Fluval Evo 13.5 First Nano......

[GOBRAVES]

Hey all!  I’ve been out of the hobby for a few years but got the itch again recently.  I ran a 75 gallon marine tank for several years and ended up switching it over to a fresh water predator tank that is currently running well. I wanted to get back into salt water without breaking the bank, so after some research, I opted to order a Fluval 13.5 and just start out with everything stock.  Upgrading as needed along the way.  None of my local fish stores had one in stock, so I ordered one from Amazon.  It arrived yesterday..................

 

Sooooooooo as you can see from the attached pics, I gots me a broke ass aquarium.  I couldn’t believe they shipped the aquarium in the retail box alone.  There is only some thin styrofoam around the corners of the tank inside the box.  Ridiculous.  A replacement is on the way, though, and is supposed to arrive tomorrow.  I will update as soon as I have an aquarium that will at least hold water.

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @GOBRAVES! That's too bad about the busted tank, hopefully the next one is fine! I'll page our community Amazon guy @Sancho, we can bust his chops over this 😆

[Floundering_Around]

Welcome back! I'm pretty new to the salty side and have the evo 13 as my first tank as well. Would love to see what a more experienced SW keeper does to this tank so I'll definitely follow along.

Sorry about the tank. Had the same issue ordering a fluval 2.6 from petco so I know the frustration.

[Sancho]

5 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome to the community @GOBRAVES! That's too bad about the busted tank, hopefully the next one is fine! I'll page our community Amazon guy @Sancho, we can bust his chops over this 😆

Usually items like aquariums are shipped directly from the manufacture,  or they are supposed to be packed well enough by the manufacture to not require an outer box. Petco also ships that aquarium in its original box pretty sure I saw a thread here not to long ago about one showing up broken. Amazon will take care of you on this. That box looks like your UPS driver drop kicked it out of the van. 

[GOBRAVES]

58 minutes ago, Sancho said:

Usually items like aquariums are shipped directly from the manufacture,  or they are supposed to be packed well enough by the manufacture to not require an outer box. Petco also ships that aquarium in its original box pretty sure I saw a thread here not to long ago about one showing up broken. Amazon will take care of you on this. That box looks like your UPS driver drop kicked it out of the van. 

Yeah I hear ya.  But there is literally just 1/2 inch thick foam around just the corners of this thing.  Like super squishy thin foam.  Nothing that’s gonna absorb a lot of shock.  Doesn’t matter at this point though.  Hopefully the next one doesn’t get dropped lol.

[Floundering_Around]

1 minute ago, GOBRAVES said:

Yeah I hear ya.  But there is literally just 1/2 inch thick foam around just the corners of this thing.  Like super squishy thin foam.  Nothing that’s gonna absorb a lot of shock.  Doesn’t matter at this point though.  Hopefully the next one doesn’t get dropped lol.

what's dumb is that it clearly shows a fish tank on the side so you would think that people would handle it with more care even if it doesn't have a fragile sticker on it.

What I did with mine was take all the spare parts out before throwing away the extra tank. Makes for good back ups and extras for other systems 🙂

[GOBRAVES]

1 hour ago, Floundering_Around said:

Welcome back! I'm pretty new to the salty side and have the evo 13 as my first tank as well. Would love to see what a more experienced SW keeper does to this tank so I'll definitely follow along.

Sorry about the tank. Had the same issue ordering a fluval 2.6 from petco so I know the frustration.

Thanks for following.  I really liked my last sw setup, but it was mostly a fowlr tank.  The only corals I kept were already on the rock I bought from a local guy.  I moved and didnt have room for the 45 gal sump I had set up with it, so I converted it to fresh water.  I kind of feel like I’m learning everything over again since it’s been a few years.  Things change fast lol

[GOBRAVES]

5 minutes ago, Floundering_Around said:

what's dumb is that it clearly shows a fish tank on the side so you would think that people would handle it with more care even if it doesn't have a fragile sticker on it.

What I did with mine was take all the spare parts out before throwing away the extra tank. Makes for good back ups and extras for other systems 🙂

Oh yeah I thought about salvaging the extra parts, but amazon wants me to ship it back.  I’m not shipping anything until another tank arrives, though.

[GOBRAVES]

 

I’m gonna try to keep up a vlog of the whole process as well.  We’ll see how that goes lol.  Feel free to offer any advice.

[GOBRAVES]

Well, the packaging for the new tank definitely seemed promising as you can see from the pics.  Who’d of thunk it?  Packing a glass item as if it might get mishandled!  

 

Got the tank situated and everything installed with no issues.  Added dry rock and one piece of small live rock from the lfs on top of 15 lbs of live sand.  I also gave it a dose of Fluval Cycle.  Not sure if that was needed since what I’m not planning on adding any fish right away but I bought it so figured it wouldn’t hurt anything.  I added one power head in the main tank and filled the first chamber with floss, but other than that, everything is stock.  Let the fun begin!!

