SETTING UP MY FLUVAL EVO 13.5! (PICTURES AND VIDEO)

[brett_schn]

Ok cool thanks. I’m considering 2 of the 425 with controller for sps in my tank

 

[brett_schn]

Oh! And if anyone was wondering what the back chamber looks like here it is, you can see the sponge, heater, and return pump. also, I'm really disappointed in the design of the back chamber, the water flows directly to the sponge with no place to put filter floss, so debris will get stuck there and I'll have to clean it out.... and I don't want to fork out 60 bucks to buy an in tank media basket. I'm thinking of filling up the first compartment with marine pure balls and then placing filter floss on top of them. What do you guys think?

Make a media basket with egg crates and zip ties

 

[Maddlesrain]

I'm in Colorado as well! I'm down near the Boulder area though.

Sorry about your bad lfs experience. I've had similar treatment, especially when I was younger, and it's a major turn-off from supporting a business for sure.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Those Koralia Nano pumps are really nice. I have the 240 in my tank.

@Timothy Ahn Save up for the intank media basket. Maybe go cut the neighbors grass, ask for it for birthday or Christmas...? I have one for my IM 14g Peninsula(very similar to your tank size) and I love it. I use one of those bonded white and blue filter pads in the top and I had purigen and chemipure elite in the middle and bottom, but I lost my fish and the tank is fallow for five more weeks. It stripped all my nutrients because I wasn't feeding anything. SPS started to fade, so I removed everything but the filter pad and I'm feeding the corals now. When I stock the tank again I'll slowly add carbon and gfo.

 

[brett_schn]

Those Koralia Nano pumps are really nice. I have the 240 in my tank.

@Timothy Ahn Save up for the intank media basket. Maybe go cut the neighbors grass, ask for it for birthday or Christmas...? I have one for my IM 14g Peninsula(very similar to your tank size) and I love it. I use one of those bonded white and blue filter pads in the top and I had purigen and chemipure elite in the middle and bottom, but I lost my fish and the tank is fallow for five more weeks. It stripped all my nutrients because I wasn't feeding anything. SPS started to fade, so I removed everything but the filter pad and I'm feeding the corals now. When I stock the tank again I'll slowly add carbon and gfo.

Or he could make it like I suggested with egg crate and zip ties. My $.02 on how to save money

 

[Timothy Ahn]

UPDATE: Eating tacos and staring at my empty fish tank

 

[Mandrew]

At least those rocks are pretty looking!

 

[Timothy Ahn]

UPDATE: I'm seeing some definite algae growth throughout the tank but especialy on one spot where there's some kind of organic matter, some kind of marine plant or macro algae... it looks like the growth is cyano. Can anyone back this up or have some other identifications?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Looks like hair algae or diatoms. A few turbo snails should take care of it.

 

[Timothy Ahn]

Looks like hair algae or diatoms. A few turbo snails should take care of it.

Thanks! I'm just hoping that all the algae will die within a week or two as the cycle finishes.

 

[Timothy Ahn]

UPDATE: hey guys! Haven't posted in a while... probably because not much happening until today! I spent some time dog walking and baby sitting to get some extra cash to buy some flirtation media and an in tank media basket! Today everything was delivered and I set everything up. For filtration, I got chemipure blue, seachem purigen, and two quarts of the marine pure spheres.I installed the chamber one media basket with a sponge cut out to fit on the top, the chemipure blue in the middle rack, and the purigen in the bottom rack along with some extra marine pure. Cycle is done!! Today I'm going to do a water change a buy a Wyoming white tomorrow. Pictures below.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Nice! Be sure and show us that clown. You gonna get a pair or just one?

 

[Timothy Ahn]

Nice! Be sure and show us that clown. You gonna get a pair or just one?

Definitely wanting to get a pair, but right now I can only afford one. I also think it will be better to only put one clown in for now, to help build the bio load slowly before I put in another one so I don't shock the bacterial population which could result in a bacterial bloom.

 

[Mandrew]

Tank looks good! It's tempting for me to go buy that one at a store here in towb

 

[Timothy Ahn]

Tank looks good! It's tempting for me to go buy that one at a store here in towb

It's not the best design, but definitely an awesome price for an AIO.

 

[Timothy Ahn]

UPDATE: today I scraped the black honeycomb print on the rims of the tank. The honeycomb was very fragile and came off easily so I just went ahead and took it off. A friend from middle school who is now in college gave me his ai prime hd! I set the controls up with my phone and it's a really awesome light. The tank ended up not being fully cycled with about .05 ppm of residual ammonia so I'm going to wait about 1 more week before anything exciting goes in . Here are some pics of the setup.

 

[Timothy Ahn]

Tell me what you think!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Tell me what you think!

Looks great! I like the tank a lot better with the AI and the black cross hatch scraped off. It looks really clean. You'll be able to keep even acros under that light in such a shallow tank. I've got a few growing under a Kessil A160 in my Innovative Marine 14g peninsula, 20"x12"x13".

 

[Timothy Ahn]

Looks great! I like the tank a lot better with the AI and the black cross hatch scraped off. It looks really clean. You'll be able to keep even acros under that light in such a shallow tank. I've got a few growing under a Kessil A160 in my Innovative Marine 14g peninsula, 20"x12"x13".

Yeah, definitely looks a lot cleaner. Can't wait till I can get some SPS in there, but I'll have to wait for so long

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Yeah, definitely looks a lot cleaner. Can't wait till I can get some SPS in there, but I'll have to wait for so long

Yea, using virgin rock I'd wait at least 6 months before going with the tough stuff. I bought wet live rock from a LFS near me that had all kinds of life in it. I've got pods, bristle worms, feather dusters... find new stuff all the time. No bad hitchhikers yet. I basically skipped the cycle on my tank all together.