The Salty Spitoon: Oceanus's Nuvo 16 SPS Adventure

[Oceanus]

Hey NR-

I took a break from reefing for about 1.5 years and just recently got back into it with my original Biocube 8. While the tank served me well for the last 6 months, I am running out of room in it and would like to turn it into a macroalgae tank. So I bought this Nuvo 16:

 

I just filled this tank up 4 days ago, and you can still see the milk jug army that I used in the reflection. The tank has had live rock and sand for about 3 days, and appears to have already cycled. Yesterday's readings were Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 7 (did a water change after that). I will start testing calcium and alk when I actually put some corals into the tank.

 

Equipment list:

Nuvo 16

Vortech MP10 (old generation controller)

AI Nano hung from ceiling

2x Hydor Pico Evolution 1200 pumps for the return (300gph each)

~12lbs of Fiji live rock

~20lbs live sand (will remove some and put it in the biocube at a later time)

Tunze Osmolator Nano

BRS 2 Part Dosers

 

Future Equipment:

JBJ Nano UV Sterilizer

Apex Jr.

 

Stocking:

Yellow "coris" wrasse R.I.P. to MP10

sixline wrasse R.I.P. to MP10

Cleaner shrimp R.I.P.

bunch of hermits and snails

 

SPS Reef with a few LPS

Already have:

 

ORA Red goniopora

green goniopora

Favia

green acans

duncans

hydnophora

Plan to get:

Plenty of SPS, mainly acros and maybe a pink birdsnest

some more favia and goniopora

 

 

 

That's about all for now, can't add anything to the nuvo until I get my lighting on Wednesday except for a few hermits to test the waters.

[ZeroEvoX]

Good luck Man. I eventually hope to upgrade my 8 to a 16gal as well. Your gonna love the AI NANO. Did you get the controller as well?

[Oceanus]

I probably will wind up getting the controller sometime, but not until I at least get my osmolator. The tank is great, really would recommend it to anyone. The dimensions are perfect, and there is a ton of space for stuff in the rear chambers. I can set up a reasonably large fuge in one of them.

Speaking of lights:

Came a little early

[Oceanus]

Wham!

 

Hopefully adding a hardy test coral to the tank today to see how it does.

[RickNation]

Sick!!! All blue everythang

[Oceanus]

So in the last 3-4 weeks roughly I have accumulated lots of gear and some corals!

New equipment:

Tunze Osmolator Nano- How did I survive without this?

Completely changed the rear chamber filters to GFO, purigen, carbon, and filter floss

Chaeto with StevieT drop in light- growing like mad

 

New livestock:

Sixline wrasse: 2 weeks old

So many snails from John at ReefCleaners. This guy is the best: I order 10 dwarf ceriths, he sends 150. They do a really good job at keeping down any algae growth

Emerald Crab: I noticed a few tiny pockets of bubble algae in the start. I manually removed them, but didn't want to go through the horror that plagued my Biocube, so the emerald crab went it. No bubble algae. The small amount of hair algae that came on my monti cap's frag pug was devoured in less than 1 hour

Cleaner shrimp: transfer from Biocube

ORA Red Goniopora: not too happy, might move it back to the BC8, the nutrients are super low in here, maybe too low for it

Green Goniopora: I saved this frag from certain death a few months ago, and it has come back nigely

Basic green acans

3 headed duncan

Mystery plate?

Orange monti cap: 2 weeks old

Pink birdsnest: 2 weeks old

Green stylo: 1 week old

Green acro (Bali slimer? humilis?) 1 week old

Green favia: Biocube transfer

Green hydnophora

 

I had a massive temperature spike earlier this week, the tank got up to 85*F. Nothing was really happy exept the birdsnest and the stylo oddly enough. Within a few days, I got the temperatures back to 78-79*F and the Osmolator came in, so I am more aggressive with evaporative cooling now. Everything survived and looks fine again. The acro is still slightly unhappy with decent polyp extension but great coloration.

And Pics or it didn't happen (sorry they are a little fuzzy):

duncan + mystery plate

monti cap

acro, stylo, birdsnest

Red goni, cleaner shrimp, green goni

sixline wrasse with favia

[CrazyCarl]

Looking good man. Looks like the tank is getting stocked pretty well. I also have some bubble algae in my tank so I picked up an emerald. I got rid of one about a year ago after it was eating my bubble coral at the time. Should have left it in there and got rid of the coral as there was never any bubble algae. The new one is not really attacking it as well as my last one for some reason. I also started getting some red bubble algae which I have read they won't touch.

