Fluval Spec 16 mod/build

[emmysnewtank]

Ok, been learning a lot here, so thought I would setup a tank thread for posterity and hopefully be able to use this as a resource/reference to look back on.

My daughter (8yo) and I started this as a project together in early October 21. She has had to do all the inhabitant research with me and she has picked and placed all the livestock/coral/cuc and other elements. Dad did all the buying and mods, but she has to do maintenance with me.

Started with a Fluval Spec 16 (their freshwater version of Evo) but basically modded it like an EVO. inTank media basket in chamber 1 - floss/carbon/purigen/biomax, chamber 2 is heater and biomax filed bag. Sealed up the extra intake and upgraded return pump to cheap amazon 250gph. RFG 3/4" added to return flow and a Jebao SOW3 Wavemaker. Added a cheap amazon submersible LED tube under the hood to boost some actinic, added a Nicrew timer to ramp lights up and down over the day which really helps automate it. Corals seem to like the schedule for the moment. We would totally upgrade the light, but I want to keep the hood on so it protects too much evaporation.

CaribSea live sand and LFS faux live rock to start. We basically added 2 baby clowns, Dr. Tims and ocean water (from LFS) on day 3. Never seemed to have any ammonia cycle as we tested daily for 2 weeks and never saw any ammonia or NO2.

Started adding some softies (Xenia, GSP, Kenya, Zoas) week 2/3 to see and everything kept looking good. I know we aren't supposed to rush, but try telling that to an 8 year old. A few weeks later - thanks to Black Friday sales at some great SoCal coral shops - we ended up adding Duncans, Torch, acan lords, candy canes and ricordia/rhodactis shrooms. Everyone has acclimated well and growing quickly - except for some orange bam bams that for some reason just shriveled up and melted away. Tank too clean maybe?

We feed heavy - pellets, frozen Mysis, reef aB+ but barely show 5ppm NO3 and 0 phos.

Added a skunk cleaner shrimp, emerald crab and mixed cuc (hermits, snails). Kiddo wants a mandarin, but we know we need to build up our pods for a few months - just started trying to home brew some in a bucket. We will see!

Dealt with a few bubble algae a couple weeks ago that came in on frags (we manually removed from frags and dipped in H202 - haven't seen since) and just started a fight with Dino's but I think we got them too (vacuumed out right away, actinic lights only, and hitting light dose of H202 at night seems to have kicked it. thx @vetteguy53081 for the program.

Otherwise looking and feeling good!

 

[vetteguy53081]

On your no3 and 0 phos, you may be getting false readings.
What test kits are you using ?
If API, you are likely getting false numbers

 

[Idech]

What a nice project to do with your daughter !

 

[emmysnewtank]

On your no3 and 0 phos, you may be getting false readings.
What test kits are you using ?
If API, you are likely getting false numbers

Using api for no3 but salifert for phos. Ordered a salifert no3 test and about to order a Hanna phos check. Maybe that will change what I think I’m getting…

 

[emmysnewtank]

Better photos...

I think my orange ricordia about to split...and my Duncans - originally 3 polyps - all have multiple new heads growing. Very exciting stuff for us noobs...

 

[emmysnewtank]

Tank has been filling out with some more corals... @markwayts was nice enough to send a bunch of blue discosoma mushrooms, some candy canes, some pavona and a pair of really cool nems. Everything filling in nicely until...

...my daughter was set on adding a watchman goby and tiger pistol shrimp. They are awesome...but making a massive mess...digging holes, burying corals, literally and physically changing the tank.

We will see how they do...

 

[markwayts]

Tank has been filling out with some more corals... @markwayts was nice enough to send a bunch of blue discosoma mushrooms, some candy canes, some pavona and a pair of really cool nems. Everything filling in nicely until...

...my daughter was set on adding a watchman goby and tiger pistol shrimp. They are awesome...but making a massive mess...digging holes, burying corals, literally and physically changing the tank.

We will see how they do...

Looks really good. So glad to have found good homes for my overflow. If you get to the point of watching alk and growing sps be sure to let me know.

 

[emmysnewtank]

Looks really good. So glad to have found good homes for my overflow. If you get to the point of watching alk and growing sps be sure to let me know.

I need to add some pics of the nems. They are looking great and have settled into a couple spots in the rocks And eating well. thx again!

 

[emmysnewtank]

Almost 1 year update!

Summer got really busy and tank was neglected a bit...ended up with some GHA so we did a big clean/maintenance and rescaped a bit. Removed a big covering rock and opened up the tank a bit...creating 3 big islands and a. couple small ones.

We got some awesome Borneman anemones (from @markwayts ) but they nuked a small hammer and a Duncan. What were 2 nems are now 5 though. We actually managed to give one of the original 2 away as they were getting huge, but now we have 4 baby heads in various stages...most of our original coral is either doing well...or dead.

Strangely all the softies that are supposed to be easy - GSP, Xenia, Kenya Tree - all crashed while the LPS - Torch, Hammer, Duncan all doing well.

We rebooted w some new zoa frags on their own island and repositioned our mushrooms to better spots so hopefully they can take off too. Some fresh blast's and thats it!

Been running mostly minimal maintenance, but just trying to do a little water change and replace carbon and chemipure monthly. Filter pads changed weekly.

We recently upgraded lights and removed the Fluval hood, so will see how the new lights do. So far everyone seems really happy. The livestock also doing well...we lost 1 clown to the carpet, but now we have a mesh top. Sorry Clyde! Goby and Pistol (Kurt and Courtney) doing great, just always making a mess, but fun to have them in there. Favorite thing int he tank is probably Kanye, our emerald crab. That dude is so active and such a great personality.

Everyone so happy with the reef we are talking a bigger tank soon...

 

[emmysnewtank]

Added some more frags and did a bit more re-scaping:

We both like where its at now. More space in the sand bed for corals and anemone's really have their own island now as well.

We also are sitting on an IM Fusion 15 tank. My kid has been wanting a mandarin since day 1, but now we are prepping the new tank to be a mandarin home. Started a copepod and phyto culture and planning on moving the big zoa rock from the Fluval to the new IM to help skip cycle (also have an extra bag of biomedia and a ton of rubble that's been 'cooking' up bacteria in our chambers.

Already budgeting to start new tank with maybe a bit larger colonies than the tiny frags we started with a year ago. We feel really comfortable running a reef...compared to how terrified I was when we started this last year.

New tank is going to be dad's pick - this tank had an entire plan and livestock selection by my now 10 year old.

 

[emmysnewtank]

Fighting Dino's slowly but surely. Had been nearly 0 phos, and been dosing neophos to try and bring it up, plus running a cheap 5w UV in my rear chamber. dosing some live Phyto and added pods too..not sure if that helped? Running low blue light only as well...

Been trying to manually remove what I can very day, letting algae grow on glass and in tank to hopefully outcompete...and Dinos seem to slowly be receding, or at least not getting any worse.

some corals don't seem bothered, but my elegance and torch aren't super happy.

any other suggestions?

 

[emmysnewtank]

Dino's gone as of Thanksgiving. Water looking clear and corals all inflating and happy. I think they needed some Phos, so the neophos dosing worked wonders getting rid of Dinos and making corals happy I would guess.

 

[emmysnewtank]

New Mandarin in the tank...feasting on pods already. Going to have to keep adding more pods from our cultures, but hopefully its already well seeded.

Some new corals in rack too.

Please excuse the cord mess in back. playing around with setup back there...