pa1ntbru5h Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Hi everyone.This will be my first ever saltwater tank! I've always wanted one but during college I couldn't afford it.I picked up a very slightly used IM Nuvo 10 locally in SoCal from a guy on Craigslist. Since I live in an apartment I didn't want anything too big and cumbersome. I started with a WavePoint LED for a couple days but ended up caving in and buying an AI Prime. If I'm gonna do this, might as well do it right the first time! Equipment: Tank: IM Nuvo Fusion 10 Stand: Coralife Biocube 14 Stand Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 50W Heater Lighting: AquaIllumination Prime LED w/ Tank Mount Skimmer: IM Ghost Protein Skimmer - DeskTop ATO: Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 Stock: 7 lbs Live Rock 10 lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink I just tested the water today and I was excited to see that my tank is cycled! I'll be adding some small frags of coral real soon! Update 6/4/15 Update 12/1/15 Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Hi everyone. This will be my first ever saltwater tank! I've always wanted one but during college I couldn't afford it. I picked up a very slightly used IM Nuvo 10 locally in SoCal from a guy on Craigslist. Since I live in an apartment I didn't want anything too big and cumbersome. I started with a WavePoint LED for a couple days but ended up caving in and buying an AI Prime. If I'm gonna do this, might as well do it right the first time! Equipment: IM Nuvo Fusion 10 Coralife Biocube 14 Stand Cobalt Neo-Therm 50W Heater AquaIllumination Prime LED w/ Tank Mount Stock: 7 lbs Live Rock 10 lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Blue/Green Chromis I just tested the water today and I was excited to see that my tank is cycled! I'll be adding some small frags of coral real soon! IMG_3048.JPG Welcome to the club! Nice start! Link to comment
davidanthony921 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Good luck. I have the same exact setup and love. If been keeping spa for the last week and a half and they look great. Full polyp extension. Loving the AI prime! Link to comment
Drew11 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Looking good already. That's one of the better pictures I've seen taken with the AI Prime. Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 Looking good already. That's one of the better pictures I've seen taken with the AI Prime. Thanks! I was playing around with the camera settings to try to get a nice minimalistic look. Link to comment
Normang Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 paintbrush how do you like the white prime on black fusion? Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 paintbrush how do you like the white prime on black fusion? I really like it. It gives a nice contrast. My stand is black.. the tank is black.. the Prime mount is black... which makes the Prime fixture stand out. I'll try to take some more pictures tomorrow during the day to show how it looks. Link to comment
Normang Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I really like it. It gives a nice contrast. My stand is black.. the tank is black.. the Prime mount is black... which makes the Prime fixture stand out. I'll try to take some more pictures tomorrow during the day to show how it looks. yeah that would be great. just a question what part of souther california are you from? Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 yeah that would be great. just a question what part of souther california are you from? Fountain Valley, CA Link to comment
Normang Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Oh sweet, did you ever go to tongs tropical fish? It is closed now but Brian the owner was a super chill guy. He now works for Innovative Marine. Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 Tongs is still there! That's where I get everything! Here's those shots of the white Prime on the black tank. Hope this helps. Aquarium photography is hard... Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 As you guys can see, I've added some coral! Can you guys help me ID them? All I know is that I have 2 Zoanthids, a Torch, a Blasto/Acan?, and I'm not sure what the tree looking one is.Thanks! Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I really like it. It gives a nice contrast. My stand is black.. the tank is black.. the Prime mount is black... which makes the Prime fixture stand out. I'll try to take some more pictures tomorrow during the day to show how it looks. That's cool. Some people would be like: "I want everything to match!". But not you, and that's what makes it nice. I'll have to get a black stand so that my blue/white fixture stands out Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 3, 2015 Author Share Posted May 3, 2015 Just added a Tunze Nano ATO today. Pretty simple setup and works great!Coming from a freshwater tank, the water doesn't evaporate much but I noticed with the saltwater tank, I was adding water every 2 days. Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Another update!My media basket from InTank arrived! Along with A LOT of filter floss and Chemi-pure Blue Nano. Honestly I was pretty skeptical about spending $40 on a media basket, but everyone said it was a must-have. When opening the package today, I can see why everyone raves about it. It is very well constructed. I'll even go as far as saying its "fancy" with very thick walls and a sliding door. I'll be putting all this into the tank tomorrow after a water change. More stuff coming! Stay tuned! Link to comment
