ConchLife
Community Member
Hi everyone, been reading the forums for a few months but haven't registered until now.
Brand new to the hobby and starting with a Fluval Evo 13.5 (52L).
My head is going to explode from all the different advice that I've had from various different sources and I would like some help please
I'm fully ready to get criticised for how this has played out as well...
Based on advice from my very popular and reputable LFS, I started the tank on the 21st July with a 100ml bottle of JBL Denitrol and later that same day, I added a pair of clownfish, a fire shrimp and 3 corals (in hindsight, adding corals at this point seemed like bad advice and strikes me as the LFS trying to make more £).
About 6 or 7 days later, I had a diatom bloom and some green algae on my rocks so I added 2 trochus snails and 2 nassarius snails (I started with non-live sand and dry rock).
I was testing twice a week and not seeing a great deal of anything. The pH was good at around 8.1-8.3. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and phosphates barely showing anything. My alkalinity dropped to as low as 3/4dkh at one point so I was adding 1/4 tsp of Bicarbonate of soda each night to increase that by 1dkh per day until it got to about 8dkh.
A week later I added a Tailspot Blenny and a Strawberry lipped conch - that's me done as far as livestock goes in a tank of this size.
Basically, I'm 6 weeks in and today I've done a 10L water change (LFS said to wait 6 weeks til first water change). I wanted to do the water change because my calcium was down at 325. I'll test again tomorrow but as of yesterday, I still wasn't seeing any nitrates or phosphates, I've been adding half a capful of Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7 every night for the last few weeks on the advice of a different LFS but I think I should stop this now tbh.
I've been changing the filter floss in the top of chamber 1 every few days, could this be slowing things down? Am I removing the organic matter that the bacteria wants to feed on?
I suppose the reason that I'm posting this is because I kind of feel that I don't know what I'm doing or whether the tank has cycled or not. Everything is alive and well which is obviously a good sign.
The corals are:
Green Sinularia Finger Leather - Not doing well at all. Shows signs of wanting to be happy and then goes back to sulking.
Hairy Rhodactis Mushroom - Growing nicely and looks good.
Purple Bee Zoanthid - Not doing badly and some new heads have grown.
The other thing that I've had lately is a big influx of spirorbid worms which people say are a good thing.
My test kit is the JBL Combiset.
I did see a very small nitrite spike last week.
Sorry for the essay, I'm probably overthinking the whole thing, apologies if I've missed anything and please go easy on me
Brand new to the hobby and starting with a Fluval Evo 13.5 (52L).
My head is going to explode from all the different advice that I've had from various different sources and I would like some help please
I'm fully ready to get criticised for how this has played out as well...
Based on advice from my very popular and reputable LFS, I started the tank on the 21st July with a 100ml bottle of JBL Denitrol and later that same day, I added a pair of clownfish, a fire shrimp and 3 corals (in hindsight, adding corals at this point seemed like bad advice and strikes me as the LFS trying to make more £).
About 6 or 7 days later, I had a diatom bloom and some green algae on my rocks so I added 2 trochus snails and 2 nassarius snails (I started with non-live sand and dry rock).
I was testing twice a week and not seeing a great deal of anything. The pH was good at around 8.1-8.3. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and phosphates barely showing anything. My alkalinity dropped to as low as 3/4dkh at one point so I was adding 1/4 tsp of Bicarbonate of soda each night to increase that by 1dkh per day until it got to about 8dkh.
A week later I added a Tailspot Blenny and a Strawberry lipped conch - that's me done as far as livestock goes in a tank of this size.
Basically, I'm 6 weeks in and today I've done a 10L water change (LFS said to wait 6 weeks til first water change). I wanted to do the water change because my calcium was down at 325. I'll test again tomorrow but as of yesterday, I still wasn't seeing any nitrates or phosphates, I've been adding half a capful of Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7 every night for the last few weeks on the advice of a different LFS but I think I should stop this now tbh.
I've been changing the filter floss in the top of chamber 1 every few days, could this be slowing things down? Am I removing the organic matter that the bacteria wants to feed on?
I suppose the reason that I'm posting this is because I kind of feel that I don't know what I'm doing or whether the tank has cycled or not. Everything is alive and well which is obviously a good sign.
The corals are:
Green Sinularia Finger Leather - Not doing well at all. Shows signs of wanting to be happy and then goes back to sulking.
Hairy Rhodactis Mushroom - Growing nicely and looks good.
Purple Bee Zoanthid - Not doing badly and some new heads have grown.
The other thing that I've had lately is a big influx of spirorbid worms which people say are a good thing.
My test kit is the JBL Combiset.
I did see a very small nitrite spike last week.
Sorry for the essay, I'm probably overthinking the whole thing, apologies if I've missed anything and please go easy on me
