Fluval Evo 13.5 owners with chamber 1 intank basket.

[geniusgio]

This is for anyone that owns a Fluval Evo 13.5 and purchased an intank media basket for chamber one.

So if you bought the intank media basket for chamber 1 and you install it , you notice that water doesn’t run inside the media basket correctly. When I installed mine , It bothered me that 100% of the water from the intake wasn’t going directly inside my media basket. If you install the plastic skimming device backwards then you will get some flow inside, but not all. A lot of it will run around the outside of the basket.

What I did to correct it was two things.

1. I glued pieces of eggcrate on the outer edges of the skimming device which then allowed all the water to go through the middle and not escape to the outer edges.

2. You have to wedge something on the outside of your media basket in order to push it towards the intake grate and skimming device. If not , your media basket will be more towards the middle and water will escape from under the skimming device. I used the head of a tie strap to help wedge the basket towards the intake grate.

Now I have 100% water flowing inside the basket and none escaping through the outer edges. Hope this helps anyone with this setup.

Keep in mind that it will affect the water level in chamber 2 and 3 , so you have to level it by pushing down on your skimming device just enough where you have a nice “waterfall effect” hitting the 1st chamber basket and chamber 2 and 3 having a good level of water. I pushed my skimmer all the way down and slowing pushed it up until I reached the level I wanted.

 

[Ranjib]

Nice. I don’t own a evo, but I had similar issue with my biocube

 

[stereef]

hi just woundering if you have put protein skimmer in chamber 2, i will be buying the upgrade to chamber 1,

 

[geniusgio]

hi just woundering if you have put protein skimmer in chamber 2, i will be buying the upgrade to chamber 1,

I have an intank media basket in chamber one. I use Marine Pure spheres in chamber 2. From what I’ve read / researched .. we really don’t need a protein skimmer in our tanks. I’ve had my tank for about 3 months and my corals are branching out and new polyps are coming out.

I run in the first chamber , filter floss , polyfilter pad , chemipure blue nano , a bad of activated carbon, and fluval ceramic rings.

So far , everyone has been happy in the tank. I have 0 algae and parameters are all great.

 

[geniusgio]

I also do 2.5 gallon water changes religiously every week. I have corals , 2 clown fish and a cleaner shrimp. My bio load is very small. In my case , I don’t think I would ever need a skimmer.

 

[stereef]

to my knowledge you are correct about not needing a Pskimmer, its just for show when i have a friends rounds, make the tank in my opinion look abit more pro lol,

 

[Lulu_Lunette]

Interesting, you have me rethinking having the skimmer on mine...

 

[geniusgio]

Interesting, you have me rethinking having the skimmer on mine...

Honestly , I believe in a tank this size , the skimmer isn’t necesary. In my case I do 2.5 gallons ( water change ) every week , so I felt that the skimmer would be a waste of money and take up that important space that I felt would be better used for the media basket. That’s the only chamber that water actually cascades and goes do through each slot of the basket.

 

[KrRyZe]

Hi, oddly enough I have the same issue with the InTank media basket for chamber one. I will definitely adopt your method, and you're totally right about water running through the sides, it drives me nuts!!

Question for you, I plugged the hole in chamber two, after doing so it seems the water in the display is hard to notice when evaporation occurs. How do I know the water has evaporated? Looking into an ATO for this tank, seen your DYI build but I am not that hands on for that kind of project.

What do you recommend to run in chamber two? water just sits in there..

 

[geniusgio]

Hi, oddly enough I have the same issue with the InTank media basket for chamber one. I will definitely adopt your method, and you're totally right about water running through the sides, it drives me nuts!!

Question for you, I plugged the hole in chamber two, after doing so it seems the water in the display is hard to notice when evaporation occurs. How do I know the water has evaporated? Looking into an ATO for this tank, seen your DYI build but I am not that hands on for that kind of project.

What do you recommend to run in chamber two? water just sits in there..

Hey buddy. When I first bought the tank I noticed there wasn’t much evaporation going on with the stock lid. When I got the AI Prime HD light and removed the lid I already knew that evaporation was going to be more. What I did was when I did the next water change , I filled up to the level I usually did and with a black sharpie I made a tiny mark on the edge of the display part of the tank ( closest to the chamber 3 area ) marking the level until I finally made my ATO in which now I know more or less how much evaporation because of the water in the ATO bucket.

In chamber one I have an intank Media basket with filter floss on top , poly filter and 2 bags chemipure blue nano on the second shelf , followed by the fluval ceramic rings on the last shelf.

Chamber 2 I have it full of marine pure bio spheres.

Chamber 3 I have the 50w cobalt neo therm Heater and stock return pump ( which I’m thinking of upgrading )

 

[KrRyZe]

Thanks for the tips! What do you think about setting up a mini refugium in the second chamber?

Another thing I noticed.. Not sure if it's due to the water being forced through chamber one but it seems like there isn't much flow into chamber two and little bits just float around in there. Have you had the same issue?

Other than that tank is coming along nicely and I'm almost ready to add some CUC!

 

[geniusgio]

Thanks for the tips! What do you think about setting up a mini refugium in the second chamber?

