RickyMcG
Community Member
The Backstory
I’ve had aquariums on and off since I was 10, which is to say: 50 years. All freshwater except for a brief foray into a 50 gal fish-only SW that was too big for the space it was in and a 5 gal pico with a few coral and a shrimp (can’t recall why that one came down; likely I was too busy at the time).
The kids are grown, we sold the house, bought a townhouse three years ago and now, somehow, I managed to convince my wife that a reef tank would look great in the nook by the dining room. Her two requests: the tank has to stay “clean” and the stand can’t be ugly.
Our space (and my budget) is small so I bought a Fluval Evo 13.5, a nice-looking, affordable cabinet from Wayfair and have taken the dive.
Hardware
Observations, More Mods and SNAFUs
The tank runs hot (81-82). I’m sure it’s a combination of the closed lid/light, heat from the power head and effects of the JBJ fuge light (which runs at night on a timer). The heat is supposed to be good for cycling and propagating coralline, but nobody else will want to live in there.
Since I believe the main culprit is the lid—and I planned on eventually going rimless and upgrading the light to an AI Prime HD—I bought a Prime last week and set it up Friday night. Totally love it. Except Saturday morning it bit the dust: status light blinks red and no amount of soft or hard rebooting will fix it. Grrr! Will find out today who’s going to replace it, Marine Depot or AquaIllumination.
I also wonder about the flow in chamber two. It kinda sucks. The inTank insert is great at forcing water into the bottom of the second chamber, but the top looks stagnant. Also, the water level in the DT has to be pretty high in order to have decent flow over the top of the intake to chamber one. Not sure what I’m going to do about that yet.
Beyond that, things are going pretty well. The chaeto appears to be growing. The tank’s got diatoms and the rocks have spots of green algae, a couple of small patches of hair algae and, I’m thrilled to report, about 5 small purple dots of (what I’m hoping is) coralline from the Purple Helix (these seem to be multiplying) - see the red arrows in the pic.
Next Steps
The overall plan is to have mostly coral, some inverts and a few fish. I’m thinking maybe I can stock it up to five fish over the long haul, depending on how the chemistry shakes out.
I’m considering starting with a very small clean-up crew, one fish and one coral. I’m fairly certain the balance of bacteria will support that, since one dose of ammonia (20 eyedrops) results in about 20ppm nitrate in a day (would love feedback on this).
Since I’m new(ish) to this, I’m planning on “easy” livestock. Don’t know about the coral or inverts yet, but here’s the initial fish list, from which I’ll narrow things down:
Nothing’s going to change for a few weeks though, since I won’t be around much to attend to anything. I guess it’s good to wait anyway. I’ve read time and again that this hobby is all about patience—and figuring out where the next $100+ will be spent.
I’ve had aquariums on and off since I was 10, which is to say: 50 years. All freshwater except for a brief foray into a 50 gal fish-only SW that was too big for the space it was in and a 5 gal pico with a few coral and a shrimp (can’t recall why that one came down; likely I was too busy at the time).
The kids are grown, we sold the house, bought a townhouse three years ago and now, somehow, I managed to convince my wife that a reef tank would look great in the nook by the dining room. Her two requests: the tank has to stay “clean” and the stand can’t be ugly.
Our space (and my budget) is small so I bought a Fluval Evo 13.5, a nice-looking, affordable cabinet from Wayfair and have taken the dive.
Hardware
- Fluval Evo 13.5
- Stock pump (for now)
- Cobalt Aquatics 50w Neo-Therm heater
- Hydor Coralia Nano 240 power head
- Fluval LED Lamp Timer
- Belkin 8-Outlet power strip in the cabinet
- DIY water station made from
- A Vittles Vault food container
- Rain-barrel bulkhead
- Fluval heater
- Cheap power head
- Wire stacking shelf
- inTank Chamber One and Two inserts
- JBJ Refugium light over chamber two (for a refugium)
- Ditched the Fluval sponge and media in favor of filter floss and three MarinePure balls in chamber one (will eventually toss some carbon in there)
- 16-17 lbs base rock from ARC Reef
- Red Sea Coral Pro salt
- 1 bottle Purple Helix from ARC Reef (which had 3 small pieces of aragonite with purple coral on them - you can see these in the pics)
- 1 cup Chaeto in the refugium
Observations, More Mods and SNAFUs
The tank runs hot (81-82). I’m sure it’s a combination of the closed lid/light, heat from the power head and effects of the JBJ fuge light (which runs at night on a timer). The heat is supposed to be good for cycling and propagating coralline, but nobody else will want to live in there.
Since I believe the main culprit is the lid—and I planned on eventually going rimless and upgrading the light to an AI Prime HD—I bought a Prime last week and set it up Friday night. Totally love it. Except Saturday morning it bit the dust: status light blinks red and no amount of soft or hard rebooting will fix it. Grrr! Will find out today who’s going to replace it, Marine Depot or AquaIllumination.
I also wonder about the flow in chamber two. It kinda sucks. The inTank insert is great at forcing water into the bottom of the second chamber, but the top looks stagnant. Also, the water level in the DT has to be pretty high in order to have decent flow over the top of the intake to chamber one. Not sure what I’m going to do about that yet.
Beyond that, things are going pretty well. The chaeto appears to be growing. The tank’s got diatoms and the rocks have spots of green algae, a couple of small patches of hair algae and, I’m thrilled to report, about 5 small purple dots of (what I’m hoping is) coralline from the Purple Helix (these seem to be multiplying) - see the red arrows in the pic.
Next Steps
The overall plan is to have mostly coral, some inverts and a few fish. I’m thinking maybe I can stock it up to five fish over the long haul, depending on how the chemistry shakes out.
I’m considering starting with a very small clean-up crew, one fish and one coral. I’m fairly certain the balance of bacteria will support that, since one dose of ammonia (20 eyedrops) results in about 20ppm nitrate in a day (would love feedback on this).
Since I’m new(ish) to this, I’m planning on “easy” livestock. Don’t know about the coral or inverts yet, but here’s the initial fish list, from which I’ll narrow things down:
- Yellow Clown Goby
- Barnacle Blenny
- Pair of Clowns (I think these might be a requirement, though opinions vary on keeping them in a tank this small)
- Firefish
- Pygmy Wrasse
- Hi Fin Goby
- Yasha Haze Goby
- Greenbanded Goby
Nothing’s going to change for a few weeks though, since I won’t be around much to attend to anything. I guess it’s good to wait anyway. I’ve read time and again that this hobby is all about patience—and figuring out where the next $100+ will be spent.
as far as your question, your clean up crew list looks good. I'd get the crew in there and see how the tank handles it before adding a fish (just in the event of an odd nutrient spike). But a firefish is a great first addition 
