Fluval Evo help

[uhgster1]

I ran into the same problem. Did you plug the hole in front of chamber 2 when you got the media basket? That little hole equalizes the levels because the basket restricts flow. Your basket is pretty packed with media from the looks of it. After a ton of frustration I ended up with this configuration: chamber 1- floss, and matrix (similar to the stuff you have in chamber 2. In chamber 2 ALL I have is my heater, take the heater out of chamber 3 please, if you run the chamber low (which you will eventually without an ATO), you will fry the heater. Believe it or not that and the rock in the display is more than enough for your aquarium. Invest in an ATO, it’s the single best improvement you can make to the tank. Hope this helps.

 

[olonmv]

Seems like that huge bag of media is restricting flow. You could reduce that by half and it still be beneficial.

 

[Les Poissons]

I have an evo as well. If chamber 1 is overflowing you are restricting flow too much. A restriction will cause chambers 2 and 3 to drop and make it look like you are evaporating water as normally, when water evaporates, the first place you see the level go down is in chamber 3. That’s why people put their ATO sensor in chamber 3. If you’re not using an ATO then just top off chamber 3 with RODI when you see the level drop.

I tried fine filter material too at one point, but gave up on it because of the restriction it would cause. It’s fine for a few hours or overnight, but not much more than that. It’s not really needed anyway.

Also, as was already pointed out there some redundancy with purigen and Chemipure blue. I wouldn’t run both.

Finally, I would be careful running phosguard along with all that other media. My nutrient levels started out a little high as well but eventually came down and my phosphate bottomed out which led to a dinoflagellate problem. Make sure you’re testing for phosphate. You need to keep it in check, but you don’t want it (or nitrate) to hit zero.

 

[ChickReef]

Thanks for all the advice. I’ll make sure to get a ATO system and remove some stuff. I have some work to do!

 

[ElementReefer]

For a reference point, here’s a list of the filter media I run in my nano:

1) Filter floss

Nitrates run about 10 and phosphate about 0.05

 

[JamaicanReefer45]

I have topped off once in a blue moon. I still have the stock hood on but I never know if it’s evaporated or not. Don’t really know when it’s top off time.

Invest in a Auto Top Off system u will be amaze, the water inside the back are low add water and u should be good. I also have two of these same tank's with different setup's and they all are doing great.

 

[ChickReef]

Invest in an Auto Top Off system u will be amaze, the water inside the back are low add water and u should be good. I also have two of these same tank's with different setup's and they all are doing great.

What ATO System would you like to recommend for the Evo?

 

[ElementReefer]

Prism Auto Top Off

Keep salinity and your aquariums water level consistent with Reef Breeders low profile Prism-ATO. Water level changes are registered in fractions of a second using infrared level sensors and with all internal components built into the sensor, there are no additional controllers to mount. Reef...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

or, maybe the Tunze Nano

 

[kbsharp]

I have the same tank, solid advice given would say block the hole in chamber 2 , you can play with the little clip thing that attaches to the part where the water flows through. As for ATO I have the H2O compact. When you add that tray for your filter floss and media it will cause the water to lower but follow the above advice and it will go up much more like mine here. Starting one up myself

 

[Blake509]

It's not to much media I have more in my fluval and don't have this issue. I'm betting it's the fine filter floss in your pic you can see air bubbles under it in chamber 1 it's restricting the flow remove some of that and replace more often and top off more often I do it twice daily but I don't have lid so it's a must.

 

[SDReefer77]

Might be jumping in a little late and repeating a few points but just going to consolidate everything here.

2 main things:
Chamber 2 Plug
Return Pump

I'm assuming you have the plug in since it comes with both the InTank Media Basket 1 or 2. It's crucial since the Chamber 1 basket restricts the lateral flow from Chamber 1 to 2 by blocking the vents and forcing the flow downward vertically, which is ideal. A stronger return pump is going to help push everything more efficiently - the stock return pump is barely sufficient - plus your sps is gonna need the increased flow in your tank. This also makes any minor flow restriction from your media irrelevant. I upgraded to a Sicce .5 (Syncra Silent), it's nearly double the gph of the stock pump and works like a charm. The Eheim 1000 fits as well but the Sicce runs cooler so it's the better choice.



Chamber 1 water level will always sit above Chamber 2 of course, and Chamber 3 should be a little below 2, around the middle or just below the nut that secures your return on the inside of the chamber. My Chamber 3 water level typically sits at about 1.5 to 2 inches below the rim of the Tank. I'm guessing yours will be closer to 2 to 2.5 since your overflow gate isn't restricted so your Chamber 1 water level is lower than mine. If you choose to upgrade your pump (please, lol), just level the water in your filter until you have just a short drop off from your overflow, you only need enough to break surface tension, everything else should fall into place then you can fine tune. Add an ATO if you don't like to manually top off but with the stock hood (I don't run the cover on my filter normally) the evaporation is so minimal I don't think I'm putting more than a 1/2 cup of RO in daily.

As was mentioned by a few others, your filtration is redundant and you might be overdoing it. The Chemi-Blue has such a high level of phosphate absorption that running Phosguard with it is probably a bit much, you don't want to lower it to a point you actually starve your corals or have a dino outbreak. The Chemi-Blue also has carbon so your Purigen is really just for ammonia removal now (if you've got an issue) OR if you just need a little more polishing to catch smaller organic waste...but you've got plenty of floss doing it mechanically so not really necessary in my opinion to be a 24/7 thing and worry about the integrity of their bags and having to refresh the stuff monthly in Chlorine. You don't need all that extra full-time chemical filtration when you can easily just add a liquid ammonia neutralizer and do a water change or throw in a piece of Poly-Filter for a a few days or a week until you correct the issue then remove it.

Water changes are your friend right now. Do at least one 2 gallon water change a week, maybe even a 1 gallon mid week and a 2 gal on the weekend until your nitrates are down. You shouldn't need to worry too much about dosing because the frequent/adequate water changes with high quality salt will give you trace elements. Maybe invest in a Calcium testing kit, sounds like you have the rest.

Sorry for the novel, It's 3am and I'm wide awake for some reason. Just remember it's a 13 gallon tank, nano's aren't stable, and Murphy's Law is strong in this hobby.

You mentioned you still have the stock hood, have you done anything with lighting?