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Stefalopod's NuReef - A Stock Nuvo Fusion 10 Experiment


stefalopod

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Hi Team NR.

My Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion Nano 10 arrived yesterday. We've probably all seen the Nano 10 video showing three people aquascape a Nano 10 each.

If not, here it is:

https://youtu.be/C25kXiXlh-8

Being of a skeptical turn of mind, I find it hard to believe that you could just drop a bunch of LR, corals, and fish into a tank and have it thrive. That is, have it thrive without spending a bundle on fancy upgrades. So here I am, ready and willing to find out.

The Experiment:

Build a nano reef with Stock Nuvo 10 parts. New equipment can only be added if the nuvo doesn't come stock with equipment of that type. That means a heater is fair game, the Nuvo 10 doesn't come with one. But a powerhead is off the table, we'll be relying on the stock return pump.

The Equipment:

  • IM Nuvo Fusion Nano 10 all-in-one tank
  • 18 Watt Skkye Light
  • Stock media/filtration basket
  • Submersible glass heater from pet store (will upgrade later)
  • Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper to control Lights and ATO.
  • DA Float switch kit with mount.
  • Glass thermometer.

The Bioload:

I'm taking it slow on this tank. I haven't set up a new aquarium a couple years, so I'm starting out with three pieces of LR from my established 10G tall tank, a zombie (unkillable, but not quite alive either) zoa frag that was wedged into one of the rocks, a kenya tree coral that was also stuck on one of the rocks.

IM Nuvo Fusion 10 with Skkye light.

 

*edited for how the **** do you embed a youtube vid?

Edited by stefalopod
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Following with great interest. I have owned a Fusion 10 and now have a Nuvo 8 equipt with all the upgrades that most reefers add on to them but I can honestly say that I have never seen a "totally stock" Innovative marine AIO tank support a thriving reef ecosystem for longer than a few months. Please complete your experiment by staying purely stock for at least a year.

 

I'm certain many on this forum will follow as well. Good luck and post pics of everything as you go along..

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Setup.

 

I broke the freaking light bracket. It's made out of three pieces of acrylic that are glued to each other. The top piece has a slot in it for the lamp and one side is threaded for a couple thumb screws. I over-tightened the thumbscrews and the bracket snapped. I'm just gonna say, I'm glad IM doesn't make acrylic tanks, because they're shi**y at welding acrylic.

 

So I've confronted my first Stock Nuvo 10 Challenge: Do I try to fix the shi**y bracket, or do I replace the bracket with something else? My SO is trying to persuade me to 3D Print a replacement bracket. For now, I just reoriented the broken bracket so that gravity and not thumb screws keep the lamp upright.

 

Other than that the Nuvo 10 is basically plug and play. The pump comes installed, but having read the reviews online, I made sure to pull the pump out and check the flow adjuster on the side of the pump. It was set to low, so I opened it up all the way and re-installed the pump. Reviewers also observed that the lock-line flow director reduces flow, so I tested it to see how big a difference it made, (it was dramatically less flow) and then took it back off again.

 

The filter basket went in to the first chamber. It doesn't take up the whole chamber so I put the heater in the first chamber with it. The second chamber is currently empty. The float switches will be going into chamber 3 after Digital Aquatics sends me the plastic nut that was missing from one of my switches.

 

Added LR from my old tank and after reorganizing the rocks a few times and purposefully stirring detritus off the bottom of the tank, I got this video to show flow with the stock pump.

 

https://youtu.be/45e8Ry63d_Q

 

Also if anyone can PM how to embed videos, that would be awesome.

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Following with great interest. I have owned a Fusion 10 and now have a Nuvo 8 equipt with all the upgrades that most reefers add on to them but I can honestly say that I have never seen a "totally stock" Innovative marine AIO tank support a thriving reef ecosystem for longer than a few months. Please complete your experiment by staying purely stock for at least a year.

 

I'm certain many on this forum will follow as well. Good luck and post pics of everything as you go along..

 

Thanks Aviator! I'm pretty curios to see how it'll work too. A year would be quite a challenge, but I'm willing to give it fair try!

