Easton's Fluval Evo 13.5 Build

[EastonsReef]

*EDIT 10/20/25. As I've progressed with the tank I've enjoyed adding weekly updates. To go with this theme, I've gone back and added titles to most of my posts. This is so that both you and I can quickly skim through the thread as I can be a bit long winded. Enjoy the thread and share your thoughts when finished!


Hello everyone,

I've been planning out a 75 gallon build for almost a year and decided a little over week ago to pause on the big tank and just focus on what was going to be my second tank build. I caught a Fluval Evo on sale and I've begun setting the tank up and will be sharing progress here. Looking forward to learning a lot that I can put towards my next tank when I decide to scale up.

So far, I've set up the tank with all stock equipment and designed my rockscape. Nothing is set yet so, if any of you see some issues in my future don't hesitate to let me know. Not much more to report at this point. Some of the things I have planned for the tank.
-Fiji Pink substrate
-Pistol/Goby combo (Most likely a yasha)
-TailSpot Blenny
-Maybe pair of clowns
-Sexy Shrimp
-Pom Pom Crab
-Red leg hermit
-Snails
-Add a powerhead
-Upgrade the light
-Protein Skimmer

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

Nice! I like your scape.

 

[EastonsReef]

Nice! I like your scape.

Thank you! Was trickier than I expected with the small footprint. While I know it's good to stop the scape a few inches below the surface I can't help but like the tower poking up out of the water.

 

[EastonsReef]

Some big steps taken today on the tank. This is my first saltwater so everything is a learning experience. Added my substrate and mixed saltwater for the first time. I had two of the plastic salinity checkers which helpfully gave two different readings. I followed the instructions though and while salinity may be off it isn’t by much. I’ll be bringing some by my LFS tomorrow to check it with their refractometer.

 

[EastonsReef]

Small update today. I wasn’t able to get my salinity verified at the LFS bc the tank maintenance guy had the refractometer. Left them some water and they’re going to double check it tomorrow for me.
Picked up 2 astrea snails and a nassarius snail so I have something moving around in the tank, will provide them half an algae wafer tonight.
I’m doing a fish in cycle with a clown and while there’s one at the store I like, I’m waiting until Tuesday when their order comes in just in case there’s something I prefer. This is assuming my salinity and everything else checks out.
Once the clown is in the tank will have weekly 10-20% water changes. I’ve ordered my own refractometer so I can have reliable readings.

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - Salinity, Cycling, and a Leather

Providing a quick update on the tank, mostly for my own log.

Currently still cycling, I added some bacteria that was questionable on expiration and, turns out, it was not good. Ammonia is high so I've ordered some Fritz Turbostart and did an extra 30% water change. Once it gets here I'll do another 30%, add the fritz, and check a day or two later. Hopefully will be able to add a clownfish this weekend along with a blue leg hermit or two. One of the astrea died when it was added but not a big deal, extra shell for hermits.

I'm starting to see a few brown algae spots, not too worried about it currently but may cut the lights back some. Currently running 8 hours.

Salinity before was 1.023 but is now 1.025, refractomer was worth every penny.

I did add a Kenya Tree that was given to me to the tank. It's hard to tell but I think it's starting to acclimate finally, I had a family emergency the day it went in so it was neglected for a week. I've almost bought corals since then but talked myself out of it each time, will wait until parameters are more stable.

 

[EastonsReef]

Update with a picture this time.
Diatoms have started appearing in the tank, I think people refer to this as the “ugly stage” but to be honest I’m just excited to see stuff growing in the tank.

I dosed Fritz turbostart and added arc reef coralline to help move things along. This is the first bacteria I’ve added to the tank so it should handle the ammonia that has been building.

Assuming parameters are good, I’ll be adding copepods and my clownfish this weekend.

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - Copepods, Crabs, Corals, and a Clown

Follow up from the weekend.

