Ready to roll - EVO 13.5

[BristolEVO]

Not much new to report other than things are going well. I switched to Nyos salt and corals and fish seem happier. The refugium is growing chaeto nicely. The AI Blade started to malfunction and then eventually croaked. AI was awesome about sending a replacement. Here is a tank pic I took yesterday as the lights were dimming for the night and corals starting to sleep.

 

[BristolEVO]

Time for an update! The tank has been doing decent other than an ongoing GHA battle. Phosphates have been at or very close to zero and nitrites around 12. Whites turned way down.
Added a yellow tail blue damsel who has taken an interest in zooming at the clowns once in a while especially when it's getting closer to feeding time. Latest addition is a Court Jester Goby to help with the GHA. He's from Biota and is small maybe one inch. I need to add more blue leg hermits and some snails.

The GHA started getting out of hand smothering corals so I've removed the chaeto and dosed FluxRx. Five days in now and not seeing any changes yet but I know it can take a couple weeks. Fish and corals are unaffected. Hope it works!!

I'm noticing my AI Axis 40 is acting up now. After feed mode time is complete, or a change in the programmed pump speed it will stop altogether. Annoying because it's stopped a few times and I didn't notice for like 12+ hours. Reboots via the app or unplugging it usually gets it going again. I'll have to let AI know...

 

[reef2rizk]

Do you mind sharing your AI blade settings?

 

[BristolEVO]

Do you mind sharing your AI blade settings?

Sure! The settings I'm running g are off the AI Signature site. I downloaded them all but settled on the Tony Roger's one. The Blade doesn't have all the colors in the setting but it'll use what the Blade can do. I've had best luck with it. During ugly phase I modified the whites to near zero to help. Here is the link and you'll be able to get to all the other downloadables from there:

https://www.aquaillumination.com/signature_series/tony_rogers
For a while I had like 1% bright blue overnight to simulate moon but I don't bother now.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask anything else.

 

[BristolEVO]

Time for an long overdue update! Apologies for the delay, life comes at you fast sometimes.

Best news is i crossed the 6 month mark and my params are finally settling down. Next best news is I finally caught that dang yellow tail damsel that was hassling the juvenile clowns and returned his butt to the LFS. Yay! New fish Court Jester Goby i got from Biota. He's cool! Creates small Burrows under rocks but nearly as much as a diamond goby. He eats GHA too!

I have a waterproof power strip that is awful. If you jiggle or bump a cord it disconnects power. Found my heater was off for I'm guessing well over 2 weeks and I didn't know. Water was 68F. Ugh!! One coral died, another looks sad, but otherwise everything was fine. Nothing really tipped me off to the cold temp. Just got an external temp display so I can see it every day.

The middle section chaeto refugium never worked well and probably made things worse so to make use of the light I made a DIY algae scrubber which is growing stuff great! And since then phosphates and nitrates have been so much more stable and better.

Not much else to report other than I'm happy the tank is aging and developing. Not going to touch it for a while!

 

[reef2rizk]

Sure! The settings I'm running g are off the AI Signature site. I downloaded them all but settled on the Tony Roger's one. The Blade doesn't have all the colors in the setting but it'll use what the Blade can do. I've had best luck with it. During ugly phase I modified the whites to near zero to help. Here is the link and you'll be able to get to all the other downloadables from there:

https://www.aquaillumination.com/signature_series/tony_rogers
For a while I had like 1% bright blue overnight to simulate moon but I don't bother now.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask anything else.

I just tried that setting and it seems to be too strong for a tank this small. I assume you tweaked the default setting in the file. I will be adding new corals very soon and want to be more prepared for it . Could you please share the peak light setting as well?

 

[BristolEVO]

I just tried that setting and it seems to be too strong for a tank this small. I assume you tweaked the default setting in the file. I will be adding new corals very soon and want to be more prepared for it . Could you please share the peak light setting as well?

I'm using it as it came, no tweaks. Other than reducing the whites to help with algae a couple months ago. Here is a screenshot of the levels at the peak. Hope that helps!

 

[BristolEVO]

Finally! After months of cold shoulder my female ocellarus has bonded with the nem! She's literally ditched the male who looks sad but hopefully they will get it together soon. Might grab another nem for the male.to have options.

 

[melissalynne005]

I haven't posted an update here in a while!

After the tank issue where all the fish died I let it sit for a few weeks. Stopped all dosing and water changes. Added fresh carbon and ran an air stone once in a while. It took quite a while but the water eventually cleared up. A 20% water change and all params looked good so I added two little ocellarus clowns. GHA and dinos on the sand had been increasing so I also added a couple emerald crabs and a few more little blue leg hermits.

As of today things are looking much better. Clowns are happy and the cuc is doing a great job on the GHA. In a week or two I'll add another diamond goby to keep the sand clean, and they are fun to watch! Corals have been fine all along. I will post some updated pics later. :)

Oh! I almost forgot, I added a refuguim to chamber #2. Chaeto in the chamber 2 basket and an Innovative Marine ChaetoMax light stuck to the outside glass. I scraped off the honeycomb where the light shines through and have it on a timer opposite the display light (overnight).

Does the light grow the chaeto too fast? How many hours a day to you have to leave it on?

 

[BristolEVO]

Does the light grow the chaeto too fast? How many hours a day to you have to leave it on?

No it grows the chaeto at an average rate. I've actually reconfigured it into an algae scrubber which is working pretty good.

 

[BristolEVO]

Does the light grow the chaeto too fast? How many hours a day to you have to leave it on?

I have the light on 16 hours a day