Evo 13.5 Build - Returning to The Hobby So

Nightrider76 · Jun 13, 2020

So with COVID and working from home for the foreseeable future i decided it was time to stop contemplating over getting back into saltwater after being out of the hobby for 15 years. My home office has a perfect spot for the Evo, I contemplated the biocube but after reading some horror stories on them cracking with no warning, I felt the Evo was the safer nano cube bet to get my feet wet.
I have read every single posting here, gathered some great information and at the same time confused as serval of you take different approaches to your setups. This for me is great to see different approaches work and there is no RIGHT way or Wrong way but the common sense way that works for each person’s setup.
So I dove head first and made some purchases to get a head start on upgrades, any feedback positive or negative is great.
So I gathered a list of supplies to get the tank Started which should this week once everything arrives:

13 gallons of nutria-seawater (wanted to seed the tank with this, I already have RRODI for our drinking water and will make future seawater from this using instant ocean reef crystals)
20 lbs of Fiji Pink Live Sand ( I know I wont use all 20lbs but that’s the size the local LFS had)
Instant ocean Reef Crystals (160 gallon), great price on amazon.
Fluval M50 heater (not crazy about this choice but will monitor its performance). I bought a 2nd cheap heater as a backup and for warming my mixed water I make.
Upgrade: intank Chamber 1 (not sure what I want to do with chamber 2 yet, figure I have time given it a month to cycle. I don’t want to do a skimmer as a see pently of people have success on the nono without them.
Upgrade: Tunze 1073.008 Pump, I have read a lot of people go to this and my reasoning off the bat to get it is that I can use the or9ignal pump to help mix the water I make in the 5 gallon buckets.
API test kits both reef and standard. I know not that accurate but gets my feet wet and will upgrade to better kits as time goes.
Upgrade: Hydor Koralia Nano 425: This one I was on the fence on, but I felt better to be safe and have good tank circulation (can control the speed thru a 120v controller I have) if I find I have too much circulation with the upgraded pump.
Refractometer with calibration fluid.
Dr Tims One and Only
Dr Time Ammonium Chloride (I want to perform a fishless cycle)
Live Rock, my local LFS has cured rock which I plan on getting after I get the sand and water in the tank) Figuring 20lbs or so.

Light controller: I know the Fluval controller works with the stocks lights but they are sold our everywhere, I have read the current usa models will work with the stock lights so keeping my options open, again can wait to after I cycle and get a CUC in there. I really want the stock lights to work for me, I like the idea of a compact system otherwise I would of went with a waterbox 10.
So after the cycle my plan is to order a CUC from (reefcleaners)
The when it comes to fish, my plan is to order from live aquaria and get a bonded pair of clowns, cleaner shrimp and a blenny. Staggered of course to not bio load the system.
PLEASE provide some feedback on the above and your thoughts on what to do with chamber #2!

chvvkumar · Jun 13, 2020

Nightrider76 said:
So with COVID and working from home for the foreseeable future i decided it was time to stop contemplating over getting back into saltwater after being out of the hobby for 15 years. My home office has a perfect spot for the Evo, I contemplated the biocube but after reading some horror stories on them cracking with no warning, I felt the Evo was the safer nano cube bet to get my feet wet.
I have read every single posting here, gathered some great information and at the same time confused as serval of you take different approaches to your setups. This for me is great to see different approaches work and there is no RIGHT way or Wrong way but the common sense way that works for each person’s setup.
So I dove head first and made some purchases to get a head start on upgrades, any feedback positive or negative is great.
So I gathered a list of supplies to get the tank Started which should this week once everything arrives:

13 gallons of nutria-seawater (wanted to seed the tank with this, I already have RRODI for our drinking water and will make future seawater from this using instant ocean reef crystals)

20 lbs of Fiji Pink Live Sand ( I know I wont use all 20lbs but that’s the size the local LFS had)

Instant ocean Reef Crystals (160 gallon), great price on amazon.

