First upgrade to the 13.5 Evo

[Salamander-Hime]

Hello again! I’m running a stock evo right now and am wondering what I should prioritize in upgrading with regards to lighting/flow/filtration. Just wanting to upgrade the most important things first, currently tank seems happy and healthy. Thanks everyone!

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

I have a fluval evo too. I found the biggest concern to be filtration followed by flow, followed by the lights. I put mine on steroids in every sense of the word and am actually in the process of making it a QT for corals. im adding pumps, uv’s an ato and a bunch of other things

 

[Salamander-Hime]

I have a fluval evo too. I found the biggest concern to be filtration followed by flow, followed by the lights. I put mine on steroids in every sense of the word and am actually in the process of making it a QT for corals. im adding pumps, uv’s an ato and a bunch of other things

Awesome, I’ll upgrade the filter first. Then I think I’m going to do lights because I hate that the hood/light are combined on the Evo. It makes it really hard to see what I’m doing when I’m feeding/placing corals. Then eventually I’ll upgrade flow when I can I totally plan on adding more fancy stuff in the future like an ato and UV. Did you find evaporation was bad when you switched lights/lid? If so like how many cm a day? Might get the ato a little earlier depending on that

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

Awesome, I’ll upgrade the filter first. Then I think I’m going to do lights because I hate that the hood/light are combined on the Evo. It makes it really hard to see what I’m doing when I’m feeding/placing corals. Then eventually I’ll upgrade flow when I can I totally plan on adding more fancy stuff in the future like an ato and UV. Did you find evaporation was bad when you switched lights/lid? If so like how many cm a day? Might get the ato a little earlier depending on that

Evaporation depends on where you put the heater. I had a filter tower in my first intake column. For my new build it is going in the main display. A Fluval P2 Protein Skimmer in the second, and A heater and pump in my return chamber. It really decreased the water volume itself in the return chamber due to displacement from the heater and pump and was a very tight fit for the particular parts that I had. running both heater and pump in my return I lost probably maybe 7-8 cm per week maybe week and a half. I didnt find lights to be too bad for evaporation. I havent switched my lids yet. I got a red sea customizeable mesh top and im gonna build it to fit my tank. if I feel like I get too much evaporation I am going to get an acrylic lid on etsy. If you top off manually once a week I dont think you would need an ato. Only reason I am doing it is because I am in school and get busy and forget to do things like top off so for me its a way to make it easier on myself

The Evo is honestly a solid tank as is. my only big replacements that should be made are filter tower and pump, and maybe lights depending on the corals you want to do. I am going overboard on mine because I want to automate it and make it a beefed up coral QT tank.

I will recommend a couple useful improvements to do for the tank that are cheap. If you want the list of parts I used in my initial upgrades I can put them in the thread.

1. get a plug for the center chamber column. it is a little plug that pushes into the little hole in chamber 2 from the display side and helps water flow much better through the filtration.

2. get an intake cover. helps keep food out of your filter media and in an area where it can be easily cleaned/accessible

You can get both of these off of etsy for like $2 and $10 before shipping

 

[blaxsun]

InTank filter system is a great upgrade.

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

InTank filter system is a great upgrade.

thats what I have

 

[blaxsun]

thats what I have

There you go! Plug (as you mentioned) is another good option. With a mesh lid you will notice an immediate difference with evaporation.

 

[willnow]

Awesome, I’ll upgrade the filter first. Then I think I’m going to do lights because I hate that the hood/light are combined on the Evo. It makes it really hard to see what I’m doing when I’m feeding/placing corals. Then eventually I’ll upgrade flow when I can I totally plan on adding more fancy stuff in the future like an ato and UV. Did you find evaporation was bad when you switched lights/lid? If so like how many cm a day? Might get the ato a little earlier depending on that

Get a Fluval Sea Marine light fixture. It fits Fluval 13.5 gal tank stock lid. It sits just above light opening leaving a small opening for the heat to escape. It's only 150 bucks. It's the best you can get for that price with lots of features other high dollar fixtures utilize. You won't be disappointed