 

I've been trying to decide if a fuge light and some macros in the rear chamber would fit with this experiment... I'll think I hold out until I get an algae bloom :P

 

What do you think? Is a rear chamber fuge consisistent with the Stock Nuvo 10 experiment?

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Setup.

 

I broke the freaking light bracket. It's made out of three pieces of acrylic that are glued to each other. The top piece has a slot in it for the lamp and one side is threaded for a couple thumb screws. I over-tightened the thumbscrews and the bracket snapped. I'm just gonna say, I'm glad IM doesn't make acrylic tanks, because they're shi**y at welding acrylic.

 

So I've confronted my first Stock Nuvo 10 Challenge: Do I try to fix the shi**y bracket, or do I replace the bracket with something else? My SO is trying to persuade me to 3D Print a replacement bracket. For now, I just reoriented the broken bracket so that gravity and not thumb screws keep the lamp upright.

 

Other than that the Nuvo 10 is basically plug and play. The pump comes installed, but having read the reviews online, I made sure to pull the pump out and check the flow adjuster on the side of the pump. It was set to low, so I opened it up all the way and re-installed the pump. Reviewers also observed that the lock-line flow director reduces flow, so I tested it to see how big a difference it made, (it was dramatically less flow) and then took it back off again.

 

The filter basket went in to the first chamber. It doesn't take up the whole chamber so I put the heater in the first chamber with it. The second chamber is currently empty. The float switches will be going into chamber 3 after Digital Aquatics sends me the plastic nut that was missing from one of my switches.

 

Added LR from my old tank and after reorganizing the rocks a few times and purposefully stirring detritus off the bottom of the tank, I got this video to show flow with the stock pump.

 

https://youtu.be/45e8Ry63d_Q

 

Also if anyone can PM how to embed videos, that would be awesome.

To embed youtube videos, go to the share button -> share, and copy and paste the link given like so:

The scape looks pretty good already and sometimes, setting up a new tank is fun, exciting, and sometimes frustrating.

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To embed youtube videos, go to the share button -> share, and copy and paste the link given like so:

The scape looks pretty good already and sometimes, setting up a new tank is fun, exciting, and sometimes frustrating.

 

Thanks Red_Blenny! Stupid question, is the share button on youtube, or is it in the editing pane? I messed around with it for ever yesterday and I still can't figure it out. I thought I did copy and paste the share link from youtube, but it published as the hyper-text link in my earlier post...

 

The scape looks pretty good already and sometimes, setting up a new tank is fun, exciting, and sometimes frustrating.

 

Truly. But the good news is, I'm beginning to excited about my nano!

 

It was a delayed reaction. I had the same problem when I got a new windows 8 tablet after running the windows 8 beta; all of the fun in a new computer for me had previously been in the setup. When I got the new tablet it just ported all of my settings and apps and everything from the old tablet, so there wasn't really anything new or interesting for me to explore and futz with. No futzing = instant anticlimax.

 

Back to the new excitement: I've realized that it's fun to run a new experiment. There didn't seem to be much out there about the stock system, and I'm curious to see what happens. Also, I had a lot of fun watching all the hitchhikers and volunteer creatures settle into the tank yesterday. When I stirred up the detritus to get the flow video all of my hitch-hiking brittle stars went nuts - arms waving all over the place!

 

Update 1:

The coralline on one of my 3 LR has very nearly completely bleached since I moved the tank here. I hope the other two don't bleach too, it would be sad to lose all the purple color and have to wait for it to come back.

 

Update 2: Please tell me if anyone has done this before, as I'd love a sneak peak at how it'll work.

 

I ordered several lengths of rigid airline tubing. I'm going to try to re-create my LR risers from my old tank (made from 4" black PVC with lots of big holes drilled in them) on a nano-scale. My plan is to drill three holes into the bottom of the LR and then insert lengths of rigid airline into them to act as feet. I'm hoping that: a) by lifting the rock off the glass I'll be able to clean detritus better; b ) I'll be able to shift the LR around without knocking down my aquascaping to scrape the back glass and BB more easily; and c) I'll get a cool floating rock look.

