dhof's Fluval Evo 13.5 Build

[dhof]

Finally got past the uglies, and thought I'd post some build pics here to show off my progress.

Fluval Evo 13.5

1. SUMP:
   1. Chamber 1 - Protein Skimmer, Biomax, GFO
   2. Chamber 2 - Media Rack Carbon with Refugium
   3. Chamber 3 - Neptune Apex probes, grounding probe, Neptune ATK eyes and ATO fill, heater, return pump
2. BRS Reef saver rock (white) just added with a bunch of live rock that will eventually go away once the Reef Saver stuff is seeded.
3. AI Hydra 26
4. Neptune AFS with floating feed ring and plastic brush to ensure food does not stick to lid.
5. Aqamai wavemaker
6. Livestock:
   1. 1x Clownfish, "Tobi"
   2. 3x Margarita Snails
   3. 2x Astrea Snails
   4. 1x Large Turbo Snail
   5. 1x Coral Banded Shrimp, "Mr. Shrimpy"
   6. All sorts of Copepods
   7. A few Bristle Worms

Frogspawn? Torch? Hammer? Whatever, this thing looks great...

2 Kenya Trees, a red mushroom, and a blue mushroom

Coral Banded Shrimp - "Mr. Shrimpy"

Top view showing the screen lid, and the setup of the AFS with the ring feeder.

 

[Xavierwally]

Hi, very nice setup. I started out with a Evo 13.5, my light was a AI prime HD, and in chamber#1 I used an Intank media basket.

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R! Great start to your tank

 

[stereef]

your tank is insane nice job,,,, i have recently bought the 13.5,, a quick question is it better to have protein skimmer before or after the filter media

 

[dhof]

your tank is insane nice job,,,, i have recently bought the 13.5,, a quick question is it better to have protein skimmer before or after the filter media

My understanding is that you want the protein skimmer before the filter media, that way the filter and media have less to clean. Here's an updated picture of what the tank looks like so far without all the blue light from the previous images:

 

[Fatboy Reefer]

Here is my Fluval Evo. Just got into the hobby now I already want a bigger tank!

 

[stereef]

yes i understand what you said, but the way that system is designed is poor dont you agree, without upgrades it is very poor

 

[Tyler Bullock]

This is wonderful. What settings are you running on your hydra?

 

[dhof]

For the Hydra: I was originally running the settings from the Red Sea Reef-Spec document for hydra settings with the Hydra 5.5 inches off the top of the water. Everything did well, however I lost a bubble coral. I can't tell why exactly the bubble died, but I borrowed a seneye par meter and discovered that all the par in the tank was way too high (over 1000 PAR in some places). My best theory is that the bubble was lost due to the 350 PAR it was receiving, however who really knows. With the seneye, I was able to raise the Hydra to about 9 inches off the water, and I came up with the schedule below. The peak plateau is about 85% and with this I achieve a fairly appropriate PAR map in this tank. The (new) bubble is getting about 230 PAR. Not shown is a few hours of moonlight.

Also, it's been a while since I updated my build thread, but I have made a few changes, especially to the sump. Here's what my sump is doing at the moment:

1. Chamber 1 - Protein Skimmer
2. Chamber 2 - Original fluval foam insert with Purigen and Carbon in the 2 holes
3. Chamber 3
   1. Neptune Apex probes
   2. Grounding probe
   3. Neptune ATK eyes and ATO fill
   4. Heater
   5. Return pump
      
   6. Media Reactor Pump - This pushes water out to an AquaMaxx media reactor that I have setup as a chaeto reactor. The output of the chaeto reactor has a T-adapter where another external pump can draw water from it and push it through a BRS mini reactor with GFO in it. The output of the BRS mini reactor goes to another T in the output of the chaeto reactor. The chaeto pump runs 24x7, but I can control the GFO pump with OSC statements to turn on at certain periods. It's a pretty crazy system. If I ever spring a leak in all those tubes, my tank will be in serious trouble. I'd much rather figure out how to put a sump on this thing....

Heres a few updated pics with the stock level of the tank. These were taken when I just moved a bunch of corals around so many things are still retracted from my hands being in the tank.

Thanks,

 

[dhof]

Here's a pic of the crazy reactor setup I'm running... Not that I'd advise anyone actually do this....

 

[dhof]

I made a 6-month tank update video to show the status and setup of this tank. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Very very nice!