Overkill or adequate in Nuvo 16?

[Steve973]

Hello, all. I am trying to come up with the best possible way to maintain the cleanest water in my IM Nuvo 16, and I am looking for opinions. I currently have 2 small ocellaris clownfish and I am aiming to keep SPS corals when the tank is ready, so I'll need to utilize my best options when I'm ready to begin adding SPS.

I'll be changing approximately five gallons each week. In addition, I have the IM Ghost Desktop skimmer, and the InTank media baskets. I plan to run filter floss, BRS carbon and maybe some BRS GFO in the media baskets. Another option might be Chemipure elite instead of the carbon and GFO. In the fuge basket, I'll be running chaeto (probably in both chambers).

 

I'm also open to suggestions, since I'm not exactly sure which media combinations would be best for my application. Would carbon and GFO (or Chemipure elite), along with the skimmer and water changes, absorb enough to starve the chaeto? Or would the clowns and their feedings provide too many nutrients for my strategy and equipment to even keep the water clean enough?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Bingo1213]

I have a 25 gallon with ALL of the above plus some and my cheato and calurpa (I spelled that wrong haha) grow great! My tank only has three fish and a very minimal bio load. I have a 5 gallon sump, dual reactor (which has purigen, GFO, carbon, and denigrate), refugium, 75 gallon skimmer, and UV sterilizer. I feel that it is hard to go overkill with filtration. I do add a couple different coral foods to help my softies and LPS survive in my low nutrient system but the SPS love the low nutrients.

[VGT]

How do you like that Ghost skimmer? I'm thinking about getting one for my 30.

[skyzpop]

I upgraded the media baskets on my Nuvo 16 and use filter floss in the top chamber, 50ml of purigen in the middle and 3.1oz of Chemi-pure Elite on the bottom chamber on each side and it seems to be working well for me so far.

[jservedio]

Honestly, I wouldn't start using any chemical media until you actually need it, with the exception of carbon. With water changes, some filter floss, and skimming, you will probably be good to go when it comes to nutrients. I actually dose nitrates into my acro tank because the system processes them way too fast and corals need nutrients! I also recently shut down my GFO reactor because it was stripping too much, even with minimal media and shut down my carbon reactor as well to put it in a media bag because it was too agressive. After two years, all of the heavy chemical filtration I invested into is now offline because it simply isn't needed and is actually detrimental to the tank.

 

Instead of focusing on water quality first, I would focus on stability first. SPS can be insanely colorful even in relatively high nutrients, and will do very poorly and pale out in a tank with absolutely no nutrients. Getting an ATO along with a Hanna Alk checker and quality Salifert or Red Sea Pro test kits for Phosphate, Nitrate, Calcium, and Magnesium, and getting prepared for dosing (which you will need for a full-on SPS tank) by doing a ton of research and earmarking some money for dosing equipment will serve you much better.

 

Chemipure Elite is overpriced garbage - it is literally carbon and GFO mixed together, and it is substandard carbon and GFO at that. Bulk Reef Supply carbon and GFO are all you will ever need. You can mix them if you want to if you want to save space, but you don't need any other chemical media besides that.