 

If it looks cool, I'll order cast acrylic rods as I'm sure they'll disappear better than airline tubing will. It's supposed to arrive on Tuesday.

 

Update 3: I searched mi inbox to get a date for another post and I came across my first ever mention of the "zombie" zoas. Apparently the first time I killed that frag was in 2011! The frag was given to my by a reef buddy as a cyphastrea. and has never thrived, but never died either. It has withered down to a few polyps. Is this what a cyphastrea looks like when it is withered to polyps?

 

I thought that frag was done for last week as my old tank had evaporated down and the frag was completely out of the water (probably for a few days, I was out of town), but I guess this coral won't be killed. I didn't even notice that the frag plug was wedged into the LR I brought over for the new tank.

post-88303-0-24472100-1434218514_thumb.jpg

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I decided to install an old nano-glo light to illuminate the back chamber of the tank. Whether I use it as a fuge is still open to debate. I don't have any chaeto, and I'm trying to stay away from the LFS until things stabilize because I don't think I could overcome the urge to pick up a few softies. The Nuvo is designed to have a skimmer or refugium in the back chamber and doesn't come stock with a fuge light, so it might be fair game to stick some chaeto back there consistent with this experiment. Question, do you have an opinion on whether a fuge chamber is fair game?

 

The actual reason that I installed the light is because between the black acrylic partition and the black vynil background around the filter section, it was freaking dark in the back of the tank.

 

I found myself having to remove the Skkye light and hold it over the fuge section to see how much water was in there, and that didn't feel worth the effort. So since I had an old nano-glo floating around, I went ahead installed it. Here's the install process for those who are interested:

 

1) place magnet in tank and put light about where you want it, then outline the light with a pencil.

WP_20150613_004.jpg?psid=1

 

2) Tilt the light down and mark the outside edges of the LEDs. I didn't want to have a lot of light leaking from the back of the tank, so I made the opening in the vynil backing smaller than the size of the light so that the light housing will block off light from leaking out.

WP_20150613_008.jpg?psid=1

 

3) The outline I drew was pretty rough and not level or plumb so I used a level as a straight edge to mark the inside edges of my cutout, using the guidelines from above.

WP_20150613_009.jpg?psid=1

 

4) Use a razor blade to score the vinyl backing through to the glass. I used a straight edge to get the first score, then went over it again by hand around the corners.

WP_20150613_012.jpg?psid=1

 

5) I used the same knife to scratch the corner up, and then peeled the rest of the vinyl off by hand. I was really happy to see that it didn't leave any adhesive behind.

 

WP_20150613_013.jpg?psid=1

 

6) Erase pencil marks.

WP_20150613_016.jpg?psid=1

 

7) Stick the light back on over the hole in the vinyl, and plug it in. Now you've got an illuminated rear chamber.

 

WP_20150613_017.jpg?psid=1

 

 

I was surprised when the tank arrived to see that only the partition wall is made of black acrylic. The bubble traps and fuge chamber are made from clear glass. I would have expected acrylic on the whole back portion of the tank, and the discovery of glass back there was a real pleaser. It's great to be able to see the side of the filter basket.

 

Chamber 1: stock basket, heater, thermometer. Chamber 2, empty. Chamber 3, pump, magnetic backing, soon to be ATO.

 

You can see the magnetic backing for the nano-glo is in the 3d chamber. The fuge chamber and filter chamber have a separate sheet of bottom glass that is maybe an inch higher than the tank bottom glass. Question: I would love to know why this was done, if anyone else knows. My best guess is that it acts as a larger water reservoir so that the pump won't run dry from evaporation too rapidly. I tried to slot the magnet in between the fuge bottom glass and the tank bottom glass but it was a little too big. It sort of feels like wasted space to me so I've been trying to think up something I could put down there. :D

 

 

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Setup.