Cove Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Another update! My media basket from InTank arrived! Along with A LOT of filter floss and Chemi-pure Blue Nano. Honestly I was pretty skeptical about spending $40 on a media basket, but everyone said it was a must-have. When opening the package today, I can see why everyone raves about it. It is very well constructed. I'll even go as far as saying its "fancy" with very thick walls and a sliding door. I'll be putting all this into the tank tomorrow after a water change. More stuff coming! Stay tuned! IMG_0948.JPG Everything is looking amazing! Im going the route of AI Prime over Fusion 20. Cant wait to get that running. Question-Can you test to see if two nano packets of CPB fit in one compartment of the media basket? Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Thank you Cove! I tested it and two packets of CPB Nano will easily fit into one compartment. Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 So since this is a build thread and I did mention this was my first saltwater tank, I should tell you guys the good and the bad. Last week, I noticed that my Chromis died overnight. I immediately checked my water parameters and everything looked okay. I wanted to get a second opinion so I went to my LFS and had them test the water as well and their tests showed Ammonia and Nitrites of 0 and Nitrates of ~10ppms. Same readings I got. Although, he did say that my pH was a tad low sitting at 8.2. So I am now dosing my tank with Marine Buffer.So I wondered why the fish died.. and I came up with a possibility.. I've been dosing my tank with Magnesium, Calcium, and Alkalinity, but I've been dosing straight into the tank instead of diluting it first. I think the fish could have taken in a really concentrated dose of either of those additives and died. Lesson learned. Also I went on vacation this past week. The ATO worked wonderfully. Came back to a topped off tank..However, my Torch Coral died and there was algae all over my other corals and my sand. I have since done a water change and cleaned up the algae that I could. I stirred the top layer of sand and dipped the corals that the algae was growing on. Hopefully now that I'm back things will improve. Link to comment
DodgerDave Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Great set up! Losing fish and coral sucks, but that happens quite a bit with a "fresh" tank. Straight dosing in a small tank could have caused some of the problems though. Side note: I grew up in Fountain Valley (Magnolia and Talbert to be exact), not far from Tongs at all. Not like I moved far, currently residing in Tustin. Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 Great set up! Losing fish and coral sucks, but that happens quite a bit with a "fresh" tank. Straight dosing in a small tank could have caused some of the problems though. Side note: I grew up in Fountain Valley (Magnolia and Talbert to be exact), not far from Tongs at all. Not like I moved far, currently residing in Tustin. Thanks DodgerDave! I just took the fish and coral loss as a learning experience. Can't expect to have the tank run 100% problem free the first time around. Another package arrived today for the tank! When I first opened the package, I was surprised at how big the box for the Ghost Skimmer was. I looked and it said "MidSize SkimMate". Man, they gave me the wrong one! What the heck lets just open it and see.. The sticker on the skimmer itself is indeed for a DeskTop size. So I looked around the box and noticed that the box is actually labeled for both the MidSize and DeskTop.. I just had to flip the box around. So IM threw me off guard for a couple minutes but I eventually figured it out. I'm debating if I should just set it up and start running it in the tank, or if I should give it a vinegar bath first since I hear that speeds up the break-in process. Oh and lastly... Copepods! Hard to see, but those white dots on the black background are all alive! I just noticed them yesterday after I fed my corals with Cyclopeeze. I thought the copepods were actually from the Cyclopeeze, but I did some research and read that they just grow in new tanks from the live rock. I found it weird that I didn't notice them before I fed the corals. Link to comment
timinaz Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 How do you like the InTank basket? Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 How do you like the InTank basket? Much much better than the stock basket. Worth the price in my opinion. Link to comment
pa1ntbru5h Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 Real quick update.I just finished adding Gena's montipora frags to my tank and they look absolutely stunning!The color on them is insane! Thanks again Gena! Link to comment
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