Money's Evo 5 *Lets Try this Reef thing*

[money88]

So I picked up an Evo 5 while I was out picking up a spec III for my girlfriend this weekend. This is my first attempt at saltwater and a reef so bare with me. I am already in the progress of putting together a 40g breeder as well but I haven't gotten around to cutting the bean animal overflow yet.

 

But back to the Evo, I created this thread to track my progress and share my experiences. Any ideas, suggestions or comments are extremely welcome. I am currently going to run the evo stock until I see that upgrades are necessary for what I am wanting.

 

FULL TANK SHOTS

 

April 2017

February 2017

 

 

TANK SPECIFICATIONS

Started: 2/27/2017

 

TANK

- Fluval Evo 5 AIO

 

EQUIPMENT 

- Hydor Theo Heater (50W)

- Digital thermometer 

- BRS value plus rodi unit (purchased for use with 40g)

- Instant Ocean Reef Crystals

- inTank Media Basket

- Jebao SW-2 DC Powerhead/Wavemaker

 

LIGHTING

- Nanobox Tide Plus M

 

FILTRATION

- inTank Media Basket Filled from top to bottom:

• Filter Pad/Floss
• Carbon
• Chemi-pure Elite Blue (nano)
• Biomax 

- Live Rock

- Live Sand

 

FEEDING

- Frozen Mysis: twice a week

- Reef Chili: target feeding once a week

 

MAINTENANCE

- Water Changes: 15-25% bi-weekly

- Evaporation Control: RO/DI manually

- Cleaning: Bi-Weekly sand bed vacuuming, live rock blasting with a turkey baster. Break down/cleaning of return pump, heater, powerhead every other month.

 

POSSIBLE UPGRADES

- Aqueon 600 to replace stock pump Was too loud, going to try to 'break it in'

- Hydor Rotating Deflector Unless the Aqueon Quiets down I will not use this (would decrease stock flow too much)

- Lighting (either Current USA Oribt or TrueLumen Aquatic LED Strips as an addition) Nanobox Tide Plus M

- Hydor 240 / Hydor 180 / Jebao SW-2 / MP10 (dreaming) Went with the Jebao SW-2, it's awesome

- Custom built media basket (egg crates) Went with the inTank model as it is really clean looking and I was lazy

 

TANK INHABITANTS

 

CORALS

• Green Florida Ricordea March 5th, 2017 Reefwise
• Duncan March 12th, 2017 Reefwise
• Orange Florida Ricordea April 30th, 2017 Reefwise
• Favia (Brain) April 30th, 2017 Reefwise

 

INVERTEBRATES 

• (1) Nerite Snails March 19th, 2017 Petland Aquatics
• (1) Astrea Snail March 26th, 2017 Petland Aquatics

 

DECEASED  

• (2) Nerite Snails March 19th, 2017 - Unknown Petland Aquatics
  • Lost 1 to Pistol Shrimp March 29th, 2017
• (2) Astrea Snail March 26th, 2017 - Unknown Petland Aquatics
• Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp March 19th, 2017 - Unknown Petland Aquatics
• 'Bam Bam' Zoanthids March 12, 2017 - Unknown Reefwise
• Randall's Pistol Shrimp (Candy Cane) March 5th, 2017 - October 30th, 2017 Reefwise

[money88]

My ro/di unit on my counter next to one of my small planted freshwater tanks.

 

 

Grabbed some of the dry rock I purchased for my 40g and was seeing what kind of scape I wanted

 

 

First time making my own saltwater, rodi units take forever to fill up a bucket

 

 

 

 

 

 

[colinlevy]

I just bought the same RO/DI unit last week for my 5g nano. Still sitting in the box (as I still have 5 gallons of water left from the LFS).

 

How do you like the RO/DO unit? Easy to install I hope? I live in an apartment, so I will be hooking it up only when I need to make water.

 

Hope it's going well! I am not too far ahead of you, I am on the tail end of my 5g saltwater cycle now. Started all dry as well.

[money88]

24 minutes ago, colinlevy said:

I just bought the same RO/DI unit last week for my 5g nano. Still sitting in the box (as I still have 5 gallons of water left from the LFS).

 

How do you like the RO/DO unit? Easy to install I hope? I live in an apartment, so I will be hooking it up only when I need to make water.

 

Hope it's going well! I am not too far ahead of you, I am on the tail end of my 5g saltwater cycle now. Started all dry as well.

It is a pretty awesome unit. I live in an apartment as well, the sink adapter is great, extremely easy to install. Be sure to always use cold water it says or you can harm the unit. 

 

I also just picked up a piece of live rock last night and put together a quick scape with some sand. I will send an update when I am home from work. The scape isn't what I wanted long term so I plan on redoing much of it but I got the water, sand, some dry rock and the piece of LR to start the cycle. 

