My First Saltwater Aquarium - Fluval Evo 13.5G

[HappilyReefing]

Like to ask, are you getting vibration noise from the eheim since the base is off?

I was afraid of getting excessive noise as well when I took the rubber feet off of the pump and there is a low-level hum to it that honestly doesn't bother me. It sounds like a lot of other pieces of electronic equipment in my house, but I am not sensitive to noise either. I also make sure that the pump is completely flat after I service it (no side is slightly higher than another).

I had read that if you do have vibration noise, you could cut out a piece of cushiony rubber that you can place in the bottom of the chamber and then sit the pump on top of it to dampen the noise. Not sure how well the rubber would hold up in saltwater, but the idea sounds logical and you can use whatever material will work for you. I would have tried that method if the pump noise drove me crazy. Hope that's helpful.

PS - If I manage to figure out how to insert a video, I'll post the one I took to show the pump noise.

 

[HappilyReefing]

The Fluval Evo 13.5G tank does not come with a heater so back online I go for research. I decided to purchase the 50W Eheim Jager heater after reading that it would fit in chamber 3 and was a good heater in general. Plus the price was right (for me)!

Well...when I did a dry fit of the heater and pump in chamber 3, the top of the heater was almost at the top of the tank! The height of the chamber is 12.5" and the length of the heater is 9" so technically, it should fit well inside the chamber. What I didn't realize was that I couldn't squeeze the heater past the pump so the bottom of the heater was above the body of the pump which was already almost 3" high! Not going to work.

I returned the Eheim heater and bought the 75W Cobalt Neo-Therm Pro heater instead because it was shorter (roughly 6.5") and thin! Truthfully, I bought the Cobalt heater mainly because most of its length is less than 0.5" thick except where the temperature control button was on the upper third of the heater. I figured I could slide this heater past the pump and everything would be all good.

It was a great thought and it would have worked too except for the fact that when the heater is in its holder, it adds about another 0.5" (eyeballing here) to the width (from the wall). Doh!

Okay, I can still deal with this setback. I'll just place it above the pump like I did with the Eheim heater. This one is shorter so it should still be good. I could have taken the heater out of the holder and just placed it behind the pump, but I was already concerned about the noise from the pump and didn't want the heater touching it and making more noises.

The top of the heater was still higher than I would have liked (especially with the step down in water levels that I had read about) and I would have to be diligent in keeping the tank topped off or the water level would drop too low causing the heater to malfunction, but this could work...

Yeah, no. My hands do not fit in chamber 3 very well. It was a chore to get the heater mounted with the suction cups where I wanted...my OCD kicked in and I had to keep straightening the heater just right. I quickly found out that those suction cups did not want to be moved around once they attached or it may have been that I couldn't find enough room in chamber 3 to maneuver my hand around to get a good grip on them (I was also worried about being too rough and breaking the heater).

After I got it placed perfectly and stood back to view the final result, I realized that I would have to mess with the heater every time I went to service it or the pump. Nope, not going to do it! It was going to be so much worse when the tank was full of water rather than being empty like now.

All my research indicated that the Cobalt heater was my best shot at having a heater in chamber 3. Not wanting to deal with it back there along with the potential risk of a heater malfunction caused me to move the heater to the display tank where it resides today.

 

[HappilyReefing]

As for lighting, I planned on using the stock light for now. It was sufficient for what I wanted to do with my tank based on all the reviews I read and I liked the hood! Besides, I wasn't going to run any lights when I cycled the tank (4-week cycle duration) so that would give me more time to work on the lighting situation.

Okay, at this point I am ready to put the tank together (rubs hands gleefully).

I thought long and hard about whether to put the rocks in first or put the sand in first and then place the rocks on top of it. At the end of the day, I decided to go with rocks first. It made sense to me to have the rocks sit on the bottom of the tank for a more stable base rather than on top of the sand which could shift around and cause the rocks to tumble down (although mine are all glued together). I did question whether I wanted sand at all or just go with a bare bottom tank, but decided I liked the look of the sand.

I made sure the stand was level (stand has leveling feet, sweet!) and then placed the tank on it and checked the level again. Then the rocks went in!

At one point, I had a ruler down on the bottom of the tank to insure that there was enough space between the aquascape and the glass for maintenance.

And in case you were wondering, I used yellow painter's tape to outline where the base of the tank was supposed to sit so that the tank was centered on the top of the stand. FYI - The base of the tank is not centered with respect to the overall dimensions of the tank and yes, the tape is still on the stand...just because...