 

I broke the freaking light bracket. It's made out of three pieces of acrylic that are glued to each other. The top piece has a slot in it for the lamp and one side is threaded for a couple thumb screws. I over-tightened the thumbscrews and the bracket snapped. I'm just gonna say, I'm glad IM doesn't make acrylic tanks, because they're shi**y at welding acrylic.

 

So I've confronted my first Stock Nuvo 10 Challenge: Do I try to fix the shi**y bracket, or do I replace the bracket with something else? My SO is trying to persuade me to 3D Print a replacement bracket. For now, I just reoriented the broken bracket so that gravity and not thumb screws keep the lamp upright.

 

Other than that the Nuvo 10 is basically plug and play. The pump comes installed, but having read the reviews online, I made sure to pull the pump out and check the flow adjuster on the side of the pump. It was set to low, so I opened it up all the way and re-installed the pump. Reviewers also observed that the lock-line flow director reduces flow, so I tested it to see how big a difference it made, (it was dramatically less flow) and then took it back off again.

 

The filter basket went in to the first chamber. It doesn't take up the whole chamber so I put the heater in the first chamber with it. The second chamber is currently empty. The float switches will be going into chamber 3 after Digital Aquatics sends me the plastic nut that was missing from one of my switches.

 

Added LR from my old tank and after reorganizing the rocks a few times and purposefully stirring detritus off the bottom of the tank, I got this video to show flow with the stock pump.

 

https://youtu.be/45e8Ry63d_Q

 

Also if anyone can PM how to embed videos, that would be awesome.

Ha-- Our skkye 18w bracket broke within a few weeks of the tank getting in. Our cat tried to sit on it. We used some acrylic binding glue and a clamp, and it was stronger than ever. Since then, though we've upgraded to a nanobox mini and have loved it.

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Ha-- Our skkye 18w bracket broke within a few weeks of the tank getting in. Our cat tried to sit on it. We used some acrylic binding glue and a clamp, and it was stronger than ever. Since then, though we've upgraded to a nanobox mini and have loved it.

 

I don't think we're the only ones. I'm not surprised you were able to get a stronger bond, it's like the glued it together with spit. :P

 

I've got an idea for 3D printing a bracket with some cable management built in to it. I don't really like all the wires draped over the back of the tank, so I think some kind of cable channel is in order. :happy:

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I think the experiment would not be compromised if you added a fuge, etc. The idea was to Not upgrade by replacing any stock parts or adding anything that would supplement the job they were designed to do.

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I think the experiment would not be compromised if you added a fuge, etc. The idea was to Not upgrade by replacing any stock parts or adding anything that would supplement the job they were designed to do.

 

Thanks Aviator, I think I feel the same way. My sense is that IM left all that space in the back so you could customize the back section so it's more in the spirit of the project to take advantage of those features without upgrading the other stock components.

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Back with an update:

 

I was experiencing some major coralline bleaching - roughly a fifth of the coralline surface of my rock bleached on by the second day of set up - but that seems to have mostly stabilized.

 

I'm giving the purchase of a better heater a much higher priority. It's been so long since I've used one of the glass submersibles, that I'd forgotten how bad they are. My temps have been fluctuating from 82f at the highest to 75f this morning! No bueno!

 

Which leads me to Stock Nuvo experiment conclusion 1: Don't skimp on the heater.

 

I'm planning to go back to the city to check on my established tank in the next day or two, but I won't be bringing any more stock over until things are more stable here.

 

FTS:

 

WP_20150615_002.jpg?psid=1

 

The haziness is probably from microbubbles. I haven't brought over my controller to install the ATO yet, and I estimate evaporation to be at least half a liter per day. That's sort of hard to keep up with.

 

The kitchhiking cleaning crew seems to be doing well. The rock came loaded with brittle stars and they seem quite happy. I've been stirring up detritus in an effort to see if it'll be possible to get the stock system to polish some of the larger stuff out (no verdict yet, but it's seeming unlikely). The stars go nuts when all that junk gets mixed into the water, arms waving all over the place. Also discovered a clam hitchhiker. He's nothing special, but it's neat to see a live bivalve on my rock.

