Aqueon Evolve 8 Nano Reef Build

B

bennersk8

New member
So its been a few years since I had a reef tank and lately I've had to urge to get back into the hobby. I didn't want to start a huge tank since I'm still renting for now and I know I'll have to relocate it in the future. Anyways, I scored a good deal on CL on this Aqueon Evolve 8 that came with a little Beamswork LED light. Looks pretty nice for now, we'll see how it holds up in the future with corals. I got close to 9LBs of LR that I got from New Fish that looks totally awesome and was fully cured. Made my tank go from and 8gal to a 5gal. The tank cycled super fast in about 3 days. Water parameters have been stable everyday. The tank has been up up for about 10 days and I did get a little antsy and got some hermits and snails to put in. I'm going to test later today to see how the tank is doing. I'm sure ammonia and nitrates have gone up since those little sh*ts have been not stop eating and sh*tting everywhere. I also bought some acrylic and modded out the back back 2 chambers and split the left one into 2 chambers, so now there's 3 chambers. Right now I'm running filter floss, carbon, and a sponge in the 1st. Filter floss, purigen, and sponge in the 2nd chamber, and running my heater and return pump in the 3rd. Waiting on my refuge light to come in the mail and eventually get rid of the carbon, move purigen to chamber 1, and then make chamber 2 a refuge with some chaeto. Eventually I might put a diy skimmer in chamber 3, but not sure if it'll be over kill. Planning on to fill this beast up with softies and lps. Possibly clown and a cleaner shrimp. Actually, definitely a cleaner shrimp. Those things just look badass and I've never had one before! Here's a couple pictures over my tank so far. Sorry I didn't clean the tank before I took the pictures!
 
Thats a nice tank .. i message that guy on CL but it got picked up that day haha .. now i know where it went :)

IMO its a little too much rock for that tank ..
 
I saw this also for sale on craigslist lol. I'm curious to see how that light works out for you. I have an evolve 8 sitting in my basement that I've been debating to set up as a reef and I'm looking for a light to invest in. Good luck with the tank. Looks great.
 
Krazyandy said:
I saw this also for sale on craigslist lol. I'm curious to see how that light works out for you. I have an evolve 8 sitting in my basement that I've been debating to set up as a reef and I'm looking for a light to invest in. Good luck with the tank. Looks great.
Click to expand...

Thanks! You should definitely set it up! It's super easy to mod the back chambers out and do whatever you want with it. The guy I got it from actually works at New Fish and I live 2 blocks away from there….so I know where my paychecks are going to end up going now lol.
 
Thanks! Yea, I kinda agree that it's a little too much rock, but I got it for $5lb at New Fish. I also rearranged it a little the other day so it looks a little less full then it does in the picture. I'll put up a new picture in a little bit.
 
Looks like you are off to a great start. I'm sure you are excited to get back into the hobby.
 
I like the second option much better. Still a little far out to the edges of the acrylic. Might be hard to clean the glass. Also be SUPER careful with crazing/scratching on these evolves. I have one set up in my office and just the gravel sitting in the bottom has caused a couple scratches.
 
Got my little submersible fuge light yesterday and had to go to the lfs to get some chaeto. Ended up getting a little ricordea and a dragon eyes zoa frag as well ;) Both seem to be very happy today! I did see a little bristle worm come off the the zoa frag. I tried to grab it with tweezers, but that little bastard got away. Think I want to try and get a little frag of pulsating xenia and some frog spawn next.
 
Update: Corals and Shrimp

Sorry it's been a while since I updated, but within the past 2 weeks I have acquired a cleaner shrimp, more zoos, frogspawn, candy canes, duncans, and ricordea. Picked up the corals from a guy named Mark on the Northside of Chicago. Man he has and awesome setup in his basement that I envy. Super nice and knowledgeable guy that I will definitely be in contact with again to buy some more corals. Awesome prices as well. Can't beat the prices buying from fellow hobbyist! ;)
 
Picked up a few corals the other day. Finally got my pulsating xenia that I wanted and also got a toadstool and a shell with some snowflake polyps on it. Unfortunately, my cleaner shrimp was molting the other day and fell off the rock he was on. All my hermits started to feast on him while is hands were tied behind his back. :( oh well. Think it may be time to buy a fish now….not sure what though
 
Nice setup!

Keep an eye on that Xenia. They're pretty cool to look at, but they can spread like wildfire and take up you tank's real estate.
 
Anybody have any experience with flat worms? I've been working so much lately that I haven't payed that much attention to my tank, but today I noticed that I have an abundance of the clear flat worms, not the red ones. Are these guys ok to have? There are a ton of them....ideas? Thoughts?

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They are generally food controlled so if they have less to eat they will die off on their own. In a tank your size you could try a six line wrasse too. It seems that these little guys become more of a problem in AIO tanks. In sumped tanks they seem to stay in the sump for the most part unless you have a really bad outbreak, but since you only have a sectioned tank they have nowhere to go down there.
 
Sorry, its been a while since I posted. I had a rough time with temp fluctuation during the super hot days the past 4 weeks and it shocked my tank. I live on the 3rd floor and heat rises = no bueno for the fish tank when the a/c isn't on. I did lose some of my xenia, but the temp has been stable the last week or two since its cooled off outside. The remains of the xenia seem to be growing back though and pulsating. I also picked up a clown a week ago and just picked up an orange brain today. I also got creative and made a little frag rack with some acrylic I had laying around. Man, acrylic is a PITA to drill! Otherwise, my duncans are growing another head! ;)

Thinking about switching up to an ecoxotic par 38 bulb with the remote. Anyone have and experience with these?
 
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