Nano rehab, 13.5 fluval evo

[legate_gigas]

Hello all,

I’m very new here and wanted to share my experience and get some opinions on direction.

I have had my fluval evo 13.5 set up since 2021. I had stocked it with a green toadstool, a Duncan than I loved, chalice, Xenia and some zoas. The tank ran for a long time on water changes and chaeto chamber in the back. No upgrades were made to the tank in the first year or so. Fish I bought were two frostbite clownfish.

I had some mishaps with aiptasia spreading and nuking my tank, then a full tank of bubble algae. I had some large green toadstool corals that split a ton in between the two major problems. I lost one of my frostbite clownfish after the aiptasia and I’ve had just the one in there since. I used berghia nudibranchs to remove my aiptasia then manual labor to remove bubble algae. I don’t see any signs of micro fauna in my tank anymore. All bristleworms and pods are gone. I have some tube worms that stick out tentacles in the evening. Also one big vermitid snail that I keep as an oddity. There’s nothing for it to hurt in there now.

My current issue is hair algae and coral growth. I recently bought an emerald crab I don’t know where it went. I have two hermits, one blue leg the other a left handed. I have a small patch of Xenia and a newer frag of gsp and a mushroom who is none too happy right now. I became very depressed when the back to back problems happened and now have recently decided to move forward again and have better practices from now on.

I’ve started to do more large water changes recently but found out my rodi unit is failing. I find about 20ppm coming out when I filter water. I know this is partially contributing to some of my problems I just can’t afford a new filter for a couple months. I had at one time had my light die and had to buy another and chose the fluval marine led programmable light. I felt like the light never did do too well to light the tank and recently purchased a noo-psyche k7 pro. I like this light a lot and only run it at 25% peak and have it do “clouds” throughout the day. I also purchased a new hygger gyre style powerhead and love the wave action it gives the tank.

I haven’t seriously tested my tank ever and only in the last year started using multi-type stick tests to get a general outline. I also obsessed over testing in the past but could never afford the better tests. So I used reef master kits from pet smart. I don’t want to make myself sick testing again. I used carbon in the first chamber with one of those inserts from online. I use filter floss to remove debris and change that every other day. Auto top off works fine but I had a small problem with the tube getting in the tank water and back siphoning saltwater into the reservoir. I washed the whole unit after that.

I guess what I need help with is what should my routine be more like if I have those ppm in my water and the lack of funds to buy test kits? I don’t want to do sticks in my tank I’m mostly wanting to do LPS like frogspawn and hammers but I haven’t seen my corals grow in a long time. The mushroom coral recently detached and is resting on some rock I hope it attaches to.

I put some pictures up, they won’t be in order. I am trying my hand at a DIY algae scrubber for the chamber after my chaeto died out. I placed roughed up white plastic in the middle chamber with my algae light on. I hope some hair algae attaches and since that light is on 24hours that it will grow in there instead of my display.

Let me know your thoughts on any rectifications I need to make. I wish I could even afford two turbo snails to help us how low my funds are for this haha!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Getting more flow was a good idea. Do you use rodi water or distilled water or tap? Should not be using tap. Are you doing regular weekly water changes?

You did not need that master kit, in fact API is not very good. You should get a salifert test kit for nitrate and phosphate, these are the 2 you need to measure when you have algae issue.

How much do you feed? That one clown should eat 6-7 pieces of food twice per day, uneaten food raises the dissolved organics level and this is what feeds algae. You should be changing out the filter pad every few days, or else it just holds rotting food, feeding the algae.

Need more snails.

Try to agitate the water surface more to create more gas exchange to put more oxygen in the water. The fish is up at the top in all your pics, clowns rarely swim at the water surface.... Algae also consumes oxygen at night and releases more carbon dioxide at night, further lowering the oxygen level

The tank actually looks good except for the algae, it will look great once you get it back under control. Just my 2 cents, good luck

 

[legate_gigas]

Getting more flow was a good idea. Do you use rodi water or distilled water or tap? Should not be using tap. Are you doing regular weekly water changes?

You did not need that master kit, in fact API is not very good. You should get a salifert test kit for nitrate and phosphate, these are the 2 you need to measure when you have algae issue.

How much do you feed? That one clown should eat 6-7 pieces of food twice per day, uneaten food raises the dissolved organics level and this is what feeds algae. You should be changing out the filter pad every few days, or else it just holds rotting food, feeding the algae.

Need more snails.

Try to agitate the water surface more to create more gas exchange to put more oxygen in the water. The fish is up at the top in all your pics, clowns rarely swim at the water surface.... Algae also consumes oxygen at night and releases more carbon dioxide at night, further lowering the oxygen level

The tank actually looks good except for the algae, it will look great once you get it back under control. Just my 2 cents, good luck

Thank you for your help and feedback.

i hope I answer all your questions. I make rodi water at home and do water changes almost weekly but if I miss I do a double change at one time. I usually change 2.5 gallons a week but do a full 5 if I miss and I change asap, I don’t push it to the next change.

I feed once a day pellets for the clown, it doesn’t like anything else. I’ve tried all foods and even home made foods and it doesn’t like any of it. Just those dang marine pellets. I like to feed a little more than 10 pellets at a time. The hermits love them too. I do have a good amount of surface agitation, the clown just likes to host that corner. This clown was the non dominant and it’s mate died.