Fluval M50 heater (not crazy about this choice but will monitor its performance). I bought a 2nd cheap heater as a backup and for warming my mixed water I make.

Upgrade: intank Chamber 1 (not sure what I want to do with chamber 2 yet, figure I have time given it a month to cycle. I don’t want to do a skimmer as a see pently of people have success on the nono without them.

Upgrade: Tunze 1073.008 Pump, I have read a lot of people go to this and my reasoning off the bat to get it is that I can use the or9ignal pump to help mix the water I make in the 5 gallon buckets.

API test kits both reef and standard. I know not that accurate but gets my feet wet and will upgrade to better kits as time goes.

Upgrade: Hydor Koralia Nano 425: This one I was on the fence on, but I felt better to be safe and have good tank circulation (can control the speed thru a 120v controller I have) if I find I have too much circulation with the upgraded pump.

Refractometer with calibration fluid.

Dr Tims One and Only

Dr Time Ammonium Chloride (I want to perform a fishless cycle)

Live Rock, my local LFS has cured rock which I plan on getting after I get the sand and water in the tank) Figuring 20lbs or so.

Light controller: I know the Fluval controller works with the stocks lights but they are sold our everywhere, I have read the current usa models will work with the stock lights so keeping my options open, again can wait to after I cycle and get a CUC in there. I really want the stock lights to work for me, I like the idea of a compact system otherwise I would of went with a waterbox 10.
So after the cycle my plan is to order a CUC from (reefcleaners)
The when it comes to fish, my plan is to order from live aquaria and get a bonded pair of clowns, cleaner shrimp and a blenny. Staggered of course to not bio load the system.
PLEASE provide some feedback on the above and your thoughts on what to do with chamber #2!

YMMV But here are my thoughts:

Instant ocean Reef Crystals (160 gallon), great price on amazon.

I am using this salt and it's been good so far. Very low residue after mixing it

Upgrade: intank Chamber 1 (not sure what I want to do with chamber 2 yet, figure I have time given it a month to cycle. I don’t want to do a skimmer as a see pently of people have success on the nono without them.

I would skip media baskets if you can DIY it with some egg crate. I have mine laid out like so (top to bottom):
Chamber 1 (the one with the weir): Filter floss, Purigen, EHEIM Substrat biological media
Chamber 2 (the middle one): Chemipure Elite, 3 x Ceramic cubes for bio media, Red Sea Reefspec Carbon in media bag and ATO output tube
Chamber 3 (the one with the return pump): Finnex 50W heater, Micro ATO sensor eye

Upgrade: Tunze 1073.008 Pump, I have read a lot of people go to this and my reasoning off the bat to get it is that I can use the or9ignal pump to help mix the water I make in the 5 gallon buckets.

I think you can skip this and stick to the stock Fluval pump. Especially since you are running another power head. I also had the Koralia originally but upgraded to the Aqamai and the Koralia now serves as the mixing pump.

API test kits both reef and standard. I know not that accurate but gets my feet wet and will upgrade to better kits as time goes.
Upgrade: Hydor Koralia Nano 425: This one I was on the fence on, but I felt better to be safe and have good tank circulation (can control the speed thru a 120v controller I have) if I find I have too much circulation with the upgraded pump.

I would suggest the Aqamai instead. Way more flexibility both, in terms of control ability and positioning freedom. The koralia is a pain to orient exactly how you want it. The Aqamai is much better for positioning.

Refractometer with calibration fluid.

I would suggest the Hanna Salinity meter as your primary checker and the refractometer as a backup. Especially when mixing salt water, breaking out the refractometer every time becomes a chore. Where as with the Hanna, just dip it into the water and there is your reading.

Dr Tims One and Only

Go with Bio-Spira instead as I have read around here that some batches of Dr. Tim's did not work as intended.

Dr Time Ammonium Chloride (I want to perform a fishless cycle)

That's what I used but make sure you only use 1 drop rather than the 4 it suggests in the bottle.

