WW's Fluval Evo 13.5 Build

[Willow Way]

After about a 12 year hiatus I am back into the hobby, previously had budget 5.5 that I had for about a year that I took down once I started getting busy with college. It was mostly just the cheapest frags I could find locally, but still learned a lot and had a ton of fun with.

Recently got the itch again, and after some dangerous browsing on marketplace I found a used Evo that came with some essentials along with an AI Prime 16hd for 200$. Unable to say no to a bargain I picked it up and here we are. Last weekend I picked up some sand, rock, got it up and cycling on 6/30. I've been indecisive with the rock layout so far...



As it currently stands:


While I love the look of minimalist rock set-ups, I primarily designed it knowing I wanted a Tailspot Blenny and wanted to provide as many crevices/hiding spots as possible to help them feel secure. I am not 100% happy with how little negative space I have, also its taller than I would like in the context of adding coral, but i've got plenty of time to tinker while cycling. If anyone has any suggestions totally open to feedback!

Equipment:
Fluval Evo 13.5g
Eheim 50w heater
Tunze nano ATO

Lighting
Ai Prime 16HD

Filtration/Flow
Eheim Compacton 1000 return pump, w/ dual outlets
Seachem matrix bio media
Filter floss
RO/DI unit
(leaving out the skimmer that came with after research)

Future upgrades:
media basket for filtration chamber 1 to help with flow and give options for adding purigen or carbon later down the road.
Wavemaker?

Future stocking ideas:
Tailspot blenny, neon goby, and maybe a pgymy wrasse. honorable mentions: Royal gramma, yellow clown goby, firefish. Inverts will just stick to snails and cleaner shrimp, and maybe sexy shrimp with a maximini carpet nem.

Coral wise I've always enjoyed seeing builds with a dominant species, but ultimately I love the flow LPS give, and the colors a well planned zoa garden can provide. With the small water volume and wanting to keep it simple I don't think i'll be doing any SPS, but those sticks are cool.

Its been wet and cycling since 6/30. I started with 14lbs dry rock, and 15lbs of carab-sea live sand. I wanted to start with live rock as the idea of seeing live starting from week 1 from the micro fauna is so exciting to me, but the LFS didnt have any to sell (or any he wanted to sell to me when requested). So instead I was sold some microbacter m7 and a bottle of ammonia. It took a few hours reading the bottles did I realize they sold me the dormant bacteria instead of the live quickstart kind. I dosed to 4ppm ammonia on 7/1 and started following the direction on the m7 bottle in the meantime and will have the live bacteria in a few days.

I'm just using API test kit and as of 7/4 my parameters are:
pH: 8.0-8.4
Ammonia: 2
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate 0
Salinity 1.026

Looking at the trends, the ammonia is going down and finally got some nitrites to register. Today I also had my first sign life, green algae growing along the sand and glass! If you notice in the 4th photo it is set as a peninsula and gets sunlight from a large west facing window. I had a hunch it was too much sunlight in this phase of the cycle, so i've covered the glass with cardboard to hopefully minimize the ugly phase.

Current plan is to start dosing some microbacter xlm in the following days, and will continue to dose the m7 for the first two weeks, following the directions of the bottle. I still would'nt mind sourcing a small piece of live rock for the biodiversity and microfauna, but maybe I just buy some pods and brittle stars individually down the road.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Congrats on the new Evo tank!

I'm curious, why did you opt not to use the skimmer? Is there something wrong with it? If nothing else, a skimmer is a great way to add gas exchange to your system, so while you don't *need* a skimmer to have a successful tank, if you have one on hand, it might be a good idea to use it.

Adding real live rock is always a good idea, in my opinion, and you can add it pretty much anytime once your ammonia goes down a little further. It's not cheap, but arguably the best you can get is the maricultured live rock and sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater. They sell small "treasure chest" packages that would be a great size for your tank, like their "The Jar" package, and they are delivered by UPS right to your door:
https://tbsaltwater.com/collections/treasure-chests
As far as the bacteria, the only product I know that works very, very quickly is Fritz TurboStart, which can cycle a tank in as little as a few days. Most other products, including the Microbacter products, tend to take about three weeks to cycle. So if you're in a hurry, go with the Fritz product or just be a little more patient.

And just if it helps, in saltwater tanks nitrite is non-toxic, and nothing to worry about. You don't need to wait for the nitrite to zero out, just watch for the ammonia to go down to about 0.25 ppm or so on your API test kit, and you should be safe to start slowly stocking some hardy livestock

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Fish Fan]

Oh, and as a suggestion, take a look at some Rock Flower Anemone for that tank. They are super colorful, easy to keep, look great in smaller tanks, and go very well with Sexy Shrimp

 

[Willow Way]

I'm curious, why did you opt not to use the skimmer? Is there something wrong with it?

This was mostly based by vibes -- the skimmer that come with the kit was not maintained very well and quite dirty. Also I looked at my 10 favorite Fluval builds on forums / youtube and none of them used skimmers. Seems most builds stated the tanks too small for it to benefit.

That jar from tampa bay looks like a good idea!

I figured Microbacter puts money into their research and mix and maxing brands wouldn't follow their internal guidelines, so i guess i've got some accidental brand loyalty. I'll be going on a week vacation end of july, so I dont mind being a little patient. The goal will be adding some fish by august. But I wouldn't mind some inverts before then, we shall see.

Love the suggestion for the rock flower anemone!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Willow Way]

Genuinely can't believe I've never noticed this until now, but there is the chip in the corner here...

It's seems to be completely be the exterior, it's been full of water, rock, and sand for over a week now and I assume it's always been there. It doesn't seem to involve any of the silicone, but either way it doesn't give me warm fuzzys feelings.

Anyone else experienced in chips/cracks? From what I've seen online most people just say it's not worth the risk. I'm curious given the base of these EVOs isn't exactly flush with the glass and how much pressure is at that point.

Thanks all

 

[Willow Way]

Went on a 4 day vacation, and came back to:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 2
Nitrate 10

Found another saltwater store near me and got 1.5lbs of live rock... Looks like the arc is a little less lopsided now....

I made a reddit post about the chip and got a response of 3 people to get a new tank, and 5 people to say that it's "probably fine". I think we will be moving out of this apartment in a year so maybe I just risk it for now and upgrade once I get into a new place. In the meantime will probably get some UV resin and epoxy to throw on the chip in the meantime.

July 18th a local store is doing a customer appreciation with some promotions, provided my cycle is done by then I'll be adding some inhabitants at that time. Was thinking a light CUC and maybe some cheap frags for now. Who knows maybe they will have a tank on sale

 

[Willow Way]

Ammonia and nitrites 0, nitrates been hovering around 5-10 for a couple of days, LFS had a sale going on and I picked up the first additions and a couple more test kits.
Alk: 8.6
Calcium: 520+
Phosphates: 0

New additions include:
Emerald Crab x1
Trochus snail x2
Astrea Snail x1

3 unknown zoa's
small frag of gsp
Pink hammer coral

Also picked up some pods to seed and phytoplankton to feed them with.

So far placed the frags on the sand bed until i get some glue and learn how to cut them off the plugs.

The hammer seems a little ambitious as a "beginner" in this newer sytem, but end goal I think i'd love for this to be LPS dominate with a nice zoa garden. Also I got the 3 head frag for 40$, how could I say no??

Also lesson learned today was to turn off the ATO during the entire process as I didnt notice it filling back up as I was losing water during the drip acclimation of the inverts. Thankfully the tank was a bit on the higher side of 1.026 so all good there.

To do: Close the hole to the middle reservoir, and learn how to program this AI prime, also I suppose I am due for the first water change as well soon...