Jump into the deep end. I'll learn to swim. Fluval 13.5

[Someshmuk]

Now that my tank is stable, I feel comfortable making a build diary without fear of the whole thing exploding.

Just about 4 months ago, I found myself in a fish store staring at rimless tanks contemplating life decisions. Not sure if I wanted to make the plunge.

I joined my roommate in looking for some critters and plants for his 10 gallon FW. I wanted to get a tank and well... Our mutual friend convinced me to get a saltwater instead of a freshwater because it has more variety.

They got me started with a fluval 13.5, saltwater, turbostart, sand, rocks and 2 damselfish. (would do it over with ammonia dosing but I didn't know better)

Tank shot 2020/01/27

2020/01/03

 

[Someshmuk]

Needless to say, there were a lot of things learned within the first month. The damselfish fought each other for some prime real estate (a small cave in the rock) and I took them back after things got real nasty. I ended up getting this beauty as the starter coral when the lfs cleared the tank as cycled within 2-3 weeks. (tbh it took way longer then that)

But regardless I was proud of my little Kenya tree. He seemed happy and I wanted to add more coral.

 

[Someshmuk]

And that's where I realized... This hobby is way more complicated then initially thought. Sure I knew that it was hard but there are thousands of posts, anecdotal evidence, research papers, hardware, testing regiments, the works... Overwhelming to some, but I caught the bug and couldn't stop... There was work to do.

I knew there were three things I needed to resolve. Nutrient control, water evaporation, and element removal from coral growth.

For nutrient control

The first chamber was used for a makeshift refugium with a innovative marine refugium light and a plastic sheet to reduce flow into the middle and lower chambers of chamber two as well as limit the macro algae from attaching to any filtration in chamber two. I used to use Caulerpa taxifolia as my nutrient reduction but have since replaced it with Caulerpa lentillifera.

An intank chamber two media box was installed and consists of poly fill pads, the fluval bio media, purigen, and carbon on the to. The little insert is slightly smaller then the hole and does not stay in the hole. Easily fixed with coral epoxy.

 

[Someshmuk]

An auto aqua micro smart ATO was installed to manage evaporation. The sensor has to be installed into chamber one due to the reductions of water level in chamber 3 due to the filter media clogging up and I am contemplating longer term solutions then to rinse out the polyfil.

I got a GHL doser 2 from a fellow who happens to be on here and after going through the troubleshooting steps it's finally working! It is currently dosing 1ml tech cb part b to compensate for alkalinity usage and 1ml white vinegar for nitrate control.

The plan is to upgrade the doser to have 4 dosing pumps and start dosing other solutions.

 

[Someshmuk]

In regards to lighting.

The original setup was not the color nor had the power and flexibility to complete my goal of growing coral so I got myself an AI Prime 16hd.

Although I'm unable to correctly measure PAR, I am able to measure Lux with a phone. One of the issues when using a phone is that at higher lumens, the phone shuts off measurements and results in inconsistent results.

And from a discussion I found in R2R, the calculation is as follows. Par=lux/60.

At about 1-2 inches from the original light. The lux is roughly 18k lx which is about 300 par. Considering that this tank is a little deeper then a foot, I would assume the bottom of the tank is not receiving enough light.

Whereas at 3-5% power, the ai prime is outputting about 12k lux or 200 par.

Currently the lights are at about 8 inches from the top and running at 11W max with the below schedule.

 

[Someshmuk]

In regards to testing.

I heard/read that the best thing you can do is test consistently, accurately, and validate your results with different metrics.

I started out with API test kits and for the most part, they are sufficient for basic aquarist testing. The immediate shortcoming from API test kits is that the testing procedure is cumbersome for all add/shake/check procedures. To with you should change test kits to something more consistent.

I got the hanna ALK and calcium testers and found that the ALK tester is precise. I can't speak for its accuracy but it will get me ~.1 dKH on repeat testing.

The Hanna calcium tester has wide variance of results due to the sample size being so small. You are measuring .1ml of tank water on 10ml of rodi water. The only way I got this thing to measure within range was following the steps from another form. The steps are as follows.

1. Add 1 ml of liquid reagent
2. Add 8 ml of RODI water
3. Shake and measure for C1
4. Add 10 ml RODI water to other cuvette.
5. Add 1 ml tank water to other cuvette.
6. Shake other cuvette and add 1.1 ml of tank+RODI water mix to test cuvette.
7. Add reagent powder/shake/rest and measure for results.

Nitrates are tested on two kits, salifert and red sea. Both have concluded that my nitrates sit around 20-40 ppm hence the vinegar dosing.

Since I'm primarily softies and LPS, I'm measuring calcium and magnesium once a month if I'm curious. Usually water changes will assist in managing those systems.

 

[JoshO]

Really detailed insight, thanks for sharing! I'm starting my own Evo 13.5 very soon so it's great to see what others have done already! There's a thread called "show your Fluval Evo 13.5” that has loads of advice and ideas, well worth a read!