One FNG vs Fluval Evo Sea 52L

[Ritual]

After many years of freshwater tanks, I've managed to convince the wife that it's time to take on a marine tank for our lounge. We recently bought our own house, and don't plan on going anywhere for a while! Space is somewhat limited, so I've gone with a smaller tank. I understand the issues that come with keeping a smaller tank in balance, and accept that challenge.

I like to think I've done a lot of reading over the years, but none of that will come close to the knowledge gained by doing and trying, so here we go...

27/01/18 - Tank purchased.

We had to drive for almost an hour each way to a store that had one of these in stock, they are on sale with the skimmer thrown in so it was worth it. Some reading online said the skimmer was noisy, but I run a full rack server in my office upstairs so we're used to background noise in our house... Not an issue!

We also needed something to keep it on, and found a great looking SUPER sturdy old cabinet second hand... We took an additional 45 minute detour to pick this up at the same time.

Got home and set it up. Unboxing was a delight, the instructions were okay - could be better. I have a piece left over that I'm not sure what it's for! Everything seems fine though, so who knows.

 

[Ritual]

28/01/2018 - Substrate, rock, water.

We went back to the local store to get premixed salt water, substrate and rock. I picked out two pieces of rock that I thought looked interesting and may get another in future.

Substrate is a medium grain sandy rock. Not live sand, but I liked how it looked.

Even with a was on the substrate the water was super cloudy once it all got added. I threw in some temporary cabling because I need a longer extension cable, which is ordered. Also threw in an extra heater to get the water up to temperature before adding the live rock.

Currently a mess!

Cable safety means nothing here. Good job it's temporary! Within a couple of hours the water was up to temperate and I added the live rock.

By morning it had cleared a good deal.

 

[Ritual]

29/01/2018 - First visitor spotted!

This little guy appeared in the tank as our first visible inhabitant. Not sure what it is. He moved about and seems to have settled in the shade there.

 

[Ritual]

30/10/2018 - Brittle star fish sighted and the water is crystal clear now the sand has settled.

I've ordered a magnetic cleaner to get rid of the last bit of sand residue of the glass inside and get rid of the pesky bubbles. It was exciting seeing the star fish this evening when I turned on the light they all ran and hid.

 

[Mikedawg]

After many years of freshwater tanks, I've managed to convince the wife that it's time to take on a marine tank for our lounge. We recently bought our own house, and don't plan on going anywhere for a while! Space is somewhat limited, so I've gone with a smaller tank. I understand the issues that come with keeping a smaller tank in balance, and accept that challenge.

I like to think I've done a lot of reading over the years, but none of that will come close to the knowledge gained by doing and trying, so here we go...

27/01/18 - Tank purchased.

We had to drive for almost an hour each way to a store that had one of these in stock, they are on sale with the skimmer thrown in so it was worth it. Some reading online said the skimmer was noisy, but I run a full rack server in my office upstairs so we're used to background noise in our house... Not an issue!

We also needed something to keep it on, and found a great looking SUPER sturdy old cabinet second hand... We took an additional 45 minute detour to pick this up at the same time.

Got home and set it up. Unboxing was a delight, the instructions were okay - could be better. I have a piece left over that I'm not sure what it's for! Everything seems fine though, so who knows.

Good start; you'll enjoy reefing. If "left over" piece is black flat plastic about 3" long and has two fins, it hooks into your surface skimmer intake and is for setting the level for entering water.

Nice tank and you'll find a lot of recommendations for modifications on this forum. The PS 2 protein skimmer can be challenging to set up, but it is worth the trouble. BTW, I set my water level about half-way up the grid lines and it seemed to be the right depth for the skimmer.

 

[Ritual]

Good start; you'll enjoy reefing. If "left over" piece is black flat plastic about 3" long and has two fins, it hooks into your surface skimmer intake and is for setting the level for entering water.

Nice tank and you'll find a lot of recommendations for modifications on this forum. The PS 2 protein skimmer can be challenging to set up, but it is worth the trouble. BTW, I set my water level about half-way up the grid lines and it seemed to be the right depth for the skimmer.

Thanks very much for the tips, I will mess with it and see how it goes. Currently it seems to frothing up, but not bubbling anything up into the cup itself - which I would probably expect due to nothing really being in there to cause anything for it to skim.

 

[Ritual]

Looks like the light has died. Turned it on this morning and it was on for about 45 minutes then went out and now won't turn on again.

I've got in touch with Fluval support, hopefully they can get a new one to me quickly.