Secondhand Fluval Evo 13.5 - First Saltwater tank

saltylilthang · May 13, 2024

Ollie67 said:
I'm sure you'll get some coraline back soon! I'm a little less than five months in on my 13.5 and I believe I have some starting on my wall! I agree haha, it's not *too* bad, just a lot of testing and proactive measures you might take. Happy reefing! Excited to see some first coral when time comes.

There is one mushroom in the righthand corner

hopefull to add more this weekend. Thanks for watching my journey!

ColorMeGone · May 13, 2024

saltylilthang said:
Currently tank is looking good but dealing with challenges
Salt creep + salinity dropping

I am running an ATO but I have been supplementing any water level drop (very minimal) with salt water VS RO/DI water for the past few days. Salinity originally dropped down to 1.021 vs 1.024 it was at. I am currently reading again at 1.024 again but hoping to raise it to 1.026. With traveling coming up, super worried about my salinity dropping even more. I still have a month to mess with it. I also want to upgrade my sailinity tester for a more accurate read. I realized salinity was dropping due to salt creeping out of the tank which was related to water evaportation and the top hanging off the edge (had a cover to cover sump but that is now removed to fix lid). It happened suddently and original thought it was the ATO not working.

Otherwise, everyone looks happy! I will be getting my clowns some frozen food this weekend as well as my first group of CUC. I am looking at getting blue leg hermit crabs (2), nerite snails (2), nusariars snails (2), and perhaps 3 sexy shrimp (undecided). Although tank looks spotless, there are diatoms growing everywhere but as I stir the sand and clean the glass, they don't fully settle. I am also leaving on getting another few corals: Duncan and Toadstool. Wanting to keep the tank relatively open with somewhat slow growers. Zoa's are pretty but not a fan of how quickly they grow.

What type of ATO are you using. I bought a cheapy off Amazon and the sensors are spread apart too far. (better for fresh water tanks) Salinity would get too high and then the ATO would add to much water, and it would be too low. I gave up and just manually top it off till I get my DT set up. Sounds like you are having the same problem.

saltylilthang · May 13, 2024

ColorMeGone said:
What type of ATO are you using. I bought a cheapy off Amazon and the sensors are spread apart too far. (better for fresh water tanks) Salinity would get too high and then the ATO would add to much water, and it would be too low. I gave up and just manually top it off till I get my DT set up. Sounds like you are having the same problem.

I am using plug and play IceCap ATOEZ . Mine is more so the issue of salinity dropping. It never went beyond 1.025. I am currently keeping an eye on it and it's been stable. Worst case is I will update it, but for now its there for peace of mind.