JachPot's Evo 13.5

[JachPot]

8 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

I also use new life spectrum and everything in my tank enjoys them. I have 4 types of gobies; Green Clown, Diamond, yellow watchman, and Randall’s.

 

I also heard good things about TDO Chroma Boost from BRS.

Just the standard new life spectrum marine fish, right? I'll start there if that's the case. He's the only fish in the tank at the moment so I'd like to see if I can get him hooked in a week or two.

[DevilDuck]

Amazon.com : New Life Spectrum Thera A Small 140g (Naturox Series) : Pet Supplies

 

[JachPot]

Thanks! I'll pick them up and pray the goby likes them!

[JachPot]

Well the new tank uglies are setting in, I seem to be dealing with some brownish green algae that's got bubbles trapped in it. It doesn't look like dinos since it's not stringy. Some of the patches have a thin film with larger bubbles underneath.

 

Current filter is just filter floss and carbon (came with the tank, not chemi pure)

 

What do you guys think would be the best course of action? I've been feeding a little bit of frozen mix 3 times a week to the goby and I've fed the corals once with benereef (the corals seemed to like it quite a bit)

[JachPot]

Also noticed a white spot on the flesh of my acan. It's not the skeleton because it's puffed up still. I only noticed because a snail pissed the coral off and made it suck in halfway.  I'm wondering if it's doing some color changing. It's in the far corner of an Evo 13.5 with stock light.

 

 

All my corals were iodine dipped before being added.

[JachPot]

The acan bounced back great. The white spot is just coloring on the flesh it appears. When it spreads out it looks healthy.

 

Unfortunately I think I've got my first aiptasia. Looks like it smuggled in on that same frag. What do you guys think is the best way to remove it? As it's currently the only one in the tank.

[Ratvan]

13 hours ago, JachPot said:

The acan bounced back great. The white spot is just coloring on the flesh it appears. When it spreads out it looks healthy.

 

Unfortunately I think I've got my first aiptasia. Looks like it smuggled in on that same frag. What do you guys think is the best way to remove it? As it's currently the only one in the tank.

Boiling Water, Lemon juice or superglue over it. Keep an eye on it as they do reproduce if you dont remove all of the anemone 

[JachPot]

Update! Finally picked up our clowns. My wife picked them out. They were both labeled blacker ice, but I think one of them is more a failed bullethole. Either way, they're beautiful! We also picked up green/yellow zoa and some more snails.

 

I'm done adding fish. The full list is:

2 blacker ice clowns

1 highfin goby

 

Cuc:

1 nassarius

3 astrea

2 bumblebee

1 cerith

I wanted to add trochus, but they were out

 

 

Future plans: pistol shrimp and maybe a peppermint. Still waiting for the tank to mature more. Also going to get some euphilia. Just waiting for the LFS to have the right colors.

 

 

 

In March there is the Denver reef show and I'm heavily considering going. Going to check out Top Shelf Aquatics sale this weekend first though.

[ninjamyst]

Beautiful clownfish!

[Murphs_Reef]

Loads of fish and not many CUC.. I would definitely look into more cerith..

To give you an idea my daughter has the same setup and fish as you... I've dumped 10 cerith, with 2 turbos, 4 Astrea 1 bumblebee, 4 Nass.... 

[JachPot]

I plan to dial up the CUC as needed, I don't have a ton of algae at the moment and the tank is less than two months old. Didn't want to starve anything out.

[JachPot]

Alrighty, got a mondo update, so here we truckin go.

 

Decided to cheat on my main lfs and try another store. Probably won't be going back except for emergencies, but they did have one positive. Their snails were in good shape (except for not having cerith). I picked up 1 more nassarius and two banded trochus. I think I'm going to grab about 2 more ceriths and call it for now. My rocks range from 60-75% clean at all times. I do have some glass algae, but not terrible. The worst is probably the surface of the sand for now. You can see where my cerith goes to work because he'll clean it up a patch at a time.

 

 

I also added in a bottle of reef nutrition Tigger pods split between the main tank and my chamber 2 setup. Also started dosing some phyto for the pods and the corals.

