My Fluval 13.5 | Past 3 Years + Post-Beryl Arc

Mickle

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Ive been wanting to make one of these for awhile so I thought I'd start by showing my tank's progress of the last scape it had and then Ill start making updates on how it is currently.


This was when I first made this scape
October 20th, 2021
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October 25th 2021, once everything settled
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February 16, 2022
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June 7th, 2022
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January 7th, 2023
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and so Hurricane Beryl hit, I overestimated the hardiness of the corals and inhabitants, it is ultimately my fault I lost so much. I lost the Toadstool Coral I had since I first started this hobby along with 5 out of 6 RBTA that started as 1 in the beginning of this scape. Of course I lost all fish inhabitants except for my YWG
July 17th 2024
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Im looking at this in a positive light (kind of). I didnt like the scape, I was limited on what I could make since I had to work around the Toadstool. The rock structure was also too high up and provided no swimming room. My new scape is much more open and is going to be a macroalgae/soft coral, nano pred focused c :

Here it is day 1. I was able to save some Green Rhodactis Mushroom, 2 Toadstool frags from its crown, my Palythoa colony, AND surprisingly a RBTA survived. Half of it had melted but I gave it time and now its healed. Im happy I didnt fully lose the RBTAs, we paid $250 for the original .-. Mexican Turbo snail and Yellow Watchman goby survived, though my overall biodiversity took a hit, I think I lost all my micro brittle stars.

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The RBTA that survived melting vvv
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July 21st 2024 update: I added 2 Red legged Hermits, 2 Blue legged hermits and caulerpa taxifolia
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July 31st 2024 UPDATE: I removed the barnacle cluster, it didnt look natural and limited real estate. I also removed the oyster cluster on the left, I scraped the green rhodactis off. I trimmed off all original leaves of the caulerpa as it had grown brown hair algae. I added a Purple Star Polyp frag, Green Star Polyp frag (probably going to die) and a small Pulsing Xenia frag
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August 2nd 2024, I added Caulerpa chemnitzia(?) and a Yellowspotted Scorpionfish. I havent decided on the permanent placement for the macroalgaes, I dont like the taxifolia growing in the middle sand. If you have any recommendations on placement lemme know
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The Yellowspotted Scorpionfish - Day 1 vvv
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phillyb614

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Way to stay positive! You found a silver lining in something that would have been really defeating for most people.
 

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