Fluval Evo 13.5 Build Thread

[One Reefing Boi]

A fan of Community? cool crab names!

I have a huge crush on Allison Brie

 

[Sharkbait19]

Great build thread! My fluval has been up and running for almost a year. The white dot could have been a wound or something. I noticed a white spot on my purple fire fish the other day and now it is gone. I don't know if you are still thinking about a yellow tail damsel, I have one and got lucky that he is not overly aggressive, but what isn't talked about as much is he loves to burrow in the sand! I am constantly having to unbury rocks and corals that he has covered. I ended up giving him his own tank with only a few corals up high. Keep up the posting!

Thanks for following!

 

[kpoj9]

I know which is exactly why I’m still worried. I suppose all I can do is monitor what happens. It’s weird, it’s all gone without a trace, when usually, at least in my experience, the cysts go away with some inflammation left behind. Likewise, none of my fish actually reacted with scratching, flashing, or gasping like they normally would.

Good luck. I hope it’s nothing.

 

[Glass Algae]

Don’t worry, the Petco I’m getting coral at is better than some LFS I’ve been to, very amazing. The royal gramma with the potential ich is from probably my least favorite Petco, and was more an impulse buy.

OOOF I'd be scared to see what the lfs look like then. They just have someone at that petco you go to who actually reefs then cause the ones by us are pretty much ich and aptasia tanks more than anything else

 

[Sharkbait19]

My local Petco sucks, this one is 45 minutes away.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Brand new sharknose goby and pulsing Xenia. The Xenia hopefully will host the clown and the goby I’m hoping takes care of the potential ich.
Somehow I got this huge Xenia head for only $30. I think it was in the wrong section because all the other Xenia’s were 1/3 the size.

 

[Patrick Fox]

Hello and good luck with your new tank! Dont let the troubles get you down - we all seem to hit the same stumbling blocks and failure points at first. its just the learning curve. itll get better eventually and you will learn how to be successful in time. research and read as much as you can!

what i can offer you is this - setting up a dedicated quarantine tank is well worth the cost/trouble. id recommend dodging fish from stores like petco and instead buy from reputable sources (even online) such as liveaquaria. ORA, biota and others that offer tank-bred fish are always your best choice. also, keep in mind that most pet stores are set up so that all of their saltwater tanks are a common body of water and its all filtered as one. this means that buying the gramma that looks healthy from petco, but not the goby that shows visible signs of ich isnt really going to guarentee you anything.... if one has it, its likely that they all have it. also, they are notorious for using the same nets and specimen containers interchangeably between tanks, even if they were separate systems - they would be contaminated anyway.

Humblefish has all sorts of great information on treating/dealing with fish disease and procedures, medicated food recipes and everything else here on R2R, so definitely look him up and read as much as you can.

Good luck and happy reefing!
Patrick

 

[Sharkbait19]

Hello and good luck with your new tank! Dont let the troubles get you down - we all seem to hit the same stumbling blocks and failure points at first. its just the learning curve. itll get better eventually and you will learn how to be successful in time. research and read as much as you can!

what i can offer you is this - setting up a dedicated quarantine tank is well worth the cost/trouble. id recommend dodging fish from stores like petco and instead buy from reputable sources (even online) such as liveaquaria. ORA, biota and others that offer tank-bred fish are always your best choice. also, keep in mind that most pet stores are set up so that all of their saltwater tanks are a common body of water and its all filtered as one. this means that buying the gramma that looks healthy from petco, but not the goby that shows visible signs of ich isnt really going to guarentee you anything.... if one has it, its likely that they all have it. also, they are notorious for using the same nets and specimen containers interchangeably between tanks, even if they were separate systems - they would be contaminated anyway.

Humblefish has all sorts of great information on treating/dealing with fish disease and procedures, medicated food recipes and everything else here on R2R, so definitely look him up and read as much as you can.

Good luck and happy reefing!
Patrick

Thanks! Yeah the gramma really was an impulse buy, I probably would have not gone through the trouble if I didn’t get it at Petco. I’m looking into a QT tank. Hopefully, though, the ich doesn’t return.

