My dream tank - Evo 13.5 and the exploits of a fishaholic

Narideth

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Hello all, I'm new to the forums and thought that it might be fun to document the maturation and progress of my new 13.5 Evo.

This is my second saltwater tank, and my who knows how many fish tank in general. I was a big freshwater hobbyist before my husband convinced me to start a small saltwater tank and bribed me with the purchase of the tank itself on a BlackFriday deal a year ago. Safe to say, I'm hooked. I went through the normal ups and downs of a first tank, but I'm a researching fanatic, so my website history was filled with an endless array of how to's, size recommendations for critters, compatibility etc. The first tank came under the only real problem to hit it, a massive algae growth spike several months ago, and after testing, adjusting, and scratching my head, turns out my LFS was selling me ''RO/DI' water with a TDS of 200+, That tank is still a loving work in progress, but the clowns, royal gramma, CUC and small selection of corals are all doing just fine.

On to the new though! I cut back on my number of overall tanks in the house in order to purchase an evo 13.5 AOI system after many indecisive days of reading reviews and debating how large or small I wanted to go. I enjoy small tanks, and even the first marine cube is only 15 gallons. Even as I'm sitting here writing this, I'm looking at the 3 gallon desktop planted freshwater tank next to my computer and considering if I want to transform it into a pico reef tank, but that's another story. I bought the tank, spent hours leveling it and checking for leaks, and then began my new adventure.

I purchased a small RODI filter for myself after the above incident at the LFS, and have been mixing my own water ever since, so I used dead sand and dry rock with a bottle of bacterial starter to get the tank started initially. Good old day one cloudy water.

Day1.jpg

I didn't go tall with the hardscape, as I wanted to leave plenty of space for upwards growth. I knew I wanted this to be a tank full of Hammer corals, so I designed the rockwork to allow them a perch along the taller left portion that would ideally keep sweepers from hitting anything on the lower right side. There are a few small caves, created specifically for the Blood fire shrimp I knew I was going to get, angled towards the front to encourage him to hang out where I could see. I also left open sand and lots of lower, flat space, for the rock flower anemones I also intended to put into this tank as well as any future islands. So much pre-planning. At this point, I had a single bright red goniopora frag that I knew I wanted to put in this tank - as this tank would be full of color, movement and a higher price point. After some dithering and research, I decided to try and let the frag live in the tank pre-cycle, as I'd had an aptasia scare in the other tank and didn't want to risk transfer. That frag alone resided in the tank for the first week while I checked the shifting measurements and dropped in a large tiger nassarius snail when the ammonia dropped to help keep the cycle going as I began to feed it.

Pic 2.jpg

When I started to see the first signs of algae a couple of weeks in and the cycle had fully completed, I invested in a small CUC - 3 Astrea/turbo snails, 3 blue legged hermit crabs, 3 additional and much tinier nassarius snails. We have life! I also seeded the tank with coralline algae via the nearly covered shell seen in the below picture.

Pic3.jpg

And then the time came, to begin my fish adventure. I knew I wanted these to be a pair of clownfish that really caught my attention and held it. I shopped locally, then turned my efforts to online listings and found my beauty pair.


I had a CUC, I had my fish, now it was time to start adding color. I started with a set of six rock flower anemones. The tank at this point has been stable for a month, set up for two, and all of my research has lead to the belief that rock flowers aren't as sensitive as other anemones, so I got click happy.

poic3.jpg

A random pack served me well. They're happy as little clams and love chowing down on mysis. This order also included what should be a photosynthetic purple ribbon gorgonian. After then, more orders, to include several zoas, several hammers, as well as moving a bright, lovely ricordea florida mushroom and red/green blastomussa from the other tank.

Pic5.jpg Pic6.jpg

Let's talk about upgrades for a moment. This is stock lighting + a blue/white controllable 8 inch LED bar suctioned to the underside of the lid. It's really been doing well. The InTank media box for chamber 1 was a must have - I run it for the moment with a first layer of sponge to do some simple large particle removal that I rinse out every handful of days, and some filter media below. I don't yet have a need for anything more, parameters have been really stable. The Sicce Voyager nano 1000 and an upgraded filter pump plus random flow generator nozzle provide more than enough flow, and I had to do a lot of tweaking in position to get a flow that didn't overwhelm everything. The only automation on this tank is the on/off of the additional light I added, which serves to wake everything up before I turn on more lights.

Lid/light upgrades may come later, but I wanted to see what can be accomplished with stock lighting + a little more. The added bar drops some much-needed blue into the stock whites, I'm considering getting a larger/brighter one, as it's been really effective so far. I've noticeable growth in my zoas and the goniopora is encrusting and growing new heads. Spots of coralline algae are peppered all over the rockwork. I only scrape the front and side glass to make sure there's two sides worth of algae to help feed the snails, do small intermittent water changes, and clean the sponge periodically, especially after a feeding if I saw a lot of food getting sucked into the overflow. I just picked up some reefroids to feed the goniopora and make sure it stays healthy, and I have the system set up in a way that I can turn off everything except the extra light bar with a switch on my surge protector.

