rdck99's 16g Nuvo Reef (Now w/NanoBox Duo + 1st SPS!)

[rdck99]

I recommend the maxspect razor 120 watt 16k. To me the extra cost of the controller was a turn off for the ai lights. For the price I think the maxspect razor is better. The razor has all you need to get all the colors and growth you could ever want. The extra colors/channels/programming is just fluff IMO.

I've heard the same regarding the extra colors/programming being fluff, but I think I'd enjoy part of it - programming the lunar cycles and storm settings seems like something I will nerd out to, even though it's entirely unnecessary. Plus, the more I think about it, I don't like how the Maxspect mounts to the sides over the display area...the thought of needing to move my light to do weekly maintenance sounds like a hassle, so mounting from the rear sump of the tank is preferred.

[CrazyCarl]

I've heard the same regarding the extra colors/programming being fluff, but I think I'd enjoy part of it - programming the lunar cycles and storm settings seems like something I will nerd out to, even though it's entirely unnecessary. Plus, the more I think about it, I don't like how the Maxspect mounts to the sides over the display area...the thought of needing to move my light to do weekly maintenance sounds like a hassle, so mounting from the rear sump of the tank is preferred.

You can always hang it. This is my tank (from a few months ago). I had an electrician at work bend it for me with PVC coated conduit, and I painted it black. Hasn't moved in over a year. I do bump it once in a while but never really gets in the way.

[rdck99]

You can always hang it. This is my tank (from a few months ago). I had an electrician at work bend it for me with PVC coated conduit, and I painted it black. Hasn't moved in over a year. I do bump it once in a while but never really gets in the way.

From an aesthetics standpoint, that really does look sharp!

[rdck99]

Lighting: as I've been pondering the idea of a new tank (maybe the CAD Lights 34g), I've also been researching a new light. I figured I'd upgrade if/when I got a new tank, plus my stock IM LED's have been fading and I'm sure it won't be long before they start to go out completely. After much debate, I've decided on the NanoBox Duo with a gooseneck mount and the moonlight LED upgrade. I hope to place the order in the next couple weeks!

 

Fish: ever since losing my wrasse, I've wanted to add another third fish. I ended up going with a red firefish goby. He's been out of quarantine and in the DT for over a week now, and I couldn't be happier. He's out swimming around about half the day (which is more than I expected). So far, he's only eating mysis, unless pellets/flakes fall to him. Hopefully, I'll get him on a dry food eventually. His colors are SO much more vibrant that I imagined. Definitely the prettiest fish I've had so far. Now that I'm pumping mysis into the tank more often, I'll probably add 3 scarlet hermits (I only have one hermit left at the moment).

 

The red on his tail is insanely deep, and you can also see his purple freckles, eyebrow, and strip on his head...he sports almost every color under the sun!

 

I didn't edit this photo at all, but I thought it turned out really interesting. The light appears to shine through him, which highlights the vibrance/diversity of his colors and texture.

 

Dosing: in addition to Seachem's Reef Fusion 2 that I now dose once per week for my alkalinity (4-5 ml per week at water change time), I also began dosing Seachem's Iodide. This is the non-toxic stuff and while the results are somewhat inconclusive, I read enough people claiming to get better growth/color that I decided to give it a go. I'm dosing 1 ml per week, after my water changes. These bottles really should be shorter/wider instead of tall/skinny, so they'd be more syringe-friendly. It'd make manual dosing MUCH easier.

 

A couple other shots while I had the DSLR out...

 

And an updated FTS (nice growth from just about every piece; I'll probably have to frag my toadstool soon...not looking forward to that)...

[rdck99]

Just ordered my Nanobox Duo! I went with black as the primary color and mustard yellow as the secondary (M-I-Z...). I also chose the gooseneck mount and the upgraded moonlight LED channel. 7/21/14 edit: I'll also be going with the Bluefish controller. Can't wait to nerd out with webcams and thunder!

[rdck99]

New Salt Mix:

Since having the low dKH issue using the DD-H20cean salt, I decided to switch to the Red Sea Coral Pro salt mix. Tonight was my water change using it, and so far, so good. I tested the dKH of the newly mixed saltwater and measured at just under 11.5 - that's nearly 3 points higher than where DD-H20cean was at, so I'm thinking I made the right choice.

