Aqueon Evolve 8 nano reef

[jcazz]

Hi all -

I've been a member here for a long time (6+ years) and this is my first post!

Anyway - I had a 90gal reef setup for about 4 years, but due to a move and no space in the new place had to part with it a couple of years back. I finally got the itch to do something and started reading up on nano reefs.

I headed to the LFS to pickup a 10gal tank to DIY a system and while there I found the Aqueon Evolve 8 and thought - that's exactly what I want - all-in-one and seamless. Eighty-nine bucks later it was mine.

I decided that I wanted to try my hand at some coral that required more light - so I knew the stock light wouldn't cut it. I went the DIY route with LEDs and built a 16-LED (8x 10k, 8x 455nm) hanging fixture (running at 48 watts). This sucker is BRIGHT and I'm thinking I'll be able to keep anything under the sun with this thing (pun intended).

I thought I would toss out a few pics as this build progresses:

The first picture shows the LEDs attached to the heatsync & wired together. They're all sporting 60 degree optics except for the middle two which have 45 degree optics.

Here they are on. You cannot tell from this picture how bright they are, but it's amazingly bright.

I wanted the LED drivers mounted remotely, so I used 18/4 cable with a 4-pin waterproof connector between the light fixture and the driver box.

This is the driver box (version 1). Now that I know it works, I'll hard wire the power connections & remove those clamp-on wirenuts. I also am going to be adding a small cooling fan and building in an Arduino controller to handle timing the lights on/off and doing dimming (instead of the pots currently mounted on the side of the box).

Lastly, here's a FTS with the lights on. The water had just been added so it's still really cloudy. Running about 1.25" - 1.5" finely crushed coral bed.

Now that the water has cleared, the LEDs give that shimmering effect with the movement of the water. It looks really nice.

I've also added a Koralia Nano 240 for some extra flow and I've got a Jager 50w heater in the overflow.

I'm extremely lucky in that Premium Aquatics is in my back yard. I literally live 15 minutes away. I'm headed there tonight after work to pickup LR so I can start the cycle. I've calculated the volume of the display area to be about 6 gallons. So I'm not sure if I should shoot for between 6 and 8 pounds of rock, or judge it based on the whole volume and pickup between 8 and 10 pounds. Decisions, decisions!

I'll post more pictures after I get the rock in the aquarium.

Jacob

 

[jcazz]

UPDATE #1:

So I spent the afternoon wandering around Premium Aquatics showroom and drooling over all the amazing corals & livestock they had for sale. Patience.... patience...

Anyway - I picked up about 6.5 pounds of their Manado live rock. It is really beautiful and seems super light. I've kind of come up with my initial aquascape, but that may change.

Here's a FTS from the front (yes, I know the tank needs to be cleaned).

Here's the same shot showing the light array over the tank

Here's the left side of the tank

Here's the right side of the tank

My starting water params are pretty good:

Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.3
CA^2: 460 mg/L
CaCO3: 170 mg/L
PO4: 0 mg/L
NH3: 1 mg/L (hopefully start of cycle)
NO2-: 0 mg/L
NO3-: 0 mg/L

Now I just need to wait for the water to clear up and the cycle to start. I'm hoping that since this was cured rock it will be a fairly short cycle process.

 

[macktab]

Looking good, I am currently transitioning from a biocube 8 to a larger nano. Nutrient export is a primary concern for a tank wo skimmer, so I change 1-1.5 gal/wk and change the mech filter media every day or every few days depending on how much dirt it catches. To save money on cartridge replacements, maybe you could figure a simple mod to use bulk poly filter floss clipped to the plastic "replaceable" media frame. IMO you should support your tank on a piece of plywood instead of spanning across the stand frame.

 

[jcazz]

That's a good idea about rigging up the media to use floss. I hadn't thought that far ahead, but had already planned on weekly changes since I don't have room for a skimmer.

I'm also building an ATO - just waiting on the float switches I ordered to get here from Hong Kong. I figure it'll be less stress if I can keep the tank topped off than let it evaporate and have the salinity rise only to drop when a larger quantity of freshwater is added back in.

IMO you should support your tank on a piece of plywood instead of spanning across the stand frame.

It's a bit deceiving how the tank is setup. I'll try to get a better picture of it. I have a pony wall between my living room & dining room that has a recessed planter box. The tank sits perfectly into the opening, and the planter is only about 8" deep. I have a support under the middle of the tank holding the bottom too. I don't think it's going anywhere - it's very solid.

I also have a pantry immediately behind the tank, so I was planning on running a tube through the wall and keeping my water supply & ATO pump in the pantry to keep things tidy.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Jcazz nice setup pal...[welcome]

 

[Kpotter2]

I set up a Nano like this for my son. Its a 4gal size and it has been going very good. I have just started doing weekly water changes after letting the tank age a while. I watch parameters close and like I said it has been going well. Son is really liking Saltwater reef tanking. Wahoo.

So glad to see others used this tank to set up a nice little reef. I used only what came out of box for this setup. I am going to be ordering him a better LED light. Any suggestions other then DIY?

 

[tommer725]

looks great. love the rock shapes

 

[Brando457]

Did you notice the stock return is loud? I want to replace mine because it makes a weird groan noise. Aqueon sent me a replacement pump and same issue. My tank is in my bedroom and I find it difficult to sleep with the buzz.

 

[Kengaroo131]

Did you notice the stock return is loud? I want to replace mine because it makes a weird groan noise. Aqueon sent me a replacement pump and same issue. My tank is in my bedroom and I find it difficult to sleep with the buzz.

i have an evlove 8 stock out of the box and mine is completely silent sometimes i check to make sure the thing is still running lol

 

[reefscape15]

Just picked one of these up for my son. It looks like a fairly solid little tank, although I may swap out the stock return pump for something a little more powerful. The stock light is way way too white for my taste, but i have a 3" reefbrite blue that I'm going to add for now and see how that works.

 

[keh9qd]

That is really nice! I love what you did with the light as well. I have had an evolve 8 running for about 4 months now. I was trying to decided between 3 options when I purchased mine:

1. cadlights 12g (crappy light) high price
2. nuvo 8 (crappy light) high price
3. evolve 8 (equally crappy light) cheap ($89.99)

I chose the aqueon for 2 reasons, 1 being the price and 2 being that it is acrylic. With that said the spare $80 I saved on the tank I bought an upgraded light (new wave point 18w HO LED light).

The second reason is that knowing it is acrylic I knew that I could drill it myself without worrying about future cracking issue with glass. I modified the back chamber a bit and drilled it for a 10g sump where I was able to use the stock Evolve LED light. I think I ended up having $200 in it after the sump and light upgrade which to me was much nicer than the comparable tanks on the market.

 

[wrxreefer823]

Awesome build, sir! I just started up an Evolve8 reef as well. It's nearing two weeks old, and I couldn't be happier with it. Keep up the good work!

 

[3Watt]

Any updates to this tank?

I've been looking at these for a desktop nano @ work. Seems like a decent AIO for the price.

How wide is the filtration area, front to back? Would it accommodate a 2.25" thick nano skimmer?

 

[3Watt]

duplicate

 

[proteinskimmer]

I'd just as soon not run the skimmer; if you're trying to complete the cycling process, I'd think that having as much dissolved gunk as possible would allow the bacteria to populate the tank that much quicker.