That covers everything up until now. I got in the last of the zoas I ordered yesterday but I'm treating them for aptasia in a separated tank so they haven't been placed. Some radioactive dragon eyes, fire and ice, and whammin watermelon to offset all of the reds and oranges in the tank right now. I want to just stuff the thing full, but I'm going to restrain myself and let the tank continue to settle and mature for a bit, see how the lights work out for the LPS in there now. I'd love thoughts on my progress/process so far. Thanks for reading, I'll update as things progress/change.
 

Nano sapiens

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Off to a good start! These little nanos do get full in a hurry and it's a good idea to consider how the various corals will interact when they start encroaching on each other's space and how they might affect flow as they grow out.
 

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This is looking very nice!

I love my Evo have ran the stock light and it has grown coral just fine. However a little more blue might be nice, what LED bar did you add?

Thank you!
 
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Narideth

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Thanks for the replies! I'm hoping to leave upwards space for growth and create a small Euphyllia garden around the top.

I love my Evo have ran the stock light and it has grown coral just fine. However a little more blue might be nice, what LED bar did you add?

The light bar is just a super cheap white/blue bar I got on Amazon. Some random Chinese one.... let me see. It's called a MingDak Submersible LED Aquarium Light and I got the 11 inch one, not the 8 like I mentioned above. There are more powerful ones, but I've had good luck with these in small freshwater aquariums, and I saw a video where someone else added additional blue lights this way. Timer is solid, blue/whites have several settings, really simple. I've never used them fully submerged, but haven't had problems with leaks when they're hanging above/around.
 

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Thanks for the replies! I'm hoping to leave upwards space for growth and create a small Euphyllia garden around the top.



The light bar is just a super cheap white/blue bar I got on Amazon. Some random Chinese one.... let me see. It's called a MingDak Submersible LED Aquarium Light and I got the 11 inch one, not the 8 like I mentioned above. There are more powerful ones, but I've had good luck with these in small freshwater aquariums, and I saw a video where someone else added additional blue lights this way. Timer is solid, blue/whites have several settings, really simple. I've never used them fully submerged, but haven't had problems with leaks when they're hanging above/around.
Thank you!!! That is the only thing I do not like about the light is I like a little more blue, I am going to try this ASAP!
 
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Narideth

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Thank you!!! That is the only thing I do not like about the light is I like a little more blue, I am going to try this ASAP!

It can be subtle with this one, which is why I'm considering something stronger, but I took a little video showing the difference if that helps at all. Starts with the extra blues, then I turned them off to full stock.


I'll sometimes run the full white/blue on the smaller light and do full blues on the stock light instead, so it's a white-tinted blue instead of trying to overcome the whites.
 
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Narideth

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Thank you!!! That is the only thing I do not like about the light is I like a little more blue, I am going to try this ASAP!


Sorry to tag you again, but here's the full white/blue on the additional light with the stock blues, while we're on the subject. Hope it helps!
 

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Thank you! That really does make s difference, I am browsing amazon right now!
 
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Narideth

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Well, I have updates unexpectedly soon, and not of glad tidings. Well, some of glad tidings. The zoas are out of confinement, and the gorgonian has almost finished it's first shed without incident, however my blood fire shrimp has completely disappeared.

I realized it yesterday while I was taking videos that I hadn't seen him in the tank at all. I was in and out of the tank the day before adjusting the flow, and despite knowing where every shrimp-sized hole is in this small tank, I thought maybe he'd managed to squeeze himself in somewhere out of fright, but there's still no sign of him today. I checked around the outside, no shrimp escapees that I could see... I have no idea. There wasn't any movement of rocks that could accidentally crush him or otherwise.

There's nothing in the tank large enough to fully consume a nearly two inch shrimp and leave nothing behind overnight even if he had simply died. I have picture proof of him in the tank from 4 days ago... I'm so baffled, and sad. He was a great shrimp, and really outgoing for what I've heard of blood fire shrimp. I'll wait another day or two to see if he mysteriously reappears, but I'm counting it as a loss.

Fire shrimp.jpg

Goodbye shrimp, you weren't here nearly long enough. Hopefully the mystery will be solved one day.
 
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Narideth

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Updates!

I have been unsatisfied with a few things that were going on in my tank, so I've been taking steps to resolve them. Firstly, the flow just wasn't doing it for me. It was too strong and unvaried, and it was like a tiny whirlpool in the tank even with my efforts to avoid it. So I purchased the Hyger wavemaker, and I am SO thrilled with how it's changed the flow in the tank. The variable setting makes my heart and my tank so happy.