 

 

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Well, I had to move the tank today. I had it in the dining room, and every day when I came home from work I'd find two of the dining room chairs angled to view the tank. I'm a big fan of designing spaces based on how they actually get used, and I'd much rather put the tank where I want two chairs for viewing than have to tuck in the dining room chairs several times a day. ;)

 

I already had a little sitting area furnished in the entryway, so I took out the coffee table that was there and put the tank/stand in it's place.

 

View from the front door:

WP_20150615_007.jpg?psid=1

 

View from the family room:

 

WP_20150615_008.jpg?psid=1

 

Looks like I'm going to have to either persuade the family to install a gfci in the floor or run power under the rug to the outlet under the TV. I know what's faster and easier. :P

 

What are your thoughts on installing outlets in the floor?

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Picked up the cobalt neotherm 75 at the LFS a couple days ago. It was the smallest wattage they had on hand.

 

Temperatures have stabilized completely since installing the neotherm. I stuck it in chamber 1 together with the stock media basket, so I still have chamber 2 completely open. I'll probably stick a ball of chaeto in chamber 2 there if I can get a hold of it.

 

I'm going to let the tank sit for another week and then plan on bringing my larger pieces of LR over at the end of next week. Then it's all about stocking inverts and corals!

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I had a friend with an actual camera stay at my place and he caught these pics of Flash, my four year old orchid dotty back. I picked him up aquacultured from my LFS in San Francisco. This fish has the most charming personality and engaging behaviors of any vert I've ever kept.

Flash!

fish2

 

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Thanks Red_Blenny! Stupid question, is the share button on youtube, or is it in the editing pane? I messed around with it for ever yesterday and I still can't figure it out. I thought I did copy and paste the share link from youtube, but it published as the hyper-text link in my earlier post...

 

Here's my MS paint instructions:

18936578492_08154815f0_n.jpg

 

Truly. But the good news is, I'm beginning to excited about my nano!

 

It was a delayed reaction. I had the same problem when I got a new windows 8 tablet after running the windows 8 beta; all of the fun in a new computer for me had previously been in the setup. When I got the new tablet it just ported all of my settings and apps and everything from the old tablet, so there wasn't really anything new or interesting for me to explore and futz with. No futzing = instant anticlimax.

 

Back to the new excitement: I've realized that it's fun to run a new experiment. There didn't seem to be much out there about the stock system, and I'm curious to see what happens. Also, I had a lot of fun watching all the hitchhikers and volunteer creatures settle into the tank yesterday. When I stirred up the detritus to get the flow video all of my hitch-hiking brittle stars went nuts - arms waving all over the place!

 

Update 1:

The coralline on one of my 3 LR has very nearly completely bleached since I moved the tank here. I hope the other two don't bleach too, it would be sad to lose all the purple color and have to wait for it to come back.

 

Update 2: Please tell me if anyone has done this before, as I'd love a sneak peak at how it'll work.

 

I ordered several lengths of rigid airline tubing. I'm going to try to re-create my LR risers from my old tank (made from 4" black PVC with lots of big holes drilled in them) on a nano-scale. My plan is to drill three holes into the bottom of the LR and then insert lengths of rigid airline into them to act as feet. I'm hoping that: a) by lifting the rock off the glass I'll be able to clean detritus better; b ) I'll be able to shift the LR around without knocking down my aquascaping to scrape the back glass and BB more easily; and c) I'll get a cool floating rock look.

 

If it looks cool, I'll order cast acrylic rods as I'm sure they'll disappear better than airline tubing will. It's supposed to arrive on Tuesday.

 

Update 3: I searched mi inbox to get a date for another post and I came across my first ever mention of the "zombie" zoas. Apparently the first time I killed that frag was in 2011! The frag was given to my by a reef buddy as a cyphastrea. and has never thrived, but never died either. It has withered down to a few polyps. Is this what a cyphastrea looks like when it is withered to polyps?

 

I thought that frag was done for last week as my old tank had evaporated down and the frag was completely out of the water (probably for a few days, I was out of town), but I guess this coral won't be killed. I didn't even notice that the frag plug was wedged into the LR I brought over for the new tank.

