Rocco's Evo 13.5

[AyoItsRocco]

Well, here we go again! So with all the fun I had with my 45 gallon bow front, I have decided to go with another tank! This is my Fluval Evo 13.5 gallon tank. my main goal is to keep a Goby/Pistol shrimp combo aswell as some Softies and maybe Some sps corals! As for upgrades, I am using the Intank chamber 1 basket (filter floss, chemipure blue, and the biomax that came with the tank) and I bought a Noopsyche K7 Mini light, which arrives friday. Other than that I have a Eheim Jager 100w and eventually I will buy a Kraken lid or build one myself. I will be using @brandon429 cycling technique, so hopefully I will be able to get fish soonish after cycling. I will try to regularly update the progress as it goes!

 

[MDAquatics]

I also just bought a mini for a nano I have going! Looking forward to seeing more!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Well, here we go again! So with all the fun I had with my 45 gallon bow front, I have decided to go with another tank! This is my Fluval Evo 13.5 gallon tank. my main goal is to keep a Goby/Pistol shrimp combo aswell as some Softies and maybe Some sps corals! As for upgrades, I am using the Intank chamber 1 basket (filter floss, chemipure blue, and the biomax that came with the tank) and I bought a Noopsyche K7 Mini light, which arrives friday. Other than that I have a Eheim Jager 100w and eventually I will buy a Kraken lid or build one myself. I will be using @brandon429 cycling technique, so hopefully I will be able to get fish soonish after cycling. I will try to regularly update the progress as it goes!

Best of luck with the tank!

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Little bit of an update, got my K7 Mini in and I'm loving how it looks. Used someone elses setting that I found on here and its looking great! I think my only complaint about the light is that its kind of a pain to get it positioned correctly, but I think i have it decently placed.

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Update! Finally added my first livestock to the tank, got a pair of Darwin Clowns. The acclimation didn't go quite to plan like I wanted it to. Dripped for about 30ish minutes and I stressed them out trying to get them into the tank, ontop of that my heater stopped working temporarily, and dropped in temperature. They both made it through the night thankfully and seem to be doing really well. Sorry for the terrible picture lol, my phone camera is pretty bad.


One of the clowns is already pretty dark, but by the way they're acting, I believe he's gonna end up being the male

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Another Update....

Finally decided to go and get a goby/pistol shrimp pair. So the pistol shrimps already digging while the yashia goby is already hidden in the rock work.

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Well day 2 of the goby/pistol being in the tank. They seem to have found a spot, of course behind the rock where I cant see them, I see some sand mounds in there and a hole so I can only assume they are paired again and dug themselves a new home. Gotta love that new fish anxiety thinking they are dead lol. On another note, I did add some new rocks in the corners of the tank for future coral.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Well day 2 of the goby/pistol being in the tank. They seem to have found a spot, of course behind the rock where I cant see them, I see some sand mounds in there and a hole so I can only assume they are paired again and dug themselves a new home. Gotta love that new fish anxiety thinking they are dead lol. On another note, I did add some new rocks in the corners of the tank for future coral.

Awesome news, congrats.

Yes the new fish anxiety is real. Get some pics of the duo if possible!

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Awesome news, congrats.

Yes the new fish anxiety is real. Get some pics of the duo if possible!

When they come out for sure, hopefully in the next couple of days

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Welp found out while feeding that my tank is at a steady 82.4 F . My room is hot as it is but its never gotten this bad. Just ordered a Temp controller and the clowns seem to be doing fine, hoping it doesn't give the goby and shrimp much more stress than they already have lol

 

[MarkTrysReefing]

Following! Excited to see where this goes. I am going to be starting my Fluval 13.5 cycle this weekend! Good luck with yours!

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Controller finally came in and now I'm alot less stressed about temperature fluctuations. Clowns are chillin as always and finally caught the goby peeking out last night (first pic)



Most likely going to wait atleast a month or 2 before I feel confident adding some softies 2 it.

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Following! Excited to see where this goes. I am going to be starting my Fluval 13.5 cycle this weekend! Good luck with yours!