 

My best guess for that mystery coral would be some type of pectina but really not sure. LFS couldn't tell you what type of coral that was but I am sure they knew the price! Mine does the same thing...

[Oceanus]

Thanks! Yeah the emeralds can be really iffy with corals. I find the small ones to do the best job and they tend to leave corals alone.

Haha the mystery coral was $20 I think, Pectinia sounds like a pretty good guess. I'll have to investigate further.

 

Some quick water params:

NO3: 0ppm

Alk: 9dKH

Calcium: 425ppm

SG 1.026

PO4: picking up a good Salifert kit this weekend, but they have to be near undetectable as I have only a few diatoms, chaeto, and a lot of GFO in the back. The amount of food that enters the system is very low, and only having the wrasse and shrimp should help with nutrients.

 

Before this, I never had any luck with SPS at all. They would RTN/Bleach/Brown out within one week, but mostly RTN. This is a really pleasant turn of events. I hope to pick up a nice red millepora this weekend, or some blue/purple acros would also be nice.

[Oceanus]

New purchase today: a red millepora frag. I hope it will do well. Just noticed some fresh growth on the pink birdsnest, so that's a good sign.

[CrazyCarl]

Nice! need some pics. I recommend getting a reactor and/or skimmer if you want to keep the colors on the acros. At some point you're probably going to need a dosing system too. Just something to keep in mind.

[Oceanus]

Yeah I am doing 2 part manually, already hitting a few corners on it. The tank went through 35ppm Ca in a week, and 3.5dKH! As far as a reactor or a skimmer, I don't feel that it is too necessary at this point because I am keeping my stocking to the wrasse and shrimp. I have seen no nitrates or phosphates, even a week after the last water change. Probably because I feed about 15 pieces of mysis per week lol. The wrasse can clean up the pods in the tank that have gone wild. At night, if you look on the front glass, you can literally see hundreds and hundreds of pods. The chaeto in the back grew like mad though, and I do run a large amount of GFO in the filter baskets which probably helps with the phosphates. I may add a GFO or carbon reactor at a later date though, but the skimmer is kind of unlikely. If I do, what should I go with? The IM skimmer?

The alk and Ca definitely are an obstacle, but I have started to work out a dosing regimen, so we'll see how that works out for a few weeks. I could also do kalkwasser in the ATO if the two part doesn't work out.

[CrazyCarl]

Yeah I am doing 2 part manually, already hitting a few corners on it. The tank went through 35ppm Ca in a week, and 3.5dKH! As far as a reactor or a skimmer, I don't feel that it is too necessary at this point because I am keeping my stocking to the wrasse and shrimp. I have seen no nitrates or phosphates, even a week after the last water change. Probably because I feed about 15 pieces of mysis per week lol. The wrasse can clean up the pods in the tank that have gone wild. At night, if you look on the front glass, you can literally see hundreds and hundreds of pods. The chaeto in the back grew like mad though, and I do run a large amount of GFO in the filter baskets which probably helps with the phosphates. I may add a GFO or carbon reactor at a later date though, but the skimmer is kind of unlikely. If I do, what should I go with? The IM skimmer?

The alk and Ca definitely are an obstacle, but I have started to work out a dosing regimen, so we'll see how that works out for a few weeks. I could also do kalkwasser in the ATO if the two part doesn't work out.

Yeah, just keep an eye on the parameters, you seem to know what you're doing. I suppose if you feed lightly enough and keep up with water changes you can get to the needed levels. The chaeto grew like mad for me in the beginning, but now it seems stunted. Anyway, I tried the IM skimmer and really had no luck. I could never get it dialed in and was dealing with micro bubbles and overflows for a few months. I was doing a lot of research on skimmers after I took the IM skimmer out, and after reading/watching endless reviews and specs, I settled on the Aquamaxx HOB-1 and am very happy with my choice. Rated for up to 75 gallons, which is a bit overkill, but it is working like a champ and fits nicely with minimal modification. Other ones I looked at were the aqua c remora nano and the tunze 9002, but from everything I read and saw the Aquamaxx is better overall. You have to pay for the difference though. I think the Remora is around 170 and the aquamaxx was 220. I figured if I ever decide to upgrade I have the option to use this skimmer. As for dosing, I have the BRS 1.1ml/min dosers. Right now dosing 6.6 ml/day of ESV 2-part running off my Apex. I never tried calk in the ATO but it should work. I am just too lazy to do the calculations lol, especially when the uptake starts increasing, and evap changes too.

