef you need to figure out the balance of what its consuming between those 3 key elements. This changes each time you add livestock and as the tank matures. 

 

So I recommend... keeping an eye on your parameters regularly. Your parameters are good right now. If you can keep them stable, all will be good. The key is to figure out how much all for reef you need to dose each hour to keep things stable. 

 

One footnote I can offer you is that my all for reef dosing is setup at 2ml/day, in 0.1ml increments during the day and increasing to 0.2ml when no lights are on the tank to balance out pH.

 

Thanks! Knock on wood the tank is coming together great so far. I credit all the help and advice you and the other nano-reefer community have given me. I think things started to take a turn for the better when I had testable levels of nitrate and phosphate in the water.

 

Next step I wanted to work on is getting a decent population of copepods going in the tank and filter area. I got a nice sized ball of chaeto and starting to setup a refugium in Chamber 2, more for copepod production than for nutrient export. I noted that there are a few pods crawling around on the rocks that might have hitchhiked in. The clowns enjoy picking them off over the course of the day. I think they will make a nice addition to their diet.   

 

@geekreef_05 What's the benefit of spacing out the dosing over the course of the day over putting in 2ml at the start of the day and having it available in the water?

 

I've been feeding the RBTA some grocery store shrimp pieces and yesterday it took a poop. I've read about this happening from time to time with anemones but never actually seen it happen. The entire anemone deflated like a party balloon and it expelled some black stringy slime. 

 

 

It re-inflated back to normal size a few hours later.

 

 

[geekreef_05]

nice! The CH2 fuge sounds awesome! It'll be a great addition to keeping your pod population stable. Mine seems to work very well, I have alot of pods! 

 

The key to the reefing game is stability. When I started in this hobby years ago it was impossible to keep a nano-reef like our's because stability at this size wasnt possible without the number of automated and precision devices we have today. With a decent ATO and dosing pumps which are accurate to 0.1ml increments, suddenly opened up alot of nano reefing possibilities. 

 

If your dosing once manually everyday or weekly your slightly or moderately swinging parameters in the tank. And thats no problem for most soft corals. But your Nem's and Frogspawn in particular will appreciate the more stability you can give them.

 

So what Im keeping in mind is that when your lights are on, photosynthesis is raising pH slightly. To compensate Im dosing more when the lights are off, to keep pH stable throughout the day. Im using the same idea to stabilize Mg, knowing its depleted more at night. 

 

hope that helps! 

[salzwasser]

Cool aquarium, excited to see how it progresses.

[pokerdobe]

On 2/9/2021 at 1:44 PM, geekreef_05 said:

nice! The CH2 fuge sounds awesome! It'll be a great addition to keeping your pod population stable. Mine seems to work very well, I have alot of pods! 

 

The key to the reefing game is stability. When I started in this hobby years ago it was impossible to keep a nano-reef like our's because stability at this size wasnt possible without the number of automated and precision devices we have today. With a decent ATO and dosing pumps which are accurate to 0.1ml increments, suddenly opened up alot of nano reefing possibilities. 

 

If your dosing once manually everyday or weekly your slightly or moderately swinging parameters in the tank. And thats no problem for most soft corals. But your Nem's and Frogspawn in particular will appreciate the more stability you can give them.

 

So what Im keeping in mind is that when your lights are on, photosynthesis is raising pH slightly. To compensate Im dosing more when the lights are off, to keep pH stable throughout the day. Im using the same idea to stabilize Mg, knowing its depleted more at night. 

 

hope that helps! 

 

But wouldn't it raise alk much more highly during the night? Alk consumption is greatest during the day and drops off significantly at night. 

 

Case in point, my alk in the morning is easily nearly .5 dKH higher than my alk in the evening. Personally, I would choose less variance in alk vs less variance in ph. Just my 2 cents. 

[DevilDuck]

I'm running a light in chamber 2 with the chaeto on a reverse light schedule.

[KnH]

8 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

I'm running a light in chamber 2 with the chaeto on a reverse light schedule.

What light are you using?

[DevilDuck]

2 hours ago, KnH said:

What light are you using?