 

[HappilyReefing]

It's cleaning day!

I thought I would pause the build thread and show everyone what my tank looks like right now since I was popping the hood off to work on it. It's not often I get to view my tank from the top since I use the stock hood. Still like the hood though...

The second picture was to get the little rock flower anemone (RFA) that's hiding on Dragon Island...although it should be called Anemone Central now.

Water Parameters

• Salinity 1.024
• Alkalinity 9.1dKH
• Calcium 380ppm
• Magnesium 1470ppm, 1485ppm --> tested twice to make sure; higher than I want; need to back off on the All-For-Reef dosage
• pH 8.15
• Phosphate 0.03ppm
• Nitrate 2.5ppm

I put some Purigen into the bottom of chamber 2 to help with nutrient control. When I start to see hair algae on my trochus snail's shell, I know I need to keep on top of it. I want to keep my tank slightly dirty, but not that dirty.

 

[HappilyReefing]

At the last minute, I decided I needed another way to verify the temperature of the tank other than the digital stick-on thermometer and the analog magnetic thermometer I had purchased. I have a real fear that the heater will stick in the "On" position one day and cook my fish!

If the temperature starts rising in the tank because of the heater, these two thermometers will only show the increase in temperature, but unless I'm right there, see the temperature spike, and deal with it immediately, the heater will still boil my fish.

After some research, I chose the Inkbird ITC-308S Temperature Controller. It comes with two outlets, one for heating and one for cooling (I didn't think I would need a fan), but it was relatively inexpensive and did not cost me any additional outlets on the power strip. I can set a maximum value for temperature and when the Inkbird detects the tank at that temperature, it will cut power to the heater automatically. Yay!

Now I think I have everything I need...

December 11, 2021

The big day has arrived...it's time to fill up the tank with water!!!

After a month of work designing the aquascape, building the stand, and ordering equipment, the live sand and then the saltwater (a little over 10 gallons) went into the tank today. The heater is set to 78 degrees, the pump is at maximum flow, and the lights are off.

I dosed 8 oz of FritzZyme 9 and 40 drops of Fritz Fishless Fuel Ammonia. The cycle has started! Now the wait begins...

 

[HappilyReefing]

While I waited for the tank to cycle, I turned my attention to stocking. I had been researching sporadically while I worked on my tank, but now I was going full throttle.

Based on what I read online, I knew I wanted to quarantine everything that went into my tank (famous last words), but I didn't have space to really quarantine fish so I made the decision to buy from vendors that offer quarantined fish. For everything else, I planned to set up a little (read teeny-tiny) quarantine tank (QT).

My original vision for the Fluval was:

• One Ocellaris Clownfish (or two) - needs to look like Nemo
• Bubbletip Anemone (BTA) - solely for the clownfish to host
• One Yellow Watchman Goby - because he looks grumpy all the time
• One Pistol Shrimp - to pair with the goby
• Unidentified shrimp or crab - just because

That was all I wanted in my tank, but I quickly realized I needed a clean-up crew (CUC). Okay, it's some snails, right?

Uh...no. Who knew there were so many options for CUC members? I had to make a list and jot down notes because the names were not familiar to me and everything jumbled together in my head. I think I kept everything straight, but...here's my list for what it's worth, along with my markups. Pretty sure there are more options I didn't come across.

Snails

• Astrea Snails - eats algae, CANNOT turn itself over
• Nassarius Snails - roams in sand bed, eats detritus and leftover food
• Turbo Snails - gets big and poops a lot
• Margarita Snails - doesn't like temps over 76F; only eats hair algae
• Conch Snails - eats algae on sand and keeps it clean; fighting conch gets 3" long, tiger conch about 4"
• Trochus Snails - eats algae especially film algae, can turn itself over; short lived?
• Cerith Snails - really small, gets stuck in pumps and vanishes

Crabs

• Blue-Legged Hermit Crab - hostile, will kill snails and conches for shell
• Red-Legged Hermit Crab - peaceful, but will kill snails and conches for shell

Shrimp

• Peppermint Shrimp - can eat anemone
• Red Banded Cleaner Shrimp - will clean fish?
• Fire Shrimp

Starfish

• Serpent Starfish
• Brittle Starfish

Sea Urchins

• Tuxedo - eats a lot of algae, poops a lot, also can chew on silicone seams and electrical cords in DT
• Pin Cushion - gets really big and mows stuff over

Wait, there's a tuxedo urchin in the tank right now, but it's marked off the list? What happened? I fell in love with the little guy at the LFS and after talking to the salesman there, some of my fears were alleviated.