[colinlevy]

Great! I have spent the last week reading the unit's manual while it was being shipped, so I am ready to get to using it!

 

I was 50/50 on using LR, but my LFS doesn't seem to have the best saltwater department and don't trust their rock.

 

So went ahead and used Dr. Tim's products in my cycle (which is going great...on day 11 and already seeing ammonia down to 0 and nitrates popped up on day 8)

[money88]

Actually I found a picture I know it's not much but water in the tank!

 

Stand is only temporary and actually I took it off as I was a bit worried with the weight.

 

[Lula_Mae]

Welcome to Nano-Reef!  5g is a good size to start with I think, one of my first tanks was a 5.5.  Yeah, I wouldn't trust that stand with the weight of a tank, in the pic it looks a little bowed on the right side.   I think you'll find it a fun little tank to play with while you work on building your big tank.   Hope you have better luck with the Hydor Theo than I did, I had a 25w in 5.5 gallon tank and it kept trying to cook everything (consistently ran in the low-upper 80's even after being set in the upper 70's) .  Just keep an eye on your temps with it!

[Rain24]

3 hours ago, money88 said:

Actually I found a picture I know it's not much but water in the tank!

 

Stand is only temporary and actually I took it off as I was a bit worried with the weight.

Whew...good call on taking the tank off this stand. I saw it and was like . Welcome to the hobby!

 

[money88]

On 2/27/2017 at 4:32 PM, Lula_Mae said:

Welcome to Nano-Reef!  5g is a good size to start with I think, one of my first tanks was a 5.5.  Yeah, I wouldn't trust that stand with the weight of a tank, in the pic it looks a little bowed on the right side.   I think you'll find it a fun little tank to play with while you work on building your big tank.   Hope you have better luck with the Hydor Theo than I did, I had a 25w in 5.5 gallon tank and it kept trying to cook everything (consistently ran in the low-upper 80's even after being set in the upper 70's) .  Just keep an eye on your temps with it!

Thanks! Yea hopefully I don't run into any heating issues, I will be sure to keep an eye on it with the thermometer.

 

On 2/27/2017 at 5:32 PM, Rain24 said:

Whew...good call on taking the tank off this stand. I saw it and was like . Welcome to the hobby!

 

Yea I put it all together got the water in it then did the same thing. Hmm that seems to be a bit bowed, honestly I think it'd be fine but I'd feel a lot more comfortable with a stand with legs on both sides. 

 

First readings since last night. Nice to see the ammonia already spiking a bit. 

 

Plan on rescaping when I get the opportunity just ordered some more dry rock since I didn't want to break up all the bigger pieces I have for my 40g

 

Current FTS (2/27/17)

 

[Lula_Mae]

And so it begins! *plays epic music*

[money88]

Has anyone done the Aqueon 600 pump upgrade for this tank? Is it noisy? I was thinking about doing it since I know I will need more flow and figured if I could only upgrade that then it would be nice to keep it clean instead of adding a powerhead on the glass

 

I was reading in a few spots that it is a bit noisy but this is going to be directly next to my bed so I wanted pretty close to silent. I am referring to this post for doing the upgrade

 

 

[colinlevy]

2 hours ago, money88 said:

Has anyone done the Aqueon 600 pump upgrade for this tank? Is it noisy? I was thinking about doing it since I know I will need more flow and figured if I could only upgrade that then it would be nice to keep it clean instead of adding a powerhead on the glass

 

I was reading in a few spots that it is a bit noisy but this is going to be directly next to my bed so I wanted pretty close to silent. I am referring to this post for doing the upgrade

 

 

 

I have the AQ600 running in my Spec V (also tried the Koralia 240 at the same time and was just a tad much). The pump fits just perfectly with the modification in the link. Yes, it does run louder than the stock pump, but also moves a lot more water. 

 

If you plan to have it by your bedside and want silence, this isn't going to provide it...

[money88]

18 minutes ago, colinlevy said:

 

I have the AQ600 running in my Spec V (also tried the Koralia 240 at the same time and was just a tad much). The pump fits just perfectly with the modification in the link. Yes, it does run louder than the stock pump, but also moves a lot more water. 

 

If you plan to have it by your bedside and want silence, this isn't going to provide it...

 

Thanks for the input, maybe I will grab a Hydor Pico 180 instead that may have less noise even though its a slight eye sore. Have a little while before I need to increase the flow for corals while my tank cycles anyway. But ordered some Reef Saver rock from BRS and some acrylic tubing to help my aquascaping out; I will be more than open to chiseling and getting these rocks the way I want them. 

 

Does anyone know of any good glue / expoxy I can use to attach the rocks if I decide I need to do that?

