Elise's first reef tank - Fluval 13.5

[Elise_]

Nice plan

The photos I have seen with the AI prime on this tank look amazing.
Although the Fluval marine 3.0 is not doing too badly at the moment.

Now just to decide what corals I am going to get!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

The photos I have seen with the AI prime on this tank look amazing.
Although the Fluval marine 3.0 is not doing too badly at the moment.

Now just to decide what corals I am going to get!

Maybe try a @noopsyche . I have 2 over my 75 gallon and I love them. Great prices too.

 

[Elise_]

Maybe try a @noopsyche . I have 2 over my 75 gallon and I love them. Great prices too.

Thank you so much for the suggestion!! I just checked it out and looks like the K7 mini might be perfect!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Thank you so much for the suggestion!! I just checked it out and looks like the K7 mini might be perfect!

I was thinking the same thing

 

[Elise_]

Amazing how things change so quickly in these little tanks. Following on from the move and the first water change we have some algae growing at rapid speed.
Asking on another thread here looks like a few different colors of Cyano.. Next challenge for this little reef!

 

[Elise_]

So I am continuing to plan and try and get this tank back on track and I was wondering about potentially adding a small urchin like a tuxedo to the tank to help with the algae issue - and I think they are super cool.

Otherwise suggestions on snails to add to try and deal with this cyano issue? My annoying hermit killed all my snails but my Nassarius.. haha
And my LFS doesn't have any at the moment so thinking I might have to go online to get some, but not sure which ones to look for.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Anything dead/decaying in there? What are params right now? Not many inverts target cyano. Best way to fix it is to find the root cause.

 

[Elise_]

Nothing dead, tank just moved 2 weeks ago and has had 2 good water changes since then.
I will re-test parameters tonight when I get home.

But it's just the two clowns and 3 Nassarius snails in there, no corals anymore and all the same rock as before.
I had a terrible GHA outbreak which just got under control with Fluconazole before I moved the tank but I really don't think this is GHA.

The algae at the top of the tank is a purple color, red/brown in the mid tank and green towards the bottom.

 

[Sharkbait19]

The brown is likely diatoms, but that green is definitely cyano.
Overall beefing up the cuc helps a lot. Pistol shrimps do wonders for the sandbed and won’t get eaten by hermits.
I’m not sure if urchins eat cyano, but then again they’ll eat anything.

 

[Elise_]

Little update on the tank, I am slowly I think winning the battle against the algae, although it is certainly not gone yet I am keeping up with 20% weekly water changes, trying to vacuum the sandbed as much as possible and scrubbing the rock work with each water change. Have also added chemipure blue since last update.

I have updated my return pump and added the 1/2 inch RFG.
I just added my first corals back to the tank since the crash.
I have 2 hammers, a green spatter and a smaller purple hammer, a mushroom, acan and a pretty cool blasto that I found at my LFS. Not sure yet if I have the flow right in this tank for the corals but hoping they do ok.
This is the hammers on day 2 of being in the tank and they seem generally pretty happy.

Next step is getting the lid off the tank and adding a jump guard and upgrading the lights.
Will also determine if I try and put the powerhead I used to have back in the tank, but it seemed too powerful previously and not sure if the corals really liked the flow when I had it set up.

Always more questions with this little tank but feel like I am learning a lot.

 

[Elise_]

Anyone have suggestions for adding extra flow and surface ripple to this tank without pushing my soft corals around way too much?
I previously had the Sine SOW-3 wave pump on the lowest setting but found the mushrooms and the hammers etc didn't like it. So much that the mushrooms would let go of the rocks and float to another spot to get out of the flow I think.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I had always found that the stock flow was enough (at least for my corals). Anything you add will create too strong a current - if everything is happy I’d leave it be.

 

[Elise_]

It seems happy so far with the upgraded return to the vivosun210GPH pump and the 1/2 in RFG. I only just put corals back in this week though so I guess I will see how they fare, but the hammers seem to have gentle but enough movement and the mushroom, acans and blasto I added seem also pretty happy so far.

 

[uhgster1]

I had always found that the stock flow was enough (at least for my corals). Anything you add will create too strong a current - if everything is happy I’d leave it be.

I have an AI Nero 3 running at about 5% pulse. Just enough to keep the frogspawn waving. It’s definitely overkill for a tank this size but the adjustability is awesome and if I want to change to SPS dominant I’ll have all the flow I need. The profile and the price is hard to beat.

 

[Elise_]

Little step backwards again today as the green hammer is looking unhappy, not as extended and I noticed one head has significant tissue recession and skeleton showing. Not sure if it was like that when I got it but I doubt it as it has been so happy. Such a rapid decline in a short time!

I have added back my wave maker as I was seeing detritus settling and despite doing 15%-20% water changes weekly I was worried things might be heading backwards again despite the algae situation continually improving.



Photo was after the water change with lights off and water getting moved about so it was also a bit unhappy from that.

 

[OldRed1]

Little step backwards again today as the green hammer is looking unhappy, not as extended and I noticed one head has significant tissue recession and skeleton showing. Not sure if it was like that when I got it but I doubt it as it has been so happy. Such a rapid decline in a short time!

I have added back my wave maker as I was seeing detritus settling and despite doing 15%-20% water changes weekly I was worried things might be heading backwards again despite the algae situation continually improving.



Photo was after the water change with lights off and water getting moved about so it was also a bit unhappy from that.

Do you have a way to know if sand is irritating the coral?

 

[Elise_]

Do you have a way to know if sand is irritating the coral?

I don't think so, the only sand that could get kicked up is during water changes. I will keep an eye on it with the wave maker back in but its been very calm up till now.

 

[OldRed1]

I don't think so, the only sand that could get kicked up is during water changes. I will keep an eye on it with the wave maker back in but its been very calm up till now.

I only ask because I often see folks commenting that wall hammers don’t always do well down in the sand bed. But if your hammer has done well in the past, then I’d probably rule out sand being an irritant.

 

[Elise_]

I only ask because I often see folks commenting that wall hammers don’t always do well down in the sand bed. But if your hammer has done well in the past, then I’d probably rule out sand being an irritant.

I thought this guy was a branching hammer but I may be very wrong there too.
I will have to find somewhere to get it off the sand that isn't getting too much flow if it doesn't improve..

 

[OldRed1]

I thought this guy was a branching hammer but I may be very wrong there too.
I will have to find somewhere to get it off the sand that isn't getting too much flow if it doesn't improve..

I could also be wrong! It just reminded me of a wall hammer I recently saw in a video, and so I made an assumption. If you purchased it as a branching hammer then I would trust your ID.