Lulu_Lunette
Community Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2017
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Hello, I'm new to the forums - to get this thread up todate - I started my first reef tank towards the end of last summer, a Fluval Evo 13.5 nano tank. I chose a nano because it would fit perfectly on my bar in my basement and thought that being small it would be more affordable for getting my sleeves wet into the hobby. After doing some research the only answers I was coming up with that nano tanks were hard. Oh great, what did I get myself into?
Initial equipment:
For the initial setup i decided to use cured live rock and live sand. I was very lucky to have an awesome fish store not to far from my house. After discussing what I wanted to do, size of my tank and being I am a beginner we decided that the best way to not set myself up for failure to not only use their live rock and sand but also use water direct from their display tank. Essentially do a tank transfer. I arranged the rocks into an arch, I wanted to give the future inhabitants something to swim around. I also added a clean up crew with the inital setup.
07.30.17 - Inital Setup
The first two weeks after setup the tank did go through a mini cycle. Having survived the hurdle and managing to not kill my clean up crew I decided to add the tanks first fish and coral inhabitants. For fish I selected two Clarkii clownfish and for coral I selected green star polyp, a hairy mushroom and clove polyp. By this time, the starfish seemed to have disappeared and I have not seen any since. A few weeks later I added a Kenya tree, an echinopora and a green nephthea.
08.20.17 - First Inhabitants
First Issues –
Everything was going great until about two weeks after the last additions were made. I encountered my first issue(s) – high nitrates and cyno algae. I figured I must have been over feeding my clownfish in combination with feeding them inefficiently. I increased the frequency of water changes and began to target feed clownfish. Hoping this would decrease the cyno algae it seem to only get worst, the plan was to wait and not use any chemicals but then the cyno started growing on to my corals. I ended up treating the tank with chemi-clean. I was amazed with how effective it was. I treated the tank in two doses. At this time a wave maker was added to get rid of nitrate pockets. I also swapped out the original media filtration that came with the tank fro Chemi-Pure Blue Nano to help with nitrates.
After everything settled down I added a rainfordi goby and an orchid dottyback and two corals – pulsing xenia and pocillopora. This is when I decided this was it for fish - my clownfish were jerks to the goby. Luckily he has plenty of hiding spots and he is quick enough to get out of the way. I kept an eye out for him for the next few days but never saw him again. I have decided against getting an anemone mainly because I read too much about them meeting the wave maker and do not want to deal with the headache. My clownfish are really into the hairy mushroom and have host in it. I feel this is a good substitution.
About a month after adding the goby and the dottyback it was time to add more coral. I was trying to hold out for a piece of frogspawn but ended up coming out with something I never thought about adding - a torch coral. It wasn't long after adding the torch that my dottyback appeared to have developed lymphocystis. At first I thought that the torch had stung it but the sores just got bigger. Within the next two weeks they fell off and he has recovered. The clownfish never developed it.
10.24.17 - Torch Addition
My clove polyp became infested with red wiry turf algae. It became tight and destructive when I tried to manually remove it. I ended up doing a hydrogen peroxide drip on it. Let it sit for about 15 mins and was able to gently remove it. This is now the scariest thing I have done to date. It was really mad at me and took about a week to reopen up. It has grown several new heads since then.
12.20.17 -Wire Hair Algae Removal
I lost a couple of corals in December - one of the smaller pieces of liverock fell onto the echinopora. I didn't think anything of it until it started to die off in the middle and quickly spread in a matter of a few days
I had a red acropora but accidentally hit it off my counter with trying to put coral glue on the frag plug *sigh* I tried to save it but ended up just pulling it out. I ended up adding a peppermint shrimp due to an out break of aiptasia.
12.20.17 - Pepe
Wanting to promote more coral growth I started target feeding my corals - mainly the frogspawn and torch. They are placed further from where I feed the fish and I feel like they weren't getting enough nutrients to grow like the others. The corals that near the where the fish are fed are HUGE. I picked up some nano reef roids and some aquavitro fuel so far I am happy with the results. My phosphates have gone up so I've added PhosBond to my filtration basket.
So far the biggest regret I have is not securing my scape when I initially set it up. As my corals on top of the arch got bigger, it eventually collapsed. This last week was spent taking it apart and attempting to secure it. I tried using an epoxy but failed miserably. What ended up working the best was just using coral glue. Everything is secure now, but big lesson learned. Thankfully I was able to get the scape back pretty close to the original shape.
