Ok, here goes...
So I started out with a stock Fluval Evo 13.5, one 20lbs bag of carribsea gravel / sand, about 12 lbs of dry live rock (2 pieces) and filled it with Pacific Ocean Water. I added some filter bacteria to accelerate the cycle which seemed to go pretty well.
I did purchase the recommended Fluval heater, wave maker (CP1) and mini protein skimmer (PS2) - I didn't use the PS2 after reading a lot of other build threads that indicated it was not necessary and would be better to use the space for a media basket.
It was pretty stable like that for a few weeks and parameters looked good so LFS provided me with a pair of clowns and a rock flower anemone (because I'm impatient, did I mention that already?). Note that the clowns are not identical size, the bigger one bullies the smaller one, I actually caught the bigger one with the smaller one locked in it's jaws earlier this afternoon - that's a thread for another day.
Things continued going well so about a month later I added a small piece of Hammerhead and Birdsnest corals (yeah, the LFS saw me coming...)
The Birdsnest came with some free algae which quickly took root in my tank - I will definitely have a thread about that later, still fighting it.
I have a small CUC consisting of 1x Astrea, 1x Margarita and 1x Green Emerald Crab - when the algae is bad, they cannot keep up and I'm not overly impressed with the snails, they seem to generate so much mess of their own! - another future thread.
I also added a three head piece of neon yellow candy cane coral which is beautiful under the blue light.
In terms of mods to the tank, over the months I have;
Biggest challenge now is keeping the (free) algae under control and my newly discovered green algae on the rocks and glass which I only found when I switched on the white lights (it was invisible under the blue lights).
More to come...
So I started out with a stock Fluval Evo 13.5, one 20lbs bag of carribsea gravel / sand, about 12 lbs of dry live rock (2 pieces) and filled it with Pacific Ocean Water. I added some filter bacteria to accelerate the cycle which seemed to go pretty well.
I did purchase the recommended Fluval heater, wave maker (CP1) and mini protein skimmer (PS2) - I didn't use the PS2 after reading a lot of other build threads that indicated it was not necessary and would be better to use the space for a media basket.
It was pretty stable like that for a few weeks and parameters looked good so LFS provided me with a pair of clowns and a rock flower anemone (because I'm impatient, did I mention that already?). Note that the clowns are not identical size, the bigger one bullies the smaller one, I actually caught the bigger one with the smaller one locked in it's jaws earlier this afternoon - that's a thread for another day.
Things continued going well so about a month later I added a small piece of Hammerhead and Birdsnest corals (yeah, the LFS saw me coming...)
The Birdsnest came with some free algae which quickly took root in my tank - I will definitely have a thread about that later, still fighting it.
I have a small CUC consisting of 1x Astrea, 1x Margarita and 1x Green Emerald Crab - when the algae is bad, they cannot keep up and I'm not overly impressed with the snails, they seem to generate so much mess of their own! - another future thread.
I also added a three head piece of neon yellow candy cane coral which is beautiful under the blue light.
In terms of mods to the tank, over the months I have;
- Added custom media baskets to chamber 1 & 2 - I'll post a thread later, pretty happy with how these worked out.
- Upgraded the stock return pump to a Tunze 1073.008
- Upgraded the stock light to an AI Prime 16HD Reef
- Added a BRS mesh tank topper
- Added a random flow generator
- Removed the CP1 (because the flow from the new pump and RFG seems to be good)
Biggest challenge now is keeping the (free) algae under control and my newly discovered green algae on the rocks and glass which I only found when I switched on the white lights (it was invisible under the blue lights).
More to come...