Evo 13.5 build

[Saltyreef24]

Finally joined R2R after a year of browsing. Uploading my tank progress here from this point on. I set up my fluval Evo13.5 in february, and I’m now 5 months in. Current stocking is as follows, in approximately the order I added them:
2 Ocellaris clownfish
2 Small spine sea stars
3 Grass shrimp
1 Long clawed hermit crab(Fighty Boy)
1 Florida fighting conch
1 Mexican turbo snail
5 Astrea snails
5-8 Florida cerith snails
2 Trochus snails
4 Small unidentified hermit crabs
1 Duncan
1 Goniopora
1 Pulsing Xenia
1 Purple stylophora
1 Green birdsnest
1 Firefish goby
1 Banggai cardinal
1 Green pocillopora damnicornis
Lots of little brittle stars and amphipods on my live rocks and in my filter floss

My goni has been temperamental since I got it, and my lfs advised me to bump up my nitrates (they were at 2) to appease it. I overfed as I was told to and they spiked to 25 in less than a week. Between that and a gradual increase in alkalinity to 11 from a dosing issue, my birdsnest is currently losing lots of tissue. Keeping a steady 10DKH now and working on lowering nitrate.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Finally joined R2R after a year of browsing. Uploading my tank progress here from this point on. I set up my fluval Evo13.5 in february, and I’m now 5 months in. Current stocking is as follows, in approximately the order I added them:
2 Ocellaris clownfish
2 Small spine sea stars
3 Grass shrimp
1 Long clawed hermit crab(Fighty Boy)
1 Florida fighting conch
1 Mexican turbo snail
5 Astrea snails
5-8 Florida cerith snails
2 Trochus snails
4 Small unidentified hermit crabs
1 Duncan
1 Goniopora
1 Pulsing Xenia
1 Purple stylophora
1 Green birdsnest
1 Firefish goby
1 Banggai cardinal
1 Green pocillopora damnicornis
Lots of little brittle stars and amphipods on my live rocks and in my filter floss

My goni has been temperamental since I got it, and my lfs advised me to bump up my nitrates (they were at 2) to appease it. I overfed as I was told to and they spiked to 25 in less than a week. Between that and a gradual increase in alkalinity to 11 from a dosing issue, my birdsnest is currently losing lots of tissue. Keeping a steady 10DKH now and working on lowering nitrate.

Additional pics

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Great looking tank!

 

[kevgib67]

Off to a great start! I hope your birdsnest pulls through, one of the hardier sps.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Off to a great start! I hope your birdsnest pulls through, one of the hardier sps.

Thank you! I really hope so too. It was my favorite looking sps in my tank so far. The polyps that it shed are floating all around the tank, still with bright bits of zooxanthellae on the ends of the their tentacles, so hopefully some of them settle and grow.

 

[kevgib67]

If you have a healthy tip, cut it and glue it to frag plug and put it on a frag plug it will become a colony in no time. If you lived closer to me I would frag you a piece of mine. I have to constantly frag mine. I give them to my lfs and even though I don’t ask the give me really good store credit.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Update!
I had to move my fish to a copper treatment tank for Ich about 3 weeks ago. My banggai cardinal succumbed to it, but my clowns and firefish goby recovered very well. Planning to finish copper treatment soon but keep them out of my main tank for a 8 week fallow period to break the ichs life cycle.

In the mean time I am learning how to manage nutrient levels without my fish present. I have raised an army of hermit crabs and gluttonous little brittle stars. Frozen brine shrimp/spirulina cubes have been working wonders.

Coralline growth has been steadily increasing over the past few months, and now even with how slow the growth of my corals has been due to low stability in parameters, my alkalinity is dropping about 1dkh a day and calcium a good bit too. I dose 2-part to replace what is sucked up.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Update:
With work and life, in general, being so busy these past few months I fell behind on my dosing and water changes and unfortunately had some corals crash. I also just found out yesterday that aiptasia appeared seemingly from nowhere, and now need to be dealt with. Additionally, my royal gramma which I recently added introduced ich to the tank after a 2 week medicated quarantine, shortly before kicking the bucket and leaving my firefish spotty.

Currently I have a big semi-happy candy cane who continues to grow no matter the adversity, and a kryptonite candy cane that is hanging in there, along with my invincible Xenia and some bailed out hammer polyps. My lovely Duncan, my favorite and longest-kept coral, lost all but one of its 12-15 polyps, but I have hope for it yet. Once my parameters are good I want to move it back to a central spot where it will get better light and flow. I just cannot afford to change its environment too fast. I just set up a jebao doser for alk, cal, and mag to help stabilize my tank, and am working on getting my parameters back on track. On the bright side, my coralline has never been happier. It’s completely coated the 2 new Marco rocks that I added around new years.

Finger crossed that the next pictures I post after this will show a much happier tank, and the long awaited payoff of much time and energy invested.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Update!
My reef tank is doing better now after some extra TLC. I added 2 peppermint shrimp to knock out any aiptasia. They polished off my hammer coral polyps though.
I’ve dialed in my doser programming for alk at 8 dKh and am working on restoring a healthy calcium level. It at 320 and climbing by the day. Also bumping up my magnesium to support the alk/calcium balance. Replaced my old Duncan (RIP, was my favorite frag I’ve had) with a new single head Duncan yesterday. Also picked up a yellow/green Kenya tree with some Zoanthid hitchhikers. I’m very excited to see what they look like when they all open up.

I am currently dosing sea Chem fusion 1 and 2 for calcium and alkalinity, and got brightwell aquatics “magnesion” for mag. However, with this tank being an AIO setup, I don’t have a good place picked out to route my dosing hoses. For now I have them in filter chamber 1 but it is a low flow spot. To combat precipitation, I have diluted my solutions to 10% with RODI water and dose 10x the volume.

Stay tuned for more updates to come, and happy reefing!

 

[Saltyreef24]

 

[Saltyreef24]

Update! Tank is rocking and rolling. Dealt with a persistent cyano bloom for a few months, lost a few snails, and got more growth out of my LPs and softies. My kryptonite candy cane dropped a polyp and receded significantly a few months back so I am ecstatic with its recovery and growth. Also I finally re-entered the sps game in this tank with a purple stylo. Dosing like crazy to feed all of this coralline so I am urchin shopping. Just rearranged the tank a bit to give my fighting conch more play area, hence the retracted softies in pic 2. More updates to come soon