Fluval Evo 13.5 New to R2R

[MarkReef]

Hello everyone! I'm brand new to this forum and just thought I would say hi. I started with two fresh water tanks with bettas and joined a betta forum and learned lots of great stuff so I figured why not join one for my new interest. I've had mine up and running for about 3 months now. I'm hoping you all can help me with some suggestions for some more coral as what I have now is great, but I want more......I hear that can be a problem Anyway, here is a picture of what I have right now. The torch on the left was upset and not fully extended as I had just done a wall scraping and WC.

Right now I have:
Two clowns
Three hermits
Two trocus (top of the rock)
Two Nassarius
One pistol (picture attached with goby)

One goby (they pair up some of the time, the rest of the time the goby tries to escape and up until last night I couldn't figure out he was getting to the back chambers all the time. When I was getting him back into the main display tank he swam through the intake slots and I was kinda like "ohhhh that's how he does it". I have a plastic mesh on there now so hopefully that curbs that behavior.
I use RO/DI water with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt Mix

One toadstool(front and center)
One Stoney( is that the name? it's behind the toadstool at the top)
One torch
One trumpet
One hammer
Three zoas of varying types.
All but one zoa is glued down

Anyway, I have plenty of room the back of the rock, but right now I have that side facing a wall(hopefully soon I can figure out how to get so I can see both sides).

Does anyone have suggestions on what I might consider? I'm considering getting a media basket for the middle chamber. Also considering getting a different light and custom lid (a guy on fb makes them specifically for Evo's, lemme know if you want pictures of that).

Thanks everyone!!

Mark

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[Susan Edwards]

looks great. love the goby and pistol. I think I still have one but never see it. I see it's skeleton when it sheds. Need to get a goby when I'm allowed fish

 

[Katrina71]

Despite your avatar not being a big red bird (he he) your tank looks great! That hole cave is cool.

 

[Forsaken77]

Just ditch the little tank now and start out with a 90 gallon. That's where you're AT LEAST going to end up .

Don't know if you're aware, but keeping a pico/nano sized reef tank is a lot tougher than a bigger tank. But you should maybe get an AI Prime light if you want to keep better corals down the road.

The media baskets from inTank are great, especially the one for chamber 1 (where the water flows into the back). It forces the water through all the media instead of that huge crappy sponge that does nothing (don't know what Fluval was thinking there).

 

[Lninwa]

Love your Yasha goby and pistol shrimp.

 

[MarkReef]

Looking good!

Thanks everyone! The goby and shrimp pair is part of my favorite and took quite some time for them to pair up. The goby for some reason always ended up in the back chamber (the first one) and I couldn't figure out how until I was recently, once again, fishing him out and putting him back into the display. He was using the slats that the water flows through as his little entrance into the chamber. Luckily I have some plastic mesh (from my freshwater fluval tanks that I put on the intake to keep the bettas fins from getting ripped when they rest on it) and attached it to the intake. So far that's kept him in the main display. I havn't seen my shrimp in a few days, anyone else have periods of MIA for them?

I actually am considering the AI prime. It's in my shopping cart on bulkreefsupply and I just havn't pulled the trigger!

My only worry for the media basket is I can't put it in the first chamber where I have the heater. It's a long heater and won't fit into the chamber with the pump so Ill have to ditch the sponge all together. Fine by me though

Oh and Katrina.......Go Cats