New Reefer, New to Me Fluval Evo

[3sgterror]

On to the next update.

As I prepare for other upgrades and waiting for this thing to cycle, I have more time to kill. I've decided to go with a AI Prime for my lighting. With that I wanted a cover for the back sump area so that part wasn't completely open and I could hide some wires. I wasn't happy with some of the on-market varieties, especially how high they sit, so I pulled up Fusion 360 and created a rough idea of what I wanted.


In the end, I needed to make a few tweaks as the first go I printed out didn't sit right and the alignment guides were pushed too far in. After adjusting from the first iteration, I ended up with this:



Unfortunately, by print bed couldn't accommodate the full size needed, so I had to cut the model in half and join after the fact. I started off by just using super glue, but because it is so thin, there wasn't a lot of surface area to bond. So I cracked out the soldering iron and hot welded it together. Basically this is just remelting some of the plastic and joining it together that way.



The underside is ugly but the top turned out okay....at least enough for my purpose.



I didn't heat the top at al, just re-omelted the bottom and sides, however, the top did warp some from distortion, but again, I'll soon forget about it. And here is the final product installed. Fits like a glove, and has all the ports I will need. I have a bigger cutout for all my wires (pump, heater, temp sensor, and eventually AI light) and one smaller cut out for an optical sensor wire and ATO tubing. Both cutouts in the return chamber. Also there is a cutout in the middle for the AI light bracket when I get one.

By the way, salt creep on this thing with the lid attached is a nightmare. All the condensation just creeps outside the lid. I can't wait to get rid of this in favor of the AI Prime.

 

[namfuak]

I feel you on the salt creep. I kept the original/lights on mine and even added two 12" actinic reef bars to the inside, but could only deal with the salt creep for a month or so and then ordered an acrylic lid and AI Prime.

The only thing I liked about the stock lid was that the tank was completely lit from the inside. The light spread from this Prime irritates me.

 

[3sgterror]

Well the good news is that I am finally seeing the nitrite spike in the cycle. At the moment I am about 2 and a half weeks into it. The nitrite test started showing some results about 2 days ago, but it really spiked since then.

Ammonia came down and Nitrates increased also, in conjunction with the nitrite spike. Hopefully this phase of the cycle doesn't last another two weeks! I'm excited to get some fish in here soon.

New plan is to move this tank from my basement to my son's room as an early Christmas present!

 

[BaysEndReef]

Looks great! Love all of the upgrades!! Following!

 

[3sgterror]

Big Update.......What a couple fast paced days this has been. I was looking for something on Offerup and came across what I wanted locally. Went over to pick it up and the seller had a reef tank also.

To my benefit, they were in a bind. They were moving out of state Monday and had no one to care for their tank or take in any of the livestock. I'm not sure what paths they took to find someone, but the tank was immaculate so I assume they cared for their fish.

I mentioned that I was in the mist of cycling my tank and wished that I could take in all of the livestock but we left it at that. I came back home, posted to an emergency post to see if it was possible and got varying responses on if it was safe or not.

I decided to give it a chance and was able to take all of the previous owners live rock, bio balls, water, etc. I drained my tank and removed all of my rock that was still cycling. Temporarily placed his rock in and filled with his water. Brought everything back up to temp and acclimated the livestock, just to be safe.

Its been 24 hours now and everything seems happy and healthy. I am continuing to monitor everything and make sure they are okay with the move. I have been running ammonia tests every couple of hours just to check and make sure there are no spikes. I have dosed Seachem Prime and stability to help with everything also.

I had no intention of stocking this soon and maybe it is still early to tell, but everything seems happy and is taking food just fine. I still need to arrange the rock better and may replace with mine once it is done cycling. In the meantime, I have placed my rock into another container and I am continuing the curing there.

The Hippo Tang will be posted on R2R or taken to a LFS as the Evo is not big enough for him. I am going to post today but if I don't get responses by days end, I will most likely take him in. I don't want to leave him in this small tank.

 

[revhtree]

Wow looking great!

 

[3sgterror]

Alright got a couple updates and upgrades for my build.

After letting everything settle in for a couple of days, I decided to rearrange the rock work a little better. I was able to build a little archway and cave setup with the rock. I was able to get a little piece of GSP off the one rock and glued it to the back wall. I'm looking forward to that back wall being covered in GSP. I also might try to peel of the GSP from the rock and attach the whole piece to the back wall. It would also free up more room for more torches!



I also decided to move the tank from my basement to my son's room as he grew a fascination with it all. I was able to pick up this cabinet off amazon. I added an AI prime that I found for sale locally. The stand is great because it has a sliding door on one side and 3 drawers on the other. My plain is to house the reef-pi build on the top open shelf and then my rodi / ATO on the bottom shelf. The drawers will be used for chemicals/equipment/etc.



Originally I had the torch front and center as that is my favorite piece, but I think it was getting too much flow as the water whipped around the rock. I noticed what looked like the tentacles pulling up off of the skeleton so I shifted some things around and put it in the back corner.

Now the tentacles move in a much softer flow and hopefully this injury heals up some.

 

[3sgterror]

With the new stand comes some additional upgrades and a new addition to the tank. I decided I wanted to go another direction with the reef-pi build just due to having less space on top of the cabinet ( I can only really fit the tank). Since the screen is always on, I needed a way to hide the light coming from it so as not to keep my son up at night.

Door closed:


Door open:


Screen rotated out for easy viewing and operation:


When all is said and done, I just fold it back in and close the door. I also added another temp probe to the controller for ambient air temp. With my ATO to be here soon, I have some ideas instore for that also.

 

[3sgterror]

I was searching through local craigslist adds and I cam also a fellow reefer selling some hammers.

I traded him one of my zoa rocks for one of his hammers.

What I traded:


What I got:


This hammer is awesome. Its two heads at the moment, but one head is splitting into two and the other head is splitting into 3. So hopefully in the near future, it will be 5 total heads.

 

[3sgterror]

Its been a while since I posted any updates, but I have since added some anemones (a black widow and a sherman). Also added what I was told was a JF Raunchy Red Bounce, that came free with my black widow!

I went through a little bout of what I think was brown jelly. It took both of my torches and a blasto. Everything seems to be doing fine now and the hammer has grew so much.

I've also setup another tank in the meantime (Red Sea e260). Just started adding corals to that tank, but I did move some items over to that tank, namely my GSP rock.

 

[3sgterror]

Have had a bit of Cyano issues lately. but using my Hanna checkers to get them more in line.

I am still using Nyos for Nitrate 25ppm.....but my Hanna Checker for PO4 has come in really handy. My PO4 is high right now at .76.

I'm using GFO to bring it down

 

[GoReefin]

Looking great ! Love the new stand