Looking for advice on my 5 month old 13.5 Evo. (warning LOTs of information)

[NeonRabbit221B]

stop making me want a 3D printer even more

I just got the Prusa Mini+ which replaced my MK2S. High recommend one if you have a creative mind and can do some light CAD work. I am printing myself a Chaeto Reactor for my Evo now!

 

[DannoOMG]

What specific media are you referring too. Generally I would argue that live rock is the only biomedia you need and the foam can trap detritus which is converted to nitrates. My tank revolves around removing the trapped waste (which collects on my filter floss) very regularly. Biorings/Matrix I would keep but others are likley just doing ammonia processing which doesn't really help you.

Can you link me to the media basket? Here is what I printed and has been working wonders for me

Fluval Evo 13.5 Chamber 1 Media Basket by stutaylor

Modified version of my chamber 2 basket for use in chamber 1, it doesn't go down as far as an intank media basket but does block off the slats to chamber 2 forcing the water down through the media

www.thingiverse.com

Mine looks a little different and has green trays to lay stuff on...

Amazon product

It is by these guys. It's back at home.

I was also referring to the "bio balls" that come with the Evo 13.5 if I should replace or keep them.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Mine looks a little different and has green trays to lay stuff on...

Amazon product

It is by these guys. It's back at home.

I was also referring to the "bio balls" that come with the Evo 13.5 if I should replace or keep them.

Very similar IMO if it blocks some of the slots into chamber 2 and has a flow director.

You can always remove them after a month or so. I just think they would take up space. Personally I use floss at the top, polyfilter on the 2nd and carbon on the bottom. 1000 different ways to run this tank!

 

[DannoOMG]

Very similar IMO if it blocks some of the slots into chamber 2 and has a flow director.

You can always remove them after a month or so. I just think they would take up space. Personally I use floss at the top, polyfilter on the 2nd and carbon on the bottom. 1000 different ways to run this tank!

I will take pictures of what I have when I get home. The biological balls that come with the Evo are in a small bag about 1" Wide and 2" Long. It barely takes up space.

Also, what test kit do you recommend?

 

[Sharkbait19]

I will take pictures of what I have when I get home. The biological balls that come with the Evo are in a small bag about 1" Wide and 2" Long. It barely takes up space.

Also, what test kit do you recommend?

Salifert, Hanna checker, and Red Sea are all recommended.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I will take pictures of what I have when I get home. The biological balls that come with the Evo are in a small bag about 1" Wide and 2" Long. It barely takes up space.

Also, what test kit do you recommend?

I got nothing on the biological media tbh. I would keep them in for the time being idk lol

Hanna for alk and phosphates
Red Sea for Nitrate
Salifert for Magnesium and Calcium

I like to be difficult.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I still have the bio Ball media in my tank. I actually bought a second one for extra help.

 

[DannoOMG]

I still have the bio Ball media in my tank. I actually bought a second one for extra help.

Do you rinse your *Bio* balls once in and while?

 

[ChiCity]

Do you rinse your balls once in and while?

 

[DannoOMG]

I genuinely made a mistake.

*edit* I am rushing trying to type while being at work and do work at the same time.

 

[Spare time]

For one thing, I believe that you'll have to lighten up on the feedings. Uneaten food leads to raised phosphates, which leads to algae. With only three fish and a small system, the decomposition of food can spike parameters.

It appears as though your system has both cyano and dinos, two annoying algaes that occur during nutrient imbalances. A good solution is Chemiclean, which is effective against nuiscance bacteria such as cyano. I'm unsure of how it may affect beneficial bacteria, however, so you may want to double check on that.

I myself had a terrible algae problem for months. There were two excellent solutions to my problem.
One is the InTank Media Basket for chambers 1 and 2. After I installed them, any uneaten food or die-off was caught by my filter floss and broken down by microorganisms, and the display itself became much cleaner.
The second and more important thing is to have a good cleanup crew. Right now, I notice you have only two snails, and they're Margarita snails. Those are only truly effective with diatoms and detritus, and they tend to slowly starve because of their unique diet. Your tank would greatly benefit from nassarius, cerith, trochus, and astrea snails. The nassarius and ceriths are excellent in stirring the sandbed and keeping algae from settling. Trochus and astreas are both algae-eating machines. I'd recommend at least five nassarius and ten astreas. You will definitely notice a difference there.

As far as your sixline's problem goes, I'm unsure if you'll be able to suppress its aggression for long. They're notoriously aggressive for small wrasses, and in a fluval evo, they claim the whole tank as their territory. I myself had to pass on getting one for this reason. You could try to rescape or add more rocks to both provide more hiding spaces and to confuse the aggressive fish.

Your tank is looking great, and it really just takes a lot of time to get it right. I myself am having some troubles, but it's all part of the tank's development. Good luck!

I'd argue they need to feed more. If they have dinos and cyano, they likely have way too little nitrate and phosphate.

Also, chemiclean is fine for them to dose. They shouldn't have issues with beneficial bacteria (at least that is in regards to cycling bacteria which is what I assume you meant).

 

[Sharkbait19]

Do you rinse your *Bio* balls once in and while?