[Rain24]

If you pick up that pump, please post pics. I would love to see how small it is in a pico.

[money88]

6 hours ago, Rain24 said:

If you pick up that pump, please post pics. I would love to see how small it is in a pico.

Will do, because I am wondering the same thing. I am assuming it is going to be quieter than the Aqueon 600 so I will most likely get it when I get closer to my cycle.

 

Did a test today: 

Ammonia: 0.25ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 0ppm

 

I added live rock so will the ammonia spike be smaller than if I dosed ammonia? Don't plan to dose with LR but just wondering if one is usually quicker

[money88]

So I was looking at my live rock this morning and saw these white circles can anybody identify?

 

[Lula_Mae]

I'm not 100% certain but I think those are spiro-something-or-others lol.  I think they're similar to the teeny feather dusters that hitchhike on live rock.

 

I may be totally wrong.

[mogul218]

I'm guessing that those are formed from the Dr Tim's bacteria?  Good luck on your Pico!  I would have went with Spec instead of the Evo since you already planned to replace the light, but maybe the color scheme was worth it?  I own a few pumps for different projects.  The Hydor Pico-Evo 180 is in my Project Natural aquarium and is super quiet.  I plan on posting a new video to YouTube shortly with it installed.  I have the Rio+ 90 in my Spec 3, it's louder than the stock pump, not most of the problem was the larger size and vibration on the heater.  You mentioned the pump being an eyesore, you're not replacing the stock pump with one of these?  Good luck!

[money88]

1 hour ago, mogul218 said:

I'm guessing that those are formed from the Dr Tim's bacteria? 

Not currently using any Dr Tim's in my tank. So not sure what these are or if they were just on the LR when I put it into the tank. 

 

1 hour ago, mogul218 said:

Good luck on your Pico!  I would have went with Spec instead of the Evo since you already planned to replace the light, but maybe the color scheme was worth it? 

Thanks! Excited to finally get into the hobby, I have been SLOWLY getting that 40G breeder together for like 6+ months now so I needed something in the mean time. And the light replacement is a possibility but not a for sure. I hear the current like will house softies and LPS pretty well and I may only go that route, so will be keeping the light as is for most likely 3-6 months before looking at upgrading. 

 

1 hour ago, mogul218 said:

I own a few pumps for different projects.  The Hydor Pico-Evo 180 is in my Project Natural aquarium and is super quiet.  I plan on posting a new video to YouTube shortly with it installed.  I have the Rio+ 90 in my Spec 3, it's louder than the stock pump, not most of the problem was the larger size and vibration on the heater.  You mentioned the pump being an eyesore, you're not replacing the stock pump with one of these?  Good luck!

I'd really like to just be able to upgrade the stock pump instead of installing the Pico-Evo 180 right now but will install the Pico-evo if necessary. I need the tank to pretty close to silent because it is in very close proximity to my bed so upgrading the pump to an Aqueon 600 is something I have been thinking about but someone mentioned above that it isn't as quiet compared to the stock pump. 

 

I would appreciate a video of the Pico-Evo in action! Let me know when you put one up. 

[Rain24]

I think Lula Mae is right - those might be spirorbid worms.

 

Did you bring your LR home wet? Bagged or bucket and in water?

[money88]

6 minutes ago, Rain24 said:

Did you bring your LR home wet? Bagged or bucket and in water?

Brought it home damp in a bag no water

[Rain24]

1 minute ago, money88 said:

Brought it home damp in a bag no water

 

I was reading in someone else's thread that you could probably skip cycle if you brought your live rock home wet and your drive wasn't too far, that's why I was asking. I'm still debating whether or not to start with dry or live rock.

[Weetabix7]

5 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

I'm not 100% certain but I think those are spiro-something-or-others lol.  I think they're similar to the teeny feather dusters that hitchhike on live rock.

 

I may be totally wrong.

 

Totally correct!!

[money88]

Awesome thanks for the clarification! The link you posted @Rain24 said these were harmless so that means I don't have to worry about scraping these all off or anything?

 

Quote

I was reading in someone else's thread that you could probably skip cycle if you brought your live rock home wet and your drive wasn't too far, that's why I was asking. I'm still debating whether or not to start with dry or live rock.

Well I plan to do a large rearrangement of the aquascape when I get some more dry rock in the mail. So I wont be getting any sort of inhabitants until after that is done because it will really stir up the sand. I plan to start with a Candy Cane Shrimp, and then get a YWG to make a pair. Then we shall see where I go from there!

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Totally correct!!

 

I'm glad I haven't totally forgotten everything lol!  I just knew I remembered them being a good thing, if they were what I thought they were.  Maybe I'll get some again someday.