Although the urchin may chew on silicone (salesman had never experienced it himself), the integrity of the tank was in the silicone sandwiched between the glass panels and not the silicone that had extruded beyond that area. I had just read something similar online before I went to my LFS so that made sense to me. The salesman also said that he didn't think the urchin would eat through the electrical cords, but I knew I could do something about them, if necessary. So I took the little urchin home with me!

As for the electrical cords, I did notice him sitting on them when I first put him in the tank and, being the paranoid person that I am, I urchin-proofed those cords immediately! I don't think he did any damage; can't see any, but...that's why there's tubing on the heater and thermocouple cords in the display. I may take them off at a later date because he hasn't really messed with them. He just likes to roam around.

Oh, I can also definitely attest to the eating and pooping a lot part of the description. He's a machine!

 

[HappilyReefing]

Quarantining...where to even begin. *Sigh*

There's so much written about quarantining and so many different opinions about it that I became confused by it all. I took copious notes with one goal in mind: I wanted to keep unwanted hitchhikers, pests, and diseases out of my brand new tank.

After reading recommendations on how to set up a quarantine tank, I started to put one together.

My quarantine tank is 2.5G...yep, that's right. I knew it would be a challenge, but I felt I could maintain it (space is a limiting factor). It sits on a window ledge...I know, I know, but I planned on keeping the blinds closed and I was going to use a small 25W Fluval heater to maintain a constant temperature.

Aeration would be provided by an air pump and air stone (remember my comment about not understanding flow?) and lighting was going to be from a gooseneck desk lamp with a LED grow light bulb rated for plants. The lid was a piece of glass cut to size from Lowe's with a notch for the heater cord and airline tubing.

I had an ammonia badge and magnetic analog thermometer to monitor the tank and even bought a little PVC elbow to put in it to use as a cave.

I cycled this tank using FritzZyme Turbo Start (recommended by the LFS salesperson because I needed to cycle the quarantine tank quickly) following the directions on the bottle. I added in my CUC consisting of 2 trochus snails, 2 nassarius snails, 1 peppermint shrimp, and the tuxedo urchin and settled down to wait out the quarantine period.

I panicked when the nassarius snails seemed upset and realized that they didn't have any sand to burrow into so I rushed down to the pet store and bought some sand, placed it in a small plastic container, and put the snails on top. They immediately buried themselves in the sand. Whew!

The quarantine tank is roughly 4 weeks old in the picture and the snail is the larger trochus snail currently residing in the 13.5G. I was heavily feeding the tank and when the hair algae started growing on his shell, I realized I needed to do something about the nutrient levels (lesson learned and applied to 13.5G).

I learned quite a bit taking care of this little quarantine tank and I don't regret setting it up. It is still currently running today, but with a different look as I've gained experience.

 

[HappilyReefing]

I'm breaking into this build thread to bring you the latest antics from my tuxedo urchin.

This morning, I discovered my large clump of macroalgae was missing from its usual position on the rock arch next to the thermocouple. I immediately started searching for the culprit and found him hiding under the arch with the loot grasped in his greedy little tentacles. This is not the first time he has absconded with the macroalgae!

I thought I had gotten the best of him this time by tying the macroalgae to a small piece of rubble rock and then wedging the rock tightly into a hole in the arch. I noticed him lurking around the algae yesterday, but thought he was just taking a nap...he must have spent all of last night pulling on it to get it free.

I left him to his prize, but this evening, I found him wondering around the tank with the rubble rock hanging dangerously close to my acan and alveopora. I was afraid he could damage the corals if he dropped his treasure on top of them so I did what I had to do...

I fed him a piece of nori. I've noticed that he tends to drop whatever he is holding (rocks, shells, etc) when he eats nori, probably because he tries to grab it with all of his tentacles. The only things he's ever held onto long-term while eating are the little scraps of algae that he manages to bite off from the large clump and didn't inhale right away.

He's starting to lose his grip, but he hasn't dropped it yet. Wait a minute! I'm wondering now if that wasn't what he wanted all along...to get food out of me!

Well played little urchin, well played.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I gotta get an urchin lol
Too worried one will topple my rocks though

 

[HappilyReefing]

I gotta get an urchin lol
Too worried one will topple my rocks though

I absolutely recommend tuxedo urchins if you do decide to get one.

Mine has been a joy to watch in the tank. He always brings a smile to my face with his escapades. There's never a dull moment with him unless he's eating and then he's in a food coma for a while...

 

[HappilyReefing]

Now back to the build thread.

