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James’ Fluval EVO 13.5 gallon (1 Viewer)

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jrounding

James
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So funny story. We bought shrimp and they were happily in our big tank for a couple days. Then one of our fish thought it would be fun to munch on one of our shrimps legs (we knew the risks). Luckily we stopped him before he was hurt too badly. My wife and I were talking about what to do and we reached the verdict any aquarist should reach. We need a tank for our shrimp. So I am starting this Fluval EVO build thread. It’s setup and the glue holding the rocks is curing. Tomorrow we will get it wet.
 

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James
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Today I filled it with water, started the Dr. Tim’s fishless cycle process, and dosed ammonium chloride and a bunch of Microbacter 7. I’m going to follow the dosing schedule for Dr. Tim’s fishless cycle to get the dry rock cycled. I also ordered a Kraken Reef lid, media basket A, media basket B, and a ultra quiet DC pump. In a couple months when I go to add corals I will probably add a DC wavemaker of some sort. Maybe a Nero 3, but we will see. Also I have my eye on a new AI blade for lighting since the one that comes with the tank is not programmable. Big miss in my opinion there Fluval.
 

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James
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Today I set up a Kasa power strip for the tank. I also put a more powerful pump on it that’s adjustable and DC. Then I installed some InTank media baskets, because I want to run this tank with no skimmer and keep it silent. I also dosed the second dose of ammonia and did a test print on a random flow generator for it. Then we installed a black background, because the rock was getting lost in the wall. I had a bit of an accident with the lid and broke it. So I ordered a kraken nano lid to replace it. Then I stashed my marine pure gems in my big display tank so that they will seed over the next two weeks while it is cycling.
 

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Today I filled it with water, started the Dr. Tim’s fishless cycle process, and dosed ammonium chloride and a bunch of Microbacter 7. I’m going to follow the dosing schedule for Dr. Tim’s fishless cycle to get the dry rock cycled. I also ordered a Kraken Reef lid, media basket A, media basket B, and a ultra quiet DC pump. In a couple months when I go to add corals I will probably add a DC wavemaker of some sort. Maybe a Nero 3, but we will see. Also I have my eye on a new AI blade for lighting since the one that comes with the tank is not programmable. Big miss in my opinion there Fluval.
I've got the blade on two tanks now. Loving it
 
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jrounding

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I installed a Finnex 50w titanium heater and a Tunze Nano ATO tonight. Also I replaced the stock lid with a new one due to the mishap. I’m still waiting on a freshwater reservoir which should be in tomorrow and then the top off will be ready to go. It’s slowly coming together. Looking really great I think. It’s so amazingly quiet compared to my monstrosity in my living room. Hopefully I will add my last dose of ammonia on Monday. Then be fully cycled 8 days afterwards.
 

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For dc pump I believe the mighty jet mini fits with no modifications and the jebao dcs-1200 fits with slight modifications which is what i had in my evo
A Nero 3 works great which is what I run in mine another popular wavemaker for these tanks is a hygger mini
 
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James
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For dc pump I believe the mighty jet mini fits with no modifications and the jebao dcs-1200 fits with slight modifications which is what i had in my evo
A Nero 3 works great which is what I run in mine another popular wavemaker for these tanks is a hygger mini
Have you tried running random flow generators on the discharge piping to get some randomized flow without a wavemaker? I am going to print some today I think.
 

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Have you tried running random flow generators on the discharge piping to get some randomized flow without a wavemaker? I am going to print some today I think.
Yes I removed the double outlet and have a single 1/2” rfg on there right now but I do have a few sps so I need the Nero for the extra movement
 
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Cool! I have a 3D printer and am going to print two 1/4” ones to snap on to the stock return pipes. If that doesn’t work well I will switch to a single 1/2” one. Luckily when you have a 3D printer it is very cheap to experiment with stuff like this. I switched to a 185 GPH pump so the random flow generators will be more effective. This is the pump I bought:
 
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James
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I tuned in the filament for my printer and printed these random for generator nozzles for the discharge nozzles. PETG is a pain to work with.
 

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The 12 inch blade came in and rather than buy and expensive mounting system I decided to design some hangers so I can hang it from the ceiling. Now I just need to wait for the mesh top to come in so I can mount it. The light that comes with the tank isn't terrible, but the blade is far nicer.
 

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I also put my first fish in the tank. We didn't want a clownfish in this one so we went with a reef chromis as the first fish. I think it was a good choice and I hope that soon it will get used to us around the tank so we can see it more.
 

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Last night I hung up the 12" blade in preparation for the Kraken Reef Lid to come. I am really loving this little tank and equipment wise this is it. My chromis is so lively and the firefish is getting more settled as well. Maybe this weekend I will check the par and see how much par this little light produces.
 

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It is the perfect light for it I think. The tank overhead looks great and is nearly silent. That is a tiny ATO reservoir, lol! Hopefully it lasts a week. If it doesn’t I’m eyeing a 5L reservoir that should fit in my cabinet
 
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James
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With the mesh lid the ATO reservoir was not lasting nearly long enough so I upgraded it to a 5L tank. I will keep the 1.5L for when I need to dose ask for Reef. Lol! Also the water change on this tank is great. So much less worth than my big tank!
 

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James
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Update on this tank. We upgraded it to a Waterbox AIO 25 and added a 12” blade grow with a custom hanging light fixture. I also added a Bubble Magus MiniQ skimmer to the system. There’s some corals in the tank now and I added some rock and an arch to tie the aqua scape together.
 

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