Fluval Evo 13.5

[irishgirl81]

Just looking for a best practice/suggestion.
Recently cycled for 7 weeks with live rock. Water was pristine looking. Some hair algae hanging around but thats about it. Added a clown and a clean up crew on Saturday evening and now this afternoon it appears I have a diatom bloom. Am I cycling again?
Also, went to a different LFS where I was told I should be running a Eheim canister filter and that the filter in this tank is garbage. So of course I've been researching, but I'm not sure how to feel. Do I really need a canister? Should I switch to one of these fancy InTank things I see you guys talking about? Should I just keep doing what I'm doing? Just feeling overwhelmed! Any suggestions welcome!

 

[FishyFishFish]

The included 'filter' is just a crappy sponge that will get filled with detritus, which I would get rid of.

The filter section itself is fine - you don't need a canister filter. The InTank media basket is nice (I have one) but it's just something to put the filter media on; you can make something similar out of egg crate for much less money if you prefer. I started with just filter floss in the basket. I subsequently added some Seachem Matrix as biomedia for quick cycling of a second tank if I need one running in a hurry. I have also just added some carbon as I already had it, but I don't need it yet.

My tank has been running for about 2 months and I also have diatoms and a little bit of algae too, but I'm just sitting it out as it's not too bad.

I have clean-up-crew (I would get some if you don't have any yet), 3 hermit crabs, a couple of sexy shrimp and a few corals. My first fish (a Sharknose goby) is in quarantine for another 5 weeks.

It sounds like yours is pretty normal so far.


Oh, and welcome to R2R!