Elise's first reef tank - Fluval 13.5

[GHOSTLY]

This weeks update for the tank. Not to much going on this week in terms of changes or new things as I have been crazy busy at work since the new corals arrived.
Sadly my bizzaro cyphastrea continues to slowly melt away, I think its a goner now.
The new corals from Cali Kid corals and Living Reef Orlando from the live sales a few weeks back are for the most part settling in ok and most were keen to eat today.
I managed to figure what I hope is a slightly better wavemaker positioning and there seems to be less strong flow across the bottom of the tank and my new hammer seems much happier.
One of my rock flower anemones decided to let go of its spot and float around to attach on the backside of the rocks on the left side where I sadly don't get to see it any more.
Only coral I'm currently a little worried about is my Favia, it seems to have a few exposed looking bits along the skeleton at the edges of the polyps, so we will continue to monitor that.
I still need to get a Phosphorus test kit and I am due to water test again tomorrow.

Favias an odd one. I had 2 favia and still do. Bought same time one completely died around one huge. The one that died around the outside is recovering but they're odd

 

[JoJosReef]

Watching your build now! I saw you pulling in a good haul at the LRO live sale--I had the itch too but waited another week and got my first live sale haul from AquaSD (2 acan lords, an alvea and a duncan) coming this week. Got a gsp (doing well) and zoa (not so well) on the cheap. Oh, and my recent RBTA from a fellow SoCal reefer which I love and stress over way too much.

I'm also struggling with decisions on flow. Currently have the MagicTool covered till I get it Nem-safe.

 

[Just John]

Hey John! Post your evo here, give Elise some inspiration too!

I don't have a good picture. I'll take one tomorrow and post it.

 

[Elise_]

Watching your build now! I saw you pulling in a good haul at the LRO live sale--I had the itch too but waited another week and got my first live sale haul from AquaSD (2 acan lords, an alvea and a duncan) coming this week. Got a gsp (doing well) and zoa (not so well) on the cheap. Oh, and my recent RBTA from a fellow SoCal reefer which I love and stress over way too much.

I'm also struggling with decisions on flow. Currently have the MagicTool covered till I get it Nem-safe.

I shall be watching yours now too! I absolutely love your scape! It's crazy how quickly I get the itch to do things over again. I am unhappy with how my rock rubble pieces are and I am going to have to be on the lookout for some smaller whole rock pieces instead, either that or get rid of my hermit crab as he keeps moving everything around!
I love the pieces I got from the LRO live sale and definitely want some more rock flowers. I am a little sad the ones I had managed to win at the sale had an unfortunate end and the replacements were not my choice in colours, however there is always more time to add more!

 

[GHOSTLY]

So many fellow evo owners!

 

[JoJosReef]

So many fellow evo owners!

Having a great time with this tank. I'm sold on nanos. Have an IM Nuvo 10g coming from Mrs. Claus for my office. Just keeping the water changes going to make everything happy!

@Elise_ wish I went a bit less on the big rocks, but the important thing is my 4yo likes it and helped build it! We also originally imagined Nemos and other fish darting between the rocks, but so far they just like the magnetic scrubber. Rock flowers and sexy shrimp are going into my office tank. I'll be taking notes on your experience with them!

 

[smol_reef]

Really like how your tank is coming along!

 

[Elise_]

Thanks everyone! I am learning a lot but also pretty happy with how the tank is coming together and definitely glad I came here to find where to get the great corals to add some colour to the tank!

 

[Just John]

Hey John! Post your evo here, give Elise some inspiration too!

I almost forgot about this! I think I need some more variety in the tank. I got a little obsessed with zoas. My Ricordeas have made a run for it. The former garden is the bare patch in the middle of them all with one sad, curled up mushroom left. They have gone left, right and even up. Even the Xenia is on the move. It has left its rock behind and is actually moving up the black side wall.

 

[GHOSTLY]

I almost forgot about this! I need some more variety in the tank. I got a little obsessed with zoas. My Ricordeas have made a run for it. The former garden is the bare patch in the middle of them all with one sad, curled up mushroom left. They have gone left, right and even up. Even the Xenia is on the move. It has left it's rock behind and is actually moving up the black wall.

WOW that's absolutely stunning! I wish mine looked that good! How long have you been reefing?