 

 

Finally, I heavily partook in the topshelfaquatic valentine's day sale. I got some absolute sicko corals at unbelievable prices. They were packaged amazingly well and the shipping was overnight and on time. Overall a great experience. Off the top of my head I added:

Blue stylo, a bright neon green monti, Rasta zoas, smurfette zoas, daisy cutters zoas, Pandora zoas, and paradox zoas. I also grabbed a holographic hammer and a green hammer as well as a few favia. A dragon soul, pastel blue, and "the Duke". The final piece was a nice pink acan.

 

 

Everything has settled in and looks happy. Haven't noticed anything receding or bleaching. Currently feeding tentacles are out, things are puffed up, and in general looking happy.

 

To supplement the corals I've decided to start with All for Reef powder (I mix my own solution). BRS was out of their two part for the time being, so I decided to use this until it's gone and then I'll go to two part. The ease and price made it a pretty easy call to try out. And now.... For the pictures! My clowns have instantly started hosing the holo hammer.

[JachPot]

On the list is a lens kit for actually taking decent photos! Sorry for the washed out blue ones.

[Superdave]

What size loc-line did you use for your set up?  I think you said 1/2 inch?  

 

I have a tank I'm finishing up, in terms of pump and nozzle adjustments, and am doing research for what I need.  What is the diameter of the opening between your display area and filter compartment?  

 

Tank looks great!  

[4d-Rock]

Just found your journal, I really like your new rockscape and things look like they are coming along well.

 

I'm very interested on how yours goes as I'm a bit behind you in my Evo journey (I'm also a new reefer).  Mine is currently still in the cycling process using Dr. Tim's, on day 8 and waiting for the Nitrite to drop.  We have a lot of similar details in our setup too, except I shelled out the $ for the InTank Chamber 1 basket.  I'm using Floss, a chunk of the original sponge, and bio media in the basket, with the heater in chamber 2.  Also using the Sicce 1.0 and have one 1/4" VCA RFG on the outflow though I have a second on order.  Though I thought I had it on full blast and it didn't seem too powerful, so I'm wondering if I didn't have it turned up.  I've got to take it out to see if I can get it a bit quieter so will check then.

 

In case you're interested, here's mine.  I'm still a back and forth on my rockscape.  I like the arches but the big base rocks may be just be too much rock.  I don't plan on packing it with coral though.

 

 

[JachPot]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:28 PM, Superdave said:

What size loc-line did you use for your set up?  I think you said 1/2 inch?  

 

I have a tank I'm finishing up, in terms of pump and nozzle adjustments, and am doing research for what I need.  What is the diameter of the opening between your display area and filter compartment?  

 

Tank looks great!  

I used the locline that came with the tank. You have 2 options. The locline is 1/2" until it splits into two 1/4" channels. I opted to keep the splitter and the 1/4" channels, so I could put 2 RFG heads on (just something I wanted to try). A lot of people just take the splitter off and put a 1/2" RFG on.

 

I trimmed down the 1st chamber box to fit naturally at the bottom of the grate, and so I could put the surface skimmer back on. So now it's the normal full amount of weir grate opening.

[JachPot]

On 3/4/2022 at 1:02 PM, 4d-Rock said:

Just found your journal, I really like your new rockscape and things look like they are coming along well.

 

I'm very interested on how yours goes as I'm a bit behind you in my Evo journey (I'm also a new reefer).  Mine is currently still in the cycling process using Dr. Tim's, on day 8 and waiting for the Nitrite to drop.  We have a lot of similar details in our setup too, except I shelled out the $ for the InTank Chamber 1 basket.  I'm using Floss, a chunk of the original sponge, and bio media in the basket, with the heater in chamber 2.  Also using the Sicce 1.0 and have one 1/4" VCA RFG on the outflow though I have a second on order.  Though I thought I had it on full blast and it didn't seem too powerful, so I'm wondering if I didn't have it turned up.  I've got to take it out to see if I can get it a bit quieter so will check then.

 

In case you're interested, here's mine.  I'm still a back and forth on my rockscape.  I like the arches but the big base rocks may be just be too much rock.  I don't plan on packing it with coral though.

 

 

My sicce is at like ~65% I think, I've thought about turning it up, but I recently lost a hammer due to a flow directional change I made, so I'm hesitant.

 

I think your rock looks great. Maybe put a monti cap on the right side top piece, or a birds nest. Then you can do some stuff on the smaller rock on the left. That should leave you plenty of open water and not cramped. I think a rock anenome garden in the corner might be neat too, but that's up to you!