The other biggest upgrade is the first in a two step series. A clear lid.

New Top.jpg New top2.jpg

This is a polycarbonate lid custom cut to fit the Evo, with ventilation holes and additional cutouts for lighting further down the road. For now, it fully supports the stock light with a pair of 3d printed pieces that came with the kit, and this shows off the additional lightbar I've added for extra blue tones that was suctioned to the underside. This cuts heat, evaporation, and reduces the chances of shortout from a faulty light, for a little while at least. While I fully feel that the stock light would support anything I wanted to put in the tank, I will be upgrading to something else a bit later, mostly because I've focused on corals that show their best colors under a blue/uv spectrum and I've seen the difference between this light and the one on my other tank for making corals pop. The height is perfect for when I'm sitting at my desk, I get no glare at all.

Small upgrades! I purchased the dark purple caps for the rear chamber from etsy. 3d printed and each one custom fitted to the Evo. The 3rd chamber has a cutout already set up to accept the amazon gravity fed ATO. I switched out the larger, coarse sponge I was using to catch big particles to the InTank white/blue polishing filter pad. There's some cloudiness in the water, and I think a smaller filter size was needed to help clear it out. I'm already seeing a difference and it just went in today. I got so much that I don't know if I'll ever run out. A few more corals have been added, including this beauty of a hammer, an unexpectedly good deal, as it has two heads just on the last stages of separation. The colors are astounding, and this picture does it NO JUSTICE. I'm going to invest in some orange filters for my camera in the near future so that those greeny heads look appropriately orange/yellow like they do to the eye.

Eternal Flame Hammer.jpg

More to come as things progress! I'd love some input on possible lights that won't break my bank. The AI Prime is a fan favorite, but it's just not in my budget. My current considerations are the Nicrew 30w (I have the 50w and it's a sturdy, solid light so far) The Fluval Sea Marine 3.0 LED, the Fluval SEA Marine Nano LED (Both of these have varied reviews from 'It's great' to 'a lack in real punchy brightness'.) I'm looking at something approx $150 or under, with some flexibility.

Thanks in advance!
 

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Question, how are you feeding the fish during the weekend when you’re not at the office? I kind of want to use my empty evo to have an office tank as well but Friday - Sunday I wouldn’t be at work so I’m curious to see how people feed. Auto feeder? Seems risky
 
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Narideth

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Question, how are you feeding the fish during the weekend when you’re not at the office? I kind of want to use my empty evo to have an office tank as well but Friday - Sunday I wouldn’t be at work so I’m curious to see how people feed. Auto feeder? Seems risky
Oh, I work at home. My 'office' is the back room. Sorry about that!

I can say, I fed the tanks while I was gone for more than a week on vacation with a variety of foods on a mixture of automation and slow-release. It seemed to be fine. I used a barrel feeder with the opening taped mostly shut so that it would release maybe a dozen pellets every 24 hrs. Technically it's underfeeding the tank, but it kept the thing from going out of control, and still kept the fish healthy. I'd think underfeeding for a few days is way better than overfeeding a balanced system.

In the newer tanks and separation chambers that were fishless, I used 'Zoo Med Laboratories Plankton Banquet Block Feeder Mini' - which I chopped up into further smaller pieces as I didn't want to wreck the nutrients in the tanks. While not ideal, I was feeding snails shrimp and hermit crabs, and the tanks they were in were not heavily grown with algae yet so I'd already been supplemental feeding them. There did not seem to be any negative side effects, but take this single experience with a grain of salt. I will be using these methods again in the near future for a handful of days away though, as I was satisfied with the results. Hope that helps!
 
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Narideth

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Apparently one of my rock flower anemones is a little space hog and decided to try and shove out my zoas. It was pleasantly settled into the sand and then decided to go on walkabout. It's the second one to do so but the other one settled near the back of the tank.

anemone2.jpg Anemone1.jpg

This morning two of the zoa polyps looked stressed so the anemone won, and I moved the zoas and it promptly stretched out. You can see the closed zoas looking pretty white, but they seem to be emerging so I think they were just ticked off, not damaged.

anemone3.jpg

What a little diva.
 

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how is this little tank doing? Any updates recently? I saw you said you lost your shrimp on Jan 20th but I spy with my little eye a shrimp in the video from Feb 4th. Replacement or did he come out from hiding after a molt?
 
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Narideth

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Oh so much has happened! I'll need some time to put together an update, but there's ups and downs and loss and hope. As a tidbit for now, I just started dosing phyto for the mixed batch of pods that were introduced.

TO BE CONTINUED.
 
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Narideth

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UPDATE TIME

Well me fellows, it has been a wild, wild ride. I wanted to wait until I had updates before posting again, but then I had too many updates and wanted to wait until I had something positive to end on.

WE'RE THERE.

