VTBig053’s Fluval EVO 13.5

[VTBig053]

Yep, another EVO 13.5 build thread. I’ve been posting on here since January, figured it was time to start a build thread. This tank has actually been up and running for a little over a year now (March 2017 established). In November 2017 I rescaped and decided to try running this as an SPS dominant system. It’s been alot of trial and error but I feel like things are really settling in now. I’ve dealt with all sorts of algae but thankfully nothing that I wasn’t able to handle.

I’ve kept a few freshwater tanks in the past but this is my first saltwater tank. My wife asked me what I wanted for birthday last year and I said a new fish tank and a few days later I unwrapped this tank. I don’t think she had any idea what she was letting me get into.

Anyway, here is the tank set up and a bunch of crappy cell phone pics.

Tank: Fluval EVO 13.5
Ligting: 2x AI Prime HD
Chamber 1: InTank media basket - Filter floss > Purigen > ChemiPure Elite
Chamber 2: InTank media basket with Chaeto and LED plant grow light on reverse photoperiod (photos below)
Chamber 3: Cobalt NeoTherm 50W heater and Sicce Syncra Silent 0.5 return pump
Rock: 7-8 lbs of Real Reef Rock
Sand: 10 lbs of CaribSea AragAlive
Dosing/additives: 8 mL/day equal parts ESV B-ionic two part via Jebao DP-4
Routine Maintenance: weekly ~30%, thorough vacuuming of the sandbed and cleaning out back chambers.

Water:
SG - 1.026
Alk - 7.8 dKH
Ca - 425 ppm
Mg - 1400 ppm
NO3 - 0-1 ppm
PO4 - 0-0.03 ppm
Temp - 78.5 F

Livestock:
1 picasso percula clown
1 oscellaris clown
1 purple fire fish
1 astrea snail
1 turbo snail
1 trochus snail
Breeding population of cerith snails
Breeding population of limpets
2 hermit crabs
Assorted species of Acropora, Montipora, LPS, Palys, (photos of my favorites below)
2 rock flower anemones
1 derasa clam

FTS from 30 March

Rainbow Acan

Sunny D’s (this isn’t a great photo, they’ve really colored up since)

Aussie Highlighter Acro

Picasso Perc

RMF Acid Trip Mille

Myagi Tort

Pink Lemonade

Blue Sarmentosa

Derasa (Clambo Slice) with guest appearances from red micromussa, both RFAs, blue and orange ricordea, and duncan coral

JF Burnin’ Banana Acro

WWC Heartbreaker

FHC Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

FHC Hotzone Mille

Appleberry Monti

RFA - red skirt with striped blue and green disc

 

[VTBig053]

More photo dump...

Red Micromussa saying “Feed Me!”

Astrea Snail with a small fan worm living in its shell

Rainbow Micromussa colony

WWC Whiskey Tango Acro Frag

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Wow, nice little tank!

What made you decide to go with two AI Prime HD's?

I've got one over my EVO and have to keep it turned down to <50%

 

[VTBig053]

Wow, nice little tank!

What made you decide to go with two AI Prime HD's?

I've got one over my EVO and have to keep it turned down to <50%

Thanks!

Better spread/more available realty for SPS. When I eventually upgrade to a larger tank I plan to utilize the Primes for a LED/T5 hybrid set up, so it was an investment also.

Ugh, didn't realize how blurry/big these cell phone pics rendered on PC. I really need to get a better camera....

No one look at my thread unless you are on mobile!

 

[VTBig053]

Short blurry blue video of my tank....



Please excuse the cyano on the sand bed. It’s made a comeback in the areas where the clam blocks flow.

The little picasso clown killed my standard oscellaris during the night earlier this week. It's really strange because the occy was bigger than the picasso and actually the one doing the regular clown "bullying". I never saw anything that seemed overly aggressive between the two fish, but neither fish ever did the submission shuffle to the other either, so perhaps I should have seen this coming. Definitely a bummer, I guess its a one clown tank from now on.

I replaced the Jebao SW-2 with an Aqamai KPS yesterday. I have chosen to run the SPS max 200l preset program. I would think this is way too much flow for the tank since the higher end of the settings but it seems to be a good amount for the SPS and not bothering the clam, so I will stick with it for the time being. Anyone else using this pump have any tips for setting a program? I had no problem connecting the app and pump but the settings in the app aren't as intuitive as I had hoped, or maybe I'm just dumb, lol.

 

[Tyler Bullock]

Can you send me what your AI prime settings are?

 

[VTBig053]

Can you send me what your AI prime settings are?

Hey, sorry I totally forgot to share these with you after I saw your question initially. I’ll post my current settings up later tonight.

It also appears I’ve totally forgotten to update my build thread in quite some time. I’ll try to get something posted this weekend.

In the meantime, the use of the chamber 2 InTank Media basket as a chaeto fuge came up in another user build thread so I will share the photos of mine here for those that are interested. It works pretty well, a little too well at times if I am not careful. I have to cut the fuge photo period pretty short at night in order to keep nitrate detectable. I covered the individual diodes of the LED plant light with electrical tape because they were so strong they were burning the chaeto. The ambient light that makes it around the tape is plenty to keep the chaeto growing.

 

[motownjc]

I am thinking a out doing this in mine how do you like it?

 

[Crazeh]

Tank looks great - don't think I've seen that many corals in an EVO before, and you have a good aquascape for it too.

Just seen your post from April - I lost one of my perc clowns (also in an EVO) through the same means - smallest one bullied the largest. I first noticed the bullying and 30 hours later it was too late Hoping to introduce another clown in the future, but letting my current one grow out for 6 months or so before trying to introduce a juvenile.

 

[Ellery]

Just curious if this system is still up or not? I have a 500g 6 tank system but picked up a Fluval 13.5 recently as a side project.