I am excited aswell, taking this one with a lot more hesitation since its so small. Its a fun little tank for sure.

 

[JoJosReef]

Looking great!

Where did you mount the K7 mini? From the back or from the AIO side? If you need it to go a bit further, I found some "standoffs" that work well to get a bit of extra length and center them over the Evo (I have them on my 40L but also on my Evo):

Quick fix: Noopsyche Mini Flex Arm Bracket too short for your AIO?

Hi all, Just sharing the problem I have with my Noopsyche K7 minis, which I decided to use for my nanos and now my 40L. Great little light, but what bothers me is this: The flex arm doesn't reach to the middle of a tank when attached to the back glass of an AIO, despite being optimal for an...

www.reef2reef.com

Looking great! Get some easy corals in there to start sucking up the nutrients!

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Looking great!

Where did you mount the K7 mini? From the back or from the AIO side? If you need it to go a bit further, I found some "standoffs" that work well to get a bit of extra length and center them over the Evo (I have them on my 40L but also on my Evo):

Quick fix: Noopsyche Mini Flex Arm Bracket too short for your AIO?

Hi all, Just sharing the problem I have with my Noopsyche K7 minis, which I decided to use for my nanos and now my 40L. Great little light, but what bothers me is this: The flex arm doesn't reach to the middle of a tank when attached to the back glass of an AIO, despite being optimal for an...

www.reef2reef.com

Looking great! Get some easy corals in there to start sucking up the nutrients!

So I mounted mine in the middle, i made my own mesh lid which is a little janky with the hole but is working fine since i cover it anyways. Ironically it works really well as a feeder hole lol

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Well I finally found a name for the Goby.
Meet Goober, i dont think hes like most gobies because he is definitely not afraid of me for some reason lol. As for the pistol, I dont think he made, haven't heard him since he I put him in, so with that I may get another in a few weeks.

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Update! So far so good with the livestock, eating and swimming about as they should. Decided to by some more zoas for the mini Zoa Island I'm creating and they are starting to open up already, slow but they are getting there adjusted.. Also bought a new Candy Cane Pistol and he paired up within 20 minutes with my Yashia Goby and already dug themselves a hole to the bottom of the tank lol. The next thing I'm thinking about adding is either a Hammer or a GSP frag for the other island but I'm leaning towards the GSP since I've had success with them in my other Tank.

As for the tank itself, I'm upgrading little by little. Purchased the 1/2 VCA random flow generator and looking forward for that. Next will probably be the pump upgrade and by what it looks like, the Sicce Silent .5 will be the replacement.

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Tank is doing very well, other than some diatoms, which may be from over feeding a little bit. Got my mini zoa garden and a new mushroom thats really colorful.

Fish are doing really good, The clowns chill in there corner and goober and his shrimp friend have been digging away as per usual, but come out around 8-9 in the morning every day lol. Sorry for bad pictures again, still trying to get a new phone eventually lol

 

[larryl]

Tank is looking great.

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Well this was probably one of the worst couple weeks that I've had in this hobby.

Too start off with I noticed an increase in Diatoms about 2 and half weeks, thought nothing of it since I dealt with them in my other tank. Well come Friday/Saturday, I noticed my tank started to get cloudy, which I should have done something right away since it the cloudyness is a usually tied to bacterial problems. Also around this time I noticed I hadn't seen my Yasha goby in a minute but could still hear the pistol shrimp so I assumed he was still kicking. Well come Sunday I found he had passed on the sand bed. I have no clue what caused him to die, but I'm pretty sure he had started the bacterial bloom. I lost both the Goby and a Clown Sunday and Monday, plus the corals are pretty unhappy.

As of now the tank is already getting clearer after some hefty water changes. One Zoa colony is starting to open up again, while the other is still tucked in. The mushroom is retracted quite a bit, but has most of its color. The sand bed is a mess right now unfortunately. Luckily the one clown thats left is eating once more and snails are going still scooting around cleaning everything up. Guess I got lucky that the entire tank didn't die but dang it sucks when things fail.