Not-so Symbiotic Nuvo 8 Build - New FTS

[Cameron6796]

Can't wait to watch this grow any updates

[D Z]

tagging along for the ride. I too have an IM Nuvo 8 in my office and have been really happy with it.

Cool. So far I am definitely enjoying the Nuvo. Do you have a build thread?

 

Can't wait to watch this grow any updates

Actually, yeah I did get a chance to do a water test tonight. Results below. Basically, it looks like the cycle is complete. I also did a water change and cleaned the glass. There were a bunch of pods on the glass as well as some more of the acoel flatworms.

 

February 3, 2014

Temp: 76.7

Salinity: 1.024

Ph: 7.9 - 8.0

Alkalinity: 4.0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Ammonia: 0

 

I also finally set up a good daily routine for the tank.

9AM ReefBrite Blue turns on

MP10 goes on reef crest mode

10:30AM SolarFlare daylight turns on

8PM ReefBrite Blue turns off

Manually switch SolarFlare to Blue/UV

9PM MP10 goes on night mode

11PM SolarFlare turns off

[D Z]

Updated original post with more stocking ideas.

[Eclipse]

In such a small tank I would be worried since the pistol shrimp might kill the cleaner shrimp. Tank is looking good though.

[D Z]

In such a small tank I would be worried since the pistol shrimp might kill the cleaner shrimp. Tank is looking good though.

I was wondering about this. Ideally, I would like to have the following inverts:

 

Electric Blue Knuckled Hermit Crab

Pistol Shrimp

Cleaner Shrimp

Blue Porcelain Crab

 

In general, is this too many inverts for an 8 gallon. Is it pushing the bio-load. I have had some people say that they should all co-exist fine, but now Eclipse says there might be a problem between the pistol and cleaner shrimp. More input please...

[Eclipse]

I mean, at least from my personal experience it didn't go well.

[ZeroEvoX]

It's all starting to come together, great routine! you getting excited yet hahaha ?

 

I have 2 blue leg hermits a pistol. I had an emerald crab. HAD. Pistol made him lunch right in front of my eyes hahaha. But the hermits and pistol stay out of eachothers way.IME

[D Z]

I mean, at least from my personal experience it didn't go well.

Thanks for the input Eclipse. Better to know now than after investing in something that will eventually just be the pistol's lunch...

 

It's all starting to come together, great routine! you getting excited yet hahaha ?

 

I have 2 blue leg hermits a pistol. I had an emerald crab. HAD. Pistol made him lunch right in front of my eyes hahaha. But the hermits and pistol stay out of eachothers way.IME

I am getting excited!! Unfortunately, I guess I need to make a decision on what to keep in the tank to will be ok with the pistol as I definitely want the pistol shrimp. Sounds like it may just end up being a second hermit and no cleaner shrimp or emerald/porcelain crab. I guess the hermit makes sense as it has the shell to retreat to if the pistol does get aggressive.(original post updated)

 

Oh and one more update, I think I have a bunch of nerite snail eggs in the tank. When I changed out my filter floss last night, I had a bunch of small, white egg-looking things get picked up by the return pump and got shot out into the display. Fortunately, they all got filtered out again fairly quickly but for a little while, it looked like a snow storm in the tank. From what I have read, they should not hatch under the parameters of my tank. Hopefully, the egg population will go away, though, as I don't really want to see the "snow storm" every time I change out the filter floss. I really need to just bite the bullet and upgrade to the inTank basket. This would probably be able to do a better job of catching all debris, such as the snail eggs.

[KSMART]

Yeah I do.

 

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/330997-nuvo-8/'>my 8 gallon nuvo

[D Z]

Morning update:

 

No water test last night. Now that the cycle seems to be complete, I think I will move to a weekly water check.

 

I did feed the tank again last night with LRS Reef Frenzy as most of the algae has been eaten up by my current CUC and I want to make sure they have something to eat off of while I am out of town this weekend. I spot fed the hermit again and he loved it.

 

I did lose my first inhabitant. I noticed that there was an astrea on his back when I got home from work last night(nothing new). I turned him right side up and set him in the front of the display, but he was not looking good(foot kind hanging out of shell). When I woke up this morning, he had not moved and one of the other astreas was actually cleaning his shell. I assumed at that point he was a goner, so RIP buddy.