Another thing I noticed.. Not sure if it's due to the water being forced through chamber one but it seems like there isn't much flow into chamber two and little bits just float around in there. Have you had the same issue?

Other than that tank is coming along nicely and I'm almost ready to add some CUC!

I believe that’s because the filter inside your return pump is clogged. Do you still have the stock pump ? I have to clean it every week / other week. On your next water change , take out the pump. It separates on the front part.

 

[N2narcosis]

I wanted to caution those with the Intank media rack in chamber one to not put loose ceramic rings in the lower section. I did and some of the rings are wedged against the rack and the vertical plastic piece used to support the Fluval skimmer. This makes it so the rack cannot be removed. I will likely try to dislodge the rings with a long squewer. It will likely not be easy because I also have media in the second section and will need to thread the holes in the trays. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[KrRyZe]

I believe that’s because the filter inside your return pump is clogged. Do you still have the stock pump ? I have to clean it every week / other week. On your next water change , take out the pump. It separates on the front part.

The stock return pump does a mediocre job of creating any flow from the second chamber.. however spending more $$ on a return pump doesn't seem to make much sense.. I'd rather spend that $$ on livestock.

Do you recommend Seachem Bio Max for the second chamber? I assume it will have similar results as the marine pure bio spheres.

 

[Strat1127]

Hey buddy. When I first bought the tank I noticed there wasn’t much evaporation going on with the stock lid. When I got the AI Prime HD light and removed the lid I already knew that evaporation was going to be more. What I did was when I did the next water change , I filled up to the level I usually did and with a black sharpie I made a tiny mark on the edge of the display part of the tank ( closest to the chamber 3 area ) marking the level until I finally made my ATO in which now I know more or less how much evaporation because of the water in the ATO bucket.

In chamber one I have an intank Media basket with filter floss on top , poly filter and 2 bags chemipure blue nano on the second shelf , followed by the fluval ceramic rings on the last shelf.

Chamber 2 I have it full of marine pure bio spheres.

Chamber 3 I have the 50w cobalt neo therm Heater and stock return pump ( which I’m thinking of upgrading )

Geniusgio, with the surface skimmer installed, do you find that the water level in the display stays the same with the level in chamber three dropping with evap?

 

[jenius8477]

I have actually found that the first chamber is perfect for a refugium. I have mine set up with a custom light and a 3d printed prefilter holder and it is growing cheato perfectly. Oh and if you did want to run the skimmer in the second chamber, you can take the extra mounting hardware that comes with the skimmer and make a nice u shaped spacer that doesn't impeed water flow at all. Basically you stack the 2 extra pieces and slide the hanger piece through the part where it normally goes but in such a way that it holds the 2 pieces together tightly. I then trimmed the hanger piece and superglued them together. It makes the skimmer sit at the perfect height and works really well.

 

[TPATankNano]

So I went with this mod: Cut out some filter to jam between the Intank Media rack and the tank. Fits like a glove. Also did the egg crate to narrow the channel of the water flow (CA glue melts the egg crate so watch out!

Middle rack is chemi pure blue (2pcks)

Bottom rack is Phosguard. Is that supposed to float like that?

2nd chamber is the stock fluval bio rings in the pouch.

Any thoughts on this set up?

 

[TPATankNano]

So I went with this mod. Couple notes/questions:


I cut a piece of filter to push the media rack towards main tank. Fits like a glove.

The 2nd media rack has two ChemiPure Blue packs.

The 3rd has a pack of Phosguard. Should it float like that?

The middle filter tank has the stock Fluval bio rings. I left in the bag so it doesn’t get stuck anywhere.

I used some reef epoxy to plug the mid-tank hole. Does anyone think tape would work or be safe? Tape could also be used to cut off the overflow in the middle filter tank.


Comments or thoughts?

 

[TPATankNano]

Great flow!

 

[Kwallstone]

This is for anyone that owns a Fluval Evo 13.5 and purchased an intank media basket for chamber one.

So if you bought the intank media basket for chamber 1 and you install it , you notice that water doesn’t run inside the media basket correctly. When I installed mine , It bothered me that 100% of the water from the intake wasn’t going directly inside my media basket. If you install the plastic skimming device backwards then you will get some flow inside, but not all. A lot of it will run around the outside of the basket.

What I did to correct it was two things.

1. I glued pieces of eggcrate on the outer edges of the skimming device which then allowed all the water to go through the middle and not escape to the outer edges.

2. You have to wedge something on the outside of your media basket in order to push it towards the intake grate and skimming device. If not , your media basket will be more towards the middle and water will escape from under the skimming device. I used the head of a tie strap to help wedge the basket towards the intake grate.

Now I have 100% water flowing inside the basket and none escaping through the outer edges. Hope this helps anyone with this setup.

Keep in mind that it will affect the water level in chamber 2 and 3 , so you have to level it by pushing down on your skimming device just enough where you have a nice “waterfall effect” hitting the 1st chamber basket and chamber 2 and 3 having a good level of water. I pushed my skimmer all the way down and slowing pushed it up until I reached the level I wanted.

I had the same problem with my new media baskets for my new AIO Innovation 40G. I am not handy so I just cut a piece of the hard carbon and tucked it on the back.... Yours is very clever.