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Subliminal's Fluval Evo 13.5 Build

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Subliminal

NJRC Member
Well...it's been about 15 years since I last had a reef in my house. That was a 29 gallon number that...well, it got away from me.

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Anyway, it was sucking up an hour or more a day of pure maintenance. And then, like so many before (and probably after) me, I went away for a few days and tragedy struck and she was gone.

Fast forward to this weekend. I was perusing Facebook Marketplace and found this little AIO, and the journey begins anew.

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Now, as they say...the waiting is the hardest part. :)

...and I still want some rocks with some weird critters in them. :)
 
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Rjmul

Take it eeeeeasy on the dry rock. I didn't know any better when I started and live rock wasn't a thing anymore. Went with dry rock because that's what people told me to do and I ran into a lot of problems.

funny enough my wife wants a tank, I might have an evo incoming. Yours looks great
 
S

Subliminal

NJRC Member
Rjmul said:
Take it eeeeeasy on the dry rock. I didn't know any better when I started and live rock wasn't a thing anymore. Went with dry rock because that's what people told me to do and I ran into a lot of problems.

funny enough my wife wants a tank, I might have an evo incoming. Yours looks great
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I hate the dry rock. I want someone to give/sell me some coraline encrusted rock out of the pacific from around Fiji...but I can't seem to find any, and people (for whatever reason) don't want to part with theirs. ;-)

That being said. I'm not sure if I would get the Evo again...and I've only had it a few days. It's solid, but here's the thing:

The AIO thing is really just a standard tank, with a baffle that has some teeth cut into it, the water falls thru media and then it's pumped back out.

You can go to Petco or whatever and get a 20 or 29 gallon tank for real cheap, and then you can either custom make (glass or acrylic) or buy on eBay or from a vendor the filtration section of the tank, and then you can customize to your liking...and all with a more standard size tank that fits on standard stands.

PS - It's a James D. Watson bobblehead...he's the father of modern recombinant DNA. ;-)
 
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horseplay

NJRC Member
If not for the looks a standard 29g works just fine with an HOB filter.

About 10 years ago it's when I setup my first tank. It was the golden age of live rocks, fiji, tonga, branches, shelves you name it. Not it's Marco or real reef. But hey it's good for the reef supposedly.

You can get live rocks from tbaquatics. They put rocks in Florida reefs and collect them a few years later. I have heard good things about them.

If you come anywhere close to Aberdeen you're welcome to stop by for a piece of rock from my sump.
 
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Subliminal

NJRC Member
Well, things changed a little bit over the last day or so. Got rid of all the dry rock, including the arch I painstakingly glued together and added (maybe too much?) seasoned live rock from a nice gentlemen who gave me a bargain. :)

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Subliminal

NJRC Member
The GSP and others I got from DIYGuy (Thanks Chris!) It was open before I moved everything around. I'm pretty happy to see weird spidery arms reaching out from the rock.
 
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Subliminal

NJRC Member
Found aptasia on one of my live rocks.
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Put some boiling water in a needle and injected him. He doesn't look too happy anymore. :)
 
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MadReefer

MadReefer

Vice President
Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I shot mine with lemon juice and then placed a Bumblebee snail right on top of it.
 
NanoJoe

NanoJoe

NJRC Member
Nice, the Evo is a fun little tank. I liked it a lot and held on to mine for years. Did some cosmetic changes to it. I did a bunch of videos of it on my youtube. Having that tank taught me a lot, met a ton of cool people and made some solid connections.

I remember flow being a slight issue. Most power heads available at the time were bulky and an mp10 was out of my price range.

Have fun with it!
 
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Iotari

Looks awesome! Careful with the GSP to keep it isolated on an island. I have a similar tank and I let it touch my main rock structure. Two years later it looked like this and was strangling other corals and I had to re-scape. It was literally growing up and over a bird's-nest to swallow if.

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DYIguy

DYIguy

NJRC Member
Iotari said:
Looks awesome! Careful with the GSP to keep it isolated on an island. I have a similar tank and I let it touch my main rock structure. Two years later it looked like this and was strangling other corals and I had to re-scape. It was literally growing up and over a bird's-nest to swallow if.

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Looking great- didn't realize there was so much gsp
 
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Subliminal

NJRC Member
Just fed the tank some frozen mysis shrimp...it really made EVERYONE happy. Nem got some, Duncan got some, and both Kurt and Dave (the clowns) got a ton.

I'm sure you all already knew about this wonderful frozen food? hehe
 
S

Subliminal

NJRC Member
I had some fish changes:

1. My clowns were not being nice to each other. One was significantly larger, and was just beating the crap out of the little guy. I took the larger one back to the fish store and they replaced him. The new clown immediately started to try to focefully submit to the other clown.

2. The other clown was so stressed he just stayed in the corned and wouldn't even flirt with the new clown. I was hoping he'd pull thru but he was dead when the lights came on this AM.

So...now, two totally different clowns which seem to be getting along swimingly. I think I'm going to call them 'Salt and Peppa'. hehe

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