VTBig053's Fluval EVO 13.5 - mixed reef

[acanamaniac]

I've seen the sicce as well. Might look into it. If you could find a way to keep it off tank bottom you'd be ok but eith the cups on it doesn't work at optimal level. Eggcrate would probably work.

 

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[daltonx13]

I searched the form and couldn't find it. What type of grow light is that? Trying to find a similar product.

 

Thanks!

 

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[VTBig053]

Here you go- https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00W6VNR3S/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1504221449&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=16w+led+plant+light&dpPl=1&dpID=51rYTpBDJ7L&ref=plSrch

[acanamaniac]

I see what you mean about the bottom rack not really counting. I ended up with floss on top then tied purigen to top shelf then tied chemipure to second shelf so hanging into 3rd chamber. Working so far

 

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[VTBig053]

Quick update. Picked up not one but two small BTAs from lynzi who was selling them on the WTD forum the other day. The larger one is maybe 2.5-3" and the smaller is only about 1.5". The small one set up shop on the back side of my rock so it is tough to see, but appears to be doing well. Anyways, heres my first tank video complete with Team Umizoomi soundtrack. Come on parents of toddlers, you know you recognized it!

 

https://youtu.be/PPXk04VyB2w

 

 

 

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[VTBig053]

The tank is now 6 months old (almost 7 actually) everything is still going well and corals continue to grow, including SPS. I do feel like the color on my SPS could be a little better and I think maybe that I had my light intensity set a little too high. I dialed it back a bit and the piece of red planet responded almost immediately. We'll see if the others follow suit. Anyway, here is updated FTS and some shots of some new additions and recent growth.

 

New FTS

https://i.imgur.com/LdShnPO.jpg

 

New Acan growth

https://i.imgur.com/x1wjso9.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/pN38gUV.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/MSbFnH0.jpg

 

RFA trying to eat a small cerith snail and shrimp molt

https://i.imgur.com/wju4BDK.jpg

 

And a few new pieces from Ben over at Supreme Reefs

 

Mystic Sunset Monti

https://i.imgur.com/CKUR181.jpg

 

Unknown highlighter green/yellow Acro

https://i.imgur.com/az4lSRF.jpg

 

Suharsonoi frag

https://i.imgur.com/m14XqgJ.jpg

 

I've quickly filled up my EVO 13.5 so it's time for a second tank! Began converting an empty 20L into a DIY AIO about two weeks ago. Theres been a good deal of trial and error and one broken baffle, but finally got all the acryllic cut, drilled, and siliconed. I've been collecting new equipment during this time as well, including a used 4 bulb T5 fixture, new sicce syncra pump, cobalt heater, and a used smart ATO. Need to do a little more work with the silicone and waiting on one last piece of plumbing to be delivered from BRS and then it gets wet!

 

Here are a few shots of the almost finished product.

 

AIO wall with over flow and return

https://i.imgur.com/nUlyPsc.jpg

 

Rear chambers

https://i.imgur.com/sKMUlNp.jpg

 

Full set-up

https://i.imgur.com/VqpQban.jpg

 

This is going to serve as a frag tank primarily, so planning on going bare bottom with a real low bio-load to begin with, just coral and small clean up crew if needed.

 

 

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[VTBig053]

The tank is now 6 months old (almost 7 actually) everything is still going well and corals continue to grow, including SPS. I do feel like the color on my SPS could be a little better and I think maybe that I had my light intensity set a little too high. I dialed it back a bit and the piece of red planet responded almost immediately. We'll see if the others follow suit. Anyway, here is updated FTS and some shots of some new additions and recent growth.

 

New FTS

 

New Acan growth

 

 

 

RFA trying to eat a small cerith snail and shrimp molt

 

And a few new pieces from Ben over at Supreme Reefs

 

Mystic Sunset Monti

 

Unknown highlighter green/yellow Acro

 

Suharsonoi frag

 

I've quickly filled up my EVO 13.5 so it's time for a second tank! Began converting an empty 20L into a DIY AIO about two weeks ago. Theres been a good deal of trial and error and one broken baffle, but finally got all the acryllic cut, drilled, and siliconed. I've been collecting new equipment during this time as well, including a used 4 bulb T5 fixture, new sicce syncra pump, cobalt heater, and a used smart ATO. Need to do a little more work with the silicone and waiting on one last piece of plumbing to be delivered from BRS and then it gets wet!

 

Here are a few shots of the almost finished product.

 

AIO wall with over flow and return

 

Rear chambers

 

Full set-up

 

This is going to serve as a frag tank primarily, so planning on going bare bottom with a real low bio-load to begin with, just coral and small clean up crew if needed.

 

 

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I'm a donk. Let's see if the photos work now.

 

 

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[YHSublime]

Photos work. Curious about the dims on the T5. I'm looking for something like that for 36" long 12" deep Mr. Aqua. 

[VTBig053]

Yeah the photos work in the second post but the first attempt I imbedded them as just links to imgur because I wasn't paying attention.

 

The T5 is a 36" x ~11.5-12" four bulbs with moonlight LEDs (7 If I remember correctly) down the center. It's the fixture molcott was selling last week on the forums. At 36" its a little long for the tank, but was too good a deal to pass up for almost exactly what I was looking for. I figure since the tank is only 12" deep I can get away with hanging it fairly high.

[YHSublime]

Yeah the photos work in the second post but the first attempt I imbedded them as just links to imgur because I wasn't paying attention.