01.13.18 - Before
01.18.18 - After
So far I'm really enjoying this tank and cannot wait to see where it goes.
Initial equipment:
- Fluval Evo 13.5 tank (with stock return pump and light)
- PS2 Mini Protein Skimmer
- Fluval M50 Heater
For the initial setup i decided to use cured live rock and live sand. I was very lucky to have an awesome fish store not to far from my house. After discussing what I wanted to do, size of my tank and being I am a beginner we decided that the best way to not set myself up for failure to not only use their live rock and sand but also use water direct from their display tank. Essentially do a tank transfer. I arranged the rocks into an arch, I wanted to give the future inhabitants something to swim around. I also added a clean up crew with the inital setup.
07.30.17 - Inital Setup
The first two weeks after setup the tank did go through a mini cycle. Having survived the hurdle and managing to not kill my clean up crew I decided to add the tanks first fish and coral inhabitants. For fish I selected two Clarkii clownfish and for coral I selected green star polyp, a hairy mushroom and clove polyp. By this time, the starfish seemed to have disappeared and I have not seen any since. A few weeks later I added a Kenya tree, an echinopora and a green nephthea.
08.20.17 - First Inhabitants
First Issues –
Everything was going great until about two weeks after the last additions were made. I encountered my first issue(s) – high nitrates and cyno algae. I figured I must have been over feeding my clownfish in combination with feeding them inefficiently. I increased the frequency of water changes and began to target feed clownfish. Hoping this would decrease the cyno algae it seem to only get worst, the plan was to wait and not use any chemicals but then the cyno started growing on to my corals. I ended up treating the tank with chemi-clean. I was amazed with how effective it was. I treated the tank in two doses. At this time a wave maker was added to get rid of nitrate pockets. I also swapped out the original media filtration that came with the tank fro Chemi-Pure Blue Nano to help with nitrates.
After everything settled down I added a rainfordi goby and an orchid dottyback and two corals – pulsing xenia and pocillopora. This is when I decided this was it for fish - my clownfish were jerks to the goby. Luckily he has plenty of hiding spots and he is quick enough to get out of the way. I kept an eye out for him for the next few days but never saw him again. I have decided against getting an anemone mainly because I read too much about them meeting the wave maker and do not want to deal with the headache. My clownfish are really into the hairy mushroom and have host in it. I feel this is a good substitution.
About a month after adding the goby and the dottyback it was time to add more coral. I was trying to hold out for a piece of frogspawn but ended up coming out with something I never thought about adding - a torch coral. It wasn't long after adding the torch that my dottyback appeared to have developed lymphocystis. At first I thought that the torch had stung it but the sores just got bigger. Within the next two weeks they fell off and he has recovered. The clownfish never developed it.
10.24.17 - Torch Addition
My clove polyp became infested with red wiry turf algae. It became tight and destructive when I tried to manually remove it. I ended up doing a hydrogen peroxide drip on it. Let it sit for about 15 mins and was able to gently remove it. This is now the scariest thing I have done to date. It was really mad at me and took about a week to reopen up. It has grown several new heads since then.
12.20.17 -Wire Hair Algae Removal
I lost a couple of corals in December - one of the smaller pieces of liverock fell onto the echinopora. I didn't think anything of it until it started to die off in the middle and quickly spread in a matter of a few days
I had a red acropora but accidentally hit it off my counter with trying to put coral glue on the frag plug *sigh* I tried to save it but ended up just pulling it out. I ended up adding a peppermint shrimp due to an out break of aiptasia.
12.20.17 - Pepe
Wanting to promote more coral growth I started target feeding my corals - mainly the frogspawn and torch. They are placed further from where I feed the fish and I feel like they weren't getting enough nutrients to grow like the others. The corals that near the where the fish are fed are HUGE. I picked up some nano reef roids and some aquavitro fuel so far I am happy with the results. My phosphates have gone up so I've added PhosBond to my filtration basket.
So far the biggest regret I have is not securing my scape when I initially set it up. As my corals on top of the arch got bigger, it eventually collapsed. This last week was spent taking it apart and attempting to secure it. I tried using an epoxy but failed miserably. What ended up working the best was just using coral glue. Everything is secure now, but big lesson learned. Thankfully I was able to get the scape back pretty close to the original shape.
01.13.18 - Before
01.18.18 - After
So far I'm really enjoying this tank and cannot wait to see where it goes.