This one. It feels a bit too strong, I might need to diffuse the light it with some diffusion material.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LX1EO3W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[geekreef_05]

10 hours ago, pokerdobe said:

 

But wouldn't it raise alk much more highly during the night? Alk consumption is greatest during the day and drops off significantly at night. 

 

Case in point, my alk in the morning is easily nearly .5 dKH higher than my alk in the evening. Personally, I would choose less variance in alk vs less variance in ph. Just my 2 cents. 

 

Your assuming im dosing all night at an increased level. When I said increased 'increased dosing during lights out', I mean all lights, including the fuge. This only state occurs only for like 4hrs in a day. 

 

And for those 4 hrs Im dosing an extra 0.2ml of all-for-reef over than time. Its really not a big deal and has probably a very minor effect.  

peace! 

 

[DevilDuck]

I had to put one of the clowns in QT due to some type of infection behind it's head. It's partner seems a little lost with out the other, hopefully they recover quickly.

 

 

I've stopped dosing All-For-Reef for about a week and and getting a better idea for nutrient consumption in the tank. Alk dropped from high 10s to high 8s, calc has remained relatively stable, and Mg dropped slightly.

 

Tested on 02/15/2021

alk: 8.9 dkh

cal: 420 ppm

mg: 1440 ppm

 

 

There's record breaking cold here in Dallas. Noticed that the heaters in my freshwater tanks are having issues maintaining temperature at night.

I've been throwing blankets over them to try to insulate them.

[DevilDuck]

I consider myself lucky and survived the Texas Snowpocalypse. I live in the heart for downtown Dallas and we did not lose power nor heat, but we did lose water for a day. Many others just a mile away were not so fortunate.  A friend's building had no power for 30+ hours, they still do not have running water.

 

Right before the big freeze, I converted the Chamber 2 to a chaeto refugium. I traded away most of my hermit crabs for some chaeto and a galaxea coral frag. In less than a week, I've noticed a large bump in the pod population in the tank!

 

Cheap Amazon grow light attached to the back of the tank via double stick tape:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LX1EO3W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

 

There is some light spill but its not terrible. Currently, I have the light on a reverse schedule from 11PM - 8AM.

 

 

[JustReading]

I'm really thinking of doing that with my Evo too but store tells me it won't help smh 

[DevilDuck]

22 minutes ago, JustReading said:

I'm really thinking of doing that with my Evo too but store tells me it won't help smh 

I think they mean it won't help much as primary nutrient export (removing nitrate and phosphate), the area of the chamber is not large enough. My primary purpose is for copepod housing and buffet, which this is doing the job just fine for the inhabitants of this tank. Any extra bit of excess nutrient export is just icing on the cake. 

 

 

[DevilDuck]

Checked the tank today and found this hitchhiker. I think it's a stomatella snail.

 

 

[JustReading]

That's what I'm thinking. I buy pods twice a month just trying to make sure my Mandarin is feed and I'd like the extra precaution and like you said, helping Nitrates is even better

[DevilDuck]

I noticed one of my frag plugs of zoas where not opening. Dipped it in iodine and freshwater and moved it to a low flow area if the tank. Hope they open back up today.

 

I've noticed a big dip in my alkalinity! Results below are after my 20% water change. They were probably even lower before the wc!

I think this maybe due to coralline algae starting to form in the tank. There are spots on the back plastic wall and there is a new reddish film algae forming on the glass that the Flipper scraper has a hard time removing. 

 

I have re-starting dosing at All-For-Reef again to bring the alk and calc levels back up slightly, 1ml yesterday and 2ml today. Will re-test later.

 

Tested on 02/21/2021

alk: 7.2 dkh

cal: 400 ppm

mg: 1500 ppm

salinity: 1.025 sg

 

Tested on 02/15/2021 

alk: 8.9 dkh

cal: 420 ppm

mg: 1440 ppm

po4: 0.07 ppm

no3: 5 ppm  

salinity: 1.025 sg

 

Tested on 02/08/2021  ((stopped dosing All-for-Reef))

alk: 10.5 dkh

cal: 430 ppm

mg: 1500 ppm

salinity: 1.025 sg

[JustReading]

Got some Chato and my light coming today! I did it cause of you!

