13.5 Gallon Fluval Evo kit

TANGOX4 · Oct 8, 2025

Hi everyone! I wanted to share my journey so far! I started this tank around June/July. And I had a little bit of a rocky start, but once I got it going, it just ran so well!!! I started out with some live sand, and some dry rock. Then added some saltwater with bacteria. I gave it about 3-4 weeks to get cycled and tested regularly (probably too much). Then I started to get the ugly phase and picked up some nassarius snails and trochus? I think they are trochus, I can’t remember. Then after about 2 weeks of seeing how well they did I picked up a candy cane pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman goby! I watched them closely for a week or two and they are easily the coolest thing! I should add, about 3 days into adding them, I realized I needed to adjust my rock set up because I realized with all the tunneling, they could cave in! So I adjusted the rocks with everything out of the tank, and put them back in. I then kept it rolling for about another two weeks and tested to see how things were. And they looked to be great! So I decided to go to my LFS and pick up some baby clowns! After talking to the shop owner, which I trust completely, he said I should be ready to get them. So, here we are! I have had them for about 2 weeks now, maybe a little less, and everything seems to be going great! Please let me know if there’s anything I should/shouldn’t be doing or any tips! Thank you!
The top picture is before and the bottom is current!

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Gumbies R Us · Oct 9, 2025

Following along! What kind of coral and livestock do you want to put in there?

TANGOX4 · Oct 9, 2025

Gumbies R Us said:
Following along! What kind of coral and livestock do you want to put in there?

Well currently I have some pulsing Xenia and GSP. Which seem to be doing great. Livestock include a yellow watchman goby, a nassarius snail and 3 astrea or trochus snails, can’t remember which, a pistol shrimp, and 2 really small juvenile clowns. But from here I’ll probably just keep it like that and if I find a cool coral I might try and get it. In the future I plan to turn this into my grow tank for my 55 gallon when I finally get it up and running.