EVO 13.5 Startup Questions and Observations

[Oboeman58]

Hi all. I have a brand-new EVO 13.5 in my home that I am about to bring to life. I have made some observations, and that leads me to some questions that I hope you can help answer.

First, I have purchased a heater to fit in the chamber with the return pump. But it appears to me that the pump that shipped with my tank is physically larger than the one that is shown in the included quick start-up guide. My pump must sit sideways, leaving very little room for a heater. I have a Fluval M50 heater, and even though it would be described as thin, it is still a very tight squeeze to fit in with the pump. Has anyone else run into this, and should I be concerned that the heater is right against the pump?

My next question is how much live sand is needed in this tank?

Finally, how much live rock, and assuming sand & rock take up a percentage of the total tank volume, how many gallons of salt water ultimately occupies the tank/filter area? I am trying to decide how many 5-gallon (empty) jugs to purchase in order to get things going. For now, I plan to purchase RODI & salt water from my LFS, and wonder how many bottles to bring for the initial purchasing. I know there are lots of variables and preferences. I am just trying to get a ballpark idea.

Thanks all. I’ll probably have many more questions as things move forward. Thanks in advance for your replies and advice.

Dave

[Oboeman58]

Moderator - Sorry this was posted twice accidentally. I don't see where to delete the 2nd instance myself.

Dave

[BeachVacationer]

If it was me I would buy double the volume of water of the tank. Keep the extra just in case you need to do emergency WC. Also buy extra RODI water for top off.

[Mksurfer]

Originally Posted by Oboeman58

Hi all. I have a brand-new EVO 13.5 in my home that I am about to bring to life. I have made some observations, and that leads me to some questions that I hope you can help answer.

First, I have purchased a heater to fit in the chamber with the return pump. But it appears to me that the pump that shipped with my tank is physically larger than the one that is shown in the included quick start-up guide. My pump must sit sideways, leaving very little room for a heater. I have a Fluval M50 heater, and even though it would be described as thin, it is still a very tight squeeze to fit in with the pump. Has anyone else run into this, and should I be concerned that the heater is right against the pump?

My next question is how much live sand is needed in this tank?

Finally, how much live rock, and assuming sand & rock take up a percentage of the total tank volume, how many gallons of salt water ultimately occupies the tank/filter area? I am trying to decide how many 5-gallon (empty) jugs to purchase in order to get things going. For now, I plan to purchase RODI & salt water from my LFS, and wonder how many bottles to bring for the initial purchasing. I know there are lots of variables and preferences. I am just trying to get a ballpark idea.

Thanks all. I’ll probably have many more questions as things move forward. Thanks in advance for your replies and advice.

Dave

Hi Dave,

I started the same tank 2 months ago. I have 15lbs of live sand and 15 lbs of live rock. I honestly think that there is less than 8 gallons of water in that tank with all of the displacement. It cycled smoothly and is stable. I have two small power heads in there and I also had trouble getting the heater in there.

Good Luck to you, and post some pics when you get it going.

Matt

Here's a video of mine.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123197757@N06/9j400k

[Oboeman58]

Thanks Matt - I'm probably still 2 weeks away from putting sand, water & rock in there. I will start posting pics once it's not an empty glass box!

Your tank looks great!

My best,
Dave

[OhDumb]

I have the same tank up for a few months now and here are is my setup and advice....
Setup
* I used 10lbs Dry Life Rock and 5lbs cured LR. I did this because my old 90g SPS tank was riddled with Aptasia and I didn't want to deal with that in a nano from infested LR.
* 1-2 inches of Dry sand - Bagged live sand is ok, but this was nice dry sand and I just used it and seeded it with a scoop of another reefers sand. A DSB is kinda silly in a nano in my opinion so I vacuum the shallow bed weekly during water changes.
* Heater space is an issue so i went with the more expensive Easy Therm. The flat heater fits perfect next to the return pump.
* I own three 5g jugs. I do a 2g water change a week, I might go to 1g in the future. But, this gives me a dedicated fresh jug for top offs. A dedicated Saltwater jug and then a mixing jug if needed.
*I have one Hydra Nano 240GPH powerhead in the tank and plan on adding another, but for cycling and LPS it's fine for now.
* Total water volume is about 10g

Mods:
I cycled with the sponge and provided bags of carbon, etc... But, once cycled I threw all that out. I have the Fluval Mini PS2 skimmer and love it in the first chamber (once dialed in it works great). I cut a piece of acrylic from Home Depot to fit in the first chamber along the wall divider to chamber two to block all the return vents except the top two. This forces water from the top down the second chamber. I currently run a sock of carbon and sock of GFO with filter floss on top. I rinse the floss out every two days and replace with new during my weekly water changes.

Cycling - I used a bottle of Turbo900 to cycle and 5lbs of cured LR along with the dry rock and sand. My tank was cycled in a week. No ammonia. No Nitrites. Detectable Nitrates. No lie. I added my first fish and clean up crew. My 90g took a month.

I'm upgrading lights soon, but it wasn't a priority until I'm wanting higher light demanding corals. I"m growing Zoas, Hammer, Ricordias and Chalices no problem under the stock lights. Just know these are all pretty low light demanding corals.

Remember, these are just what I decided to do. There are a ton of different ways of doing things and this tank is really cool to play around with. Let me know if you have any questions.

[OhDumb]

Here is a pic of my setup...

[OhDumb]

https://imgur.com/3bDFvZt

[Oboeman58]

Thanks for all the info! Good stuff. Your tank looks wonderful - and I like the idea of a quick cycle. Once I get things rolling, I'll post my progress. Thanks again.

Dave