Fluval Evo 13.5 Owners Thread

[DevilDuck]

 

22 hours ago, Reef Reece said:

Have a scroll through this thread, Im sure I've seen a few people have had success with buying Actinic LED strips, either using the existing light as well, or having it turned off and relying totally on the LED's.

If you're only just starting though stick with the stock light for a while, I see many people crapping all over it, yet I've seen plenty of people with VERY matured tanks, SPS/LPS/Soft growing amazingly well. I had it for a while and everything was doing okay, but it was a very small sample size and ive now upgraded to an AI Prime 16HD for the automation.

 

I supplement with two 9 watt blue led strips from 21ledusa. So far I am very happy with them, the led are completely in cased in acrylic. 

Aquarium LED Light ReefBar 12" inch 1ft 453 nm Actinic Blue 9W 12 Coral Moon | eBay

 

I have my stock light on a manual dimmer down to about 30-40%.

 

 

 

[Reef Reece]

Great example of corals doing well with the stock light and a bit of tweaking right there, amazing looking tank Dev !

[Nanonemo1]

Hi all. 
 

back into the hobby after 5 years out. 
 

purchased a fluval evo 13.5 about a month ago. 
 

excellent tank and liking it so far. 
 

current equipment:

fluval evo 13.5 tank

heater

2nd basket chamber 

Nano pump in 1st chamber 

stock pump

ai prime 16hd light

ai Nero 3 wavemaker

 

dry rock and live rock 

dead sand

 

loving the upgrade on lights. I am not technically planning any corals but we will see. Plan is just for some common clowns and a cleaner shrimp. Wave maker is excellent and loving the controls. 

 

filtration. 
1st chamber. Bio balls at the bottom with a small pump to ensure there is flow around bio balls. 
 

2nd chamber. Media basket, top filter floss and second carbon ( keep water clear) 

 

3rd chamber. Return pump ( I know it would be good to upgrade the pump but as I have a decent wave maker in, don’t really need the extra movement) heater and air stone. 
 

I was thinking of adding a small external filter nd just filling it with biz balls just to double the bio filtration. 
 

purchases next week ato and a auto feeder for whilst I am away. Looking at WiFi plugs for all equipment just to make it easy with Turing anything of when I need to. 
 

 

 

[Nang Yuan]

On 4/28/2021 at 11:56 AM, Nang Yuan said:

Okay scrap that!
I'm gonna try losing the skimmer for fuge
Now have a DFlow in Ch1 and have set the stock light vertically (outside tank) alongside Ch2 - ready for some chaeto...

Lets see how this goes.

Oh my days!
Unsure if coincidence or not but the tank has recovered so much. And it' soooo much quieter!

Have the stock light on 14 hour timer - opposite to the Photon and the Chaeto has doubled in size.

[Ryan8384]

Hey everyone, I am in search of the stock lid for the 13.5 evo.

Message me if anyone has one available.

-Ryan 585-750-8634. Text please, I don't answer unknown numbers.

[ChickenJo]

Anyone here ever drilled their evo?

[Arach81]

I believe I managed to figure out why the fluval ps 2 protein skimmer got so many bad reviews when used on the fluval evo 13.5..I noticed a huge improvement of this skimmer's performance when placed in chamber 2 versus chamber 1(as fluval recommends).When it was placed in chamber 1,it was only foaming without removing anything in the cup despite the fact that the tank's water was starting to get dirty(diatoms and algae had started growing)..Then I placed it in chamber 2 to see if this made a difference and it did because the skimmer immediately started to remove gunk in its cup..I believe it's because when this skimmer is placed in chamber 1 it is blocking the overflow and acting like a plug on the filtration system..Probably a lot of water bypasses it without getting sucked in or the flow rate in the filter chambers is not enough for him to properly do its job..Anyway,the solution is to use this skimmer in chamber 2 instead of the first..

[Sethryder]

Setting up an evo 13.5 in the machine shop at work.  Not sure how long ill be able to keep it there, didnt exactly ask the boss. Haha.
Side and front view. 
also looking for the rear chamber cover if someone has one for sale?

thanks!

[Nang Yuan]

Can anyone tell me what this is?
Its only on back glass. Not on corals or sand.

Diatoms?

[Bigals-nano-1]

Has anyone tried to fit this light (Fluval marine Bluetooth 22w) on the stock cover on the evo sea 52l? Looking at the dimensions i think it would be a possibility with a wee bit of diy. 

[Yjammaz]

On 7/15/2021 at 8:18 AM, Nang Yuan said:

Can anyone tell me what this is?
Its only on back glass. Not on corals or sand.

Diatoms?

I can see some of those stringy like strands, have bubbles attached to them. Could possibly be what I'm currently battling. If so, my guess is they are dinoflagellates. Photosynthetic organisms. They got into your tank by hitching a ride with a new purchase. I'm doing the blackout and manual removal to try and get rid of them. If there are what I think they are, you're in for a challenge. Best of luck! I hope you do solve it. Let me know if you find something that helps!

 

**Also! It is a surprise to me that it's only on the glass. Usually they will cling to everything.

 

[ReefandQueef]

Hey everyone new to the forum love the content this is what we have going on

[DaveMc]

Greetings fellow reefers,

 

I'm looking for some insight and hoping you can help. A few months ago I took down my pico tank and purchased the Fluval Sea 13.5 nano. Really loving this tank and I love the AIO aspect. My issue is currently, I am now after a few months fighting cyano. I have been blowing off the rocks and picking out what I can by hand, in between my clown fish trying to eat my arms lol. Currently, the equipment I am using is all stock items that came with the tank plus the skimmer designed for it.

