Fluval 13.5 EVO as first saltwater tank build

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Ksull72487

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Honestly I was the BioCube guy years ago. This is a great little tank for the buck!!! But yeah you gotta change some things. Rock Scapes looking way good!!! Keep us posted! I just bought one myself not long ago.

Not common for a new tank to get algae. Slow wins the race. Clowns are hardy. Make sure your diamond goby or shrimp goby eats. You may have to target feed. The sands too fresh for him to do it on his own and those clowns will likely run things dry.
 
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Honestly I was the BioCube guy years ago. This is a great little tank for the buck!!! But yeah you gotta change some things. Rock Scapes looking way good!!! Keep us posted! I just bought one myself not long ago.

Not common for a new tank to get algae. Slow wins the race. Clowns are hardy. Make sure your diamond goby or shrimp goby eats. You may have to target feed. The sands too fresh for him to do it on his own and those clowns will likely run things dry.
Thanks! He's been coming out of his hole whenever i feed and is grabbing a few Mysis from the current. I havent had any issues with him not feeding
 
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otakiusamn242

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My tank is now fully cycled and i added some livestock, I added:
Fish:
1x Orange dotted (Shrimp?) Goby
CUC:
2x Astraea Snail
2x Nassarius Snail
2x Blue legged hermit crab
Corals:
1x GSP

Equipment wise i added :
OW-10 Jaebo power head

They all seem to be doing well except the GSP still hasent opened up. Also there is a small growth on it and i think it may be an Aptasia. Does it look like one? Thanks.

Updated Shots:

View attachment 1866984View attachment 1866985
View attachment 1866986View attachment 1866982
My tank is now fully cycled and i added some livestock, I added:
Fish:
1x Orange dotted (Shrimp?) Goby
CUC:
2x Astraea Snail
2x Nassarius Snail
2x Blue legged hermit crab
Corals:
1x GSP

Equipment wise i added :
OW-10 Jaebo power head

They all seem to be doing well except the GSP still hasent opened up. Also there is a small growth on it and i think it may be an Aptasia. Does it look like one? Thanks.

Updated Shots:

View attachment 1866984View attachment 1866985
View attachment 1866986View attachment 1866982
Looks like Aiptasia on that GSP
 
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Sebastian8601

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Looks like Aiptasia on that GSP
Yep, it was when i first got it, i think it was only the one head and i removed it and covered the base in super glue, if any more appear i will probably get a peppermint shrimp to help
 
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I've ran into an issue with my Goby,
He wasent eating and I assumed it was stress or fear of the new clown fish. After a few days his eye started clouding up and he looked very emaciated. Yesterday i did a FW dip and about 5 flukes fell off of him, i hoped this would give him enough relief to get him too eat before medication. But he did not and this morning he is upside down breathing heavily, and i think his eye is mangled, there must have been a fluke on it. I added the medicine (PraziPro) as a last ditch effort.
This is definitively where my lack of experience comes in and stopped me from being able to catch this early enough.

I have a question:
Do I take him out and kill him, or do I let him die in the tank? he looks bad and i think there is virtually no chance of survival for him.
 
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Andreas' Reef

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Sebastian8601

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I have added a new frag to my tank, a Favia from my LFS.
It seems to have come with a guest, there are 2 red and white tentacles? coming out from under it. The next day the hitchhiker moved to a crevice next too the frag. I still see 2 tentacles. is this a brittle star? the tentacles are about 1-2cm in length, and ive watched it move a chuck of food from the end into the cave kind of like a convener belt. should i try to remove it? or is it safe?
Also the coral was on the sale rack w/o ID other than Favia, does anyone know the type of favia?
Thanks

IMG_2307.jpg
 
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Wayne P.

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Brittle Star. They are very cool. Sorry to hear about your orange spot goby. I'm guessing that he did not make it. I had, until very recently a 13.5 EVO as well. I enjoyed it but chemistry was so hard to keep right in that small of a tank. I ended up with at 28 G JBJ nano cube. Check out my build thread and you can see some of my issues.
 
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Brittle Star. They are very cool. Sorry to hear about your orange spot goby. I'm guessing that he did not make it. I had, until very recently a 13.5 EVO as well. I enjoyed it but chemistry was so hard to keep right in that small of a tank. I ended up with at 28 G JBJ nano cube. Check out my build thread and you can see some of my issues.
Thanks for the confirmation! and He did not make it, Im pretty sure my course of action to save him was correct, but i did it too late. I guess i was just to inexperienced to know all of the early signs of disease. I did just run another round of prazi through too make sure the fluke lifecycle is destroyed.
 

Wayne P.

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You will like the orange spot and tiger pistol shrimp combo. Although I think the EVO is a bit small, especially if you don't have plenty of sand for them to dig in. I've got them in my JBJ 28 and they love it. Although if you put frags on the sand the goby will steal them to shore up his hole.
 
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You will like the orange spot and tiger pistol shrimp combo. Although I think the EVO is a bit small, especially if you don't have plenty of sand for them to dig in. I've got them in my JBJ 28 and they love it. Although if you put frags on the sand the goby will steal them to shore up his hole.
i have a 1.5 inch sandbed which i think should be enough, however i dont think i will get another fish for a while, i want too make sure everything stabalizes first just in case. Thanks for the interest in my build!
 
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Sebastian8601

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Realized that I have neglected this thread for about 10 months.
I havent made too many changes, I've upgraded the light to a AI prime 16HD Reef, and removed the top and added a red sea net top.
I've slowly added a few more corals, I now have a Platygyra , a branching hammer, and a frag of Fruit Loop Zoa's.
The Clownfish in the past few months have fully become a pair with the female being substantially larger than the male.

A few weeks ago I added a bubble tip anenome, however the clownfish have no interest in it, and decide that the powerhead is worth defending against my hand instead.

Here are some images of the current state of the tank.
IMG-3799.jpg
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IMG-3804.jpg
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Sebastian8601

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Small upgrades too the tank,
First and foremost I got a RO-DI system so no more lugging water from the LFS! The setup is a little jank as I live in a small apt and I'm not allowed to plumb anything:

IMG-3833.jpg

A recent addition is a 24k Leptoseris coral, I love the coloration on this thing:
IMG-3835.jpg

And I added a few scarlet legged hermit crabs:
IMG-3836.jpg
 
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Sebastian8601

Sebastian8601

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I've recently bought a conch, however after a few days i lost a trochus snail, and 2 astraea's. At first I blamed my hermit crabs, but they havent switched shells.
I looked online and it seems this might be a whelk snail actually. Can anyone confirm that this is the culprit in my tank?
IMG-3891.jpg
IMG-3890.jpg
IMG-3885.jpg
 
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Sebastian8601

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Welp I finally made it home after evacuating for hurricane IDA and we just got power after 6 days. Looks like my emergency measures probably died after around 24 hours. and the tank just sat there for 4 days. All of the fish/shrimp/snails/crabs died, including way more brittle stars that I knew I had. I've removed all the corals and they're all basically dead aswell.
I've attached a few images of how it looked when I got home. Also the smell was rough, along with the smell in my freezer when all my mysis rotted.
Ah well, time for something new! will probably go bare bottom this time.
Luckily this was the only item that I lost. I was way more fortunate than many others in Louisiana, even in my neighborhood
IMG-3981.jpg

IMG-3982.jpg

the bubble tip anenome

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