 

 

 

 

[Floundering_Around]

You probably did this for the photo but try not to run the light during your cycle unless you want algae blooms way to earl 🙂 other than that, tank looks good, loving the fine white sand

[GOBRAVES]

2 hours ago, Floundering_Around said:

You probably did this for the photo but try not to run the light during your cycle unless you want algae blooms way to earl 🙂 other than that, tank looks good, loving the fine white sand

Yep pics don’t look as good without the light on haha

[sapling]

What kind of rock is that on the top and the right? They don’t look like the dry rock I’m used to seeing at the LFS, 

 

Any stocking plans yet? 

[GOBRAVES]

1 hour ago, sapling said:

What kind of rock is that on the top and the right? They don’t look like the dry rock I’m used to seeing at the LFS, 

 

Any stocking plans yet? 

It’s just regular ol dry rock as far as I know.  Not sure where it came from originally.  I bought it from a local guy out of his tank.  It was live rock back in the day when I had it in my 75 gallon tank.  The flat white stuff on the rocks was purple coralline algae when it was alive.

 

as far as stocking plans, I don’t have any set intentions yet.  I’m a complete noob when it comes to corals.  I had a few zoas and a Kenyan tree coral that hitchhiked in on my rocks last time, but I didn’t do anything specific for them.  I’ll research corals a little more once the cycle is done.  Feel free to offer any suggestions.

 

As far as fish go, I know what I would love to put in there but I can’t.  My favorite fish I kept when I had my 75 gallon was a Flame Angel.  Gorgeous fish and very active.  It’s tempting since they don’t get very big, but before anyone freaks out,I am NOT going to put one in this tank lol.  I know it needs way more room.  I’ll probably go with a watchman goby to start.  I’ve always thought they were neat little guys.  Then a typical clean up crew on top of that.

[GOBRAVES]

Things cleared up nicely overnight.  Already have a decent amount of ammonia and no nitrites yet.  I filled the first chamber with floss, but other than that, everything is stock.  I don’t plan on making any mods for the time being.  

[GOBRAVES]

 

Kids wanted to make an unboxing and setup video.

[GOBRAVES]

Day 3:

 

Ammonia has been pretty constant at .5

 

No nitrites yet.

 

I still stop and stare at the tank for a few minutes at a time even thought it’s just rocks and sand at the moment lol.  Dumb cycles haha

[sapling]

oh yeah cycling is just anxiety all over for me, worst part was I would window shop but the LFS wasn’t willing to hold any coral I bought for the duration of the cycle, missed some cool stuff 😞

[GOBRAVES]

1 hour ago, sapling said:

oh yeah cycling is just anxiety all over for me, worst part was I would window shop but the LFS wasn’t willing to hold any coral I bought for the duration of the cycle, missed some cool stuff 😞

Yeah I guess I should be making a stocking wish list while I’m waiting.  I have basically no clue about corals.  Any suggestions on 2 or 3 corals I could start out with?  

[LongBeachReefer]

Mushrooms and zoa are a good starting point for corals. 

[sapling]

My top few to recommend off the bat would be

 

Soft coral would be Xenia, if you want to add an island to isolate them. The pulsing Xenia is amazing to see in low flow, and won’t commit chemical warfare/allelopathy like sarcophyton and other leathers can do. Easy to learn how to frag with them as well,

 

LPS, I really enjoyed my acans when I had them, a nice LPS that are good at feeding and have great colors. Another would be blastomussas, they’re similar to acans in look and willingness to eat, but want lower lighting, 

 

For a bonus SPS, I would suggest a pocillopora, it’s one of the hardiest sps, and frags are generally pretty affordable to try out, 

 

I’d suggest maybe checking out tidal gardens videos on YouTube for some ideas, since they have a lot of great images and video of corals and descriptions, as well as recommendations

[GOBRAVES]

Thanks for the advice.  My two local options are a Petco and a mom and pop place that doesn’t seem to have much?  Do you guys typically try to buy local to avoid shipping issues?  Or are you comfortable buying corals online?  And I guess I could just have petco order something if they don’t keep it in stock?

[sapling]

I’ve done both. Usually it was the shipping price for me not the shipping that bars ordering, all my corals have arrived healthy and happy usually.

 

Sometimes there can be some really good saltwater fish stores if you’re willing to drive a little further out. if the frags you see at local stores don’t catch your attention,  see about Facebook groups for your area that trade frags if you want to see locally.

 

Online can have the widest selection and some really great corals, so Besides that for online there is live aquaria, aquasd, uniquecorals, wwc, saltycritters, tidal gardens And so on. 

[LongBeachReefer]

Vivid aquarium.com has some really nice stuff. I have bought from vivid aquariums before and they won’t disappoint. I typically try to buy local first. 

[GOBRAVES]

Day 6 cycle update:

 

Well ammonia is still pretty much steady at .5 ppm

 

Nitrites:  0

 

Decided to test for nitrates for the first time......... turns out they are reading 5 ppm.  Thought that was weird since there’s been no sign of nitrites but I’m not exactly an expert?

 

I had the first chamber filled with floss so I went ahead and changed it out.  Only added enough to fill the top third of the chamber this time.  Haven’t really done anything with the stock foam filter.  I figured I wouldn’t really need to mess with it during the cycle.  I’m planning on making a couple DIY egg crate media baskets to use in the first two chambers.