13.5 Fluval Evo Build Thread: Mixed Reef (Photo Heavy!)

[SauceyReef]

FTS update

 

[SauceyReef]

Top down :

 

[SauceyReef]

Better day Top Down

:

 

[tydeck]

Looks amazing. Hope mine looks that good one day

 

[Apayson]

This is so dope! What par levels do you have throughout the tank?

 

[SauceyReef]

Looks amazing. Hope mine looks that good one day

Thank you !! I’m sure with some time it will or even better.

This is so dope! What par levels do you have throughout the tank?

thank you it should be pretty close to this here. Using the same tank, light, and preset as this person here.

 

[jfoahs04]

Looks great!

 

[SauceyReef]

Looks great!

Thank you!!

Do speckled krakens color come out more with higher or lower light? Mine never seem to speckle and look more like burning embers

 

[Reef Jockey]

Thank you !! I’m sure with some time it will or even better.

thank you it should be pretty close to this here. Using the same tank, light, and preset as this person here.

what's your preset and your intensity.. My prime is 9" above the water line but i have no idea on the par levels. my blues are at 95%

 

[SauceyReef]

what's your preset and your intensity.. My prime is 9" above the water line but i have no idea on the par levels. my blues are at 95%

My prime is also 9" above the waterline, and 19" from the sand bed.

Here is my list during the peak day which lasts about 8 hours for me. I copy Aaron Youngers preset with a slight modification I made myself.

UV - 74%
V - 75%
RY - 69%
B - 63%
G - 3%
DR - 3%
ML - 0%
CW - 12%

 

[Reef Jockey]

My prime is also 9" above the waterline, and 19" from the sand bed.

Here is my list during the peak day which lasts about 8 hours for me. I copy Aaron Youngers preset with a slight modification I made myself.

UV - 74%
V - 75%
RY - 69%
B - 63%
G - 3%
DR - 3%
ML - 0%
CW - 12%

Thanks.. that's a decent amount of par your getting at those settings. Maybe i can dial mine back a little bit. I don't want to overdrive the Prime

 

[SauceyReef]

Thanks.. that's a decent amount of par your getting at those settings. Maybe i can dial mine back a little bit. I don't want to overdrive the Prime

I don't think you have to worry about overdriving the light at that percentage, but more so the corals you have. What is the depth from your light to sand bed and what corals are you mainly growing? If SPS I would definitely blast it!

 

[SauceyReef]

The latest addition I got last month. Forgot to show everyone! I think I’m in love with lobos now. Certain corals I think aren’t very photogenic but look way cooler in person.

 

[Reef Jockey]

I don't think you have to worry about overdriving the light at that percentage, but more so the corals you have. What is the depth from your light to sand bed and what corals are you mainly growing? If SPS I would definitely blast it!

sand bed is 19" from my light.
I have a total mixed reef from softies to lps to sps

 

[SauceyReef]

sand bed is 19" from my light.
I have a total mixed reef from softies to lps to sps

Just double checking - this is an evo right? Our dimensions from light is the same. Your tank looks lovely! Seeing you dont a tank full of SPS I wouldn't worry about blasting 400+ PAR. You sure you want to change anything? looks like everything is happy and all of color to me.

- edit - I think PAR is rather adjustable. Many corals can acclimate to different PARs and sometimes even change color. For example I have a 13 year old bleeding apple scoly. Its been under 50 PAR and 400+ PAR (turned purple).
Here is a cool photo from Orphek that shows a super high PAR tank.

 

[Reef Jockey]

Just double checking - this is an evo right? Our dimensions from light is the same. Your tank looks lovely! Seeing you dont a tank full of SPS I wouldn't worry about blasting 400+ PAR. You sure you want to change anything? looks like everything is happy and all of color to me.

- edit - I think PAR is rather adjustable. Many corals can acclimate to different PARs and sometimes even change color. For example I have a 13 year old bleeding apple scoly. Its been under 50 PAR and 400+ PAR (turned purple).
Here is a cool photo from Orphek that shows a super high PAR tank.

yes, my tank is an Evo. pic was taken from the end. Ty for the lovely comment
i likely won't be changing much but rather noticed your success at those output percentages and thought i could possibly turn mine down. i did notice a color morph of one of my zoa colonies but couldn't figure out if it was the lighting or something else.

 

[SauceyReef]

yes, my tank is an Evo. pic was taken from the end. Ty for the lovely comment
i likely won't be changing much but rather noticed your success at those output percentages and thought i could possibly turn mine down. i did notice a color morph of one of my zoa colonies but couldn't figure out if it was the lighting or something else.

Of course! I think you are in a good spot because I have been wanting to turn mine up on this evo. Half of my zoas stretch if not placed in the frag rack at the top. Everything else seems very happy, but I like zoas the most currently.

 

[SauceyReef]

Bad news - I lost the yasha goby today. Does anyone with a pistol/goby ever feel like their pistol is trapping the goby in the burrow? The past month the goby disappeared a few times in the burrow for 2-5 days at a time and would come out a lot skinnier. This time there was no coming back...

 

[jfoahs04]

Bad news - I lost the yasha goby today. Does anyone with a pistol/goby ever feel like their pistol is trapping the goby in the burrow? The past month the goby disappeared a few times in the burrow for 2-5 days at a time and would come out a lot skinnier. This time there was no coming back...

Sorry for your loss. I recently added a YWG and Randalls pistol combo (my first goby/pistol pair). The goby is pretty good about coming out for food even though the shrimp moves the burrow and entrance around every couple of days. I don't think the shrimp could really trap it even if it wanted to. I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but I wonder if something else was wrong too?

 

[SauceyReef]

Sorry for your loss. I recently added a YWG and Randalls pistol combo (my first goby/pistol pair). The goby is pretty good about coming out for food even though the shrimp moves the burrow and entrance around every couple of days. I don't think the shrimp could really trap it even if it wanted to. I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but I wonder if something else was wrong too?

The thing is all the fish I have had for like a year and virtually nothing changed. They were all fat and healthy.
I have had a lot of goby/pistol pairs during my 13 years in the hobby because I always stuck with nanos and they have been my favorite pairs. Like a clownfish / anemone for most people, I always want a pistol/goby pair in a tank if possible. I think the hardiness of the goby is largely species dependent though. YWG's ironically look and act like frogs. They will inhale anything that can fit down their gullet. If they dont jump out of a tank and make it past juveniles they can live incredibly long lives. Our LFS had one that was decades old and like 4-5" long. The smaller banded gobies have been way more fragile in my experience.

I have also learned in the wild the relationship with the pistol can go sour very easily. The pistol will sometimes kill and eat the goby if food is scarce. Clearly that was not an issue with my tank. But I have learned these Yasha Gobies are like extra stupid/domesticated. They cant burrow, dont eat sand, and typically need spot fed. Ive had a few in the past and they are more difficult to keep as many will testify too. The one I had for about a year was eating great and pretty fat. It would randomly disappear though for large periods of time and I would assume it would be dead just to find it outside of the burrow many days later, much skinnier like it hadn't eaten the entire time. My tank is so small the only place it could've been hiding was the burrow. And I dont think the Yasha would purposefully ever stay in the burrow for multiple days. It typically comes out every day all day long.