 

The T5 is a 36" x ~11.5-12" four bulbs with moonlight LEDs (7 If I remember correctly) down the center. It's the fixture molcott was selling last week on the forums. At 36" its a little long for the tank, but was too good a deal to pass up for almost exactly what I was looking for. I figure since the tank is only 12" deep I can get away with hanging it fairly high.

 

Ah, yes. You beat me out on that one. I was slow on the draw. 

[VTBig053]

The benefits of having a two-year old that rarely sleeps in past 6....

[VTBig053]

New tank video and some shots of recent acquistions, enjoy! I hope you enjoy.

And my awful clown.....

 

 

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[VTBig053]

I sent that last one to my CEO on Halloween because he hates clowns. I still have a job!

[Aquastudent]

This tank looks incredible! How has it been doing over the past half year? I was thinking of modeling my Evo after your tank. The stocking is exactly what I had in mind long term.

[VTBig053]

This tank looks incredible! How has it been doing over the past half year? I was thinking of modeling my Evo after your tank. The stocking is exactly what I had in mind long term.

Thanks and excited to see what you do with your EVO. Funny you brought up my build thread because I was just thinking about updating it earlier today. I didn’t realize it had been so long.

 

In Dec 2017 I decided I wanted to try my hand at creating an SPS dominant nano. I added a second AI Prime HD, dosing pump, very regimented weekly maintenance schedule, etc. Things were going pretty well until around May. I had a lot of frags that were encrusting well and a few that had even grown into mini-colonies. My nutrients (No3 and Po4) ended up bottoming out while I was dealing with algae issue. I was hesitant to accept that both were indeed true zero as the test results indicated because I still had algae growing in the tank. I believe the tank having no nutrients eventually caused my acros to stop consuming Alk and Ca, both spiked. I didn’t catch the Alk spike because I got lax in my testing. Life got in the way (expecting new baby and beginning new job) and I took my finger off the pulse of the tank. My acros began to pale and fade, and before I could get things turned around I had multiple pieces RTN and STN on me. I tried to frag up some of the larger pieces to save them but I am not sure they will make it.

 

Anyway, with a new baby in the house and starting a new job, I thought it would be best to simplify the tank and try my hand at SPS again in the future, once I’ve upgraded to a larger tank. Sticking to softies and LPS for the time being.

 

Here are some crappy cell phone pics of my tank as of today.

 

FTS (the derasa clam went to a new home yesterday)

 

Acans

 

Some zoas abd palys

 

Two of my RFAs

 

 

Small BTA

 

Sarmentosa, MiYagi Tort, and Aussie Highlighter mini colonies before the tank took a nose dive. All three are on life support at the moment.

 

 

 

And new(ish) picasso clowns, lets see if this video works....

https://youtu.be/0w_0PQhCjK0

 

Anyways, I began dosing 1 ppm a day of No3 about two weeks ago and I finally have some nitrate registering (0.25 ppm) on my red sea test kit. Corals are beginning to look a lot better and hopefully I can salvage the remaining pieces of SPS.

 

I’ll try to update my thread more regularly.

 

 

 

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[Aquastudent]

Thanks for the update! Congrats on the new one coming! I bet they're going to love the tank.

 

It's understandable that life takes over :D The tank still is looking great.

 

This is super helpful for me because I can see what the possibilities are. The softies and LPS seem to be doing quite well! Will you be attending Frag Fest?

[VTBig053]

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to FragFest today. It’s my last day of leave with the new baby before returning to work, so I need to spend it with my family. Bummed to miss it, especially since I haven’t been able to make it to a meeting since the winter.

 

I wonder if some club members might be interested in getting together for a happy hour sometime between now and the fall meeting? We could propose something in the members only forum to gauge interest.

[VTBig053]

Wow! Been a looong time since I updated this thread. Full disclosure, I had a huge tank crash last may/june due to neglect and over tinkering (I know how do you neglect a tank while tinkering too much?). Well, My tank made it to the one-year point and it seemed stable enough, so I decided to get some SPS and a doser!

 

Got everything set up and dialed in over a few weeks.Things were boomin’ for about 2-3 months. At the same time I had a huge hair algae outbreak. I decided to use Vibrant for the algae issue. Holy *&#@! This miracle worked! It cleared out my hair algae in about a month.... but wait, now I have cyano all over my rocks and sand, and worst of all, my Acros are dying. Mind you this was over 3-4 week period. I am not bashing Vivbrant, it worked, but it threw everything out of whack in my tank and I am convinced bottomed out my nutrients. The combination of a new doser and bottomed out nutrietns caused my sps to stop consuming,  alk/cal spike. Everything died.

 

One baby, some soft corals, a horrible VT football season, and a new autowatet changer, I am back in the game!

 

love the auto watsr changer. Here are some new tank shots.

 

[YHSublime]

Looks like you rebounded alright, tank looks great!


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[VTBig053]

Thanks Issac! That little nub of WD is starting to grow/encrust pretty quickly over the past 1-2 weeks. I'll share a picture once its a little more substantial. 

 

Oof, I should have proof read that last post a little more closely... typos galore. Just to clarify, the alk/ca spike occurred once my corals stopped using these which I think happened because NO3 and PO4 actually hit zero. At least that's my best theory. I'll share some numbers once I get a chance to test over the weekend. It also looks like my memory of the timing was a bit off as I see a post from July and that was before everything went to downhill. 

[YHSublime]

10 minutes ago, VTBig053 said:

Thanks Issac! That little nub of WD is starting to grow/encrust pretty quickly over the past 1-2 weeks. I'll share a picture once its a little more substantial. 

 

It was already encrusting in my frag tank, so it shouldn't have been too far behind! Glad to hear it's doing well for ya!