Looking for advice on my 5 month old 13.5 Evo. (warning LOTs of information)

[Sharkbait19]

New scape looks really good!
For a simple hardy fish you could try a firefish, just cover all openings. Mine got really got personable when it was on its own.

 

[DannoOMG]

New scape looks really good!
For a simple hardy fish you could try a firefish, just cover all openings. Mine got really got personable when it was on its own.

I am still waiting to hear back from my test results. Someone recommended I send some samples to this place....

AquaBiomics

Microbiome testing for aquariums and aquaculture

aquabiomics.com

Regardless if they give my tank a clean bill of health from fish disease, I am putting my foot down and going to wait 1 year until I get a firefish. I want a grown in tank before I add another fish. Trust me it is tempting cause they had some purple firefish at the local store.

*edit* Plus I am excited to see some fat pods crawling around my glass. I want those guys to take over the tank!

 

[Sharkbait19]

Over a year just about no disease will survive. No need to send anything out for confirmation.

 

[emmysnewtank]

Seems like you maybe tinker too much? I have same tank and just dropped the in tank media basket in chamber 1 w floss on top to catch detritus, carbon and chemipure below, biomedia in chamber 2 and called it a day.

growing a bunch of lps w a pair of clowns, goby, shrimp and a solid cuc and it’s pretty maintenance free. Change floss pad 2x week, like a tiny water change weekly and monthly swap of carbon.

I barely test as everyone looks healthy

 

[DannoOMG]

Right now I have the carbon out and the denitrate out of my filtration. I just have my little refugium running (doesn't look like it is successfully running as my cheato has shrunk). The small refugium light I got had good reviews and said it was enough to grow their chaeto. Maybe I got lied too. I use filter floss and change it weekly and run the skimmer. Doing my weekly water changes. I just did a 50% water change today.

You are probably right that I tinker too much. I might be trying to hard to make my tank perfect.

 

[emmysnewtank]

Maybe just pick a filtration plan and let it go for a while... I just copied what a lot of more experienced people went with on the EVO (check nano-reef boards - there is a huge thread of EVO owners talking about what works). Seems like most people also don't bother with the skimmer on this tank...which is why they (and i) go with the media basket in chamber 1 with the floss to catch most of the physical waste right away.

I've got a little bit of algae growing right now, but its probably because we feed really heavy. I dosed reef roids for first time the other day and I'm thinking it led to a bit of an explosion. we just overfeed all around... but ill just manually remove what I can and let the cuc try and do the rest of the work.

regardless I think just pick a plan and stick to it and see if it eventually levels out. every time I mess with my program the tank freaks out for a few days, so now I'm just trying to let it run and try and be a bit patient (nearly impossible but I try).

 

[iamahab]

Perhaps you may also want to do more water changes to compete with your feedings. I currently do 3 gallon water changes weekly, which does sound like a lot, but it keeps nutrients down and algae from taking over.

I've been doing bigger water changes( 4 to 5 gallons) weekly the day after I use brine shrimp/reef roids to spot feed my corals and it's helping keep the algae in my tank at bay. I am also using a hob refugium (finnex) that has worked wonders

 

[emmysnewtank]

I've been doing bigger water changes( 4 to 5 gallons) weekly the day after I use brine shrimp/reef roids to spot feed my corals and it's helping keep the algae in my tank at bay. I am also using a hob refugium (finnex) that has worked wonders

I might try that...I really want to use the RR to boost my frag growth...but it seems to lead to algae bloom.

 

[DannoOMG]

Just a small update on that refugium light I got.

JBJ NANO GLO - LED Refugium Light

Turn your NANO Cube into an “In-Tank” Refugium. The NANO-GLO LED Refugium Light boasts four high-intensity LED’s that evenly distribute light for macro algae and aid in the removal of unwanted phosphates and nitrates. Innovative design utilizes a magent that allows for easy attachment and...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

^^^ This one.

I noticed my Chaeto doesn't look to hot and I figured that maybe the light I was using on it wasn't intense enough. I realized I could try my old Display tank light which has more power than the one I got. 25000k vs. 6500k.

Grabbed some gorilla tape (for now) and stuck it right behind the tank and hope it saves the chaeto. It looks fairly melted and I don't know if it is beyond saving.

(box for the light)

I have all White, Blue, Cyan, Violet and Pink maxed at 100%. Hope it turns things around.

 

[iamahab]

Just a small update on that refugium light I got.

JBJ NANO GLO - LED Refugium Light

Turn your NANO Cube into an “In-Tank” Refugium. The NANO-GLO LED Refugium Light boasts four high-intensity LED’s that evenly distribute light for macro algae and aid in the removal of unwanted phosphates and nitrates. Innovative design utilizes a magent that allows for easy attachment and...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

^^^ This one.