I kept one eye on the 13.5G while working on my QT setup and noticed the tank temperature getting warmer and warmer even when the heater was turned off! My heater is set to 78F and the Inkbird is supposed to shut it off at 80F.

Was this due to the stock hood being on the tank and preventing evaporation (I had purchased a feed hole cover for the stock hood for this very purpose) so that the tank couldn't cool down? I decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach, but I was very worried about the elevated temperature. Luckily, I didn't have any livestock in the tank while it was cycling.

A week later and my tank temperature is still high, around 81F, 82F. At this point, I thought my heater AND Inkbird were both malfunctioning: the heater continuing to heat way past the set point and the Inkbird not shutting power off to the heater correctly. What are the odds that both pieces of equipment go out at the same time?

I disconnected the heater from the Inkbird power outlet and watched the temperature on the display. Still high. Then I put the magnetic thermometer into the tank to double check the temperature and it also reads high!

Something in my tank was heating up the water and it wasn't my heater! It can't be my lights, I haven't turned them on since the cycle started. The only other piece of equipment that was currently running in my tank was my...water pump?

I went back online to research this possibility. What I found was that the pump can and will heat the water depending on how much power it uses. It boils (pun not intended) down to this: my submerged water pump effectively became a heater with a rating equal to the power rating of the pump.

The box the Eheim pump came in had two power ratings: 15W (front of the box) and 21W (top of the box). I took the higher value and thought about how much water a 21W heater could heat. The answer was not a lot. There are slightly different rule-of-thumb numbers online, but it was something like 5W for every gallon of water in a nano tank. My "21W heater" *may* be able to heat 3-4 gallons of water, but to keep 10 gallons at 81F? No way!

Just to check, I moved the Inkbird thermocouple from chamber 3 to the display tank to see if I could detect a noticeable temperature difference between the two locations thinking that the temperature would be much higher in chamber 3 because of proximity to the pump than it would be in the display. Nope, showed approximately the same value. I plugged the heater back in and pondered the problem some more.

A few days later, I caught a break as my tank temperature stabilized to 77F, 78F. What?!?

What I've come to believe is that the ambient temperature around the tank plays a role in the tank temperature. I keep my house at a constant temperature. When the tank temperature started creeping up, there was a break in the winter temperatures outside. When the tank temperature crept back down, the weather outside was around freezing.

The tank has done this weird temperature swing a few more times now and it always seems to correlate with the weather outside. I was worried that if it was doing this in the winter, what would happen when summer hit? With the lights on! I started looking into cooling options.

 

[rmorris_14]

I have an evo 13.5 that I am running as an invert and coral qt. I really enjoy reading your posts Following!
I've also run into the same heating issue but with my biocube which has a neotherm pro managed by an inkbird. I do think it is effected by the ambient temp but my situation is the opposite yours. When it is really cold outside my tank tends to overheat. I have attributed this probably to the fact that my tank sits near a register and when my heat kicks on it is creating extra heat on top of the heater in the tank. Don't know for sure, but it still concerns me. My inkbird is supposed to cut off at at 78.6 and one of the evenings, my water temp got to 80 degrees. I never had this problem in the more mild months and my heater consistently maintained tank temp at 78.6 degrees. Worth keeping an eye on.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Is the tank by a window?

 

[HappilyReefing]

I have an evo 13.5 that I am running as an invert and coral qt. I really enjoy reading your posts Following!
I've also run into the same heating issue but with my biocube which has a neotherm pro managed by an inkbird. I do think it is effected by the ambient temp but my situation is the opposite yours. When it is really cold outside my tank tends to overheat. I have attributed this probably to the fact that my tank sits near a register and when my heat kicks on it is creating extra heat on top of the heater in the tank. Don't know for sure, but it still concerns me. My inkbird is supposed to cut off at at 78.6 and one of the evenings, my water temp got to 80 degrees. I never had this problem in the more mild months and my heater consistently maintained tank temp at 78.6 degrees. Worth keeping an eye on.

Wow, sorry to hear about your heating woes. I completely empathize with you.

It's interesting that there are so many nuances to this hobby that you just don't see from the outside looking in until you've gotten your hands wet. I would have never guessed that the water pump could potentially introduce heat into the system, but it makes sense once you delve into it.

I'm beginning to find that a large part of this journey is understanding what's going on with your own tank and making adjustments as no two tanks are exactly the same. Case in point, we both have Evo 13.5G tanks, but drastically different experiences with heating problems. I am definitely keeping an eye on this issue and have already implemented a potential solution (fingers crossed).

