JachPot's Evo 13.5

JachPot

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I'm going to be saving this post to update my current full tank shot and what not, I'm also porting this over from another website, so I'm going to be dumping a ton of info very fast.


Hi all,

A bit about me. I'm originally from Oklahoma where I learned about aquariums from my time working at "Wet Pets by Steve." Big shout out to them for teaching me so much and giving me a strong basis. I've been all over the map with tanks both fresh and reef. My 2 favorites have been my shrimp dominated 55 gallon planted tank and my 29 gallon reef. I had to get rid of all of my tanks before grad school due to moving in with my future wife into rental houses and apartments as we moved around. I'm finally a home owner! So I'm dipping a toe back in with a Fluval Evo 13.5 for my office. This tank is not even cycled yet, and my wife is already asking when I'm putting a "big one" in the living room.
 
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JachPot

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Mail day! (Let's pretend I'm not updating a back log all at once....)

20220115_205853.jpg

To start the tank I ordered a Sicce 1.0 silent pump to mix with the 3d printed RFG heads I had planned to make. I did this in order to skimp on the wavemaker and keep the display area as standard and uncrowded as possible.
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I was able to fit the Eheim Jager 50w heater in the same compartment (3) as the return pump to boot. I'm very happy about that. I 3d printed with grey (They didn't have black, and I don't have patience) PETG the standard plug for the 2nd chamber return. Here's also an in progress print of the turbine heads from thingiverse. I decided to go with the v2 design that had the branding for the maker, because I didn't really care.
20220115_160729.jpg
 
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JachPot

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Slight detour off the fish tank story and into the 3d printing territory.

Good lord have I lost some time on this end. Good thing I'm cycling. The short version is I hadn't used my printer in about a year before this and everything that broke could.

My nozzle clogged, the clog caused the extruder bit to grind itself out so that it wouldn't feed filament. My BLTouch broke. Hurray! I uninstalled the BLTouch and put the zstopper back on. Installed a new extruder feeder and tuned it and put a new nozzle on. (Brass for now, but steel comes in tomorrow)

After getting all that sorted, I've failed 2 prints about the 4-5 hour mark. The picture with the 3 rectangles is the chamber 2 media basket ($55 from InTank). I said why not print it for $4 worth of plastic? So far both attempts have come off the glass due to it not being heated evenly all the way to the edges. So the guy I taught how to 3d print said "Why don't you just print it vertical with a huge brim and supports." So here we are. I'm 11 hours into a ~31 hour print and all is going well. Fingers crossed I'll be able to get that installed soon.

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JachPot

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Here is all the links to the 3d prints I made:
Stock orientation is fine for the plug


Fluval Evo 13.5 plug:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2863195
^Scale this up to 108%, put some superglue or epoxy around the edge and plug it in. 100% is too small.

Orientate all random flow generators with the big end (end the water comes out) DOWN

Fluval Evo 13.5 Random Flow Generators (1/2" and 3/4")
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4858544
^These have some "branding" on the side, because the guy's original design was stolen so he made a "2021 redux" set. The 1/2" will fit on the loc line that comes with the tank stock if you pop off the 1/2 to 2 head (1/4") adapter. I have read many comments saying people used the 1/2" with a Sicce 1.0 and that's all they needed for the tank, no wavemaker. I haven't tried this, but thought I'd add it. 3/4" is included, I'm not sure why.

Fluval Evo 13.5 Random Flow Generators (1/4" - Stock Loc Line size)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4874842
^Those are the 1/4" that fit directly on the stock loc line that comes with the tank. You pop the 2 flat heads off and put those on. They fit pretty well at stock size. (also has branding). I wanted to try this first since the Sicce is tuneable and I would be able to slow dial it up with the 2 heads. I felt I could get much better coverage than the default tank setup.

Fluval Evo 13.5 Chamber 2 Media Basket
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3465980
^Printing this one at up at stock size now. You have to orientate it vertically where the big flat bottom is on the print bed. You also need tree supports on. This is a beast of a print and I'm 20 hours into ~31.

Future prints:
Fluval Evo 13.5 Feed box w/ lid
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3334527
^2 things on this, I've read horror stories of people losing fish, and I have a 14 lbs absolutely insanely smart and athletic Tuxedo cat (Pictured above). This is a must for me before I get fish.

Fluval Evo 13.5 Water Director
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3536829
^Upgrade over the stock one, works better with filter socks, media baskets, etc. (Not needed for the Chamber 1 box below)

Fluval Evo 13.5 Chamber 1 Media Basket
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3770269
^If I don't get a skimmer soon, I'll use this guy probably with extra filter floss. It comes with a flow director which is nice and shows some thought to the design.
 
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JachPot

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Man oh man, what a wild deal that was.....

So first things first, success! The 2nd chamber media box is printed and working! After about an hour of cleaning off the supports with an exacto knife kit and pliers the box is at a stage I am happy with.