 

[legate_gigas]

I got some phosphate remover pellets and two turbo snails this is the progress they’ve made. The hair algae got long and then turned white with the phosphate remover then I got the snails and they’ve done wonders.

 

[legate_gigas]

My emerald crab died of starvation I think. I got a couple turbo snails and some AFR and have been doing micro dosing of that. 1/2 teaspoon every week or so. Most of the algae died off and the corals are looking better. Since I’ve gone to a mesh top my clownfish has dug under the edge of a rock and lives under there. Updated photos!

I just have to save up for new corals now!

 

[legate_gigas]

Also want to ask anyone is this light schedule looks good for my k7 pro 3? I don’t know much about led lighting and could use some help please.

 

[legate_gigas]

Well my clownfish died. I found it today laying on the substrate. It had clear eyes and I don’t know what happened. I don’t have a reliable tester so I’m unaware of any chemical changes that could have caused it. I did switch foods but I’ve seen the clownfish eat the pe mysis. Now I’ll be looking at fish. If there’s anyone in Denver area with a nano fish they need to rehome let me know!

 

[legate_gigas]

Hey if any admins can help me answer my question that would be great. Why is my thread not getting any attention? Is it because no one knows me? I feel absolutely alone in this community. I posted my last update in August and no replies or views. Any help would be appreciated but at this point this place just makes me depressed.

 

[legate_gigas]

Because no one is even looking then I don’t feel bad. New tank pic

 

[BobcatTracker1]

I don’t have a great idea what might have killed your clownfish. What are the temperature and salinity?

Without testing your parameters, you’re missing vital info that could help you address problems and even get ahead of issues in the future.

 

[NC AL]

I am no expert, but I would like to offer this advice for a plan forward. My oldest son has that same tank. He also struggled with algae to the point he didn’t want his tank any more. I am a fan of bare-bottom tanks. Originally he had no interest in that for his tank. Before he threw in the towel I asked him to try it. He agreed. Here is his tank roughly a year later. Sandbeds can be great, but they can also be detritus traps. In MY OPINION, in a nano tank the benefits of a sandbed are negligible compared to the benefits of a bare bottom.

Bare-bottom tanks aren't a quick fix, but they drastically help to reduce nutrients. This in turn reduces algae. My son also has a 20g tank that is bare-bottom going on two years.

Here is my recommendation:
Get several buckets if you don’t already have them. Fill one bucket with tank water and put your rock and biologically media in it. Fill the other bucket with water and put your fish, hermits, snails etc. after this remove all substrate and throughly clean out the back chambers. You might be surprised how much is in there. Once everything is clean fill the empty tank half way with new water. Next scrub each rock with a clean toothbrush manually removing as much algae as you can and then place it back in the tank. Put the biological media back in the chambers and fill the remaining tank with the cleanest of the old water (fish bucket). Put back in the livestock.

Get a “turkey baster” tool with a right angle adapter. Each week after a regular cleaning blow off the rocks and underneath them. Then siphon out all of the detritus with a 10% water change. This is what my sons do.

With the bare bottom I would have the wave maker pump point towards the bottom of the tank.

It won’t be perfect overnight, but you will see improvement quickly!

 

[steveschuerger]

I am no expert, but I would like to offer this advice for a plan forward. My oldest son has that same tank. He also struggled with algae to the point he didn’t want his tank any more. I am a fan of bare-bottom tanks. Originally he had no interest in that for his tank. Before he threw in the towel I asked him to try it. He agreed. Here is his tank roughly a year later. Sandbeds can be great, but they can also be detritus traps. In MY OPINION, in a nano tank the benefits of a sandbed are negligible compared to the benefits of a bare bottom.

Bare-bottom tanks aren't a quick fix, but they drastically help to reduce nutrients. This in turn reduces algae. My son also has a 20g tank that is bare-bottom going on two years.

Here is my recommendation:
Get several buckets if you don’t already have them. Fill one bucket with tank water and put your rock and biologically media in it. Fill the other bucket with water and put your fish, hermits, snails etc. after this remove all substrate and throughly clean out the back chambers. You might be surprised how much is in there. Once everything is clean fill the empty tank half way with new water. Next scrub each rock with a clean toothbrush manually removing as much algae as you can and then place it back in the tank. Put the biological media back in the chambers and fill the remaining tank with the cleanest of the old water (fish bucket). Put back in the livestock.

Get a “turkey baster” tool with a right angle adapter. Each week after a regular cleaning blow off the rocks and underneath them. Then siphon out all of the detritus with a 10% water change. This is what my sons do.

With the bare bottom I would have the wave maker pump point towards the bottom of the tank.

It won’t be perfect overnight, but you will see improvement quickly!

I’m thinking of doing a restart on the hobby now that I’m more settled and space allows for nano sized. I love sand bottoms but I agree on the detritus and might just try this approach as a 20 long I had set up became a mess far faster than the larger tank I had.

 

[legate_gigas]

Thanks for the advice everyone! The tank has turned for the better now. I got the aiptasia killed, the bubble algae is gone indication snails and an angel fish the long algae stays short. Here’s some recent pics. Also my corals have tripled in size in the last month thanks to the feeding of the new fish.

I stir the sand bed when I do water changes and use filter floss to catch it all and remove it. I need to get some more detritus eaters for the sand bed. I’ve always wanted sand sifting stars but I can never find them locally in denver. I’d love to get some tiny brittle stars and nassarius snails.