On a lighter note, I'm glad that you enjoy the posts. I am having fun documenting my tank's progression and it beats printing out pictures that I then tape into my journal!

Hopefully, I'll catch up to my tank's current state soon so that my posts are more up-to-date.

 

[HappilyReefing]

Is the tank by a window?

Yes, my tank is about 3.5' away from a bank of windows.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Yes, my tank is about 3.5' away from a bank of windows.

That‘s usually far enough, but could actually be responsible for the overheating. In 2 of my freshwater tanks, I had to remove the heaters because they would routinely overheat due to proximity to the window. They now sit at 74-76 without heating.
That said, you need warmer for a reef so I wouldn’t want to unplug the heater - maybe shade where the tank is?

 

[HappilyReefing]

That‘s usually far enough, but could actually be responsible for the overheating. In 2 of my freshwater tanks, I had to remove the heaters because they would routinely overheat due to proximity to the window. They now sit at 74-76 without heating.
That said, you need warmer for a reef so I wouldn’t want to unplug the heater - maybe shade where the tank is?

I have a fan that I put on the tank that is supposed to be able to bring the temperature down by a degree or two. The tank temperature hasn't gotten high enough again for the fan to turn on so I can see it in action as I just recently put in the fan.

The windows face East so it doesn't really get a lot of sun, just some early morning light and most of that hits the back of the tank where the filtration sits.

I'll have to play it by ear as we get into the warmer months and see what happens. If it still overheats in the summer even with the fan, I may just unplug the heater and let it sit idle over the summer and hope it hovers around the right temperature. I also have a few more ideas on how to cool down the tank if needed.

 

[HappilyReefing]

About 5 days after setting up the quarantine tank, I had my first casualties. The 2 nassarius snails had died. I found the peppermint shrimp picking on them, but they may have already been dead.

I headed back to the LFS for replacements and got another 2 nassarius snails. These were labeled as Tiger Nassarius snails, but they looked different and were much, much larger than the ones before. I was assured that they would dig through the sand and munch on detritus like I wanted. I also purchased an acan lord frag (more on this later).

Back home, I placed the new snails into the quarantine tank, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about them so I did an online search to see what I could find out about Tiger Nassarius snails. Turns out, that is another name for the Babylon (Babylonian) snail and my snails looked exactly like the pictures posted! The reason I was vaguely uneasy about them was that I had read/seen something previously about Babylon snails being bad for the tank, but didn't put two and two together until after I had bought them.

Opinions online differed about whether these snails were compatible with other inverts or not, but just reading a post about these snails being predatory and potentially eating my trochus snails had me freaked out! I couldn't take the stress of having these snails so I returned them to the LFS and got 5 more nassarius snails like the initial ones (although one of them was huge, almost on the same scale as the Babylon snail). I also picked up another little acan frag.

I started worrying about the peppermint shrimp when I saw him hanging out on the egg crate with the corals. At first, I thought he was there for the food. Every time I fed the quarantine tank, he would start picking food out of the acans' mouths. Over time, I noticed that he never went anywhere else in the tank, he always lurked around the corals. He would walk on them and pinch their flesh with his tiny claws. I wasn't sure if this was a natural behavior or not so I started researching peppermint shrimps in depth.

What I discovered was that not all peppermint shrimps are created equal and some are just plain bad news. The first link below was extremely helpful in identifying what type of peppermint shrimp I had. I also found a similar post on R2R.

https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/peppermint-shrimp-identification.3974/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/do-peppermint-shrimps-really-eat-aiptasia.605709/page-2

I was worried that my shrimp was a Lysmata boggessi which eats corals, but in the end decided he was a Lysmata pederseni which is not one of the more aggressive ones. Although, if he's not considered aggressive, I'd hate to see ones that are as he seems pretty aggressive to me! I also stumbled on information that claims all peppermint shrimps will eventually eat acans. Whether that was true or not, I now felt uncomfortable having the peppermint shrimp around the corals based on his behavior so he got rehomed.

From this experience, I've learned to be very picky about what livestock I introduce into my aquarium and to be absolutely certain of it before it goes in.

 

[Sharkbait19]

The initial snails could have starved (or just died due to acclimating badly - snails are pretty sensitive) due to the qt being a new system.

 

[rmorris_14]

The initial snails could have starved (or just died due to acclimating badly - snails are pretty sensitive) due to the qt being a new system.

+1 about possibly starvation. I have to feed my inverts in my QT. My nassarius get frozen reef frenzy about every other day.