[Oceanus]

Thanks, good to know about the IM skimmer. WIll look into the Aquamaxx or maybe Tunze. I will avoid it. I would also love to get some dosers, but until I get my Apex I think manual dosing will have to do. If things get out of hand, I will go kalkwasser in the ATO. Currently I am doing 12.5% weekly water changes. Thank you so much for the hint of what you dose daily, I probably can adapt off of that number a little bit. I currently have just Seachem 2 Part, but I will probably buy some 2 part from BRS soon. I don't see an upgrade any time soon at all, as I have a 125 FOWLR that I could use, already have equipment, but it would be too much work and too expensive. Honestly, I love this size. The 24" allow you to keep some more free swimming fish like my sixline, and the water volume is very manageable even with a tightly packed schedule. Super happy I went with this tank and not the 25G cube at the LFS.

[Oceanus]

Alright so I finally got my Mg test kit...and it's over 1500ppm. Well, I guess I won't be dosing for a while. At least everything seems like it is doing fine.

Also got another acro frag!

[vlangel]

Very nice tank. I agree with you, there is something to be said for a nano tank that is big enough for some cool fish but small enough for manageable water changes.

[Oceanus]

The water changes are perfect for this size. I can do 2 gallons a week, which is technically 12.5% but probably closer to 15% because the tank is definitely not full. 2 Gallons can be changed in about ~5 minutes. The only other maintenance left is changing media, scrubbing glass, and making sure that the return pump is clean. Well, and dosing

[vlangel]

My tank is a 36g with 10g sump. With sand and rock displacement I'm guessing 30-35g water volume. I do a 4g WC weekly or 3g twice a week if I am feeding heavy. I have 6 fish and a lot of inverts right now and like you I can do a WC in about 10 minutes. Its the testing and watching my parameters that take a little time but I only do that once a week. Consistent WCs keep my tank so stable that I know what the numbers will be before I test.

[Oceanus]

Yes, the testing can take some time. At least the Ca, Alk, and Mg because they are titrations. The WCs also are very helpful for replenishing trace elements, and those test kits are really expensive so dosing is out of the question for that.

[Oceanus]

The tank is chugging along, and all of my SPS are doing fantastic, knock on wood. Seeing significant growth in the pink birdsnest. Also, the green acro seems to have regained full polyp extension since last week's temperature spikes. Currently dosing ~7-7.5ml of Ca and Alk per day, but no Mg since it was ridiculously high, >1500ppm on Saturday. Hopefully getting some nice acro frags this weekend.

[vlangel]

I've never done SPS but I'm thinking about trying a birds nest coral. Do you think that is a good one to start with? I would place it high in my tank where there is a little more flow and optimum light.

[CrazyCarl]

I had an ORA Green Birdsnest that grew like a weed as one of my first SPS. It is very bright colored as well. I would recommend it as a good starter SPS. You could also try a plating or digitate Montipora, as they are also pretty hardy.

[vlangel]

Are all of those forgiving as far as water quality? I have fairly clean 'dirty' water if you know what I mean. My nitrates are undetectable but my phosphate are 1ppm or so. I use tap water, always have and never had an algae issue so saw no reason to switch to RO/DI. I also haven't used a PO4 reducer because I have a thriving crocea clam and LPS that I suspect are utilizing the phosphates as food. Would those SPS tolerate some phosphates?

[CrazyCarl]

I believe the ones above will tolerate the phosphate at the level you mentioned, however, colors will probably suffer. They will still grow fine as long as calcium and alk are at acceptable levels IMO. I would give it a shot if you really want to keep SPS. Another SPS that is very hardy and cheap is Pocillopora if you want to use that as your test piece.

[Oceanus]

A birdsnest/monti would be a great first SPS, but 1ppm Phosphate might be a little too far. If you could lower that somewhat, you should have no real problem with birdsnest or montis. Make sure you have good water flow.

[Oceanus]

Quick photo update!

Cleaner shrimp

Red goniopora doing better

Green mystery acro and stylo

New acro

Group SPS shot