Not often

 

[Sharkbait19]

I'd argue they need to feed more. If they have dinos and cyano, they likely have way too little nitrate and phosphate.

True, although any uneaten food can be a phosphate factory, which cyano, to my knowledge, lives off of.

 

[DannoOMG]

@NeonRabbit221B

Here is what I have at the moment. I need to probably buy some bigger filter socks for the ChemiPure Blue stuff.

So I guess the important thing is add filter media to each chamber, but don't completely fill each chamber to allow flow?

AND, here are some pictures of where I just put my dying Goni and dying Chalice. The chalice was in the shade, but I noticed it was receding and not looking healthy. So I moved it to the far right of the tank cause I thought a change of scenery might help it. The Gonipora started off in the shade but here is where I ****** up. There was about a dozen polyps on it and it was actually looking okay. Started it off in the shade. Noticed it was growing tube worms or god knows what on it. I decided to dip it in RO for 10 minutes... dang near killed it. Never doing that again. So now there are only 5 polyps left and it is struggling. I have been spot feeding it but I fear it is on it's way out.

Chalice far right corner (unless you tell me otherwise).

What is left of the Ruby Gonipora and moved higher up per your recommendation. (or someone here did I forget)

I really appreciate all the input from you guys. Can't get an expert on my tank if I paid $400 dollars.

 

[DrunkenViking]

@NeonRabbit221B

Here is what I have at the moment. I need to probably buy some bigger filter socks for the ChemiPure Blue stuff.

So I guess the important thing is add filter media to each chamber, but don't completely fill each chamber to allow flow?

AND, here are some pictures of where I just put my dying Goni and dying Chalice. The chalice was in the shade, but I noticed it was receding and not looking healthy. So I moved it to the far right of the tank cause I thought a change of scenery might help it. The Gonipora started off in the shade but here is where I ****** up. There was about a dozen polyps on it and it was actually looking okay. Started it off in the shade. Noticed it was growing tube worms or god knows what on it. I decided to dip it in RO for 10 minutes... dang near killed it. Never doing that again. So now there are only 5 polyps left and it is struggling. I have been spot feeding it but I fear it is on it's way out.

Chalice far right corner (unless you tell me otherwise).

What is left of the Ruby Gonipora and moved higher up per your recommendation. (or someone here did I forget)

I really appreciate all the input from you guys. Can't get an expert on my tank if I paid $400 dollars.

Definitely keep us updated I want to for sure see how it works out for you!

 

[DannoOMG]

Definitely keep us updated I want to for sure see how it works out for you!

I am going to make this transition slowly.

Going to start by cutting down on feeding.
Then a much bigger water change.
Then begin to try out the new media basket.

Is it frowned upon here to bump old threads?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Is it frowned upon here to bump old threads?

Not at all! Go right ahead!

 

[DannoOMG]

Okay. Here is a small update on what has happened since I last talked to you guys.

* Cut down on feeding corals.
* Kept my tank in the dark for 3 days.
* Did a 35% water change one week and I am now doing 10-15% water changes weekly.

I did not want to go full throttle and put the new media basket in immediately. I wanted to make changes to feeding and try and kill some of the algae before I did that. I didn't feel like shocking my system with so many changes.

Now I only feed my corals phytoplankton (1 mL) and an extremely small amount of the dry ZooPlan twice a week. I do 2 ml of the AB+ daily (only for a week now) and I do small shavings of frozen shrimp so my Wrasse doesn't go on a killing spree. I put in just enough where I can see them finish it off and there are hardly any remains left.

Here is a picture of the tank from this morning.

So I have removed the foam block that houses the carbon and bioballs. Problem is the media basket I have from inTank won't fit in my middle chamber cause there is some hard shelf preventing it from going all the way down. So I decided to hacksaw off the top of the new chamber to get it to fit. (see image)

I have 1 layer of floss on top of some Chemi-pure blue and the bioballs on the bottom tray. Now beneath this whole basket there is another layer I could possibly add some stuff since it is open anyways. I'm not sure you guys would recommend to put in there. I'm not sure if you can see the space from this picture below...

So if you plan on doing this the way I am trying it. You need to take into account that a 3 chamber basket won't fit in that middle section. I figured getting rid of the foam block would be a priority to cut down on crap building up in my tank so it is an upgrade either way.

So my tank has cleaned up but that isn't because of the new media basket. I only just added that this afternoon. Any clean up you see was due to turning lights off, reducing feeding, big water changes etc...

As of right now this wonky setup I have going seems to be flowing just fine. I plan on changing out my floss every week to see if I see a change in my nitrates.

Let me know if you think this was a really stupid thing to do.

*edit* Reason for going in the middle chamber is the skimmer appears to be working fine so I am not ready to get rid of it. Feel free to call me stupid for doing what I am doing.

 

[DannoOMG]

I decided to get an ornamental plant for my tank. (Dragons Breath)

Is it a big deal if small pieces of it come off and should those pieces be immediately removed from the tank? I don't know much about Macro algae...

 

[blasterman]

Dragons Breath will also help export nutrients. Definitely moving in the right direction!

One strong suggestion. Ditch the bioballs. They either do nothing or just trap deitrus and crank out nitrate.