Damon's Evo 13.5 Radion XR30 Build Thread: Project Overkill

[Subliminal]

Hello everyone, wanted to document my tank build...this seems like the place to do it!

So far its been about a week. What I've done is:

1. Drive across the state and pick up the used 13.5 Evo from a member here.
2. Drive across the state and get some free frags and RO/DI water
3. Drive across the state and get ~20 lbs of (very) live rock.

So, the tank came from a member here, and it was slightly modified. Has a Sicce .5 pump, an inTank basket and a bunch of very dry rock pieces.

I spent hours gluing together the pieces into an arch...which was not fun, and didn't turn out as wonderful as I'd hoped:

I ended up picking up a few snails for something to look at:

Then, I found a user here who was selling some awesome live rock, and another user who provided me a few softies for free, and here's where we're at right now:

I also have a 175w MH setup that I am pondering putting in.

Ultimate goal is 2 clowns, BTA, and a goby/shrimp pair and then some various corals and watching.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Hello everyone, wanted to document my tank build...this seems like the place to do it!

So far its been about a week. What I've done is:

1. Drive across the state and pick up the used 13.5 Evo from a member here.
2. Drive across the state and get some free frags and RO/DI water
3. Drive across the state and get ~20 lbs of (very) live rock.

So, the tank came from a member here, and it was slightly modified. Has a Sicce .5 pump, an inTank basket and a bunch of very dry rock pieces.

I spent hours gluing together the pieces into an arch...which was not fun, and didn't turn out as wonderful as I'd hoped:

I ended up picking up a few snails for something to look at:

Then, I found a user here who was selling some awesome live rock, and another user who provided me a few softies for free, and here's where we're at right now:

I also have a 175w MH setup that I am pondering putting in.

Ultimate goal is 2 clowns, BTA, and a goby/shrimp pair and then some various corals and watching.

Good luck with tank! Looks like a great start! Excited to watch it mature!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I like the aquascape design you have in your tank. Best of luck with it!

 

[elite01]

Hello everyone, wanted to document my tank build...this seems like the place to do it!

So far its been about a week. What I've done is:

1. Drive across the state and pick up the used 13.5 Evo from a member here.
2. Drive across the state and get some free frags and RO/DI water
3. Drive across the state and get ~20 lbs of (very) live rock.

So, the tank came from a member here, and it was slightly modified. Has a Sicce .5 pump, an inTank basket and a bunch of very dry rock pieces.

I spent hours gluing together the pieces into an arch...which was not fun, and didn't turn out as wonderful as I'd hoped:

I ended up picking up a few snails for something to look at:

Then, I found a user here who was selling some awesome live rock, and another user who provided me a few softies for free, and here's where we're at right now:

I also have a 175w MH setup that I am pondering putting in.

Ultimate goal is 2 clowns, BTA, and a goby/shrimp pair and then some various corals and watching.

Did the tank cycle?

Rock work looks great, how are you liking the tank itself


I would invest in an RODI filter

With that small of a tank you'll need to top off frequently to keep the parameters in check not to mention water changes. Looking awesome man

 

[Subliminal]

Did the tank cycle?

Rock work looks great, how are you liking the tank itself


I would invest in an RODI filter

With that small of a tank you'll need to top off frequently to keep the parameters in check not to mention water changes. Looking awesome man

You know, for now I'm just journeying to the fish store where they have RODI. It's like $1 a gallon. A 5 gallon bucket of sw should last me at least a month and for freshwater, I'm not sure yet. Going to invest in a super high-tech upside down bottle ATO system soon.

 

[Subliminal]

Hopefully not too much too soon

 

[Subliminal]

Last night mr (or miss?) anemone came out and showed off for a minute:

This morning...nowhere to be seen. ;-)

 

[Subliminal]

Just a quick picture of this happy looking Duncan. He was on a frag plug which had a bunch of hair algae on it, so I took it off and glued it to a small rock i had:

Found the nem on the back side of the rock, too...grrrr...

 

[Subliminal]

A few updated pictures...everyone seems happy and healthy.

 

[Subliminal]

Just fed the tank some frozen mysis shrimp...it really made EVERYONE happy. Nem got some, Duncan got some, and both Kurt and Dave (the clowns) got a ton.

I'm sure you all already knew about this wonderful frozen food? hehe

 

[Subliminal]

I had some fish changes:

1. My clowns were not being nice to each other. One was significantly larger, and was just beating the crap out of the little guy. I took the larger one back to the fish store and they replaced him. The new clown immediately started to try to focefully submit to the other clown.

2. The other clown was so stressed he just stayed in the corned and wouldn't even flirt with the new clown. I was hoping he'd pull thru but he was dead when the lights came on this AM.

So...now, two totally different clowns which seem to be getting along swimingly. I think I'm going to call them 'Salt and Peppa'. hehe

 

[Subliminal]

Someone on here was preaching the virtues of these little supplemental LED strips by 21 LED, so I picked one up. I think I paid $19 for it, with a power supply. It is rated at ~12k, with 2 white lights for every blue. Anyway, took a picture with the stock EVO lights and then with the supplemental added. I think it looks really good...just a hint more blue:

 

[Subliminal]

Just replaced my pump output with a VCA Random Flow Generator.