So, when we left off, I'd had some anemones go walkabout, and the tank pretty much was doing decent at that point. it was good for a while after, little changes here and there. I did lose my fire shrimp, purchased another, and lost that one as well. The tank has been shrimpless since.

I got my hands on some of the coveted utter Chaos zoas, which thrilled me to no end as I've seen them and wanted them for so long. It was a decent frag too, a single full grown head and three smaller ones, a nice little quartet. I added two new rockflower anemones, and some firework cloves to an island that I placed.

All good, all great, but then... I left town for a few days. When I came back, everyone was alive, but this black sludgy stuff had developed on the sand and rocks. I had no idea what it was, asked around, researched and ended up dosing the tank with chemiclean on a possibility that it was some weird cyano because it didn't act like dynos.

ID1.jpg

Four days later the black sludge was gone, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately worse was to come.

I began to see losses. An unhappy rock flower got up and walked around, and then faded into nothing. They're all mostly small, so I wasn't too concerned about the tank taking a dive from it, but then I lost a second rock flower. Then, my lovely sapphire clownfish began to act strangely, which I posted about, just, generally unwell. I couldn't figure it out, all of the parameters were good, but I did emergency water changes just incase. My hammers were also acting unhappy. Around this time, I had an actual dyno outbreak, likely because the chemiclean wiped out the bacterial balance of the tank, and I swore to myself that I would do things the slow and steady way to cure it.

Unfortunately, other problems caused a hitch in that plan. A badly calibrated series of salinity testing equipment was only deduced when I began to question my magnesium because my hammers were so upset. My overall salinity was apparently hovering somewhere around 1.017, and the entire tank was possibly on the brink of collapse. My clownfish died, my lovely Frick and Frack. A monetary loss as much as an emotional one.

I begin to wonder now if the salinity being off is what killed my blood fire shrimp early on. I purchased a TM high precision hydrometer - my rocket to success - and calibrated everything off of that. I purchased pods and began dosing phyto to combat the dynos as well a siphoning them out and stirring up and blowing off the rocks to capture it in the filter. I installed a UV light that ran 24hrs for a week and now runs 12 hrs at night.

Ultimately the dynos are in retreat now. The salinity is where it should be. All of my corals are recovering though my hammers aren't too happy yet. I'm seeing much better extension but there was visible tissue loss around the bases. I don't know if my gorgonian survived, the dynos really loved to clump up on it, but everything else is alive. Five rock flowers, a handful of hermits and snails, my zoas, blasto, acan and gonioporas are all open and fluffy once more.

Now, how about we focus on the good updates. I installed the gravity fed ATO, though it's removed right now while I do water changes to scoop out the dynos.

Glug Jug.jpg

My glug jug works great and I look forward to when I can get it back on.

My Utter Chaos zoas made it without a problem, they have a special reserved spot all to themselves.

My absolute favorite thing to video is my larger piece of goniopora. It's so fluffy. It doesn't have a huge amount of florescence, but each head has a little green mouth that glows and some faintly green hues on the tendrils.





You can see all of the new heads coming up between the larger ones when it's fully extended. That is one happy coral, and it never showed any signs of suffering throughout this entire ordeal. What a trooper.

The tank is currently growing a healthy batch of unslightly algae, and I have some chaeto in isolation while I try to make certain it's clean. I'm wanting to set up a refugium in the second chamber - anyone with experience there, I'd love some input. I have the InTank chamber already.

All of that will happen -after- I'm certain the dynos are gone and everything is back to happiness. Right now, I'm dosing the phyto, feeding the tank a little so it doesn't bottom out, and clearing out the filter/blasting the rocks/siphoning the sand. Despite the losses, I'm optimistic and I've already gotten the tank's next inhabitant - a six line wrasse.

He'll be a lone specimen in the tank until he gets too large for it, and we'll go from there. Right now he's a semi-happy cohabitant in my other tank (In his own isolation box) which somehow was fine throughout all of this, salinity testers being wrong and everything.

I have no idea how.

My final plan, my happy future is to maybe one day house a mandarin goby in this tank - one that is happy eating frozen foods in addition to pods. A refugium might be the first step, but who knows. Wish me luck until the next installment.
 
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Narideth

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Since the last post was a little short on pictures, here's a few recent ones.

One of the new RFAs
Rockflower.jpg

My Utter Chaos. The adult head is the bright one, there are three babies hidden around the edges.
UtterChaos.jpg

This shows some of the corals now, only about a week ago as well as the island I added on the right. I had to baby the firework clove you see on the left for a moment because it became detached from the plug. It's living in a bed of rubble rock until it secures well enough to remove.




And finally a whole-tank pic from about a week ago. You can see my not entirely happy hammers, but they seem to recover a little more each day. Here's to hoping they make full recoveries.

0525PIC.jpg
 

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