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Showing results for tags 'fluval evo 13.5 nano newbie'.
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I'm creating this to hopefully limit my inevitable mistakes as I explore this hobby. I'm limited on space at the moment but am going to gain some experience with this Fluval Evo 13.5. I picked up a bit over 13 pounds of uncured dry rock and too large of a bag of fine aragonite sand. I washed it about 10x over but probably should have just taken it outside and used the hose. The tank was cloudy for about a day. Now for the funny story. I have a few 5G buckets that I plan on keeping fresh/salt water and doing any mixing in. To fill up the tank I read the instructions. For the reef crystals they say, "1/2 cup for every gallon." Well, I quickly did the math in my head. I have a degree in mathematics so this was just simple arithmetic. 1/2 cup for every gallon, that means 10 cups for the 5 gallon bucket. I'm scooping this salt and thinking to myself, "This is a crazy amount of salt..." After the first 5 gallons went into the tank and I nearly emptied the bag of salt on my second 5 gallon bucket I rechecked my math. Yup, I'm an idiot. Well, getting the concentration down from 4x the limit with a limited number of buckets was quite a fun time. After a bit of problem solving I now have a super concentrated bucket of saltwater that I'll be diluting down for the forseeable future. DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB! The dry rock was fun to scape with. These rocks are definitely more difficult to manipulate than the river stones I'm used to in freshwater. Fitting together puzzle pieces which don't really fit together to make something stable is...tricky. I hope this scape gives something interesting to look at, caves for any future inhabitants, and coral spots for the future. My test kit should be arriving soon and I'll keep close tabs on the params and check the salinity with the refractometer. My remaining purchases include a better heater (one that fits in chamber 3) and an RODI unit. Please let me know if you have any recommendations. I'm going to be searching the marketplace for an RODI unit and seeing what Ebay has to offer. I also need to build the filter chamber. I'm out of bio media since my move so I'll have to rebuild my stockpile...unless I can just throw in some Kordon Kaldness and call it a day (no fluidized action). This is the start and I'm looking forward to getting the cycle going. I hope I can get everything done before Frag Fest.