 

I was actually thinking that 3 astreas were a little much for this size tank anyways, so I am not to disappointed. I also feel like any more than 1 hermit will be too much as well. Therefore, I think this will be my final decision on the CUC:

 

2 x Astrea Snails

5 x Nerite snails

5 x Dwarf Cerith Snails

1 x Electric Blue Knuckled Hermit

1 x Nassarius Snail

[D Z]

Mid-Morning Update:

 

So I went out of town Thursday - Sunday. I had my sister-in-law do a top-off for me on Saturday morning, and it seemed to be pretty sufficient as Salinity was spot on last night when I got home. The tank was a little bit dirty as it did not have the glass cleaned for a couple days, but other than that it seemed to do well over the long weekend. I am thinking about adding some fish and a couple starter corals in the next day or so, but wanted some advice before doing so. It seems that all my parameters are ok, but I did have a small discrepancy last night in the water test. When I did the ammonia test, the first one I did read off the chart as soon as I dropped the reagent in. This just did not seem right to me so I redid the test and got a 0 reading. I am planning on bringing a sample of water to the LFS when I go just to make sure, but other than that, it all seems like the cycle is complete.

 

FYI - I am using the Seachem Multitest kit for all water testing.

 

February 9, 2014
Temp: 76.2
Salinity: 1.024
Ph: 8.3
Alkalinity: 3.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0?

 

I also did a 1 gallon water changer to anticipate adding new livestock. There are a good number of copepods, amphipods, and Acoel flatworms all over the glass, sandbed, and rock.

 

So my biggest question is, assuming that the ammonia really is at 0 and that was just a fluke, should the tank be stable enough to add some zoas and LPS? I am planning on picking up the remainder of the cleanup crew and fish:

 

5 Ceriths

1 Nassurious

1 small Ocellaris clown

1 Randalls Goby(they will probably need to order this)

1 Randalls Pistol(they will probably need to order this)

 

I was thinking of starting with 1 - 2 small frags of zoas(depending on what they have in stock) and maybe a small ricordea. I was also thinking about getting 1 small torch or hammer if they have a small head of 1 or the other. Is this too much to start off with? Thank you in advance for all input.

[D Z]

So I have been doing more and more research and changed my mind on a few things, but I definitely have a pretty solid plan for what to do for the initial stocking. I made plans to go to the LFS tomorrow night!!! This is what I am planning on getting, assuming my water parameters all check out to be ok:

 

5 Ceriths

1 Nassurious

1 small Ocellaris Clown

1 Yellow Watchman Goby(changed my mind)

1 Randalls or tiger pistol shrimp

1 small(1 - 2") torch coral if they have it and the price is right

1 Zoa frag if they have one that I like

1 Ricordea

 

I am also planning on picking up a couple other small essentials:

 

Revive Dip(if they have it)

Airline tubing for drip acclimation

Some kind of Reef glue for holding down frags

 

 

Give me some input people!!

[D Z]

Did one more water test last night to ensure I am ready for fish and coral:

 

February 12, 2014
Temp: 76.0
Salinity: 1.024
Ph: 8.0
Alkalinity: 3.5(9.8dKH)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0.3
Ammonia: 0

 

So it looks like everything is good to go. I am still planning on bringing a sample of water with me tonight so I can get a full gamut of testing done. I do not have a phosphate test kit yet so I am kinda curious where my phosphates are at, but I do not really have any kind of reason to be concerned. Wish me luck. Hopefully they have what I am looking for and don't have to order it.

[D Z]

We made it to the LFS last night and had lots of fun picking out our first inhabitants. We got a very nice little Ocellaris Clown. They did not have any YWGs or pistols in stock so I am going to have to order that. They also did not have any Ceriths or Nassurious snails so that will have to wait until next time. I figured I might as well just take it slow and start with the clown and then in a couple weeks I can order the YWG and pistol. I also got a nice Torch Coral. I think it might be called a Purple Tip.(let me know if anyone knows exactly what it is called) I also got a small frag(3 polyps) of Red Deaths.

 

Our new Clownfish!

 

The torch started to somewhat extend after about 30 minutes in the tank. I cant wait to see how it will look once it fully extends.