 

[Just John]

WOW that's absolutely stunning! I wish mine looked that good! How long have you been reefing?

I imagine your tank does, but we are still waiting on that big reveal you have coming
This is my first tank. I set it up around Feb/March.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I am a little late to start my build thread for this tank, but would love to share my tank as I go through the trials and tribulations of learning with my first reef tank.

On April 12th I purchased my Fluval 13.5 in the Petco tank sale and started my reef journey!
Tank was set up with just stock equipment and light.
Caribsea fine sand
Live rock from a LFS

A couple of weeks later I added my first tank inhabitants.
2 x Clowns
3 x assorted zoa's from the LFS

March 8th: Starting to see some algae building up on the sand. Added another 2 corals:
Florida Riccordia
Purple Frogspawn

June 1: Frogspawn not doing well. Green algae improving with continued brown algae on the sanded.

June 3: I made my first upgrade decision for the tank and purchased the Fluval Marine 3.0 light to allow me to keep the tank lid (also have limited overhead space where the tank is positioned on my kitchen counter.
Also picked up the Sine SOW-3 wave pump. Much too powerful but seems to be working ok on the lowest setting.
Frogspawn still looking a bit sad - Was not testing for all parameters and think I may have not been adequately supplementing for this.
Also picked up an awesome Orange Yuma.

Sorry for the long break between updates - I tried to learn from some of my early mistakes and just try and leave things alone to mature and settle.
October 11: Magnesium tested low at 1200, slowly starting to increase.
Added Chemipure blue
Additions to the tank:
Green Frammer? - sold as hammer but seems more like a frogspawn.
Superman Rhodactis
Bizzaro cyphastrea
GSP
My orange yuma decided to detach from its frag plug where it was and float over to the main rock work **eek** however it seems happy in its new position, maybe the flow at the end of the tank was too high.

October 22: Replaced the sponge filter with the Intank 1st chamber. Filled with the original ceramic media + added Marine Pure Gems. Same chemipure bag and added filter floss at the top of the chamber. Heater moved into chamber 2.

New purchases yet to install (just arrived in the mail!)
1/2 inch random flow generator - have to just work out how to get this one off, might have done it up too tight!
Vivosun 210GPH pump. Concerned this may be too much with the wavemaker/powerhead in this small tank but wanted to increase the filtration. Thinking I might need to downgrade the wave maker to something smaller or just see if the tank is ok with the pump alone.

Other exciting updates!!
I am picking up some more live rock and some coral frags from Cali Kid Corals tomorrow and then have a small haul of frags coming from Living Reef Orlando on Tuesday.
Definitely went overboard with the coral sales so hope I have my tank in a position to handle keeping as many as I can alive!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I very much appreciate any tips or advise you have. I have been keeping freshwater tanks for many years from Betta's to a Discus tank and many mixed and planted tropical tanks. I have always been in awe of marine tanks and I am so excited to finally get to experience how awesome this hobby is!

I bet you upgrade to a bigger tank soon, lol
Welcome to R2R

 

[GHOSTLY]

I imagine your tank does, but we are still waiting on that big reveal you have coming
This is my first tank. I set it up around Feb/March.

No one is watching it so ill just do it here. Bottom corner and just out of site I snagged 2 Jason fox sets of coral! Not nice but ill get a better pic. I'll show the true coral review soon I just couldn't get it.

 

[SaltTank]

I am a little late to start my build thread for this tank, but would love to share my tank as I go through the trials and tribulations of learning with my first reef tank.

On April 12th I purchased my Fluval 13.5 in the Petco tank sale and started my reef journey!
Tank was set up with just stock equipment and light.
Caribsea fine sand
Live rock from a LFS

A couple of weeks later I added my first tank inhabitants.
2 x Clowns
3 x assorted zoa's from the LFS

March 8th: Starting to see some algae building up on the sand. Added another 2 corals:
Florida Riccordia
Purple Frogspawn

June 1: Frogspawn not doing well. Green algae improving with continued brown algae on the sanded.