The fun? When I was sliding the box in I quickly realized it was stuck.... My plug had come too far through the wall and was catching on the bottom of the box. So I turned off the return pump and let the water settle. Then I carefully reached in and shaved back the plug with an exacto knife. Performing live surgery on plastic inside a tank is absolutely not fun. Luckily I was able to get 2 big shavings to come off and get removed. The box now fits!

Attached are pictures of the box in progress through that 30+ hour print. Bonus picture of the wall I just painted. Decided to remodel the office before the tank was fully settled. Just finishing up the corners today and the room is finished.

Next print: Feeding box with lid and then the Chamber 1 media box. I currently don't plan to run a skimmer, so I'm going to utilize as much of the back space as possible.

Looking at that picture of the wall, it appears I have some paint fixing to do lol
 

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JachPot

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Quick little bonus post since it was a quick print!
Made myself a little feeder box to prevent jumpers and to keep the cat from messing with the tank.
 

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JachPot

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ig change! After browsing around the aquascape thread for a week I realized I could do better.... So I present the new scape! (It's also wife approved)

I get a ton more coral real estate out of this layout, higher PAR ratings on the top center rock. The big rock on the left has 4-5 predrilled plug holes on it, so putting corals in should be a dream!

Water update: Nitrites have come and almost gone, nitrates are going up, ammonia is also right at 0. Almost cycled!
 

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JachPot

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Good news! Tank cycled, all it took was some patience! I started with a low bioload to just be careful. I'm not in the business of murdering fish.

I went to my LFS with a plan, I wanted a Wheeler's Goby or a Yellow Watchman. Well, they had a highfin for $30 or a normal priced Yellow Watchman. I very happily took the highfin. He's a beautiful fish! He has settled in nicely and has found a lot of caves and tunnels in the rocks he likes. Unfortunately, he's also found he can fit through the overflow and he likes to go there every night and sleep on the filter floss. I'm working on a solution for this currently.

My haul for the week:
1 two headed blue/red Acan (my choice)
1 two polyp bright orange zoa (wife's choice)
1 Highfin Goby
2 Astrea Snails
1 Bumblebee Snail
1 Nassarius Snail

I've been keeping parameters tests (mostly due to paranoia) the whole time to make sure Ammonia/Nitrites stay at 0 since this is my first fish after cycling. So far so good! The tank is now developing some diatoms and moving towards the ugly stage, so I'm planning on holding tight for the next week and seeing if it sets in and I can properly let it run its process before adding anything else.
 

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JachPot

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Update! Finally picked up our clowns. My wife picked them out. They were both labeled blacker ice, but I think one of them is more a failed bullethole. Either way, they're beautiful! We also picked up green/yellow zoa and some more snails.

I'm done adding fish. The full list is:
2 blacker ice clowns
1 highfin goby

Cuc:
1 nassarius
3 astrea
2 bumblebee
1 cerith
I wanted to add trochus, but they were out

Future plans: pistol shrimp and maybe a peppermint. Still waiting for the tank to mature more. Also going to get some euphilia. Just waiting for the LFS to have the right colors.

Going to check out Top Shelf Aquatics sale this weekend.
 

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JachPot

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Alrighty, got a mondo update, so here we truckin go.

Decided to cheat on my main lfs and try another store. Probably won't be going back except for emergencies, but they did have one positive. Their snails were in good shape (except for not having cerith). I picked up 1 more nassarius and two banded trochus. I think I'm going to grab about 2 more ceriths and call it for now. My rocks range from 60-75% clean at all times. I do have some glass algae, but not terrible. The worst is probably the surface of the sand for now. You can see where my cerith goes to work because he'll clean it up a patch at a time.


I also added in a bottle of reef nutrition Tigger pods split between the main tank and my chamber 2 setup. Also started dosing some phyto for the pods and the corals.

Finally, I heavily partook in the topshelfaquatic valentine's day sale. I got some absolute sicko corals at unbelievable prices. They were packaged amazingly well and the shipping was overnight and on time. Overall a great experience. Off the top of my head I added:

Blue stylo, a bright neon green monti, Rasta zoas, smurfette zoas, daisy cutters zoas, Pandora zoas, and paradox zoas. I also grabbed a holographic hammer and a green hammer as well as a few favia. A dragon soul, pastel blue, and "the Duke". The final piece was a nice pink acan.

Everything has settled in and looks happy. Haven't noticed anything receding or bleaching. Currently feeding tentacles are out, things are puffed up, and in general looking happy.

To supplement the corals I've decided to start with All for Reef powder (I mix my own solution). BRS was out of their two part for the time being, so I decided to use this until it's gone and then I'll go to two part. The ease and price made it a pretty easy call to try out. And now.... For the pictures! My clowns have instantly started hosing the holo hammer.
 

