David’s Evo 13.5 build

[SlasherZ]

Just make sure to keep an eye on him and watch the fin, if it's getting worse, you'll know it. Possibly watch for aggression from the larger fish/and or new fin tears and rips. As long as it's swimming fine and eating well I wouldn't worry too much.

As for the salt water, it's good practice to let it sit for 20-30 mins to make sure it has time for everything to dissolve properly; as well as ensure no pH swings happen. Then check with your refractometer/hygrometer.

Sorry to hear about the heater! GFCI is deffo the way to go, but at least no one was hurt!

A quarter of a cube should be perfect for your current livestock! The reason you keep it in the freezer is that it keeps good longer basically. Frozen food when thawed starts to break down which can cause a bunch of different issues with the food.

Here's a great post about it, doesn't take too long to read

Post in thread 'Refrigerate frozen foods' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/refrigerate-frozen-foods.192014/post-2201699

 

[dbrown2120]

Just make sure to keep an eye on him and watch the fin, if it's getting worse, you'll know it. Possibly watch for aggression from the larger fish/and or new fin tears and rips. As long as it's swimming fine and eating well I wouldn't worry too much.

As for the salt water, it's good practice to let it sit for 20-30 mins to make sure it has time for everything to dissolve properly; as well as ensure no pH swings happen. Then check with your refractometer/hygrometer.

Sorry to hear about the heater! GFCI is deffo the way to go, but at least no one was hurt!

A quarter of a cube should be perfect for your current livestock! The reason you keep it in the freezer is that it keeps good longer basically. Frozen food when thawed starts to break down which can cause a bunch of different issues with the food.

Here's a great post about it, doesn't take too long to read

Post in thread 'Refrigerate frozen foods' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/refrigerate-frozen-foods.192014/post-2201699

Definitely keeping him under observation, thank you for all the help and knowledge I really appreciate it!

Today my last job was by a HUGE lfs I’ve never been too, naturally I had to check it out. I grabbed 4 very small/young blue legged hermits, the one I have isn’t enough to keep up, also got some cool FW stuff. My swordtails are breeding pretty regularly and I got a few different varieties to see what kind of fry I’ll get. I’ve got 1 medium 4 small hermits and the bumblebee snail, what else do I need to round out my CUC?

 

[SlasherZ]

Of course man, I'm still learning too, I joined the sw world a little less than a year or so ago; these forums paved the way on a lot of things for me!

My vote for cuc would either be a Skunk/blood cleaner shrimp or tiger conch, but you could also try some astrea or Nassarius snails just keep in mind you may have casualties due to the Bumblebee Snail!

Astreas will be on the rocks and glass mostly while the Nassarius stay in the substrate and poke their snorkels up then come up out of the sand when they smell food/at night time.

Conchs are cool because they somewhat sift your sand and keep it from collecting as much detritus trapped in it. They'll also eat detritus as well as clean the lower section of your glass that can be annoying to scrape. Plus they're goofy af looking.

Brittle stars are also a great addition but some people may think they're creepy. They are somewhat eldritch but they do a great job of cleaning detritus.

Could even try and get an emerald crab or two that are healthy and have a redo on them! All my tanks have them and I love em.

 

[SlasherZ]

Cool stuff with the swordtails! I used to breed balloon mollies, and still breed guppies and endlers!

Did you know you can acclimate the swordtails over to saltwater? Just do it very slowly over the course of a week or two and you'll have great dither fish and algea eaters in your sw tank! Plus free fish food for everyone else when the fry are born...

 

[SlasherZ]

For reference on cuc, my Evo has

1xBlood Cleaner Shrimp
3x Sexy Shrimp
1x Nassarius Snail
3xAstrea Snails
1x Peppermint Shrimp
1x Tiger Conch
2x Emerald Crab
1x Neon blue cleaner goby
1x Scarlet Reef Hermit
2x blue leg hermits
Copepods and amphipods

A few different macro algaes.


However that's basically the whole livestock list, I don't really have any other inhabitants in there...

 

[dbrown2120]

Boy did you just send me down a rabbit hole. I had NO idea freshwater fish can be “converted” to SW. Super interesting!!! I have a 3.5 going now as a “fry sanctuary” but the idea of some really nice fancy guppies with a few corals has really piqued my interest. Maybe next year after the eco is really going good.
But that is quite some list in your evo! Did you plan to have basically an invert only tank? (Besides the goby) hopefully this weekend I can get to the LFS and get some CUC I do like the sexy shrimps!

 

[SlasherZ]

Boy did you just send me down a rabbit hole. I had NO idea freshwater fish can be “converted” to SW. Super interesting!!! I have a 3.5 going now as a “fry sanctuary” but the idea of some really nice fancy guppies with a few corals has really piqued my interest. Maybe next year after the eco is really going good.
But that is quite some list in your evo! Did you plan to have basically an invert only tank? (Besides the goby) hopefully this weekend I can get to the LFS and get some CUC I do like the sexy shrimps!

Yeah it's a neat experiment. In my experience sailfin mollies and dalmatian mollies take the easiest to sw! The uglier/more plain/wild the guppy the easier they take to saltwater. Works with endlers as well!

I built the Evo for seahorses and then got scared off the idea the more research I did, so now it's kind of just become an invert tank that i grow algea in.

 

[dbrown2120]

I built the Evo for seahorses and then

Duh, I totally forgot you already told me that haha sorry! I’ve been googling your suggestions and I actually like the way the conch looks lol it’s just goofy and silly. Speaking of macro algae, why do some people turn chamber 2 into a refugium? I like the idea of a big planted SW tank as well. I have lots of research to do, but it’s fun so I don’t mind.

 

[dbrown2120]

Also, the little clowns fin is looking much better!

 

[SlasherZ]

Also, the little clowns fin is looking much better!

Glad to hear it! They're tough little guys.

Duh, I totally forgot you already told me that haha sorry! I’ve been googling your suggestions and I actually like the way the conch looks lol it’s just goofy and silly. Speaking of macro algae, why do some people turn chamber 2 into a refugium? I like the idea of a big planted SW tank as well. I have lots of research to do, but it’s fun so I don’t mind.

I'd assume most people prefer refugium because it's more easily manageable. If you leave the macros in your display they can easily overgrown everything if you don't keep up on trimming. A lot of them have really good grippers and will climb on even glass, let alone rocks and can strangle corals out.

Second reason may be that most people seem to use chaeto for their refugium which isn't particularly nice looking.