 

New Aquascape:

Well, that last FTS didn't stay current for too long...In a previous post, I mentioned that I was toying with the idea of upgrading to the CAD Lights 34g. Sure, I wanted more room for coral and fish, but the more my knowledge/tastes in the hobby matured, the more I realized I just didn't like the way my scape/tank looked anymore. There was too much rock, my coral placement wasn't ideal and a couple pieces were growing into each other, I had used too much of the white epoxy in a few spots, so it showed, and I was also planning on an upgraded light and maybe my first SPS piece, which I didn't have room in my current tank. However, a few days ago, I decided to keep the 16g awhile longer (the corner of my house it's in just isn't big enough for the 34g), so I did a major renovation on the aquascape to improve upon the issues the old scape had...

 

I took one large rock out and chiseled another in half (I'll have photos soon). I was able to remove all the frags from the discarded rock, so I didn't have to lose any coral, which I was pleasantly surprised at. Even without losing any coral, my tank still looks incredibly bare now, but I expected that - I removed rock, so there'd be more swimming space, it'd look more minimalistic, and I'd have room for more coral and I think I hit on all those "wants." Once my new NanoBox Duo is up, I'll add an acro SPS of some variety, and I also plan to have a small GSP island, a couple more ricordeas, and maybe one or two more that are yet to be determined.

 

This was easily the most stressful/challenging endeavor I've undergone with my tank. Taking rock out, prying coral off of rock, taking a hammer to a rock with a 6 inch toadstool and 40+ head zoa colony on it, all the while disturbing up a sand debris storm is ultra stressful! Hopefully, I continue to be happy with the new look!

 

7/22/14: Here's an iPhone picture of the new scape. This was taken very early, so nothing has really opened - the frogspawn, kenya tree, torch, and toadstool will all open and branch much more upward, filling some of the void you see in this picture. First impressions? I'm hoping to get some opinions about a few spots in the photo:

1. This is where I'm thinking my acro SPS frag will go.
2. I may put a couple more ricordeas around here.
3. This zoa frag will get moved and I intend to put a small GSP island here.
4. Unsure about this space...any good ideas?

Yellow Star: should I put a smallish chunk of LR here to kind of hide the joining of the two larger rocks and give this main island a bit more height than the rest?

[rdck99]

Another iPhone picture, but you'll get the idea of the space available, with all the coral out/extended. Again, would love to hear feedback on this new scape versus my old, coral placement, and/or adding a chunk of rock where the yellow star is indicated in the above picture (I'm currently leaning towards no more rock).

[RollaJase]

Wow, looking great .

[rdck99]

I continue to be happy with the new scape (though my Duncans are a bit tight in the front/left) and I think I've decided on what I'll be adding (and likely in this order)...mini maxi anemone w/porcelain anemone crab, gsp island, orange short tentacle plate (may not have room), and an acro SPS colony (still unsure which one...researching hasn't begun on this piece yet). Assuming my light is received in mid-August and I can hone the settings in a couple weeks, I'll start adding in the beginning of September.

[CrazyCarl]

I like the new scape. Don't think you need to add a any more rock. I would go with maybe a birds nest or Monti digitata as your test sps. Judging by the rest of your coral, those should do fine.

 

Edit:if you feel the need to do an acro, I would go with a Bali slimer as a test piece.

[rdck99]

I think (fingers crossed) my NanoBox Duo + Bluefish controller will be shipping next week. I literally cannot wait! Once it's up and I'm happy with the settings, it's time to get a small rock flower anemone (decided against the maxi's due to fish eating stories) and a porcelain crab! From there, I still plan on a GSP island, a small orange tentacle plate coral, and then, an easy SPS colony.

 

I was in Mexico for 5 days last week, so my Eheim automatic fish feeder got its first use. I'm using the 0.5 mm New Spectrum pellets and had the feeder opening as small as possible. I programmed my controller to turn the pumps off just before the fish feeder was set to dispense food and after 10 minutes, the pumps would turn back on. I was nervous, but I set it up a few days before leaving and it worked like a charm!

 

I was down to one hermit crab, so I picked up a scarlett and halloween hermit this evening. I actually traded my LFS a small ricordea, red mushroom, and 3 zoa heads for the hermits (I was getting rid of those corals anyway, to make room for my upgrades). Hopefully, the halloween hermit grows slowly and doesn't turn out to be a mistake - he's ultra cool looking (I'll have some pictures up soon - I keep delaying more DSLR photos until the NanoBox arrives).