June 3: I made my first upgrade decision for the tank and purchased the Fluval Marine 3.0 light to allow me to keep the tank lid (also have limited overhead space where the tank is positioned on my kitchen counter.
Also picked up the Sine SOW-3 wave pump. Much too powerful but seems to be working ok on the lowest setting.
Frogspawn still looking a bit sad - Was not testing for all parameters and think I may have not been adequately supplementing for this.
Also picked up an awesome Orange Yuma.

Sorry for the long break between updates - I tried to learn from some of my early mistakes and just try and leave things alone to mature and settle.
October 11: Magnesium tested low at 1200, slowly starting to increase.
Added Chemipure blue
Additions to the tank:
Green Frammer? - sold as hammer but seems more like a frogspawn.
Superman Rhodactis
Bizzaro cyphastrea
GSP
My orange yuma decided to detach from its frag plug where it was and float over to the main rock work **eek** however it seems happy in its new position, maybe the flow at the end of the tank was too high.

October 22: Replaced the sponge filter with the Intank 1st chamber. Filled with the original ceramic media + added Marine Pure Gems. Same chemipure bag and added filter floss at the top of the chamber. Heater moved into chamber 2.

New purchases yet to install (just arrived in the mail!)
1/2 inch random flow generator - have to just work out how to get this one off, might have done it up too tight!
Vivosun 210GPH pump. Concerned this may be too much with the wavemaker/powerhead in this small tank but wanted to increase the filtration. Thinking I might need to downgrade the wave maker to something smaller or just see if the tank is ok with the pump alone.

Other exciting updates!!
I am picking up some more live rock and some coral frags from Cali Kid Corals tomorrow and then have a small haul of frags coming from Living Reef Orlando on Tuesday.
Definitely went overboard with the coral sales so hope I have my tank in a position to handle keeping as many as I can alive!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I very much appreciate any tips or advise you have. I have been keeping freshwater tanks for many years from Betta's to a Discus tank and many mixed and planted tropical tanks. I have always been in awe of marine tanks and I am so excited to finally get to experience how awesome this hobby is!

"Fluval Marine 3.0 light to allow me to keep the tank lid"
Great looking tank ... do you have any pictures of the top of the tank that show how the Fluval is mounted in to the original hood or did you remove the hood and use another option?

 

[Lou's Reef]

Looks good from one evo to another!

The zoas above the green and red ones look amazing. Are you running the stock light I just bought my evo and am wondering if zoas will succeed.

 

[Elise_]

Ok, we are much overdue for an update...
A lot has happened in this little tank in the past few months.

I had to go back to Australia and had a friend take care of the tank for me. She did her best but it's definitely tough for someone with no aquarium experience to look after a nano!
Once I got home I had a terrible hair algae bloom and lost all of my corals and my cleaner shrimp.

I then was planning to move house so I left the tank otherwise pretty empty and have been trying to nurse my rock flowers back to health.
One of them is always turning itself inside out.
Clowns on the other hand look good!

The tank has now been in my new house for a month and seems to be settled in so far.
I upgraded the return pump to the VIVOSUN 210GPH pump.
I also added the AutoAqua smart ATO lite and got rid of my water bottle top up system.

I have taken the powerhead out for the moment and was hoping to try the upgraded pump with a 1/2 inch RFG which I have, but can't get the locline to come apart. So debating buying the whole setup from dflow or getting a smaller powerhead or trying to find a better way to place mine that doesn't blow everything around too much.

Lots going on, sad that the tank is looking so bare but want to make sure the algae issue is totally gone and tank seems stable then I will try and start making it colorful again.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Sorry to hear about the losses.
Hopefully everything goes better soon!

 

[Elise_]

Sorry to hear about the losses.
Hopefully everything goes better soon!

Thanks, it is all part of the learning process I guess! But I am still a little sad that I allowed some of my gorgeous corals to die.
I feel like I am starting over a little now, but with much more mature rock.
The positive I guess is that I have a lot of coraline growing!

I am a little nervous to put things back in it though.
I think I need to get a few better testers before I add more corals in.

 

[Elise_]

Very excited now that I have the ATO setup to take the lid of this baby and put a new light on it. I am thinking the AI 16HD and a mesh frame to protect my fish from jumping out.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Very excited now that I have the ATO setup to take the lid of this baby and put a new light on it. I am thinking the AI 16HD and a mesh frame to protect my fish from jumping out.

Nice plan