Fluval Evo Saltwater Startup

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Deadeye said:
As long as you don’t piss the zoas off it should be good. The effects usually aren’t terrible. When I first got zoas I remember having a metallic taste in my mouth and a cough for the rest of the day, most likely palytoxin. No bad effects though. Better safe than sorry, wear a mask and gloves when dealing with them.
Click to expand...

:irked:
 
Some good stuff in here. Keep the updates and conversations going. Lol. My Evo arrives next Wednesday.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deadeye
The Morning said:
Some good stuff in here. Keep the updates and conversations going. Lol. My Evo arrives next Wednesday.
Click to expand...

yeah read the instructions.. I just discovered the button on the lid that switches the lights to only blue for coral viewing ?

you’ll also get algea once those lights go it’s inevitable, I recommend 2 nassarius snails (sand cleaners), 3 trophus snails (rock and glass, 1 emerald crab (bubble algea) and 1 diamond goby (sand cleaner) to help maintain the initial diatom outbreak. Don’t add any of them until you have fish in it though and the lights have been on for a week. (You’ll start to think you’re in the clear the day before it begins).
 
Potato Patatto said:
yeah read the instructions.. I just discovered the button on the lid that switches the lights to only blue for coral viewing ?

you’ll also get algea once those lights go it’s inevitable, I recommend 2 nassarius snails (sand cleaners), 3 trophus snails (rock and glass, 1 emerald crab (bubble algea) and 1 diamond goby (sand cleaner) to help maintain the initial diatom outbreak. Don’t add any of them until you have fish in it though and the lights have been on for a week. (You’ll start to think you’re in the clear the day before it begins).
Click to expand...
what about conchs or SSSS?
 
Thanks. Feel free to tender any advice. I have not had salt water in a long time and when I did it was an eel tank.
I have been thinking about the Evo for awhile and when it showed up on Amazon with a $40 coupon and I had couple of beers in me I pulled the trigger. Lol.
I plan on taking my time with this.
 
So... I used to grow and frag corals and breed clowns. My salt system was around 2000g total volume. Couple of things. Palytoxin is a thing but it's very hard to actually "infect" yourself. One of the supposed worst is the grandis, these were a bread and butter coral for me. They grew like weeds for me. I'd scrape them off the rocks with a razor blade and super glue them to frag plugs or small rocks, I never got sick or anything weird. Keep your fingers out of your mucus membranes, eyes and don't cut yourself while handling them. Wash your hands. I also grew other high end zoa's like candy apple reds, raptors rainbow, purple people eaters, mauls, rastas, if it was a cool zoa I wanted it.

I believe skimmers are essential. Corals like to kill other corals. Some do it by growing over other corals "encrusting" or by being able to grow larger and block out the light. Some use sweeper tentacles that burn other corals. All corals use allelopathy or chemical warfare to some degree softies are the worst for this, only real way to stop or remove this is waterchanges and/or skimming. Not to mention this is one of the absolutely best ways to help your filtration out.

Clowns are the devil.
Once the one of your pair goes female and they start to breed the other fish in the tank will be harassed endlessly. Even if they don't breed and the one goes female her aggression level increases, I can't remember how many times one of the females would chase me out of the 29g tanks I had for my 4 breeding pairs. They can and will draw blood from you( most likely from scraping your hand on the steel rack above the tank from your poorly designed breeder rack.....lol in your haste to get away from the vicious little beast).

Hope my info helps a bit. I haven't kept salt water in over 10 years I'm sure some stuff has changed, I doubt clowns have though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Morning and Deadeye
I wouldn’t get a diamond goby for a 13.5. They get like 6-7 inches. A smaller shrimp goby would be better (yellow watchman, stoniogobiops, etc.) as well as a pistol shrimp. They pair together and have a really fun to watch symbiosis. I don’t have the goby yet, but when I added the pistol my sandbed went from filthy to nearly spotless overnight.
 
twentyleagues said:
So... I used to grow and frag corals and breed clowns. My salt system was around 2000g total volume. Couple of things. Palytoxin is a thing but it's very hard to actually "infect" yourself. One of the supposed worst is the grandis, these were a bread and butter coral for me. They grew like weeds for me. I'd scrape them off the rocks with a razor blade and super glue them to frag plugs or small rocks, I never got sick or anything weird. Keep your fingers out of your mucus membranes, eyes and don't cut yourself while handling them. Wash your hands. I also grew other high end zoa's like candy apple reds, raptors rainbow, purple people eaters, mauls, rastas, if it was a cool zoa I wanted it.

I believe skimmers are essential. Corals like to kill other corals. Some do it by growing over other corals "encrusting" or by being able to grow larger and block out the light. Some use sweeper tentacles that burn other corals. All corals use allelopathy or chemical warfare to some degree softies are the worst for this, only real way to stop or remove this is waterchanges and/or skimming. Not to mention this is one of the absolutely best ways to help your filtration out.

Clowns are the devil.
Once the one of your pair goes female and they start to breed the other fish in the tank will be harassed endlessly. Even if they don't breed and the one goes female her aggression level increases, I can't remember how many times one of the females would chase me out of the 29g tanks I had for my 4 breeding pairs. They can and will draw blood from you( most likely from scraping your hand on the steel rack above the tank from your poorly designed breeder rack.....lol in your haste to get away from the vicious little beast).

Hope my info helps a bit. I haven't kept salt water in over 10 years I'm sure some stuff has changed, I doubt clowns have though.
Click to expand...
All great advice! I do find though that in such a small tank a skimmer is largely unnecessary and a 10-30% weekly water change would suffice. A skimmer may be too efficient and pull nutrients from the corals.
You’re right about the clown thing, mine haven’t gotten mean yet but they seem like saltwater cichlids based on everything else I’ve read. Tankmates for them should be something peaceful that stays out of the way like a goby or strong and can fight back like a gramma. No 6-lines though... those are evil.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Potato Patatto
I was planning on a pair of clowns without any other fish. Was planning on a creep up crew but no other fish. Do you think there will be issues with this? Does a pair always form a male and female?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom