Hello fellow reefers! My name is Olivier, and as of this year, I have gained an interest in the reef-keeping hobby. This interest has spiked from my memory of my father's large aquarium at home when I was growing up. Now that I have access to adult money (lol), I have been inspired to get into the hobby. With limited space to work with, I needed a tank that could fit on top of a dresser in my bedroom. I ended up choosing the Fluval Evo 13.5 for it's shape, simplicity, clean look, and easy to work with filtration area (you could call it a sump?). Plus, there is a lot of information out there for this tank as people have done plenty of nano builds with them. I know that a nano tank may be challenging, but I am willing to take the leap.
When purchasing equipment, I wanted to keep things simple, clean, but also budget-friendly. At the same time, I would like to be able to provide the best space for the future inhabitants of this tank, so I am trying to purchase quality items. Here is my current setup and some of my future plans for the tank for anyone interested in following my journey!
Tank: Fluval Evo 13.5
Equipment:
-Sicce Syncra Silent 0.5 Pump
-Cobalt Aquatics 75 watt Heater
-Tunze Nano ATO 3152 (Not installed yet)
-Stock Fluval Light (AI Prime 16HD Reef is on the way!)
-Elitech STC-1000 Temperature Controller (for heater)
Substrate/Aquascape:
-CaribSea Fiji Pink Life Reef Sand (about 1.5-2.0 inch layer)
-Dry Rock Pieces (2)
-LFS Wet Live Rock (3; one is in the sump)
-LFS Established Reef Water
Current Media Setup:
Chamber 1 - Heater
Chamber 2 - Stock filter sponge, stock bio-media
Chamber 3 - Pump
On day one, in order to start the cycle, I added 6mL of MicroBacter QuikCycl. It has only been a few days so far, ammonia and nitrite have been showing up on tests. On day 7, 18mL of Microbacter Start XLM was added to help the cycle. This is the most up-to-date information. It is currently day 8 of creating this thread.
Day 1 Photos:
When purchasing equipment, I wanted to keep things simple, clean, but also budget-friendly. At the same time, I would like to be able to provide the best space for the future inhabitants of this tank, so I am trying to purchase quality items. Here is my current setup and some of my future plans for the tank for anyone interested in following my journey!
Tank: Fluval Evo 13.5
Equipment:
-Sicce Syncra Silent 0.5 Pump
-Cobalt Aquatics 75 watt Heater
-Tunze Nano ATO 3152 (Not installed yet)
-Stock Fluval Light (AI Prime 16HD Reef is on the way!)
-Elitech STC-1000 Temperature Controller (for heater)
Substrate/Aquascape:
-CaribSea Fiji Pink Life Reef Sand (about 1.5-2.0 inch layer)
-Dry Rock Pieces (2)
-LFS Wet Live Rock (3; one is in the sump)
-LFS Established Reef Water
Current Media Setup:
Chamber 1 - Heater
Chamber 2 - Stock filter sponge, stock bio-media
Chamber 3 - Pump
On day one, in order to start the cycle, I added 6mL of MicroBacter QuikCycl. It has only been a few days so far, ammonia and nitrite have been showing up on tests. On day 7, 18mL of Microbacter Start XLM was added to help the cycle. This is the most up-to-date information. It is currently day 8 of creating this thread.
Day 1 Photos: