Nuvo 16 retired SCA 66G Upgrade Complete

[CrazyCarl]

New Tank FTS 12/14/14

 

FTS 10/24/14

 

FTS 8/17/14

 

 

FTS 6/28/14

 

 

FTS 5/18/14

FTS 4/26/14



Equipment
SCA 66Gallon 32 x 24 x 20 w/sump
Maxspect Razor R420R 120W 16K

Build My LED 30" strip custom
MP10
JBJ ATO
2 BRS Dosers
Apex lite
SCA Skimmer

BRS Reactor

Livestock
B&W Ocellaris
Talbots Damsel

Yellow Eye Kole Tang

Yellow Assessor
Emerald Crab
Scarlet Hermit
Fire Shrimp
Tridacna Maxima

Softies/LPS
Zoanthids (3-4 different types)
Mushrooms
Florida Ric
Pulsing Xenia (Fuge Scrubber)
GSP
CandyCane
Duncans
Gorgonian (Corky Sea Finger)

SPS
Purple Birdsnest
Pocillopora
Acropora Millepora
Orange Montipora Digitata
Green Montipora Digitata
Red Monti Cap

Hawkins Echinata

Red Dragon Acro

Random Green Polyp Acro
JF Purps Acro
JF Champagne Cooler
Green/Purple tip efflo
Strawberry Shortcake
Blue polyp Acro
Orange Psammacora

[CrazyCarl]

Got the Aquamaxx HOB-1 skimmer in there, and it really didn't take too much. I bought fittings and tubing thinking I would have to reroute the return line, but I wound up getting it in the chamber where I had my reactor. Only thing I had to do was cut down the skimmer discharge fitting by about a half inch (for width). Also had to glue a loose fitting in that was preventing the skimmer pump from priming (only complaint about it). Here is a pic before the skimmer went in.

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Here is the skimmer assembled with the trimmed return line

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Installed

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Very happy with the purchase. Its a little astetically obtrusive, but after running for only a few hours its already starting to settle in. Very few micro bubbles. Still adjusting to get the height of the cup set. Runs pretty quiet. There is a bit of a trickle noise from the output. I had to move my reactor to the chamber where my fuge is. Not optimal and still need to find a permanent spot for it. May get rid of the fuge since it is such a small area I am not sure how beneficial it is to the tank.

[Oceanus]

The tank looks nice. Do you have the fuge in a media basket or in one of the second chambers? A good sized ball of chaeto in one of the second chambers would probably be useful and always good to grow pods.

[CrazyCarl]

The tank looks nice. Do you have the fuge in a media basket or in one of the second chambers? A good sized ball of chaeto in one of the second chambers would probably be useful and always good to grow pods.

Thanks! I do have a ball of chaeto in there with some live rock rubble and some red ochtode hitchhiker with a decent amount of pods. It is currently in bad shape though, since the recent deaths have caused a hair algae outbreak that has overcome the chaeto. I had a stomatella in there, but the hair got too long for him to eat. I am not using the fuge basket, I may remove some of the rubble and rework it so I can maintain it better and use the basket. Problem is going to be finding a spot for the reactor. I believe it will take a lot of modification to get it in the center chamber. I could just remove one of the media baskets and throw it in there? I change the media at least once a week so I don't think the sponge will get too gunked up. Any thoughts? Right now I have it in the fuge chamber about half way out of the water. I need to move it soon before it becomes an algae scrubber...

[Oceanus]

You can certainly remove the media basket, but I would try to rig up some egg crate with some filter floss on it above the chaeto to keep stuff from accumulating on it and blocking light.

Hair algae eh? I had a nasty time with hair algae in my 125 FOWLR. Try to get the reactor up ASAP and use some good GFO in there. This really helped my tank out. I probably would choose to put the reactor in the second chamber and try to rig up at least some chaeto in the 1st chamber to try to keep up with nitrates as well. The skimmer should have a nice impact once it gets dialed in properly.

[CrazyCarl]

You can certainly remove the media basket, but I would try to rig up some egg crate with some filter floss on it above the chaeto to keep stuff from accumulating on it and blocking light.

Hair algae eh? I had a nasty time with hair algae in my 125 FOWLR. Try to get the reactor up ASAP and use some good GFO in there. This really helped my tank out. I probably would choose to put the reactor in the second chamber and try to rig up at least some chaeto in the 1st chamber to try to keep up with nitrates as well. The skimmer should have a nice impact once it gets dialed in properly.

 

I see, not a bad idea. Maybe I can take a hacksaw to the inTank media basket and cut out the middle rack and just put filter floss, then chaeto. The reactor is running above the chaeto in the 2nd chamber with phosgaurd and carbon. I plan on experimenting and getting it settled tomorrow night during a WC. Thanks for the suggestion. Skimmer is working well and already pulling. A little wet but not bad for one day.

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Pretty impressed with the skimmers performance so far. However it is much louder than I originally thought after turning it off to feed for the first time.

[Oceanus]

Sounds like a good plan. After you run out of phosguard, I suggest you switch to GFO, as the aluminu oxide in PhosGuard works, but can be irritating to some corals (esp leathers) and isn't quite as efficient as GFO. The reactor should help a lot with taking out phosphates and starving out the algae, especially on this sized tank.

[CrazyCarl]

Got off work a little early and picked up this bad boy. Couldn't resist for $45. They cut me off 2 pieces from a large table by accident and gave me both.

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/IMG_20140401_202948448_HDR_zps9w8rgu3c.jpg.html'>

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/IMG_20140401_202516863_HDR_zpsiwmg8q4l.jpg.html'>

[Oceanus]

Nice stuff! Hope that it does well, those are really big pieces

[CrazyCarl]

So I cleaned out the fuge area and threw out most of my chaeto during a WC. Kept a piece and put it in the 1st chamber in the media basket. I didn't attempt to hack out the middle rack as it looked way too difficult (hacksaw was too big and the in tank basket is pretty solid). Rearranged the rubble to get the reactor all the way down in the 2nd chamber and all looks good. I think for pod culture the chaeto may be somewhat beneficial but its such a small piece, I do not think there will be any significant nutrient uptake.

 

I have read a lot of contradicting things on Aluminum Oxide, for me it has not had any negative effects, and I don't currently have any leathers. I rinse it well before use and change it weekly, or sooner. The main reason I use it, is because it tumbles well in the IM reactor, and there is no chance of it getting through the sponge.

[xmas_one]

I like it! No one can say you don't have enough light!

[CrazyCarl]

I like it! No one can say you don't have enough light!

Thanks. Yeah I run the razor at max 35% on the whites and 70% on the blues. Currently down to 25%, and 60% since adding the new Acro. I may bring it down a bit more but the new piece was under Radions at the LFS. Still going to take my time though. I learned the hard way with light acclimation...

[CrazyCarl]

Nothing much to update. Added this birds nest a few weeks ago, but decided to mount it today. Purple polyps w/ dark green skin. I need to get the real camera out at some point. I took a few RAW shots, just need to work on editing them. These are all with my Droid Ultra.

 

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/IMG_20140412_212652789_zpswmv3cmsk.jpg.html'>

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Also mounted the tabling acro. I was trying to get an ID on it but I can't really figure it out. Stuck between A. Microclados and A. Cytharea. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I think the corallite shape is throwing me off, it seems to be inconsistent.

 

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/IMG_20140412_212636325_HDR_zpsonfizpkl.jpg.html'>

 

On another note, just noticed the 3 polyps of dragon eye zoas on this colony after having it for over a year (top middle)… Weird how things just pop up from time to time that you never noticed before. Also noticed a weird worm with 5 white whiskers that was extremely fast. I am thinking its a eucenid?… it was very small too.

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/IMG_20140412_212446422_HDR_zpsjw4m954n.jpg.html'>

 

Frag swap coming up May 4th in Manhattan.

Plan on getting the following SPS.

Red Planet

Green Planet

Oregon or Cali Tort

Rainbow Millie

ORA Joe The Coral

Strawberry Shortcake, Or Pink Lemonade.

Orange Montipora Digitata

Possibly a Staghorn of some sort (Bali slimer?).

 

Looking to stock up and let everything grow out for a while. Let me know if any suggestions or comments.

Thanks for looking.

[CrazyCarl]

Update. Picked up 2 frags today. Orange Digitata and Rainbow Millie (far left and right). Also you can see the table acro is encrusting pretty well. It actually started encrusting on the rock next to it too, but I jostled the rock gluing down the millie and it broke off…

 

Also just some more pics that came out well

[Oceanus]

Really love the birdsnest and the tabling acro. Beautiful red polyps. The digitata and millepora should do really well considering that the tabling acro is already encrusting.

On the possibility of a eunicid worm...you need to get that out of there ASAP. A few years ago, I was at an LFS that was tearing down a 125 mixed reef because things kept disappearing... and they pulled out a 2 foot long bobbit worm. That thing probably could have taken your fingers off if it wanted to haha.

[CrazyCarl]

Really love the birdsnest and the tabling acro. Beautiful red polyps. The digitata and millepora should do really well considering that the tabling acro is already encrusting.

On the possibility of a eunicid worm...you need to get that out of there ASAP. A few years ago, I was at an LFS that was tearing down a 125 mixed reef because things kept disappearing... and they pulled out a 2 foot long bobbit worm. That thing probably could have taken your fingers off if it wanted to haha.