 

Everything is very happy with the new scape, but the rock on the far right of my tank is having some issues. First, there's a decent sized hair algae bloom on it. The hermits are doing their best, so hopefully it doesn't become too big of a deal. Secondly, the bam bam zoas now have a bright green slime around a few of them and they're starting to close again. See picture below - any idea what this is or what I should do to fix it?

[rdck99]

The hair algae isn't really improving, but nor is it getting worse. I'm combating it with more frequent water changes and plan to pickup some trochus snails from my LFS. Also, I've decided the bright green algae is cyano - same story in that it's not really getting worse/better. My nearly 50 head colony of bam bams, however, hate the algae and they continue to decline...I may lose them.

 

I'm not regretting my halloween hermit decision - he's a bit slow, but so VERY cool looking.

 

Also, I got word from Dave that my light is shipping Tue of next week, so hopefully it'll arrive before the weekend and I'll have time to tinker!

[rdck99]

It's finally coming...!

[rdck99]

My NanoBox Duo with Bluefish controller arrived and has been up for a couple weeks now. I am still playing with the settings and ramping up the intensity gradually each week, but from what I've seen so far, I love it! Here are some unboxing photos:

Bluefish stuff to the left and NanoBox stuff to the right:

This is the Bluefish circuit board. If you're connecting the controller to a NanoBox light, you must move these six little blue bumpers from the right pin, to left pin. The blue arrow shows one that I had just moved, while the red arrow (and all other blue bumpers) still need to be moved to the left pin. Very easy to do.

 

The NanoBox obviously has a much wider spread compared to the stock lights, and the rear sump area is much more illuminated now than it was before. Awhile back, I had removed the black contact paper on the rear of the tank to make cleaning the sump area easier, but now that it's illuminated, not having the black backing made the whole area look dirty and not as sleek. So, I bought some contact paper through Amazon (click here) and applied about 4" of it, so the top portion is covered. It looks much better!

 

Lastly, here are few pictures with the blue LED's ramped up, some of my new inverts - a Halloween and Scarlett Hermit, and a new FTS.

 

My next photo update should contain a shiny new Rock Flower Anemone and Porcelain Crab...stay tuned!

[RollaJase]

New light looks awesome, Dave strikes again!

[skyzpop]

New light and tank look amazing, I can't wait until I can place my order for one!

[DaveFason]

Great start! I love it. The color combo on this one was so good.

 

-Dave

[CrazyCarl]

Light looks awesome and so does the tank! Great choice. Looking forward to more updates.

[rdck99]

A new era has begun in my tank: I recently added my first anemone - a really bright/pretty Rock Flower that's about 3" across. I floated him for about 20 minutes before setting him down on the sand. He moved around a few inches (including a short ride on my Halloween Hermit's shell) before settling in the spot you'll see in the below video. He's always open and often puffed up, which I believe means he's quite happy/comfortable. Here's a video of him eating some mysis...

I also bought a porcelain crab to go along with the RFA, but they haven't met yet. The crab has taken refuge in a nearby cave and hasn't moved since. The crab is nearly the same size as the RFA, so I wonder how well it'd host in the anemone anyway, but my fingers are crossed!

[rdck99]

Crappy picture, but I was too excited not to post...after a couple weeks, my porcelain crab has finally found the RFA!

After having a goby and shrimp never find each other, after nearly a year, this is really exciting!

[Sk8n Reefer]

Crappy picture, but I was too excited not to post...after a couple weeks, my porcelain crab has finally found the RFA!

After having a goby and shrimp never find each other, after nearly a year, this is really exciting!

That's a great pic! Nice looking Nuvo!

[rdck99]

I hadn't seen the crab's little filter food-catcher fans until today...so cool!

[rdck99]

Haven't posted an update in forever and I just realized I left one issue open - I ended up getting 3 astrea snails and 1 large trochus and they devoured the green hair algae in a week or two. There are still a couple spots of it left, as it grew in some tough to reach places but it's not noticeable at all anymore.

 

My rasta colony has gone from 3 heads to 10 under the Nanobox...pretty exciting. Everything looks very healthy, but aside from the new anemone (which has grown some), that's the only noticeable growth that I've seen under the new light so far.

 

The toadstool mushroom on the far right of the tank is really in need of some fragging, but it looks so cool and frankly, I'm scared to cut it. Not only is it growing into the wall of the tank and MP10, but it's shading my colony of bam bams and they continue to die off. I'm heading to LFS today to sell some overgrown coral (they naturally disconnected themselves from their colonies and I caught and glued them to chunks of live rock), so I'm going to get some advice from them. Speaking of them, I live in the St. Louis area and highly, highly recommend The Corner Reef in Columbia, IL. I've been to just about every LFS in the area multiple times, but the guys here are extremely nice and knowledgeable. I've never not had a good experience with them. They are definitely my go to LFS in every regard.