 

I also used acrylic cast rods for my aquascaping, it made parts of my aquascaping easier (and kept the underside/back open).

 

And the picture looks like zoas, not cyphastrea.

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Here's my MS paint instructions:

18936578492_08154815f0_n.jpg

 

 

I also used acrylic cast rods for my aquascaping, it made parts of my aquascaping easier (and kept the underside/back open).

 

And the picture looks like zoas, not cyphastrea.

 

 

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

 

Do you have any pics, or a thread showing how you use the cast acrylic in your aquascaping?

 

The airline tubing arrived on Tuesday, and I've begun learning some guidelines for where the tubing is more subtle and where it is too distracting. It's already making a very big difference to flow; I've got a waterspout in the back right corner that is bomber at lifting particulates into the water column. I'll try to get a vid. When I went to bed on Tuesday night, a brittle star was swirling around attached to a loose bubble at the bottom of the water spout. When I woke up the next morning, it was still swirling around on the BA. As soon as I shut the pump off that brittle star was quick to jump ship!

 

"Zoas not cyphastrea" Hangs head. I don't know how anyone trusts me with corals. I can tell you the names of all my hitchhikers, but I can't keep the name of a coral or vertebrate in my head for more than a month or two. Evidently I've been calling half dead corals "zombies" for years at this point.

 

Example: I couldn't reliably tell you what's next to the orchid dotty back in this pic (I think it's a blasto):

fish2

 

Or what this is (also blasto?):

WP_20150616_001%20%282%29.jpg?psid=1

 

 

Your Zoas seem to like the Fusion 10, they weren't showing any signs of life in the old tank, but here's some minimal progress, one or two polyps opening up:

 

WP_20150619_09_08_27_Pro.jpg?psid=1

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Thank you thank you thank you!!!

 

Do you have any pics, or a thread showing how you use the cast acrylic in your aquascaping?

 

The airline tubing arrived on Tuesday, and I've begun learning some guidelines for where the tubing is more subtle and where it is too distracting. It's already making a very big difference to flow; I've got a waterspout in the back right corner that is bomber at lifting particulates into the water column. I'll try to get a vid. When I went to bed on Tuesday night, a brittle star was swirling around attached to a loose bubble at the bottom of the water spout. When I woke up the next morning, it was still swirling around on the BA. As soon as I shut the pump off that brittle star was quick to jump ship!

 

"Zoas not cyphastrea" Hangs head. I don't know how anyone trusts me with corals. I can tell you the names of all my hitchhikers, but I can't keep the name of a coral or vertebrate in my head for more than a month or two. Evidently I've been calling half dead corals "zombies" for years at this point.

 

Example: I couldn't reliably tell you what's next to the orchid dotty back in this pic (I think it's a blasto):

 

Or what this is (also blasto?):

WP_20150616_001%20%282%29.jpg?psid=1

 

 

Your Zoas seem to like the Fusion 10, they weren't showing any signs of life in the old tank, but here's some minimal progress, one or two polyps opening up:

 

WP_20150619_09_08_27_Pro.jpg?psid=1

 

I don't have a video or pics on how I incorporate acrylic rods into my scape but what I do is I get super glue and glue the area where I want the rods to be. Then I get epoxy (I use DD aquascape epoxy), make a generous ball of it, and put it over the glue. Lastly, I get an acrylic rod (that's been measured), and stick it through the epoxy ball. I mold it to make a snug fit and add extra super glue. I use 0.60" diameter acrylic rods (though 0.125" would've been better since the 0.60" is fairly flimsy but works if the rod is less than 7").

 

So far, the flow sounds good to me. I like it when there's good amount of flow behind the tank but I try to make a dead spot in an area where I can reach so I can suck up all the detritus.

 

It takes a while to get names (market names for corals is whole a different story), but as long you like the coral, it's fine. The first picture is an acan (or Acanthastrea lordhowensis). The second pic looks like a blasto to me. As for the zoas, as long they're not melting, it's all good.