Thanks! Let's hope they do well. Really want to keep the colors.

 

Yeah after seeing the eunice I did a little more research on them. It seems to be a really large genus of worms and most stay small and are harmless. The one I saw was probably a millimeter in diameter, I would imagine it to be harmless. He was super fast though, I would never have seen it had I not coincidentally been looking in that spot at that exact moment. I have no idea how I would remove it at this point, it is too small. I will have to wait and see if things start going missing. There was actually 2 captain america palys that went MIA in that spot, but they were coming unglued the day before so I am not sure if they just fell off and went into my rock work, or what, I never found them.

Those worms are scary looking, I can't imagine what a 2' long one would look like, crazy.

[Oceanus]

Yeah definitely keep an eye on it. If you see things start to go missing, you know where to look. They grow incredibly fast too: that tank that was torn down was only about 6 months old so the worm must have been small when it entered.

[CrazyCarl]

A few more pics. A lot of time on my hands this weekend with the wife and kid away...

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[vlangel]

Nice recovery on your tank! Following and anxious to watch how things progress.

[CrazyCarl]

Nice recovery on your tank! Following and anxious to watch how things progress.

Thanks. I hope I don't disappoint.

[CrazyCarl]

Picked up a few things at the swap...

 

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Quite few things on the sand bed at the moment. Sorry for the crappy cell phone shot, Will take some better pics later on but anyway, heres the list:

Jason Fox Tierra Del Fuego (or something like that. Looks very close to a red planet to me)

Jason Fox Champagne Cooler (won a $50 gift certificate in the raffle and bought this with it)

Jason Fox Vivid Purple something…forgot the name

Strawberry shortcake

Unknown Blue Acro

Green Monti Digitata

Green w/ purple tip efflo

Purple Plating Photosynthetic sponge (freebie)

Some type of gorgonian (corky sea finger I think, also a freebie)

Orange Psammocora (freebie)

 

I'm not really a Jason Fox designer coral kinda guy, but his stuff just looked really good and wasn't over priced, unbelievable colors which I probably won't be able to keep, lol. If they stay half as bright I will be happy...

 

Also met Francis the fish nerd from Fish Tank Kings. Not really how they portray him on the show, much more of a normal guy, and really knows his stuff. He got his start working in a public aquarium, then went to Saudi Arabia to build tanks for super rich people, like princes and Arabian royalty, very interesting.

[CrazyCarl]

Some shots of the new additions. Mounted a few

 

Jason Fox Tierra Del Fuego (yes I got glue on it while mounting it, oops)

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/DSC_0068_zpse9e4ef04.jpg.html'>

 

Jason Fox Purps

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Jason Fox Champagne Cooler

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/DSC_0072_zpsa21b9cdb.jpg.html'>

 

Strawberry Shortcake

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/DSC_0071_zps98e40bf1.jpg.html'>

 

Blue Acro (kind of a crappy pic)

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/DSC_0069_zpsd44e9d32.jpg.html'>

 

Orange Psammacora

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/DSC_0065-3_zpsb9e19e38.jpg.html'>

 

efflo and the green digitata

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Crappy pic of the Gorgonian. Still not open after 3 days, it fell into my orange digi while I was at work Monday, but It never fully opened up anyways so we will have to wait and see.

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Also added a blue tuxedo urchin. Wanted one for a while, such a cool animal.

http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/carlpica/media/DSC_0094_zpsb8cfd267.jpg.html'>

[Oceanus]

Looking good! At least you didn't glue your fingers together, it's not fun.

The urchin is really cool. Be sure to let us know how he does and if you run into any troubles.

[CrazyCarl]

Thanks. Yeah have yet to glue my fingers together... I was trying to glue it down without roughing it up too much by grabbing it at the base but the superglue got onto my finger as I pulled my hand up, seems like it is unaffected, just looks like crap...The urchin is awesome, I forced my wife to stop doing dishes and come look at it (she was not quite as excited as I was, lol. There was a lot of eye rolling and feigned enthusiasm..). I will have to glue down my frags sooner than later just to make sure he doesn't want to use them for decoration, but I don't foresee any issues.

 

In other news my Possum wrasse went MIA. I noticed him hiding a lot more a few weeks ago and he just stopped coming out altogether. Pretty sure he is gone now, last sighting was 2 Sundays ago.

 

I also got a free frag of a purple plating photosynthetic sponge that I was really excited about, that is now wedged into a crevice that I can't get to. Hope it has enough light to grow out of there (I doubt it).

[Oceanus]

Aww that's really sad to hear about the wrasse. I had a possum wrasse a few years back, also went MIA. I hardly ever saw him, they're really cryptic IME.

Sponges are really interesting, never seen any for sale around here. And ordering them is kind of rough, because they always have to be submerged. Hope you can retrieve it!