[rdck99]

• First SPS Frag: my tank has entered another new era - I added my first SPS frag about two weeks ago (it replaced the Kenya Tree that was in the middle of my tank). It's a really sharp-looking and fairly mature frag of Green Birdsnest from ORA. Getting the frag into my tank was a nightmare...those black ORA plugs are like 1.5" long and I didn't have anywhere to "stick it," so I tried cutting the plug portion off (it's easy enough on ceramic plugs, right?), but in doing so, the pressure from the cutters caused the frag to fall off the plug and break into two pieces. So, I grabbed two LR chunks that were laying around and glued each one down to its own piece - exposing the frags to air for a few minutes. In doing all this, I was forced to handle/touch the frag (or now, "frags") multiple times. Despite all that, it's doing great!

MP10 Mode: my MP10 is set around 30-40% power, and the SPS frag's small polyps seem to be getting good agitation in the current, so I think it's happy. I'm currently using the Reef Crest mode, but does anyone prefer one of the pulsating modes - I like the way LPS move in the pulsating current, as opposed to constant blasting in one direction that they get from the Reef Crest mode.

Dosing: now that I have SPS, it's time to start worrying about Ca/KH/Mg...ugh. My 7-10 day 3g water change, using RSCP has always kept Ca/Mg in check, but I usually have to dose KH with Reef Fusion 2, as my tank eats through it. Anyway, I took my water to a LFS (not the one I bragged about above) to get Ca/Mg tested and the tests showed Ca at 320 and Mg at 1200 - pretty damn low. I'm not sure I trust the girl who did the testing, so I bought Salifert kits and will test on my own over the next few weeks to see if I should consider buying a dosing system (I'd go with the BRS kit). For the time being, I bought Reef Fusion 1 and will hopefully keep things in check with a few ml's every week.

Fragged Toadstool: I mentioned in past posts (and you can see in the pictures) that my Toadstool was in desperate need of fragging. After a friend further reinforced how easy they were to frag, I decided to give it a go. After disturbing it during a water change and getting the polyps to retreat, I cut 4 chunks off the back with a fresh razor blade. I was careful not to cut near the stalk, and after about 10 days, it's back to normal. I glued the 4 frags to LR and traded them to my LFS for 5 heads of LA Lakers zoas.

Growth: my Rasta colony is up to almost 20 heads (from 3, originally), and I continue to see good growth from other a couple other zoa colonies, red mushrooms (it knocks a new head every week) and GSP. My Nanobox/Bluefish is currently set to 60% power on whites and 90% on blues at the peak time, and everything seems to be enjoying it - I probably ramp it up another 5-10%, but I bet I'm pretty close to maxing it out for my tank.

LPS Issues: I lost 1 of my 3 Torch coral heads, and about 3 of my 15 Duncan heads. The rest of the Torch/Duncan colonies look awesome, so I'm a bit stumped. Any thoughts?

Crabs: over the past 2-3 months, I've lost my Halloween Hermit, Scarlet Hermit and Porcelain Anemone Crab. My other hermit (not sure of the species) is still a-okay (he's actually the oldest member of my tank - the only remaining survivor of the original CUC from 20 months ago!). Not sure what the issue is, but my average crab lifespan seems to be just a few months. Any ideas?

Pests/Nuisances:

• I have to clean green film algae off my glass everyone 3ish days, which is kind of annoying but probably due to the fact that I feed pellets every day. I'm considering a fuge to help with this, which will apparently also help with pH swings if I keep the fuge light on at night when my other lights are off, plus, I'll get some pods and I may not have to feed pellets as often.

I picked a few bits of bubble algae off about 2 weeks ago - probably 4-5 chunks, in total.

Some vermetid snails were setting up shop near my rastas and preventing them from opening and growing. Using tweezers, I'd snip their tubes, but they'd come back after a few days. So, I decided to use super glue gel to cover them, after I snipped off the tube and they've never come back. I still have a few more to battle.