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JachPot

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Alright, back log dump is over, we're finally back to updating and creating new journal entries!

Lots of huge, huge changes!

I hated having the heater in the tank. It's now mounted in chamber 2 below my new Smat farms LED. I just got the LED mounted yesterday and I'm tuning it in, currently I'm running it in sort of an acclimation mode and dialing up, because this thing is about 100x as bright as the stock LED is. I love the color and shimmer you can get out of this thing. It's a screaming deal for $133.

I added my favorite member of any CUC, a tiny tuxedo urchin. So far it has only been on the rocks (and reminded me to glue down about 3 things), but it's cleaning up really well.

I've been going through a large case of the uglies as expected. Yesterday I finally broke down and bought some razor blades. With a waterchange I went through and scraped the front and side glass. The lights off picture below shows I actually cleaned some stuff.

I took out the chamber 2 box, I didn't care for it. I moved the 2 bags of bioballs to chamber 1, put my carbon in the middle slot and my filter floss and a small chemipure blue bag in.

I plan to post an updated lights on shot later when my tank wakes up.


Now for the good and the bad.
Good: My zoas are multiplying like crazy, everything I bought from TSA has about tripled in heads. The favia are showing some growth, and the SPS is actually doing well with the stock light.

The bad: I moved one of my RFG heads in an attempt to get some more flow on the sand. Apparently it ticked the neon green hammer off enough that it did a full polyp bailout. My wife was gutted as this is her favorite coral. I've left the skeleton in and the flesh actually all just dropped around the base, because I moved it to a much lower flow area immediately. Fingers crossed some flesh starts to regrow, or the flesh that dropped starts a new skeleton. This was a beautiful hammer and I'd like to keep it if possible.
 

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Sharkbait19

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Sorry to hear about the hammer - euphilia are my favorites and I’ve had my share die on me. Always sucks.
Was it a wall type? They tend to do worse so I’m not too surprised it died after a change. I hope it comes back!
 
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JachPot

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Sorry to hear about the hammer - euphilia are my favorites and I’ve had my share die on me. Always sucks.
Was it a wall type? They tend to do worse so I’m not too surprised it died after a change. I hope it comes back!
Actually it was a branching one, so I have some hope it might come back, those always have some tricks up their sleeves. I believe the Hologram hammer on the left (the one that is actually alive is a wall hammer) it's doing absolutely great so far!
 
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JachPot

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Lid hanger STL.

I used this and scaled down to 65% in Cura (equal scale, where all axes are shrunken to 65%)
This was a very firm fit, but it didn't alarm me. They slid over the glass pretty well and they are holding the screen very well.

The screen is from Lowe's. It's the 48x48" bronze kit with UltraClear screen mesh.

Bar lengths are: 16.75" for the 2 long ones and about 9.5" for the shorter ones. (Not counting the plastic corners here)



Edit: I forgot to mention in all this mess, the tank is exactly about 2 months old today, I have bright pink coraline popping up everywhere! Super excited about that. My plan is to add very little, if anything, until anemones in 4-5 more months. Just a lot of sustained growth and management.
 
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Well well well, I'm a big idiot :p

My experiment of "will 2 RFG returns with a sicce 1.0 be enough flow for this tank" was a resounding no.
I'm pulling the plug on the experiment. I noticed that food was getting stuck on the rocks and the algae I was growing was largely related to low flow (it just blows off the rocks with decent flow).

I added a Hygger wave maker HG-951. So far I have it running on 1 (lowest, 20% power) and pointed right at my rockwork. This thing is a beast for the size and surprisingly very well made. I like it quite a bit already. As soon as I turned this bad boy on, crap started flying off the rockwork instantly. Even though I used my turkey baster feeder to blow off the rocks every 2 days, stuff was still settling on them. Also, a ton of algae and other stuff started coming off the sandbed as well. It's all been filtered out now and there's already a huge difference in the tank.

I combined the wavemaker with a nice 30% water change and really got a deep clean done. I'm headed on a trip and I'll be away from my tank for quite a while. So I'm trying to leave it in good enough shape for the people I have watching it to take care of it properly and easily.

I've also been monitoring my nitrates for quite some time and I can't get them off 0. I went ahead and got some brightwell nitrogen supplement and I'm going to dose that before I leave and probably have them dose it sparingly as well (a little under direction amount since I can't test it).
 

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Good with the bad. I appreciate you sharing your flow upgrade along with why you did it. Be careful with the NeoNitro.
 
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Good with the bad. I appreciate you sharing your flow upgrade along with why you did it. Be careful with the NeoNitro.
I'm dosing for 2 ppm off the bottles instructions and basically leaving it for almost 3 weeks lol. I will be very careful overall though. Tank is at 0 now, so I figure I can't hurt it dosing for 2. If I screw it up somehow it's gotta be maxed at like 5ppm lol for my dose
 
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