Friend of mine brought me a few extra corals. Saturday I added my copepods and blue leg hermits. On Sunday I added a 24K Lepto, runny eggs Zoa, an unidentified coral, and a red monti (I'm excited for the chaos this one will add, going to keep it until it becomes a problem) and a clownfish. I should note I did take a bit of risk with the clown as nitrates are higher than I'd like. (30ish PPM) but with Ammonia being gone I think I'm good. Will do a 10% midweek change is they are still high and then my normal weekend water change.

It's exciting seeing all the life enter the tank, I spent a ton of time Saturday night just watching the copepods. Next additions will be more corals and a pistol shrimp/goby but not in a hurry there, want to give the tank some time to become consistent with all the new life that's been added.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Follow up from the weekend.

Friend of mine brought me a few extra corals. Saturday I added my copepods and blue leg hermits. On Sunday I added a 24K Lepto, runny eggs Zoa, an unidentified coral, and a red monti (I'm excited for the chaos this one will add, going to keep it until it becomes a problem) and a clownfish. I should note I did take a bit of risk with the clown as nitrates are higher than I'd like. (30ish PPM) but with Ammonia being gone I think I'm good. Will do a 10% midweek change is they are still high and then my normal weekend water change.

It's exciting seeing all the life enter the tank, I spent a ton of time Saturday night just watching the copepods. Next additions will be more corals and a pistol shrimp/goby but not in a hurry there, want to give the tank some time to become consistent with all the new life that's been added.

What kind of goby are you wanting to get?

 

[EastonsReef]

What kind of goby are you wanting to get?

That's a very good question.

Originally, I was sold on the Yasha Goby but I've pretty much converted over to a yellow watchmen instead. While I love the look of the Yasha, but, since the tank is so small I'm going to be limited on colors and want something a little more bright.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

That's a very good question.

Originally, I was sold on the Yasha Goby but I've pretty much converted over to a yellow watchmen instead. While I love the look of the Yasha, but, since the tank is so small I'm going to be limited on colors and want something a little more bright.

I'm biased towards watchmen haha, my wife and I loved ours!

 

[EastonsReef]

I'm biased towards watchmen haha, my wife and I loved ours!

I feel like it's the fan favorite of the prawn gobies. It helps that the LFS always has them in stock, it would have been the first fish I added but they were out of pistol's and I'd like to add them at the same time.

For the R2R hivemind to weigh in on, I feel like the watchman/pistol don't add a ton of bioload to the tank. I'm considering picking them up this weekend or perhaps just the pistol and adding the watchmen later, it's hard to assess if I'm moving too quickly or not with stocking. I come from freshwater which plays by different rules.

 

[EastonsReef]

Nitrates are sitting around 30ppm so I'll be doing small 10% water changes every other day to bring this down.

I expect this to solve the problem and I'll then be on a 1x week water change schedule of 10-20%. If it doesn't, I plan on adding more zoa colonies (which I want to do anyway) to help pull some of these out of the water column.

To be honest, I may add another colony of zoas today anyway.

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - Not Much but Nitrates and Zoas

Monday updates.
Nitrates were 10 PPM after a 10-15% water change on Friday. More zoas have gone in the tank and, depending on what the nitrates do, I may be adding a second fish sooner to keep nutrients up. Next fish being added is goby/pistol combo and I'm waiting on both of these to be in stock at my LFS so they can go in at the same time.

I've been eyeballing a lens kit to take better pictures and will probably hold off on adding photos until that point.

 

[EastonsReef]

Photo dump. Turns out using orange lensed glasses will give me better photos. Also, can anyone ID the green zoas that came on plug with the bam bam zoas?

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly update - Hanna Testers Pt1

Bought a phosphate and nitrate hanna tester over the weekend secondhand but, unfortunately, didn't realize there were multiple options of these so I'm now the proud owner of a low-range nitrate test and low-range (not ultra-low) phosphate test. You live, laugh, learn so these will work until I get what I actually need. Waiting on reagents for these before testing.