 

[willnow]

Hello everyone, wanted to document my tank build...this seems like the place to do it!

So far its been about a week. What I've done is:

1. Drive across the state and pick up the used 13.5 Evo from a member here.
2. Drive across the state and get some free frags and RO/DI water
3. Drive across the state and get ~20 lbs of (very) live rock.

So, the tank came from a member here, and it was slightly modified. Has a Sicce .5 pump, an inTank basket and a bunch of very dry rock pieces.

I spent hours gluing together the pieces into an arch...which was not fun, and didn't turn out as wonderful as I'd hoped:

I ended up picking up a few snails for something to look at:

Then, I found a user here who was selling some awesome live rock, and another user who provided me a few softies for free, and here's where we're at right now:

I also have a 175w MH setup that I am pondering putting in.

Ultimate goal is 2 clowns, BTA, and a goby/shrimp pair and then some various corals and watching.

I'm running same thing for bout a year. Have you upgraded your stock light that came with it? The sicce pump is a great upgrade too.

 

[Subliminal]

I'm running same thing for bout a year. Have you upgraded your stock light that came with it? The sicce pump is a great upgrade too.

Outside of the addition of the 21LED strip 2sided taped to the inside of the lid, I have not yet. The lighting difference is up about 3 posts.

Do you have a build thread?

 

[willnow]

Outside of the addition of the 21LED strip 2sided taped to the inside of the lid, I have not yet. The lighting difference is up about 3 posts.

Do you have a build thread?

Not of my own but I've been throwing my two cents in on familiar threads I've been seeing. Probably gonna start one soon tho. Best light I found to fit our size tank, utilizing the stock lid and everything is called Fluval Sea Marine 15-24" 3.0 fixture. It's $150 but it's a 100% improvement in lighting capabilities. Allows you to custom control each of the 7 color shades. Stock light is 14,000K, marine 3.0 has 25,000K.

 

[Subliminal]

Not of my own but I've been throwing my two cents in on familiar threads I've been seeing. Probably gonna start one soon tho. Best light I found to fit our size tank, utilizing the stock lid and everything is called Fluval Sea Marine 15-24" 3.0 fixture. It's $150 but it's a 100% improvement in lighting capabilities. Allows you to custom control each of the 7 color shades. Stock light is 14,000K, marine 3.0 has 25,000K.

I’ve heard of that one. It looks nice!

Yesterday I ended up basically falling into a light upgrade. Ended up with a used ai prime 16hd from Facebook marketplace. Holy Hannah, what an upgrade!

 

[Subliminal]

Well, had some stuff since I last posted...so here we go:

Current setup:

AI Prime 16HD for light
Sicce Nano powerhead for flow
Sicce .5 return pump
Fluval 50w heater
inTank chamber 1 with filter floss and Chemipure Blue
Amazon Evian bottle ATO

I ended up picking up some nice Brook from the LFS, so no fish for...5 more weeks?

I do 3gallon water change a week with Reef Crystals

I added pods from Algae Barn, and dose 10ml of Ocean Magik a day

I feed some mysis 1-2x a week to shrimp and BTA

I feed Roids 2x a week

Current Stock:
Fire Shrimp
Sexy Shrimp
Peppermint Shrimp (took care of all my aptasia within 3 days)
2x Conch
Emerald Crab
Some kind of little red crab
Variety of snails and hermits
Rainbow BTA (just a lil baby, size of a half dollar, when he's wet and wearing boots)
6 kind of Zoas
2 kind of palys
4 kind of SPS
2 kind of mushrooms
Xenia
a few other softies...toadstool, GSP, clove polyps
1 head of duncan

All rock and sand was from very established tanks....my cycle happened very fast (if at all) and the 'ugly phase' seemed to come and go within 2 weeks.

Here is where we're at right now...first picture has the only real noticeable algae in the tank...which has stayed pretty much the same since it came in on the rock from a local guy's tank. All the white spots in the background are little baby pods. The bigger ones are constantly crawling around on the rocks.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Nice tank. Love the instant awesome you did. Definitely love the light on there, but I really want to keep my hood on, I'll look into the light upgrade someone mentioned above.

 

[Subliminal]

@Mhamilton0911 There are several potential light upgrades you can try:

1. Fluval makes a drop in light that is marginally better in output, but infinitely more controllable, as you can use your phone to control the colors and timing.

2. 21 LED makes some cool little supplemental bars you can add, which are super inexpensive and just get glued to the inside of the lid (see my post up a little bit).

3. There is another company (name escapes me) which has LED bars which are the perfect length (15?) to fit in place of the stock light.

That being said, you can go a long way with the stock light without needing to upgrade. I just found a deal i couldn't refuse on what is arguably the best little light on the market.