pabloescolar Posted December 4, 2016 Share Posted December 4, 2016 I'm back. Much smaller and humbler than I had planned for my re-entry to the hobby, but this will do for now. This is the Fluval Evo 13.5 if anyone has any questions about it. Sand & water to start the cycle tomorrow (and a coralline covered nugget transplant to get some purp on these Marcos). A few fish, inverts, softies and LPS down the road. I'd like to load this thing up so stocking plans will align with a high nutrient system. Looking forward to chatting with you all again! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Gott Posted December 4, 2016 Share Posted December 4, 2016 Oooooo this is going to be lovely. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 4, 2016 Share Posted December 4, 2016 Welcome back sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted December 4, 2016 Author Share Posted December 4, 2016 Oooooo this is going to be lovely. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Thanks Peter! We'll see. Also, looking for all manner of substrate creatures to seed via a small rock and/or scoop of sand if anyone wants to oblige (I'll pay). If you've got some tube/feather worms attached to a little guy hit me up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted December 4, 2016 Share Posted December 4, 2016 Oooooo this is going to be lovely. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Thanks Peter! We'll see. Also, looking for all manner of substrate creatures to seed via a small rock and/or scoop of sand if anyone wants to oblige (I'll pay). If you've got some tube/feather worms attached to a little guy hit me up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I can give you a little kit of sand creatures and tube worms. And welcome back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Gott Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 Oooooo this is going to be lovely. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Thanks Peter! We'll see. Also, looking for all manner of substrate creatures to seed via a small rock and/or scoop of sand if anyone wants to oblige (I'll pay). If you've got some tube/feather worms attached to a little guy hit me up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I can give you a little kit of sand creatures and tube worms. And welcome back! Hahaha I almost recommended you as a source of such! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 let me know, I've got a few things that would help you reboot (micro feathers, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted December 7, 2016 Author Share Posted December 7, 2016 Thanks Kim and Mike for the offers - I appreciate it and will take you up soon! Kick started with an overdose of Fritz Turbo and a chunk of coralline covered rock. I'm leaving for two weeks in December so I'm not even going to try and stock anything even if the tank cycles quickly from the Fritz - I just didn't want to risk waiting for months with dry rock in a nano. Haven't finalized fish/invert stocking plans yet but I know it will include a Flaming Prawn Goby.... If I can find one in the next twelve months [emoji6] The pump on this Fluval is weak, which I anticipated. I don't want a powerhead in the display so I think I'll be replacing it with the Eheim 1000 which should give me 264 gph through two nozzles. I think that will be enough movement for the whole tank. In addition to the carbon and biomedia inserts I plan to use ChemiPure Blue and Purigen after the mechanical and biological media. There's a chamber below the sponge block that should accommodate at least one of those - the purigen will probably snug up against the panel between chambers two and three. I also plan to have two pod farms - one quilters canvas (perforated plastic sheets) DIY rubble box in the pump chamber, and one "chaeto corner" in the tank. I'll have to play around with how lightly I can feed the pump chamber pod farm and still be successful. To be honest, I've been impressed with how bright the lights are. I wouldn't try to grow acroporas or anything but for the purposes of this tank they should do well. Because of the limitations inherent my only goals around corals will be color and simple beauty. Even if they're cheap or common. [emoji854] It'll move fairly slow but I'm going to try and make the ecosystem as complete and clean as possible from top to bottom without obsessing too much.....we'll see. Looking forward to finding out. [emoji846] Oh.....if anyone has any insight on the smallest reliable nano friendly ATO out there, I'm open to suggestions. The ATO I have now is just not going to work with this little bitty tank. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 Step by step. Heading out of town until early January but expect to be able to start with a Court Jester Goby on my return. Seeded with pods and chaeto and the Fritz Turbo is doing its job. Now if I could just get some coralline to make the jump off that donor rock..... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Gott Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Slow and steady is best; I always rush things! This is going to be awesome! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 So it's coral time. Tank has cycled well with the fritz turbo and so far the inhabitants are a selection of hermits, a nassarius, a lettuce nudibranch, Court Jester Goby and a Yasha/Pistol that are paired off. Starting next week I'm ready to add some corals but I'm conflicted between two schools of thought. One is to go with a wide variety of high nutrient/flexible lighting corals. Growth rates, lighting needs, sanded vs rocks, minimum and maximum nutrient tolerances are all a part of this version. It'll be a long process and it'll have to be thoughtful if I'm going to have the coral garden I'm envisioning. The other version is more simple - super brightly colored, fast growing and almost indestructible corals - but just two of them. One per rock. Create a very high contrast, "trashy" coral scape that highlights the contrast and inhabitants only. Posting this because I'm interested in your opinions on which version, and following, which types of corals to use. There are obvious choices in each category: what I'm hoping to hear is corals that aren't as popular or prolific in the hobby. And if you suggest Texas trash palys I will fight you in the streets. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 Also: coralline is propagating nicely off the donor rock after some scraping and it's about to be removed; I've dosed with pods multiple times and the Court Jester seems to be doing well; the chaeto bundle has been removed after erupting quite healthily during my vacation and getting its threads into my two Marcos. Chemipure Blue and Purigen will be running nutrient control from here on out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 I like the idea of version 2 but I've been in the acro world too long to give you suggestions on types of corals to populate this idea with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 I also like version 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted January 14, 2017 Author Share Posted January 14, 2017 Early ideas for version 2 are Flower Pot on the taller rock and Duncan on the shorter. But I suspect there's something that's relatively out of fashion in the hobby that might be more interesting without being plague like xenia or GSP. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 You might consider a blastomussa if you want some red color Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Flowerpots don't have the best survival record though I've seen more success in larger tanks. Maybe keep that in mind with your coral livestock planning. Alveopora tends to be easier to keep than your Flowerpots if you can find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcheek2010 Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Update?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pabloescolar Posted February 9, 2017 Author Share Posted February 9, 2017 Thanks for asking! The livestock is doing well but I haven't added corals yet. It took the Yasha and the Court Jester what felt like forever to finally get comfortable and stay out in the open. There were some days where I didn't see either at all, and worried they had died. That leads to my problem though. My chaeto idea was a bad idea - I had never put chaeto in a display tank before and didn't realize how tightly it would cling to anything that wasn't glass. So in spite of removing the chaeto, it's continued to grow in and on the rocks. But I've been putting off pulling out the rock, because I don't want to upset the Yasha and Court Jesters comfort levels again. I need to just go ahead and do it, then we'll be ready for corals. The coraline is quickly taking over the Marcos though and looks nice. Scraping that donor rock did a really good job of seeding even distribution on every surface. Lastly, I've been frustrated with nutrient control in such a small system. I feed purposefully and sparingly but the tank still gets overtaken with diatom algae on the glass relatively quickly. The chemipure and purigen are not really helping much. The light works well with a manual timer, if you're curious about the mechanics of the tank. I manually rock it over to moonlights at some point in the evening, and when the timer comes back on at noon it defaults to daylights. No complaints on the mechanics or components of the tank itself. It's definitely the best small nano AIO package I've ever seen. Evaporation is very, very light with the lid on. If there's a downside, it's that doing any work in the tank requires 1. Removing the lid and 2. Losing the light. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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