New to saltwater tank, starting with Fluval Evo 13.5. Thoughts on this setup?

[islandstonashville]

What do you have stocked in there. I see 2 clowns and a royal gramma? I'm just getting the same tank set up myself and want something really similar.

Yes I have 2 Mocha Storm Clownfish, 1 royal gramma, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp and some CUCs. If i have to decide again, I’ll drop the royal gramma just coz it don’t get along with my clownfishes. I’d prolly get a goby piston shrimp combo.

 

[Parsely]

Yes I have 2 Mocha Storm Clownfish, 1 royal gramma, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp and some CUCs. If i have to decide again, I’ll drop the royal gramma just coz it don’t get along with my clownfishes. I’d prolly get a goby piston shrimp combo.

Amazing, I am very tempted to do something similar, pretty much just a tailspot blenny instead of lawnmower. You find they all fit in there well and its not too much on the bioload?

 

[jfoahs04]

Amazing, I am very tempted to do something similar, pretty much just a tailspot blenny instead of lawnmower. You find they all fit in there well and its not too much on the bioload?

I have a pair of Orange Storm clowns, a tailspot blenny, and a yellow watchman goby and Randall’s pistol shrimp pair (plus a bunch of other inverts) in my 13.5 EVO. Everyone is peaceful and the bioload is very manageable (no skimmer just weekly 20% water changes). That said, I wouldn’t add anything else and without the water changes, I’d be a little concerned about the bioload.

 

[Parsely]

I have a pair of Orange Storm clowns, a tailspot blenny, and a yellow watchman goby and Randall’s pistol shrimp pair (plus a bunch of other inverts) in my 13.5 EVO. Everyone is peaceful and the bioload is very manageable (no skimmer just weekly 20% water changes). That said, I wouldn’t add anything else and without the water changes, I’d be a little concerned about the bioload.

Wow ok, that’s great to hear. I wanted that exact stocking pretty much but thought I would have to pick and choose between them

 

[tydeck]

Tank looks great.

 

[tyrym1234]

you’ll need a new lid if you’re running ai prime. the only changes i’ve made to mine were adding a filter sock to chamber 1 (activated carbon and gfo) and adding a protein skimmer (i carbon dose). i would recommend upgrading stock lights if you want sps or any high preference light coral

Im looking for a sock upgrade for this tank, which attachment did you use?

 

[islandstonashville]

Im looking for a sock upgrade for this tank, which attachment did you use?

I didn’t do a sock upgrade. I bought 3dOcean Media basket. I made chamber one just filter floss and a refugium. then filter medias on 2nd chamber.

 

[islandstonashville]

I’ll be going on a 1 week trip, so I went ahead and purchased me an autofeeder. I hope this works. Also have a wifi camera to monitor the tank and I’ll have a friend come by every now and then to check the tank. Wish me luck!

 

[rmorris_14]

I’ll be going on a 1 week trip, so I went ahead and purchased me an autofeeder. I hope this works. Also have a wifi camera to monitor the tank and I’ll have a friend come by every now and then to check the tank. Wish me luck!

 

[tyrym1234]

I didn’t do a sock upgrade. I bought 3dOcean Media basket. I made chamber one just filter floss and a refugium. then filter medias on 2nd chamber.

I’ve had floss the past which tended to clog easily and the ato in the return chamber would kick on overflowing the tank. I guess replacing it frequently would be the solution…

 

[Steph72]

I’ll be going on a 1 week trip, so I went ahead and purchased me an autofeeder. I hope this works. Also have a wifi camera to monitor the tank and I’ll have a friend come by every now and then to check the tank. Wish me luck!

I love these Evo tanks! My first nano was the exact same tank and it’s a solid setup!

 

[Steph72]

Im looking for a sock upgrade for this tank, which attachment did you use?

The Innovative Marine desktop sock would probably work. I bought the desktop sized UV sterilizer for my Evo 13.5 and it fit in the overflow chamber without me having to rig anything. Here’s a pic but I’m not sure of the exact dimensions of the plastic frame.

 

[RaymondL]

I would say your on the right track. I also have the EVO 13.5 tank and will say its a great tank for those that can keep their saltwater addiction to a smaller scale. One thing I will mention is the Sicce 1.0 with the Hygger is going to make waves in the tank. I had to go with the Sicce .5 and dial back the power setting on the Hygger so it wasn't a tornado in there. Also, placement of the Hygger is key to get a nice reciprocating action in the tank.

The Hygger wavemaker is awesome - where do you place your's? I have it set to 40%, which I think is ample.

 

[RaymondL]

it’s the Acker on Amazon. good price too about $20.

I can't find it....can you please post.

 

[tydeck]

The Hygger wavemaker is awesome - where do you place your's? I have it set to 40%, which I think is ample.

Love my hygger wm is awesome. Mine is centered on the bad wall. up high.
Keep it at 40%. Use a eheim compact 1000 as my return. One head fires into the hyggers flow

 

[SteveMac84]

So here’s my probably unpopular take on heaters. I don’t think you need an Inkbird on this tank. Don’t get me wrong, I love Inkbird and I’ve used Inkbird in larger tanks. But on my EVO with its tiny rear chambers and all sorts of stuff in them, I instead use two cheap, small 25 watt heaters. My reasoning is that it’s too easy for one or both probes to be inadvertently knocked out or slip above the waterline and cause a misread.

The 25 watt heaters are strong enough together to maintain 78 degrees. If one fails on, it’s not strong enough to cause the temp to rise too quickly. If it fails off, the second heater will keep the temp from dropping too quickly. So there’s a margin for error on either end.

You could use the inkbird with dual heaters for redundancy, but I don’t. And again, I think my opinion is probably an unpopular one, so take it with a grain of salt. But that’s what I do.

I have a 50w heater and an Amazon temp reading and warning display. Perfect for this tank. Inkbird on my main tank for sure.

 

[SteveMac84]

Post Reef-a-palooza haul. Bought me some new lights and some zoas. Now I need to get a jumpguard.

Stunning

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I’ll be going on a 1 week trip, so I went ahead and purchased me an autofeeder. I hope this works. Also have a wifi camera to monitor the tank and I’ll have a friend come by every now and then to check the tank. Wish me luck!

Tank looks great, any recent update on it?