[Lloydpancakes]

On 2/19/2021 at 9:41 AM, DevilDuck said:

I consider myself lucky and survived the Texas Snowpocalypse. I live in the heart for downtown Dallas and we did not lose power nor heat, but we did lose water for a day. Many others just a mile away were not so fortunate.  A friend's building had no power for 30+ hours, they still do not have running water.

 

Right before the big freeze, I converted the Chamber 2 to a chaeto refugium. I traded away most of my hermit crabs for some chaeto and a galaxea coral frag. In less than a week, I've noticed a large bump in the pod population in the tank!

 

Cheap Amazon grow light attached to the back of the tank via double stick tape:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LX1EO3W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

 

There is some light spill but its not terrible. Currently, I have the light on a reverse schedule from 11PM - 8AM.

 

 

Happy you made it through. I live in Rockwall and lost power for 30 hours. Didn’t lost anything major though. Talked to the guy at the Big Little Fish Store on North Central and he said a bunch of his customers lost everything.

[DevilDuck]

8 minutes ago, Lloydpancakes said:

Happy you made it through. I live in Rockwall and lost power for 30 hours. Didn’t lost anything major though. Talked to the guy at the Big Little Fish Store on North Central and he said a bunch of his customers lost everything.

Thanks, glad you made it through too! We're one of the lucky ones. I'm seeing really scary pictures of full tank wipes on Facebook groups. Now just like that its near 70 degrees this week, crazy Texas weather!

 

I dropped by Big Little Fish Store a few days ago too. Lots of people buying water because their pipes were still frozen or shut off, it was a madhouse. 

 

 

 

 

[Lloydpancakes]

5 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

Thanks, glad you made it through too! We're one of the lucky ones. I'm seeing really scary pictures of full tank wipes on Facebook groups. Now just like that its near 70 degrees this week, crazy Texas weather!

 

I dropped by Big Little Fish Store a few days ago too. Lots of people buying water because their pipes were still frozen or shut off, it was a madhouse. 

 

 

 

 

Insane. I like that guy who owns the place. I ended up heating saltwater on a camp stove and adding every 2 hours or so to keep it it warm. It got real primitive there momentarily. Still lost some zoo polyps but no whole corals. 

[DevilDuck]

3 hours ago, JustReading said:

Got some Chato and my light coming today! I did it cause of you!

Awesome, Let us know how it works out for you!

[DevilDuck]

Quick updates:

 

After 2 weeks in QT with every medication I can throw at it, The white patch still remains on him. Having exhausted all options I decide to return my 2nd clown to the display tank.

Both clowns now seem extremely happy now that they are reunited.

 

I've been having issue with one particular zoa frag not opening:

 

In my testing I started noticing that my alkalinity has dropped rapidly even with my regular 20% water changes. I restarted dosing Tropic Marin All-For-Reef to try to stabilize it.

I think the alk drop is due to coralline algae starting to take hold in the tank.

 

Finally have my Kamoer X1 dosing pump and dosing container hooked up. I have to say I am very impressed with the Kamoer X1. Took about 20 mins to setup and doses accurately. For now I will be dosing 0.5 ml of AFR daily spread out over 3 doses.

[DevilDuck]

Did a larger big water change than usual, 30% to get a handle on my low Alkalinity and high Mg. Before this water change my Mg levels were over 1500 ppm, basically off the chart of the Salifert test.

 

On @mcarroll recommendation, I tested my Fritz RPM salt mix before I added it to the tank, and straight from the box the Mg was at ~1440 ppm. On top of this, I was dosing Tropic Marin All-For-Reef which also contains significant amounts of Mg, thus causing the elevated levels I've been seeing in my tests. I will be switching from AFR to an alkalinity booster without Mg, I'm looking into Tropic Marin CarboCalcium. 

 

Water results after the 30% WC is a lot closer to my "ideal"

 

alk: 8.3 dkh

cal: 410 ppm

mg: 1440 ppm

salinity: 1.025 sg

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by DevilDuck
Grammer

[mcarroll]

BioCalcum is another good one from TM that I've used....also just ca + alk if memory serves.