I did have my LFS test my phosphate on Saturday and it read .36. While I think this is a little high, it's still reasonable. I did my weekly 10% water change last night and, once my reagents come in, I'll be testing twice a week to see the trend.

Only addition to the tank was an incredible hulk lepto a friend brought me. As of now, no new additions are planned until the tank ages and I can see how my parameters trend. Once stable, the next addition will likely be the goby/pistol and more zoas. This does not apply to free frags ;)

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - Some Corals grow, some Corals die.

This week's update, a day late!

Missed my Sunday water change but caught up on Monday. I've been testing nitrates with the API kit (I know, I know) but it's staying stable around 1-10ppm (API tests). The important thing is that it is stable at whatever reading the color is supposed to represent. Waiting on phosphate reagents for regular testing there.

On additions, I lied and got more corals. Was given Candy cane clove polyps at my local store which prompted me to buy another zoa frag. They did open for a few hours yesterday but still shy. My encrusting monti is starting to bleach and while I don't like that it's ruining my perfect livestock record I'm not that concerned, everything else looks healthy and I'm not the biggest fan of that coral. On the upside, the 24K lepto is starting to spread out. Excited to see growth happening.

More blue media courtesy of orange glasses being used as a lens.

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - Testing and a Pistol Shrimp

The theme for this week is testing. I realized I had an API Reef test kit in my garage that was mostly out of date but decided to test anyway to see what it said. I read my results as

Alk: 7.0
Calcium: 480
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: .25
Salinity: 1.026

Luckily, my reagents for my phosphate hanna test came in so I was able to compare it to the api test, the results?

Hanna Phosphate: .19 (this was 2 days later and a 20% water change)

I was pleasantly surprised at how close the two were. I'll probably continue to compare the two just for fun as I continue to monitor and work on lowering this. I upped my water change volume to help with the phosphate and alk.

As for tank additions, I did add a Randall's Pistol Shrimp yesterday. I've been wanting one for a while and I'm very excited to have something new in the tank that I'll never see. I've moved my goby choice back to the Yasha over yellow watchman due to the smaller size and am waiting on the lfs to order one. They watch their distributors for reasonable prices so it's a waiting game there, not that I'm worried about that.

Hope everyone and their tanks are doing well!

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - GFO and Phosphates

Another week, another update.

And this week's update? Not a whole lot!
I finally broke on managing phosphate and added GFO. Phosphate sitting at .03 last I checked which is actually a little lower than I'd prefer.

Nothing new has been added to the tank, pistol shrimp isn't clicking but I've seen some sand mounds so he's in there and working.

The encrusting monti I mentioned before is on it's last leg. I moved it to a new spot in the tank to see if it helped but no dice. It is what it is, not too worried there.

That's it! See you next week.

 

[EastonsReef]

Weekly Update - Euphyllia

Big things happening in the fluval right now.

Recently I bought some Hanna checkers secondhand and one was an ultra-low nitrate test. I'm running my tank around 10-15 ppm nitrate and this test was not useful for me so I traded it to another reefer and he hooked me up with my first euphyllia, a hammer and torch. As a bonus the hammer had a zoa on it that he believed was utter chaos but looks suspiciously like my bam-bams. They both seem happy with their placement in the tank but I may be moving them around, the monti definitely can't stay where it is long-term.

I also picked up a second Fluval evo that is going to my sister but, as she is doing FOWLR I was able to swap a good bit of hardware. Will be replacing my canisters with inserts and swapping to an AI prime. have already swapped out my return nozzle for a random flow. I'm very excited to see how the tank looks under the new light, working on the new location as there's currently not enough vertical clearance where it is.

Very happy with the tank so far. The encrusting monti is...not good, but that's okay. No sign of pistol other than the sand piles. Overall, great week for the tank. Pictures included.