 

Currently in the tank I have:

 

• Ocellaris Clown
• Turbo snail
• Pulsing Xenia
• Waving Hand Anthellia
• Purple bird nest
• Blue Stylophora
• Speckled leather

 

Everything is doing great so far. I'm looking at trying to start dosing peroxide to help get rid of the cyano. I done a test using a couple cups of tank water and about 1ml of peroxide and it did work and breaking it down very well. Today is water change day and carbon replacement also. My question is this......

 

After changing the water and checking params, should I leave out the carbon while dosing and should I add my skimmer back in place of the floss I have been using in chamber one?  I have added extra bio media previously to help with beneficial bacteria. Tank params have been stable: Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Ph - 8.0 to 8.2, Nitrate - 5.0 or lower. Lighting schedule was 10 - 12 hours a day only using the blue lights 2 hours in morning and 2 hours at end of day. Also using distilled store bought water as I don't have a RODI unit yet and no pet stores close to get water from.

 

This will be my first time dosing anything, never had cyano issues with any of my other tanks in the past and would really like to get rid of it  If anyone can offer some insight it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post but wanted to make sure I was able to give as much info and possible.

 

Many thanks and happy reefing 😃

[Nang Yuan]

On 8/22/2021 at 11:46 PM, Yjammaz said:

I can see some of those stringy like strands, have bubbles attached to them. Could possibly be what I'm currently battling. If so, my guess is they are dinoflagellates. Photosynthetic organisms. They got into your tank by hitching a ride with a new purchase. I'm doing the blackout and manual removal to try and get rid of them. If there are what I think they are, you're in for a challenge. Best of luck! I hope you do solve it. Let me know if you find something that helps!

 

**Also! It is a surprise to me that it's only on the glass. Usually they will cling to everything.

 

Problem 99.99% gone...

I addeded a Rowa reactor, did 2 x 50% water changes in 7 days period and added polyfilter.

[Ratvan]

If i havent posted here already i'm using the stock fluval for my Mantis Shrimp

 

[literal_dust]

Got myself a new reef tank about a week ago! It's been awhile, I had my first tank, a pico 5g, about five years ago before I sold it. Been wanting a new tank for awhile a caved recently! Right here is the fluval Evo 13.5 with:

- stock lights and filter

- upgraded return pump to 260gph(double what it was) 

- 13lbs of cured live rock from my local reef shop

- carib sea "live sand" , about 1.5 inches deep

- 50w heater

- no protein skimmer

- will replace filter and stock nozzle heads soon

 

The live rock, "live sand", and microbe lift nite out 2 bacteria starter really looks like it jump started my cycling enough based on the parameters that after a week I decided to get a a few easier coral, clean up crew, macro algae, and a pistol shrimp/red banded goby pair. It's possible I jumped the gun but I'm monitoring everything closely and everything has been pretty smooth since I put everything in. Although, pretty annoyed by the pistol shrimps burrow location choices; but much I can do about that. My reasoning for not getting a protein skimmer is basically to see how well the macro algae can help with nutrient levels. I know there's pros and cons to both, but I'm open to doing fun experimenting with stuff in my tank

Corals:

- small Blasto

- small Duncan

- unidentified mushroom

- yellow polyps

- zoas

- feather duster cluster 

- green star polyps 

 

Now to see what happens next

[f1PaceCar]

Since Aug/2019 and now this .... I have issues to make all these corals to fit and grow without having a war but I guess I will need to shave a little what is there now. I am guessing that by removing the anemonas I can make better usage of the right side of the tank. What do you think?

[less than bread]

Just found this thread. Will be shutting my Evo down once my new tank is done cycling but it has been awesome. Everything pretty much stock on mine including the lights

[hooligan_78]

May as well throw my hat in. Setting up one currently. 

 

 

 

Current progress:

 

[Ash1176]

Been a while here is mine now! 

[Nang Yuan]

18 minutes ago, Ash1176 said:

Been a while here is mine now! 

So cool!

What's the setup?

[Bigals-nano-1]

Things have came a long way in 4.5 months. There has been a few headaches along the way but seems to be thriving now.

[Ash1176]

On 10/22/2021 at 1:11 PM, Nang Yuan said:

So cool!

What's the setup?

Thank you!!!

its Ai prime 16 and Nero 3, Sicce 1.0 return pump and cobalt neotherm heater with Inkbird controller, just run filter floss and carbon in section 1, macro algae in the dt to help with nutrients 😉 

[emmysnewtank]

Hi everyone, new reefer with modded Spec 16, but running the EVO 13 stock light. read this entire thread...thx for all the info!

 

About to add corals to a cycled and stable tank w a couple clowns and some cuc...but question about the light modes on the stock EVO 13 light. we are just getting very starter corals- Xenia, GSP and a Zoa - but what mode should I run the light on for them? Blue or White mode?

 

I picked up a Nicrew light controller, but not sure which color I should be running?

 

also...do most people start new frags in the sand bed and let them acclimate or move them directly to intended locations?

 

thx!

[less than bread]

41 minutes ago, emmysnewtank said:

Hi everyone, new reefer with modded Spec 16, but running the EVO 13 stock light. read this entire thread...thx for all the info!

 

About to add corals to a cycled and stable tank w a couple clowns and some cuc...but question about the light modes on the stock EVO 13 light. we are just getting very starter corals- Xenia, GSP and a Zoa - but what mode should I run the light on for them? Blue or White mode?

 

I picked up a Nicrew light controller, but not sure which color I should be running?

 

also...do most people start new frags in the sand bed and let them acclimate or move them directly to intended locations?

 

thx!

When I ran a stock Evo, I had the full (white) mode for 9 hours during the day and then blues for a couple hours, then lights off the rest of the night