Cycling my fluval evo 13.5

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They will eat fish food and other stuff, though may be quicker to turn on snails and coral without it so you may want to wait until there is some algae (and it always comes eventually lol).
In mine I have 8 hermits and a single emerald.
 
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I have found that adding an algae wafer occasionally helps supplement feeding for the CUC if your tank does not have much algae in it.
Nice tank shark. I look forward to when my tank is that well grown.
Bobby I am running a stock Evo. Only add on are the heater and a wave maker. The benefit of this system is that it is pretty much fool proof, a great intro to salt. Once the tank is balanced out which does take some time I was surprised how easy it was to maintain. I just hit one year since set up.
 
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Sharkbait19 said:
They will eat fish food and other stuff, though may be quicker to turn on snails and coral without it so you may want to wait until there is some algae (and it always comes eventually lol).
In mine I have 8 hermits and a single emerald.
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Do you think it’ll be best to add some coral first then?
or just jump in and add 2 clown fish then the CUC?
 
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Pale Morning1 said:
I have found that adding an algae wafer occasionally helps supplement feeding for the CUC if your tank does not have much algae in it.
Nice tank shark. I look forward to when my tank is that well grown.
Bobby I am running a stock Evo. Only add on are the heater and a wave maker. The benefit of this system is that it is pretty much fool proof, a great intro to salt. Once the tank is balanced out which does take some time I was surprised how easy it was to maintain. I just hit one year since set up.
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Nice! Stock filtration too?
 
I used premixed sea water to start my Evo. Waited 2 weeks and then added a CUC.

I wish I could offer you advice on my Evo but considering how GHA is taking over parts of the tank so I can't comment.
 
Stock filtration. When I started tank I had the protein skimmer but found it was more work than value so I removed. I did seed the tank with Dr Tim’s to start, added blue leg hermit crabs about 1 week in to help the cycle and a clown about 3 weeks in. Still have two of those crabs and that clown. It wasn’t always an easy road but eventually the tank seemed to balance itself out. I have minimal algae, coral growth, and seemingly happy fish.
I change about 2-3 gallons of water per week and clean the filter compartments every two.
I would wait to add coral until your tank is established. While I still have the first coral I added I also lost several along the way.
 
Deltec
Bobby1993 said:
Do you think it’ll be best to add some coral first then?
or just jump in and add 2 clown fish then the CUC?
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Definitely should wait on coral until the tank’s been established for a bit. If it’s fully cycled, no reason not to start looking at fish. Cuc can be added, but I’d just wait until it dirties up a bit.
 
Thanks guys!

as for the activated carbon .. I’ve been running it during the cycle which is now 30 days. When should I think about swapping it out?
 
Bobby1993 said:
Thanks guys!

as for the activated carbon .. I’ve been running it during the cycle which is now 30 days. When should I think about swapping it out?
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Probably now. The directions say every 2 to 4 weeks. I think 2 is way to often. I would do at least every 4 weeks.
 
WWC
Hard question to answer... To me ideal progression would be 1) cycle -> 2) add a fish with minimal lighting -> 3) add minimal detritus focused CUC -> 4) add test corals and ramp up lighting -> 5) add more algae focused CUC. I don't know that there is a real roadmap for exact timing (go slow and let the tank adjust), light intensity, and cuc though.

- Love Kait!
 
Hey guys! So, since our daughter was born last Tuesday I have decided to leave my tank running for probably another month or 2 before adding anything.
When I got home from work I noticed that I now have brown algae growing on sand bed. (Diatoms)
What’s the best approach to take this for leaving it longer (maturing without livestock)?

do I water change then leave it?
let the algae grow out?
Lights on or off? Currently they are on all day 8-9 hours. (Stock evo light).

thanks in advance
 
Deltec
Sharkbait19 said:
Having sand sifting inverts helps, but otherwise best to do is ride it out.
Congrats on your daughter!
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thanks mate. am i right with thinking that i should still keep the lights on and simply leave it even if it gets really ugly in there? and then it should eventually clear on its own?
 
AS
Bobby1993 said:
thanks mate. am i right with thinking that i should still keep the lights on and simply leave it even if it gets really ugly in there? and then it should eventually clear on its own?
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That’s what I did! Best to late nature take its course imo.
 
As stated a few sand sifting inverts. I tried limiting my light until corals and fish had been added and it did work……until I added everything and had to run light longer. The ugly phase was just delayed and eventually caught up with me.
 
Pale Morning1 said:
As stated a few sand sifting inverts. I tried limiting my light until corals and fish had been added and it did work……until I added everything and had to run light longer. The ugly phase was just delayed and eventually caught up with me.
Click to expand...
Ah that’s good to know. I’ll just let it run it’s corse then :)
 
Hey guys, a couple of questions :)

Im getting a lot of bubbles rise and was wondering what that was ?
And is it dangerous?

image.jpg
 
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