My Fluval Sea 13.5

sayitfast · Nov 9, 2016

I have been waiting for my new DT to arrive. In the mean time I have setup a small tank that will be used sort of as a QT tank (Sort of). Anyways, here are some early pics, its looking pretty good so far... just cycling now.

It's a temporary setup in my office... so I just used a meat food service stand.

Used a powerhead & empty coke bottle with some filter floss to clear the tank (thanks to The king of DIY)

So far it been fun...

mushroomrob · Nov 9, 2016

How well does the coke/floss work? Is the tank completely cleansed?

sayitfast · Nov 9, 2016

mushroomrob said:
How well does the coke/floss work? Is the tank completely cleansed?

Crystal clear within 12 hours.... I will be taking it out soon, its pretty ugly.

sayitfast · Nov 12, 2016

Added some clean up crew to the tank tonight... Peppermint Shrimp... several Snails.... Emerald Crab and a Brittle Starfish. The Starfish freaked me out, it was struggling to get away as I transferred it to the tank, but I managed to get it in. I turned around to get a snail and as I put him in, the Starfish had vanished. I was looking on the floor, everywhere I could think. I did find him later on under the rock. You can just see a tentacle in the lower left of the image.

It's not much but still good to see something moving in the tank

Fishyj · Nov 16, 2016

Looking good so far. Did you do anything to the filter area yet?

sayitfast · Nov 16, 2016

Fishyj said:
Looking good so far. Did you do anything to the filter area yet?

I have not... I waiting for the Fluval Evo 12 Media Basket at inTank to come it. They been out of stock for sometime.

sayitfast · Nov 23, 2016

I made it to Reef A Palooza over the weekend and picked up a small Clam, Green Torch
and a colony of Zoas... all are doing well...

The pic is just after acclimatization and dipping the Zoas (Bristle worm from hell). Not there final resting place but I was tired after long drive and just placed them where I could for now. They are all doing very well.

iPhone pic:

sayitfast · Nov 28, 2016

Firefish posing this morning.

Tahoe61 · Nov 28, 2016

Those are great additions. Nice clam, is it a Maxima?

sayitfast · Nov 28, 2016

Tahoe61 said:
Those are great additions. Nice clam, is it a Maxima?

Yes... it's a Golden Maxima Clam. Doing really so far...

Fishyj · Nov 28, 2016

Looking good! A clam is on my list also.

CamG · Feb 18, 2017

Hi, You have a great looking tank.
I have been looking for weeks on the web to find someone with a clam in the Evo 13.5
Can I ask how it is doing ? I am going to be getting this tank shortly and I am wondering if I will need to modify the lights.

I actually just joined this site because of your build.
Thanks for sharing.

Cam

sayitfast · Feb 18, 2017

CamG said:
Hi, You have a great looking tank.
I have been looking for weeks on the web to find someone with a clam in the Evo 13.5
Can I ask how it is doing ? I am going to be getting this tank shortly and I am wondering if I will need to modify the lights.

I actually just joined this site because of your build.
Thanks for sharing.

Cam

I had to move the Clam out of the tank and into my frag tank.... the lighting in tank seemed to be fine for it but I have a Emerald Crab who would constantly knock it over.

Right now I have all sofites and they are doing great... light works well for them. While the Clam was in the tank it was wide open and the mantle look good. I would give it a try but it was not in my tank for a long time so long term you'll have to judge.

Recent pics under the blues:

sayitfast · Apr 14, 2017

inTank finally came out with a replacement for the out of box media basket:

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Fluval-Evo-12-135-Media-Basket-FL12MR.htm

Little pricey but light years better than the sponge that comes with the tank. It goes in the first chamber so I will need to move my skimmer over to middle but seems to work just fine there.

reef-rc · Apr 14, 2017

sayitfast said:
inTank finally came out with a replacement for the out of box media basket:

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Fluval-Evo-12-135-Media-Basket-FL12MR.htm

Little pricey but light years better than the sponge that comes with the tank. It goes in the first chamber so I will need to move my skimmer over to middle but seems to work just fine there.

Awesome to have choices. Definitely will keep this on the radar for sure.

Are you going for the pre-order?

sayitfast · Apr 15, 2017

reef-rc said:
Awesome to have choices. Definitely will keep this on the radar for sure.

Are you going for the pre-order?

I did do the pre-order... I've been waiting for it for a while now.

reef-rc · Apr 15, 2017

Please do provide updates once you have it. .

I have a few open questions (seems similar to IM CustomCaddy – Media Basket which people seems to like).

Since I have the skimmer, how would bubbles from skimmer do?
I know standard foam traps a lot of debris, how will this be compare if there is only a small foam near the top? The standard foam does make cleaning it on regular basis a little hassle imo but not much.

sayitfast · Jun 7, 2017

reef-rc said:
Please do provide updates once you have it. .

I have a few open questions (seems similar to IM CustomCaddy – Media Basket which people seems to like).

Since I have the skimmer, how would bubbles from skimmer do?

I know standard foam traps a lot of debris, how will this be compare if there is only a small foam near the top? The standard foam does make cleaning it on regular basis a little hassle imo but not much.

I have received the inTank media basket for my Fluval 13.5. My overall impression after running it for two weeks is positive.

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Fluval-Evo-12-135-Media-Basket-FL12MR.htm

It does sit in the first chamber and if you're running the Fluval skimmer you might be out of luck. I have removed the skimmer I was using completely and have seen so far so good. I do weekly water change of about 25% using sea water and in this size of a tank I think I will be OK.

I had to raise the tank water level to get the water to overflow into the chamber correctly. Not a big deal but it does not sit about a 1/4 inch into the black lace sticker thing.

There is a very small trickle noise... much less than the skimmer made for sure. Its more than acceptable.

It's super easy to just pull out, do some maintenance and pop it back in. I have filter floss in first level followed by Carbon and some bio media. Much easier to deal with than the sponge. I hated the sponge.

At this point I give it a thumbs up.

reef-rc · Jun 7, 2017

great you are liking it.

They recently came out with a similar caddy for the 2nd chamber so I am looking to see how others like it before I take a plung. I don't like the spong much myself as it's a pain to clean but it does currently offer 2 things I feel is of value:. traps bubbles and detritus/particles well.

sayitfast · Jun 7, 2017

reef-rc said:
great you are liking it.

They recently came out with a similar caddy for the 2nd chamber so I am looking to see how others like it before I take a plung. I don't like the spong much myself as it's a pain to clean but it does currently offer 2 things I feel is of value:. traps bubbles and detritus/particles well.

I did not know they were doing one for second chamber... I will have to check it out.... Thanks!