I noticed my Chaeto doesn't look to hot and I figured that maybe the light I was using on it wasn't intense enough. I realized I could try my old Display tank light which has more power than the one I got. 25000k vs. 6500k.

Grabbed some gorilla tape (for now) and stuck it right behind the tank and hope it saves the chaeto. It looks fairly melted and I don't know if it is beyond saving.

(box for the light)

I have all White, Blue, Cyan, Violet and Pink maxed at 100%. Hope it turns things around.

I'm currently using the jbj to light the cheato I have in my pump chamber on my waterbox 15. I also have the fluval light but I'm not using it for anything. Thanks for the idea

 

[DannoOMG]

I'm currently using the jbj to light the cheato I have in my pump chamber on my waterbox 15. I also have the fluval light but I'm not using it for anything. Thanks for the idea

I don't know if I am stupid but I am having trouble programing the Marine nano to go on an opposite time schedule. I have to play with it more I think but so far I think it won't let me have it start at 7 PM and end at 4 AM. I must be dumb.

 

[iamahab]

I don't know if I am stupid but I am having trouble programing the Marine nano to go on an opposite time schedule. I have to play with it more I think but so far I think it won't let me have it start at 7 PM and end at 4 AM. I must be dumb.

That's how I feel when I try to change the program on my kessil light.

 

[DannoOMG]

I have said good bye to the skimmer after use for 1 year. It doesn't pull a lot from the water and what it misses I find it gets stuck in the back filtration area. So I went for a chamber one media basket as a replacement. Floss in the top part, sponges in the second part and chaeto in the 3rd part. (ignore the denitrate bag in the pic, I put that in the second chamber). Obviously I plugged up the little hole on the back wall of the Evo. Once I sucked out as much crap from the back filtration area as possible I added this to my set up.

I put this in 12/30. It took only 4 days for the floss on the top to turn brown. Threw it out and replaced it. My goal is to stop as much crap from settling in the filtration section as possible.

I got a new batch of chaeto. I was able to figure out how to use my Marine Nano 3.0 on it's "Auto" mode. You have to turn the "sleep" part off and then you can use whatever times you want.

I used some 3M "velcro like" stuff to mount the light over the chaeto.

My Nitrates and phosphates were 0 as of this morning but I think that might have a lot to do with the two water changes I did this week. Probably has nothing to do with the chaeto I added 12/31.

Hopefully the chaeto works this time around and in a couple weeks if my nutrients are ultra low I can weaken the GHA and siphon it out.

 

[DannoOMG]

I took advantage of a WWC sale....

^^^ Awesome colors. 40% off I couldn't resist.

Here are the 2 risky ones. I think I have got my tank parameters stable now and I have more than enough flow and lighting for them... I don't think I am going to kill them. It's not like I got Acro's. I'm not that crazy...

 

[DannoOMG]

My tanks DNA report is back. I was told it was kind of worthless to do but whatever... have a laugh. It's late and I will read it later. No idea what it means.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Look like your tank has a good bacteria population!
And no diseases!
I couldn’t tell you the specifics for each species and what it does though, but everything is close to what the averages are according to the report.

 

[DannoOMG]

Took a small risk. Since my tank was "cleared of disease" I decided to get a basic little clownfish. The tank is depressing without a fish.

Not sure if he likes the tank or not. He has only been in it for a day. He definitely is not eating the food I give him. Frozen brine and mysis. He eats it but then spits it back out. I did see him mess with some pods on the walls. (I have a lot of pods crawling all over the place)

Hopefully he settles in cause I am not the most confident person when it comes to fish right now.

 

[Luke B]

Took a small risk. Since my tank was "cleared of disease" I decided to get a basic little clownfish. The tank is depressing without a fish.

Not sure if he likes the tank or not. He has only been in it for a day. He definitely is not eating the food I give him. Frozen brine and mysis. He eats it but then spits it back out. I did see him mess with some pods on the walls. (I have a lot of pods crawling all over the place)

Hopefully he settles in cause I am not the most confident person when it comes to fish right now.

Your tank is looking really good! Love all the zoas

Give the clown some time, she’ll settle in nicely. Mine took over a week before it first ate, now she’s fat and happy as ever a year later

 

[DannoOMG]

Your tank is looking really good! Love all the zoas

Give the clown some time, she’ll settle in nicely. Mine took over a week before it first ate, now she’s fat and happy as ever a year later

I have watched him/her pick at pods off the glass. I don't see as many this afternoon like I saw this morning. Must of taken a bunch of them out.

So the fish clearly has an appetite.

 

[Sharkbait19]

It will get eating soon. Many fish refuse food after being moved.
Did you do any qt or get a qt’ed fish?