Hi guys!
I have had a fluval Evo for nearly a year. My plan was Xenia hell, because who doesn't love a tank with Xenia on every surface and a couple clowns to play in it?
Apparently this tank had other ideas.
If it is soft, it dies. Soft corals, mushroom coral, xenia, zoas, seahares, anemones, etc. It does fine for a couple days, maybe a couple weeks, then melts or deflates or both.
The snails, hermits, clowns, urchin, and hard coral? Doing amazing. The lobo lost a little color when I had to reduce the light for a couple weeks because of an algae problem, but it's bouncing back. The hammer is always fully extended and both hard coral eat like champs.
I do have a hair algae problem that I'm working with right now.
But now that you know the predicament, here's some info:
Fluval Evo 13
Fluval PS2 skimmer
Stock return pump
Carbon, phosguard, purigen
1in sand bed
Started with live and dry rock. There is very little coralline growth.
2 clowns and a molly
Snails: nerite, cerith, nass, super nass, olive sandsifter, trochus, turbo
Tuxedo urchin
Hermits: red leg, blue leg, zebra.
Salt: OmegaSea
Some params (API liquid tests)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5ppm
Phosphate: ~1.0ppm
pH: 8.3
ALK: 9-10
Calcium: 400
Mag (salifert, tested 2 weeks ago): 1000
Copper: 0
Foods:
Corals get BRS reef chili mixed into a paste with Hikari Coralific Delite and baby brine. The fish get marine pellets and the inverts get everything left over and algae wafers
Working on increasing Mag with supplements.
The thing that gets me the most is I've never been able to keep softs, not even when the tank was new.
Any tips? Ideas?
I have had a fluval Evo for nearly a year. My plan was Xenia hell, because who doesn't love a tank with Xenia on every surface and a couple clowns to play in it?
Apparently this tank had other ideas.
If it is soft, it dies. Soft corals, mushroom coral, xenia, zoas, seahares, anemones, etc. It does fine for a couple days, maybe a couple weeks, then melts or deflates or both.
The snails, hermits, clowns, urchin, and hard coral? Doing amazing. The lobo lost a little color when I had to reduce the light for a couple weeks because of an algae problem, but it's bouncing back. The hammer is always fully extended and both hard coral eat like champs.
I do have a hair algae problem that I'm working with right now.
But now that you know the predicament, here's some info:
Fluval Evo 13
Fluval PS2 skimmer
Stock return pump
Carbon, phosguard, purigen
1in sand bed
Started with live and dry rock. There is very little coralline growth.
2 clowns and a molly
Snails: nerite, cerith, nass, super nass, olive sandsifter, trochus, turbo
Tuxedo urchin
Hermits: red leg, blue leg, zebra.
Salt: OmegaSea
Some params (API liquid tests)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5ppm
Phosphate: ~1.0ppm
pH: 8.3
ALK: 9-10
Calcium: 400
Mag (salifert, tested 2 weeks ago): 1000
Copper: 0
Foods:
Corals get BRS reef chili mixed into a paste with Hikari Coralific Delite and baby brine. The fish get marine pellets and the inverts get everything left over and algae wafers
Working on increasing Mag with supplements.
The thing that gets me the most is I've never been able to keep softs, not even when the tank was new.
Any tips? Ideas?