Build up mess in aquarium
My Fluval Evo 13.5 is about 2.5 years now, and there were build up mess. Red slime algae, green algae, green hair algae grew up on the live rock, wall, and even on the sand. Green Star Polyps grew up 3 times bigger in 2 years, and clown fish grew up bigger than anemone! When I upgraded my aquarium from Fluval Spec V (5 gal) to my current Fluval Evo 13.5, there were lots of space. I had cleaner shrimp and one clown fish at that time and they had enough swim area.
However they grow and I had to declutter my Fluval Evo.
Current issue of Fluval Evo
- Red Slime Algae
- Green Algae
- Green Hair Algae
- Aiptasia
- Not enough swim space
- Too much dust in the sand and on the rocks
- Odd smell when I vacuum sand
Red Slime Algae
I worked on the Red Slime Algae first. It was making looks bad in the aquarium and not healthy for fish and corals there. I was sucking them up manually with dropper, however I acknowledged that it can not catch up!
So I decided to use Red Slime Algae Remover. I was concerned what if it affect fish and coral… however it was all fine and all Red Slime Algae was gone in 2 weeks!
Clean Up Crew
Now I know Clean Up Crew is crucial to keep the aquarium clean. The store I got all my salt water aquarium and fish didn’t have any snail or crabs, so I didn’t get them when I started. The store closed down after and I didn’t know anywhere to buy anything about salt water aquarium until a few months ago.
One day I found a store that has Snail and Hermit Crabs for salt water aquarium and I could finally add them! It worked like magic, the green algae was gone by snails and sand and rocks got cleaner by Hermit Crabs. Hermit Crabs even eat left over from fish, so the water quality can stay cleaner as well.
Currently I have 5 Hermit Crabs, 2 Turbo snails, and 1 bamboo bee snail in my Fluval Evo 13.5 gal aquarium.
Remove a live rock and deep clean up
It was hard to decide but I decided to remove one of big rock from aquarium. It was the biggest and I had it since my fist aquarium, but it had most green algae and clatter on it. So I decided to take off.
In the same time, I removed all rock once and rinsed them in the fresh water quickly, and then deep clean the sand. The aquarium was like dust storm while cleaning up.
However it seems a lot better after, there are more space to swim.
Now I see the wave is too weak, I’m ordering new wavemaker to increase the flow.
Aiptasia
Aiptasia started one day, it was only one when I noticed, however I didn’t know what that is at that time. I thought it’s pretty, I had no idea that was later spread whole my aquarium! I started seeing it stanging my clownfish, so I decided to get rid of them.
I used Aiptasia Rx, it works instant and kills the aiptasia. However I could not use some of them that was too close to anemone. So now I’m ordering peppermint shrimp to eat them!
Now it’s time to be patient….
Review my cleaning up routine
Beside all the work, I’m reviewing my cleaning up routine. It has been 5 gal water change every week, however it build up this mess.
So now I increased the water change to twice/week, and will do the deep clean up the sand monthly.
Hope it decrease all the issue.
I will update later.
Aquarium Days 