Wee Mad Arthur’s Soft Fluval Evo 13.5

[45ZoaGarden]

Let me know how They work! I was considering buying some for my tank

Bought a D-Flow random flow nozzle to try. I’ll swap it over tomorrow during maintenance.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Let me know how They work! I was considering buying some for my tank

Not doing much for me really. I turned my jebao crossflow (gyre) off to see the flow. I can see that it works but my sicce 0.5 at 700 litres per hour doesn't give much movement in the display. (I run the crossflow on minimum which i believe is 10,000lph) I have seen that other brands recommend much higher flow through these types of nozzle. Still, should be much easier to clean than the narrow stock nozzles.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Decided to remove the pulsing xenia today. A few days ago I saw some of it blowing around the tank and quickly sucked it out. Just now I saw a clump of it laying on the sand so rather than tempt fate any longer I’ve taken the whole island out. I can’t see anymore floating or loose or attached anywhere. As much as I like it, I would rather my rock was covered in the zoas/palys.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

My refractometer was playing up last week. I forget the brand but it has a built in light. I was taking my weekly measurement when the line moved in front of my eyes. I took multiple measurements and each one was slightly different so I recalibrated with the supplied solution and got yet another reading. I noticed I would get a different reading if I was using the light on the unit or aiming it at the window.

I decided to buy the Hanna digital salinity tester. Having just checked my tank water it’s reading 30.2PPT I always believed that it was at 35PPT. I wonder how long it’s been like this. Possibly from day 1 as I’ve been using the same one from the start.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Last night I found one of my banded Trochus snails crawling around without its shell and a peppermint shrimp over the empty shell. I haven’t got hermits so can only assume that the shrimp pulled it out. It was a freaky sight to behold as the snail was completely flat and pretty large slithering around the rocks.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Just a recent picture for progress

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Love the aquascape man. Looking forward to seeing this tank grow.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Love the aquascape man. Looking forward to seeing this tank grow.

Thank you. I think the aquascape is known as the just chuck it in method as that’s what I did. I like the minimalist scapes and the arches etc but for me, this time round at least I just wanted it heaped up. It gave me lots of nooks and crannies to push plugs into.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

So a little bit of an unexpected decision on my behalf is about to take place.

I’ve been trying to get my peppermint shrimp out as they’ve decided pulling Trochus out of their shells is a fun past time. I did have an order for more which I was able to cancel just in time. I managed to get one easily but the 2nd one won’t come out no matter what bait I put in. I’ve taken the bottle trap out now as I’m concerned my water quality is going to suffer with leaving food in long term. The only feasible way to get this shrimp out is to start taking rock out. Unfortunately I’ve got rock stacked on top of roc’ and coral plugs all over the place so I foresee having to remove the lot which leads me to my unexpected decision.

I’ve decided if I’m taking all the rock out then I may as well put it back into a larger tank. I came across a tank over Christmas on a shop website that I frequent that just happened to have the same footprint as that of my aquarium cabinet. It’s a 24 gallon, 8mm low iron box, no filter compartments. After thinking about it for a few days I decided to order it today so I just need to get the water made up for it over the next few days and probably do the tank swap over the weekend. I’m not going to pile rock up this time and may not even transfer all of it over, I’ll have to see how it goes. It should give my leathers a bit more needed room, especially at the rate they are growing.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Upgrade thread Wee Mad Arthur’s 24G Upgrade

 

[Spleenless_reef_guy]

Coral
Sapphire Sky Zoanthid
Gatorade Zoanthid
Radioactive Dragon Eyes Zoanthid
Fire And Ice Zoanthid
Sunny D Zoanthid
Purple Death Zoanthid
Utter Chaos Zoanthid

Golden Silk Palythoa
Red People Eater Palythoa
Galactica Palythoa
Electric Apple Palythoa

Golden Cabbage Leather (now green)
Neon Green Cabbage Leather
Japanese Neon Green Toadstool
Golden Leather Toadstool
Golden Finger Leather (now green)
Pearl Polyped Lobed Finger Leather
Australian Green Finger Leather
Australian Green Sinularia Leather

Indonesian Ultra Fluorescent Green Star Polyps
Lava Lamp Mushroom

Shrimp
Lysmata wurdemanni x2

Snails
Banded Trochus x6

Equipment
Fluval Evo 13.5
2x Fluval Sea Marine Nano led bluetooth (added January 28th 2020)
Sicce Syncra 0.5 Return Pump
Jebao SINE Cross Flow 90 (SCP-90)
D-D Schego 100w Titanium Heater (in chamber 2)
D-D Dual Temperature Controller
Boyu FS-55 Fan x2
AutoAqua Smart ATO (in chamber 3)
Intank Chamber 1 media basket, water director and plug
Fluval Bagged Carbon

How do you like the nano marine? I’m looking at doing the same thing. Do you have any issues with it being too much light?

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

How do you like the nano marine? I’m looking at doing the same thing. Do you have any issues with it being too much light?

Few things I didn’t like about those lights. There’s no fan so they get extremely hot which doesn’t help when trying to keep the tank cool on a hot day and hurts if you accidentally brush against them. There’s very little information on them in regards coral growth as very few people seem to have them. I had one replaced under warranty due to the lens fogging up but the replacement also fogged up!

When I upgraded my tank I decided to just call it quits with them and bought an AI Prime 16HD which has been problem free and is more configurable both in height and software. Be aware you have to buy a mounting solution separately with the prime.

Do yourself a favour and forget the Fluval lights and just buy a prime.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

One thing to add to this thread. I’m going to reuse this evo tank for something else and decided to remove the plastic stand. Zero information online in how to do this so I threw all sorts at it: razor, fishing line, wire, dremel but got nowhere. In frustration I decided to try good old brute force and put some gloves on.

Wiggle the centres first, they just popped straight off for me and then move on to the side where the stand is flush with the tank. Pull upwards and inwards towards the length of the tank. It doesn’t take much force at all and for me at least the entire stand popped off in one go. Then just use a razor blade to scrape off the thin layer of silicone left on the tank.