 

[Sharkbait19]

So far the firefish doesn’t care for the sharknose goby. The goby keeps trying to clean him and he darts away in fear.

 

[Bob Wiley]

If you are putting fish, corals and inverts directly into your display tank it's not a matter of "if" a disease returns but a matter of when. Even if you are correct that the white dot you saw was not ich and that you are still in the clear, the practice of dumping new purchases immediately into your DT will eventually come back to bite you. I have seen this story play out time and time again amongst this very forum.

At that point, depending on what the disease/parasite is, you may not have the time to wait for an Amazon order, or for Petco to open up the next morning so that you can acquire everything to spin up a hospital tank.

Also understand that with something like ich, healthy fish are able to live with it and fend off outbreaks. So, if there is ich in the tank, just because your guys aren't showing symptoms now does not mean it has gone away. Most of the time, from what I've seen, as soon as some form of stress is introduced to the tank (new fish, aggressive fish, too many fish, water params off kilter, etc) those healthy fish which seemingly have no ich all of a sudden are filthy with the stuff. It's not simply an eyeball test for whether a fish has spots.

I would recommend not buying any more livestock and devoting your focus towards a QT/HT setup.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I figured it’s about time for a video update, so here we go. Everything is going great minus the firefish swimming and acting rather wonky and new sharknose having some white spots, possible concern for parasites. I’ll keep everyone posted, though!

 

[Sharkbait19]

these white bumps keep moving around. Ich or sand? Thoughts? I’ve read many past threads on cleaner gobies naturally having ich and being unaffected. Is this true?

 

[Rickybobby]

I cut off 30 bux a week in Xenia they grow like weeds for me in my evo. Also you really should get a qt hospital tank

 

[Bob Wiley]

I cut off 30 bux a week in Xenia they grow like weeds for me in my evo. Also you really should get a qt hospital tank

What do you do with your xenia when you cut it off?
Are you able to keep it limited to a rock, or will it cross sand as well?

 

[Rickybobby]

I monitor it daily. It moves fast. As it stretches to another rock I just cut it off and discard it. Right now I don’t have room for a frag tank. Yet. But it grows so fast that throwing it in the trash is no big deal. Once it sticks to a rock good luck! Also when you cut it and there’s still some tissue left on a base or rock it will re grow again. It’s like cutting grass I don’t mind it’s a nice coral lots of movement. When I move up to a larger tank it will be on its own rock. Never seen it go to sand yet. Same as my gsp. It will not adhere to the sand stays on the frag plug

 

[Sharkbait19]

I monitor it daily. It moves fast. As it stretches to another rock I just cut it off and discard it. Right now I don’t have room for a frag tank. Yet. But it grows so fast that throwing it in the trash is no big deal. Once it sticks to a rock good luck! Also when you cut it and there’s still some tissue left on a base or rock it will re grow again. It’s like cutting grass I don’t mind it’s a nice coral lots of movement. When I move up to a larger tank it will be on its own rock. Never seen it go to sand yet. Same as my gsp. It will not adhere to the sand stays on the frag plug

Thankfully I have my Xenia on an island away from the other rocks. It shouldn’t overgrow....shouldn’t.
Honestly, even if it did I wouldn’t mind....I find them so neat!

 

[Sharkbait19]

Some reddening around the gills. The pic doesn’t really come out but the video above is much better. He has been hanging towards the top a lot more than he used to, but not gasping for air or anything, just swimming up top. Are the red gills a natural coloration or are they a cause for concern.
Also, below — sand, ich, or nothing?

 

[najer]

My fire fish was always up high in the water column.
I don't know about disease.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Any thoughts on the sharknose goby? He’s acting fine, but what he has sure looks like ich.....

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’m thinking about moving the goby into quarantine and monitoring the rest of the display tank. I know the other fish could be infected but right now it’s only the neon. He’s still acting normal but he’s just covered in spots!