[CrazyCarl]

 

• First SPS Frag: my tank has entered another new era - I added my first SPS frag about two weeks ago (it replaced the Kenya Tree that was in the middle of my tank). It's a really sharp-looking and fairly mature frag of Green Birdsnest from ORA. Getting the frag into my tank was a nightmare...those black ORA plugs are like 1.5" long and I didn't have anywhere to "stick it," so I tried cutting the plug portion off (it's easy enough on ceramic plugs, right?), but in doing so, the pressure from the cutters caused the frag to fall off the plug and break into two pieces. So, I grabbed two LR chunks that were laying around and glued each one down to its own piece - exposing the frags to air for a few minutes. In doing all this, I was forced to handle/touch the frag (or now, "frags") multiple times. Despite all that, it's doing great!
• MP10 Mode: my MP10 is set around 30-40% power, and the SPS frag's small polyps seem to be getting good agitation in the current, so I think it's happy. I'm currently using the Reef Crest mode, but does anyone prefer one of the pulsating modes - I like the way LPS move in the pulsating current, as opposed to constant blasting in one direction that they get from the Reef Crest mode.
• Dosing: now that I have SPS, it's time to start worrying about Ca/KH/Mg...ugh. My 7-10 day 3g water change, using RSCP has always kept Ca/Mg in check, but I usually have to dose KH with Reef Fusion 2, as my tank eats through it. Anyway, I took my water to a LFS (not the one I bragged about above) to get Ca/Mg tested and the tests showed Ca at 320 and Mg at 1200 - pretty damn low. I'm not sure I trust the girl who did the testing, so I bought Salifert kits and will test on my own over the next few weeks to see if I should consider buying a dosing system (I'd go with the BRS kit). For the time being, I bought Reef Fusion 1 and will hopefully keep things in check with a few ml's every week.
• Fragged Toadstool: I mentioned in past posts (and you can see in the pictures) that my Toadstool was in desperate need of fragging. After a friend further reinforced how easy they were to frag, I decided to give it a go. After disturbing it during a water change and getting the polyps to retreat, I cut 4 chunks off the back with a fresh razor blade. I was careful not to cut near the stalk, and after about 10 days, it's back to normal. I glued the 4 frags to LR and traded them to my LFS for 5 heads of LA Lakers zoas.
• Growth: my Rasta colony is up to almost 20 heads (from 3, originally), and I continue to see good growth from other a couple other zoa colonies, red mushrooms (it knocks a new head every week) and GSP. My Nanobox/Bluefish is currently set to 60% power on whites and 90% on blues at the peak time, and everything seems to be enjoying it - I probably ramp it up another 5-10%, but I bet I'm pretty close to maxing it out for my tank.
• LPS Issues: I lost 1 of my 3 Torch coral heads, and about 3 of my 15 Duncan heads. The rest of the Torch/Duncan colonies look awesome, so I'm a bit stumped. Any thoughts?
• Crabs: over the past 2-3 months, I've lost my Halloween Hermit, Scarlet Hermit and Porcelain Anemone Crab. My other hermit (not sure of the species) is still a-okay (he's actually the oldest member of my tank - the only remaining survivor of the original CUC from 20 months ago!). Not sure what the issue is, but my average crab lifespan seems to be just a few months. Any ideas?
• Pests/Nuisances:
  • I have to clean green film algae off my glass everyone 3ish days, which is kind of annoying but probably due to the fact that I feed pellets every day. I'm considering a fuge to help with this, which will apparently also help with pH swings if I keep the fuge light on at night when my other lights are off, plus, I'll get some pods and I may not have to feed pellets as often.
  • I picked a few bits of bubble algae off about 2 weeks ago - probably 4-5 chunks, in total.
  • Some vermetid snails were setting up shop near my rastas and preventing them from opening and growing. Using tweezers, I'd snip their tubes, but they'd come back after a few days. So, I decided to use super glue gel to cover them, after I snipped off the tube and they've never come back. I still have a few more to battle.

Could use some pictures... Those ORA plugs are the worst. The few I have gotten, I just removed from the plug completely. Did you actually cut the plug? I tried once and didn't come close.

 

I used to run my MP10 on Nutrient Transport mode. It is short pulse for like a half hour, then constant for like 5 minutes or so. You can check it out in the manual.

 

Not sure about the LPS issues. If the other heads look healthy I would just let it go.

 

With the crabs, I have heard dosing iodine will help with their molts. That could be the issue. I have snails go missing from time to time, and I had to spot feed my porcelain anemone crab, not sure if you were doing that, but they do not get enough food from filter feeding in our tanks in my opinion.

 

HTH