Other Thoughts:

An ATO is a very good thing to have. I have the AutoAqua Micro ATO and it comes on almost every other hour. I don't think I could keep up with top offs that closely manually.

Here's my tank:

Nightrider76 · Jun 15, 2020

Hi Chvvkumar, Nice tank!

Thank you for the response and the information, nice tank. Good point with the Refractometer , I plan on getting some easier to use tools to make the hobby easier.

I was going to get an ATO, but figured since i want to run the stock hood I will wait and see what the evaporation looks like before diving in. Hoping to work out little things like this during the cycle period.

I want to get some eggrate and make a DIY meeda basket for chamber #2.

WIReefer · Jun 15, 2020

I’ve been wanting to add a nano tank to my house what are your thoughts on this tank?

najer · Jun 15, 2020

Welcome to R2R, nice to see another Evo, as you say there are many ways to run them.
No rear filtration used although there is a small bag of carbon currently, Sicce stream 1000 and Eheim 600 return and a heater, stock hood and light.
No water changes and manual ro top ups, don't try this or you will fall flat on your face but it shows it can be done, I have some experience.
Enjoy the build.

Nightrider76 · Jun 17, 2020

Got the tank up and running lastnight, dosed Dr. Tims Ammonia this AM, stuck with the 1 drop per gallon, will run a base line test in a couple hours then test every 24.

najer · Jun 17, 2020

Love your scape.

Nightrider76 · Jun 17, 2020

Thank You! Quick question, this is my first tank with a sump, the water level in the tank and the sump are they directly related. So evaporation, should that be measured from the tank or the sump? or both? I want to start tracking this using a bit of tape.

chvvkumar · Jun 17, 2020

Nightrider76 said:
Thank You! Quick question, this is my first tank with a sump, the water level in the tank and the sump are they directly related. So evaporation, should that be measured from the tank or the sump? or both? I want to start tracking this using a bit of tape.

From the sump, the chamber that holds the return pump. The display water level will be whatever the level the weir is set to and will be constant.

This is also where the ATO sensor should be in if you go that route in the future.

chvvkumar · Jun 17, 2020

I put a piece of tape (before going with the ATO) to mark water level (you can see it on the outside surface towards the bottom right):

Nightrider76 · Jun 17, 2020

Great! thanks, I didnt go ATO off the bat but on my roadmap of things to get.

Just ran my baseline test-1ppm Ammonia - PH- 8.

Daniel@R2R · Jun 17, 2020

Nightrider76 said:
Got the tank up and running lastnight, dosed Dr. Tims Ammonia this AM, stuck with the 1 drop per gallon, will run a base line test in a couple hours then test every 24.

Nice! Following!

Nightrider76 · Jun 28, 2020

So i finally have added inhabitants to the tank, woke up sat AM tested, tank should it finally cycled. I headed down tot he LFS, I like this store alot, clean tanks, really nice fish and selection compared to others in my area. I befily consideded ordering from Live Aquaria but like supporting local business when i can.

I wanted a pair of clowns, had ideas of what i wanted but felt like shopping and whatever caught my eye regardless of price i would buy within means..lol.
Picked up (2) mocha Clowns and along with them also picked up Feather Duster.

So i am running a Hydor Koralia Nano 425, feel like it is too strong right now which my minimal inhabitants so turned it off and just running on the Tunze and everyone seems happy. Once i start stocking it more i am sure i will need more flow and then fire it back up to see how it goes. Still so much to learn and experiment!

I started the light cycle and once i get some Algae going i will hit up the LFS and start gathering CUC members. I have th elits only hitting 65% of full power, might dial that to 50% until i start adding corals.

Nightrider76 · Jul 31, 2020

Need advice, my last post a month ago, my clown fish still stay by the overflow intake. Is it clowns being clowns and since they are juveniles? They seem to scare easy as well. I dont feel there is too much flow at all. I figured when i aded my hammer coral they might want to hang around that but now..lol

I added a large blue knuckle hermit, man what a character he is! A little destructive, he went for a ride on the back of a snail as well,