Fluval Evo 13.5gal my style

[LacViet]

Hello,
I was into saltwater fish and corals (low budget style) long time ago. With Covid last year, i began thinking going back to fish hobby, finally decided to get Fluval Evo 13.5 3 months ago. Happny with what i have so far with mostly zoas, palys, and soft corals.

Fluval Evo 13.5 build
stock lights with 2 strips of blue leds
DCS-1200 return pump
About 10lbs of Caribsea LifeRock
CaribSea Fiji Pink 20lbs
D-flow random flow nozzle 1/2in
Cycle using Dr.Tim one and only
Live Pods culture
SG 1.025
Temp 78-80
Mag 1300
Calk 440
Alk 11
pH 8.1
Filtration: Protein Skimmer in chamber 1, chamber 2: Chaeto, chamber 3: more Chaeto with a small foam pieces to keep Chaeto get into the pump.
weekly water changes about 2 gallons with Red Sea coral pro salt. So far doing good after 3 months or so. Probably looking to upgrade to AI prime for lighting.

Set up

Slowly adding fish and corals

This is as of current

 

[Zach B]

Beautiful tank!

 

[namfuak]

Beautiful indeed! The variety of life you have in there is stunning. Keep it up!

What are you using for a light on the Chaeto?

 

[LacViet]

Beautiful indeed! The variety of life you have in there is stunning. Keep it up!

What are you using for a light on the Chaeto?

I use this light: 300w Led Grow light. I have this one to geminate plants so I just use it for now, and so far it works great with lowest dim setting. it's little tall for the tank but it's ok

 

[LacViet]

 

[LacViet]

Got a second BTA 2 days and one of the two anemone fish went right in. The smaller one still shows no sign of adopting the nem yet. The smaller BTA was in the tank for month and guess they didn’t like it.

 

[LacViet]

The big BTA above just splits into two. It happens so fast. The nem roams to the top rock the last 2 days, so i have to rearrange a few frags out. This morning it deflated a bit for a while then inflated back up as normal. Everything looks normal and happy around 1pm. Check back at the tank at 3pm and saw 2 nems instead of one big one.

 

[LacViet]

My new addition: 2 small banggai cardinals

 

[stevemartins314]

Great tank! Did you have any trouble fitting the DCS-1200 in the tank? I am looking to upgrade the pump in my tank. Thank you!

 

[LacViet]

Not really no issue with fitting except just had to cut the 3 threads to make the pump fit but it’s a 5 min or less job. Very easy to do. I like the 10 min stop for feeding, multi adjust pump speed all via external control.

 

[BigCalhouna]

I love the gsp paly xenia mix! I also am a huge fan of the rock anemones! You turned it into an aio I’ve always dreamed of

 

[LacViet]

Thanks! What i want is something easy to keep, not so expensive, and colorful. I also want to mix of corals every where around the tank, not just clump one type of coral in one section. If i got a big frags, i usually divided into 2 or 3 small pieces and glue on rocks all over tank. All of the zoas, palys, gsp, mushrooms are cheap frags $10-20.

 

[stevemartins314]

Not really no issue with fitting except just had to cut the 3 threads to make the pump fit but it’s a 5 min or less job. Very easy to do. I like the 10 min stop for feeding, multi adjust pump speed all via external control.

Thank you. I ordered the same pump for myself, seems like the best option. Great work!

 

[LacViet]

Looks like my two coral banded shrimps shed at the same time, and seems that the female released the previous eggs (hatched) and carries a new batch of eggs in her abdominal.