Fluval Evo 13.5 Build - First Aquarium!

Ollie67 · May 5, 2024

WalkerLoves_TheOcean said:
Awesome, Ollie! Everything looks healthy and awesome! All the colors in your tank are looking awesome!

Looks good. Good call doing the iodine dip. You are doing everything you can to heal this up. I am sure it will heal in no time!

Thank you Walker! Now I got to shift from filling up on coral to letting stuff grow! Can't wait to see how everything plays out over the next few months. Happy reefing

Reef By Steele · May 6, 2024

I would make one suggestion and that would be to move the 3 poly zoa over to the rock with your other zoas maybe somewhere away form them or close and let them grow into a zoa garden. You did good isolating the anthelia and cloves on an island rock, but keep an eye on them to keep them from spreading to other rocks. The reason I suggest moving the zoa is that green star poly is going to cover that entire rock it is on in a fairly short time. Or if the gap is on a plug you could peel it off the plug and super glue it to the back wall and it will cover the back of your tank.

Ollie67 · May 6, 2024

Reef By Steele said:
I would make one suggestion and that would be to move the 3 poly zoa over to the rock with your other zoas maybe somewhere away form them or close and let them grow into a zoa garden. You did good isolating the anthelia and cloves on an island rock, but keep an eye on them to keep them from spreading to other rocks. The reason I suggest moving the zoa is that green star poly is going to cover that entire rock it is on in a fairly short time. Or if the gap is on a plug you could peel it off the plug and super glue it to the back wall and it will cover the back of your tank.

Thank you for the suggestion! I was actually thinking that too! I only put it there temporarily as my torch is in my second frag holder on the glass. If I do move them next to my other zoas, should I cut the plug and glue the disc like my bam bams, or should I take the zoas off the disc? They are on a nice little rock. I will keep an eye on the cloves and xenia, I know they can be sneaky and spread to other rocks.

Reef By Steele · May 6, 2024

Ollie67 said:
Thank you for the suggestion! I was actually thinking that too! I only put it there temporarily as my torch is in my second frag holder on the glass. If I do move them next to my other zoas, should I cut the plug and glue the disc like my bam bams, or should I take the zoas off the disc? They are on a nice little rock. I will keep an eye on the cloves and xenia, I know they can be sneaky and spread to other rocks.

If they are on a rock you could pop it and glue it to your rock, or just trim the post off the plug. Eventually they will have grown and covered a larger area.

Ollie67 · Sunday at 6:11 PM

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday

Today was just a day of cleaning, testing, and dosing. Everything has been going pretty well with the tank! This week I moved my two newest zoas over by my bam bam so there can be a zoa "garden." Today, I also moved my hammer to an area behind/by my frogspawn. I don't think I posted it here, but once my hammer was settled in, I moved it from the sandbed to my rock by my candy cane. It wasn't fully opening and seemed like it was getting too much flow, so today I moved it to another spot. If this doesn't work, I have no clue where to put it...

Anyway, here are some tank shots!

Ollie67 · Sunday at 6:16 PM

Also! Earlier this week, when moving one of my zoas which I temporarily had on my rock near my GSP, I noticed there was something on the frag plug. Not sure what it is, it's been hard to ID. The things look like flatworms, but why would they be on the frag and not the coral? That's what has been confusing me. When I saw this, I dipped my coral in some dip and they came off with a blast from my baster. I set it back and next day they were back. I think I even saw some movement, very minor. It's been super hard to take a photo, but I finally got a good one when removing my zoa from that frag and away from that rock. I haven't seen them anywhere else, so it's just weird to me. It could have been algae maybe? Since the frag was new.

Let me know what you guys think!

WalkerLoves_TheOcean · Sunday at 7:20 PM

Ollie67 said:
Also! Earlier this week, when moving one of my zoas which I temporarily had on my rock near my GSP, I noticed there was something on the frag plug. Not sure what it is, it's been hard to ID. The things look like flatworms, but why would they be on the frag and not the coral? That's what has been confusing me. When I saw this, I dipped my coral in some dip and they came off with a blast from my baster. I set it back and next day they were back. I think I even saw some movement, very minor. It's been super hard to take a photo, but I finally got a good one when removing my zoa from that frag and away from that rock. I haven't seen them anywhere else, so it's just weird to me. It could have been algae maybe? Since the frag was new.

Let me know what you guys think!

The tank is looking great, Ollie!

To help you with identifying, could you try to get a closer, more clear picture?

Ollie67 · Sunday at 8:14 PM

WalkerLoves_TheOcean said:
The tank is looking great, Ollie!

To help you with identifying, could you try to get a closer, more clear picture?

Thank you!! Unfortunately I don't have any other photos and the frag is tossed. That's the clearest photo I could get, all my other ones would come out blurry and wouldn't focus.

WalkerLoves_TheOcean · Sunday at 8:28 PM

Ollie67 said:
Thank you!! Unfortunately I don't have any other photos and the frag is tossed. That's the clearest photo I could get, all my other ones would come out blurry and wouldn't focus.

That alright. Let's just hope its not something bad!

Ollie67 · Sunday at 10:58 PM

WalkerLoves_TheOcean said:
That alright. Let's just hope its not something bad!

I don't think it is! Let's hope haha, but I haven't seen them anywhere else thankfully.

saltylilthang · Monday at 4:15 PM

I love your whole tank! I see you are using the Marine Master Hanna checker! How do you like it? I am interested in getting the same brand.

Ollie67 · Monday at 6:39 PM

saltylilthang said:
I love your whole tank! I see you are using the Marine Master Hanna checker! How do you like it? I am interested in getting the same brand.

Thank you!! And yes I am! I picked it up last month or so. It's been nice to have everything all in one case, and it is easy to use. So far it's been testing pretty accurate. I did have to purchase extra glass test vials since the two included aren't enough. I like to test all parameters before going and rinsing them out. The only downside that I can think of is that you can only run one test at once. Some parameters are instant like Alk, but Nitrate reaction time is like 6 or 7 minutes. I usually do something else around the tank during that time, like cleaning my glass, so I don't mind it. If you don't mind, it is a little cheaper than purchasing each individual checker. It also comes with everything in a kit. If you get the individual hanna checkers, they are very good too!