Fluval Evo 13.5 - Somewhat Budget First Reef

[DevilDuck]

10 hours ago, jarviz said:

Looks amazing! Is there no coral warfare in your tank tho? alot of those pieces look like they are touching each other.

Thank you! I haven't noticed any sweepers or coral warfare yet. The angle of the video makes it look like pieces are touching but in reality there is space between pieces. An exception would be the pulsing Xenia and the favia, they touch when the Xenia grows out. I havent seen the Xenia get stung yet. Xenia grows so prolifically, I don't mind losing a polyp or four.

 

Photo below of the left side of the tank from a standing position.

 

[DevilDuck]

The joys of mobile anemones. My maxi mini carpet decided the had enough of the dark cave and crawled back up to the top of the arch. Now its getting a little to friendly with my hammer.

 

Going to have to do some tank re-arranging again. 

 

[Lloydpancakes]

Are you still running the stock lights? Tank looks great my friend.

[DevilDuck]

27 minutes ago, Lloydpancakes said:

Are you still running the stock lights? Tank looks great my friend.

Good to hear from you @Lloydpancakes! Hope things are going well with you.

Yup, still running the stock light dimmed to about 40% supplemented by 2 Reefbars. Love the combo more than enough light and the lid cuts evaporation.

 

I'm sure your tank if growing in nicely too!

 

[DevilDuck]

Sad update. I've had some setbacks as of late:

 

I knew this was a bit of a gamble when I bought it. I lost the beautiful AAC Bubble Gum Avelopora to slow tissue necrosis. It slowly melted away over the course of a week.

 

RIP

  

 

It looks like I may also be losing the Sunset Monti also. I had it high up in the tank and my lights may have bleached it.

Yesterday, I moved it down from the taller rock and fingers crossed it will start to recover. This morning things are not looking too good as most of the polyps are retracted and the color has faded significantly. I fear it is also a goner.

 

 

On the bright side, the pink alveopora and the goniopora are doing well!

 

 

And I've started on another future project...

 

 

[natalia_la_loca]

bummer about the bbg alveopora 😞 glad the pink alveo and the goni are doing well. I couldn’t get sunset monti to grow the one time I tried either.

 

new project looks exciting!!!

[DevilDuck]

Quick update, the sunset monti didn't make it, it maybe I do not yet have the stability in the tank for SPS. I'll try again a few more months down the line.

 

My goniopora is sending out loooong sweeper polyps, the longest probably around 4-5 inches! I had to move it on its own frag mount to keep it from touching and stinging anything in the tank.

Moving it a few inches higher did really help with the coloration, there is much more pronounced pink and green at the tips!

 

 

 

 

[DevilDuck]

Larry the Conch eating his breakfast of nori while still buried in his "bed"

 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Looks great 👍🏼

[tassos]

Tank looks good! Sorry you lost the monti. Love the video of the conch haha.

[Max the nano boi]

Update?

[DevilDuck]

I went in vacation for a couple of weeks and got back to a bit of a hair algae outbreak. My autofeeder may have dropped too many pellets and my phosphates jumped to .19 ppm.

 

Did a 10% water change and put a small bag of SeaChem PhosGuard to try to get this down. I removed as much of the hair algae as I could, not quite sure how to give the snails haircuts... 

 

Snail sporting a new mohawk:

 

Moved a few frags around to make more room. Frogspawn and anomones growing quickly. Also my mini max carpet has been wondering every week or so. 

 

My fiancée swimming with a sea turtle in Puerto Rico:

 

 

 

[Max the nano boi]

48 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

I went in vacation for a couple of weeks and got back to a bit of a hair algae outbreak. My autofeeder may have dropped too many pellets and my phosphates jumped to .19 ppm.

 

Did a 10% water change and put a small bag of SeaChem PhosGuard to try to get this down. I removed as much of the hair algae as I could, not quite sure how to give the snails haircuts... 

 

Snail sporting a new mohawk:

 

Moved a few frags around to make more room. Frogspawn and anomones growing quickly. Also my mini max carpet has been wondering every week or so. 

 

My fiancée swimming with a sea turtle in Puerto Rico:

 

 

 

Hope mine looks this good someday, just ordered a 1inch rose bubble for my evo

[DevilDuck]

16 hours ago, Max the nano boi said:

Hope mine looks this good someday, just ordered a 1inch rose bubble for my evo

Clean your glass dude! 🙂 

 

It looks good! Exactly how mine looked a few months back. It will fill in pretty soon, epecially once the kenya tree starts growing

How are the two clowns? Mine fought with each other for a couple of months before settling.

 

Good luck with the anemone! 

[DevilDuck]

Purchased a couple of more frags from Live Aquaria. 

 

CCGC Aquacultured Marigold Montipora

 

Chili Pepper Plating 🌶️ Monti

 

CCGC Aquacultured Red & Green War Coral

 

TCN "weeping willow" toadstool leather

 

Well, with any luck this will be our last update on this tank. The new tank should be delivered by next week, hopefully in one piece this time. 

 

The Fluval Evo 13.5 has been little gem of an AIO tank has been fantastic and the experience of sharing it's progress with everyone on this forums has been great. 

 

This tank has always been a proof of concept for us. Now that we've learned a tiny bit more, we think it's time to move to the next level system.

 

 

Final FTS before the transfer:

 

Colorful mini carpet and rock flower nems, avelopora, and ricca shroom

 

[Murphs_Reef]

What's next? 

[DevilDuck]

On 6/19/2021 at 3:51 AM, Murphych said:

What's next? 

Bigger and better hopefully! I'll be starting a new journal when the time comes.

[Max the nano boi]

On 6/20/2021 at 9:49 AM, DevilDuck said:

Bigger and better hopefully! I'll be starting a new journal when the time comes.

Man sucks this setup is going down, I took alot of what you did and put it in ny tank, have a bubbletip a carpet, ordered a bunch of rockflowers even have the same lighting setup, best of luck to you and can't wait to follow your new builds!

[DevilDuck]

8 hours ago, Max the nano boi said:

Man sucks this setup is going down, I took alot of what you did and put it in ny tank, have a bubbletip a carpet, ordered a bunch of rockflowers even have the same lighting setup, best of luck to you and can't wait to follow your new builds!

 

Thank you! Glad you found my thread helpful! The Fluval is going to be staying up for at least a few more months as a QT tank. 

 

How long have you had the BTA? Maybe it's the lighting but it looks a bit bleached from the picture.

[Max the nano boi]

On 6/22/2021 at 9:13 PM, DevilDuck said:

 

Thank you! Glad you found my thread helpful! The Fluval is going to be staying up for at least a few more months as a QT tank. 

 

How long have you had the BTA? Maybe it's the lighting but it looks a bit bleached from the picture.

Bta has been in for 2 weeks, he's been fed once, when I turn down my whites he looks better, also have a phone cam that does that with everything 

[DevilDuck]

Finally got around to starting the new tank journal: 

 

The Great Wave - Waterbox Peninsula 3620 - Large Reef Journals - Nano-Reef Community