 

The Red Deaths were fully open about 15 minutes after getting them into the tank.

 

 

I will post more daytime shots later after I get home from work!

[D Z]

My wife just sent me a picture and I have to share it. I am happy to see me torch doing well.

 

 

Oh and on a side note, I did not include this in he post above, but meant to. I did decide to rearrange the aquascape a bit last night before getting the torch placed. Let me know what you think.

 

New full tank shot added to first post.

[D Z]

Here are a couple more shots of the Red Deaths and the Torch with my nicer camera. I am still trying to get the colors to look right, but this is pretty close to how it looks in real life.

 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

[Cameron6796]

What setting and power is your mp10 on... Looking good btw

[D Z]

 

What setting and power is your mp10 on... Looking good btw

Thanks, I usually keep the MP10 on about 15% power in the reef crest mode.

[D Z]

Had some time to play around with my camera last night. I am starting to get a better handle on how to shoot the fish tank at night under the actinic lighting. Here are some cool shots that I got.

 

Torch Coral - It was starting to contract for the night, but still a cool shot:

 

Red Deaths - Much better representation of color:

 

I finally figured out how to get the camera to focus on the glass. Here is a cool shot of the flatworms:

 

Night time shot of our hermit. My 4 year old son has decided to name him Treasure:

 

Last but not least, here is a night time FTS:

[D Z]

So I just thought I would share a new discovery that I made last night. At first, I thought this was aiptasia and may have jumped the gun a little bit. Fortunately, after researching a bit I started to question that and decided to make a post in the ID forum(here). Thanks to some other forum members(awpong, kidnatural, jrmiller, and GHill762) I was able to ID these as feather dusters and not Aiptasia.

 

 

 

Thanks again to those of you that helped me out last night.

[Curry02]

Those def. look like mini feather dusters. I had a ton of those things that came on one piece of LR and spread quite a bit.

 

Very nice tank so far!

 

That tank is making me want to get one for the office... Must resist...

[Mirya]

I agree with Curry. Those look like the little dusters. (And Curry, just doo eet. They are nice small footprint tanks. )

 

Tank is looking nice so far, and I love you photos that you took the other day! I never realized keeping a tank would get me interested in photography.

[D Z]

Those def. look like mini feather dusters. I had a ton of those things that came on one piece of LR and spread quite a bit.

 

Very nice tank so far!

 

That tank is making me want to get one for the office... Must resist...

Thank you Curry! I do love the size and look of the Nuvo 8. You should do it. I would definitely want something like this in my office if my company would allow it.

 

I agree with Curry. Those look like the little dusters. (And Curry, just doo eet. They are nice small footprint tanks. )

 

Tank is looking nice so far, and I love you photos that you took the other day! I never realized keeping a tank would get me interested in photography.

Thanks Mirya. Your flower garden is coming along nicely as well! I love the Nems. I really wanted to do one in mine as well, but I think I am going to focus on other things. Maybe one day!

 

And I completely agree with you on the photography aspect. I have had this camera for about 5 years. When I first got it, I was all about photographing my son when he was very young but never really learned how to use it completely. Now that I have something that really requires a skill in photography to get a good picture and color representation, I am starting to learn more about the camera and how to use it. Now I just need some time to really set up a good photoshoot and more inhabitants to take pictures of!!

[D Z]

Picked up a couple new pieces of coral tonight.

 

I have always wanted a Yuma! Finally can say I own one!

 

This was a $10 frag of zoas that looked pretty nice. I think it might be Gorilla Nipples, but I am not 100% sure. If so, it will be a nice diamond in the rough I guess. The polyps are pretty small, so I am hoping they open up a little bit more and grow to be a little be bigger. None-the-less, they have nice colors and are a nice addition to the tank.

[D Z]

So good news everyone. This morning, I noticed that my torch coral is splitting. It started out as a 2 headed torch, which looked like it was on the way to splitting into 4 heads. Last night, though, I noticed that head # 1 had split into 1 smaller head and 1 larger head that looks like will split into 2 more smaller heads. The head # 2 is pretty close to splitting into 3 heads. Therefore, the 2 headed torch I bought from the LFS just 2 weeks ago, is about to become a 6 headed torch!

 

I will try to get some pictures tonight!