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First Reef, My journey Onto The Evo 13.5 Bandwagon


Nickelodeon

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Nickelodeon

   Hey guys I just made an account as well setting up my first tank. I decided to purchase the fluval evo 13.5 as so many others have. I’m no newbie to the hobby having freshwater tanks, but quickly being bored as I could neglect them and they would still look as I left them, I was up for a challenge. I am currently running it stock with live sand and rock to speed up cycling. The filtration is still the same, but with the addition of filter floss, purigen, and matrix in the first chamber. I’m looking forward to adding livestock to this tank soon. So far my ideas are clownfish, a yellow clown goby, a mandarin dragonet, and an orchid dottyback. My preferable choice would be the orchid dottyback with another fish. I understand that some people think that two fish is the maximum bioload for a tank this size. I’d be happy to hear your guys’ thoughts.

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TitusNuvo20

Looks good man. The bioload really depends on your filtration capacity and how often you want to do water changes. For a little bit there my wife and I had like 5 fish in our 10 gallon but we did weekly 5 gallon water changes and never had an issue. We also have a mandarin, they can be a lot of work. Just do your research and have a plan to feed them. Ours loves white worms which we propagate ourselves. Good luck! 

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Most people will say 2 fish max for that size. 13.5 isn't really 13.5g and it's not a lot of room.

 

The more fish you add, the more nutrients. That can be dealt with extra weekly waterchanges, skimmers, refugiums but the stress and anxiety on fish being in small quarters is only fixed by not over stocking.

 

Mandarin fish require a lot of work and much larger tanks. It eats constantly, requiring multiple feedings after being trained on prepared food. Plus it needs a constant supply of pods. 

Keeping it in small tanks is difficult as there is a lack of food and when kept with aggressive eaters, it makes it harder to fred it.

 

Mandarin fish alone need thorough research and planning.

 

As for the filtration. The sponge block is not beneficial, it can/will become a nutrient trap. Floss is enough and it should be changed minimum 2 times a week.

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Nickelodeon
20 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Most people will say 2 fish max for that size. 13.5 isn't really 13.5g and it's not a lot of room.

 

The more fish you add, the more nutrients. That can be dealt with extra weekly waterchanges, skimmers, refugiums but the stress and anxiety on fish being in small quarters is only fixed by not over stocking.

 

Mandarin fish require a lot of work and much larger tanks. It eats constantly, requiring multiple feedings after being trained on prepared food. Plus it needs a constant supply of pods. 

Keeping it in small tanks is difficult as there is a lack of food and when kept with aggressive eaters, it makes it harder to fred it.

 

Mandarin fish alone need thorough research and planning.

 

As for the filtration. The sponge block is not beneficial, it can/will become a nutrient trap. Floss is enough and it should be changed minimum 2 times a week.

Thanks Clown79 I’ve been researching mandarins for a few months now, they’re primarily copepod diet can be a nuisance I’ve heard, and people I know who’ve had them ended up with them dying. I’ll try not to push the bioload past two fish on this tank.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Nickelodeon

Yeah so looong overdue update. I used bio spira and a clownfish to cycle. Then a little later added my first torch coral. Had some diatom issues but ive been scrubbing and its going away lol. Got a combo rock from my LFS with zoas, palys, and what I think is GSP on it. But unfortunately there’s some aiptaisia on it:( any ideas on how to get rid of it? My grandma decided she wanted to come with me to the fish store so Today I got another clown. He’s big and ugly but he’s getting along extremely well with my little ocellaris so I’ll leave him for now. My brother also wanted this fire fish so we ended up getting him as well. I’m considering getting the i tank media basket for chamber two because my nitrates are higher than I’d like them to be. So I’m suspecting it’s the sponge. More updates soon I hope.

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