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I don't have a video or pics on how I incorporate acrylic rods into my scape but what I do is I get super glue and glue the area where I want the rods to be. Then I get epoxy (I use DD aquascape epoxy), make a generous ball of it, and put it over the glue. Lastly, I get an acrylic rod (that's been measured), and stick it through the epoxy ball. I mold it to make a snug fit and add extra super glue. I use 0.60" diameter acrylic rods (though 0.125" would've been better since the 0.60" is fairly flimsy but works if the rod is less than 7").

 

So far, the flow sounds good to me. I like it when there's good amount of flow behind the tank but I try to make a dead spot in an area where I can reach so I can suck up all the detritus.

 

It takes a while to get names (market names for corals is whole a different story), but as long you like the coral, it's fine. The first picture is an acan (or Acanthastrea lordhowensis). The second pic looks like a blasto to me. As for the zoas, as long they're not melting, it's all good.

 

 

Good idea on the epoxy and reef glue. I used a cordless drill to drill holes in the underside of the LR and then shoved the rigid airline into the holes. After the airline was in, I trimmed it to the length I wanted. It worked a lot better on rocks that had a flat(ish) bottom, as too much of the airline shows (imo) on the rocks that have narrower or irregular bottoms.

 

I should write down the names of the corals I'm given/buy. Thanks for the IDs by the way!

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  • 2 weeks later...
stefalopod

Last night, I finally dismantled the rest of my 10G tall. All but one piece of LR fit into the Nuvo Fusion 10, so you might be able to recognize some of these pieces from the old 10g Tal:

 

WP_20150703_004.jpg?psid=1

 

 

In this pic:

 

WP_20150704_11_55_47_Pro.jpg?psid=1

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stefalopod

Got my Digital Aquatics RKL installed this morning. I've had this controller since 2008, and it's still going strong.

 

WP_20150705_13_16_31_Pro.jpg?psid=1

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stefalopod

[edited to fix broken pics]

The stock nuvo fusion 10 experiment is well under way with an assortment of LPS, SPS, and softies. I had the LPSs, zoas, and taro tree, and picked up the remaining species for a total of $60 from two different LFSs ($10 each for the four SPSs and clove, and another 10$ for all four of the remaining softies: orange tree coral, unidentified mushroom, blue daisies, and green star polyp).

post-88303-0-71295800-1440883644_thumb.jpg
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Frankly, I've never kept SPSs before. They haven't undergone any sudden bleaching, but polyp extension isn't as good as I'd like it. I ordered some prodibio to see if that makes them any happier. I'm also target feeding Coral Frenzy, and one of the acros is responding pretty well to that. The second neon green acro frag hasn't shown any polyp extension since I introduced it, but it's not bleaching either. Suggestions?

I hope to have my ATO installed soon and will be building an upflow algae scrubber for the fuge chamber in the coming days.

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  • 1 month later...

[edited to fix or remove broken pics]

I'm two months in to my Stock Fusion 10 experiment, and all livestock is safe and growing...

 

Two Months into the Stock Fusion 10 Experiment


What's the same:

  • Original Skye light
  • Original circulation pump
  • Original media caddy
  • I've still got the JBJ fuge light running

What's different;

  • I tossed two of the sponges for the media caddy and am using the third to fill with a teaspoon of carbon once a week.
  • I filled chamber two with 3-4" pieces of LR

And here are the results:

I removed the sponges after observing three or four flatworms, they haven't come back. I had an extra pice of LR that I couldn't fit in the DT, so I threw it in the fudge. I've observed several pods back there since then.

I was having some trouble for the first month with the smaller of my two acro frogs - it had beautiful polyp extension in the shop, but It wouldn't extend at my house. I had placed it very high in the water column and came across the solution by accident. The Skyye light was too bright for it. During maintenance, I raised it as high as I could and forgot to put it back. The next day this tiny green acro was all happy and extended, and since then it has encrusted about three millimeters. In the shop, the polyps were blue, but I think the light might be too bright for it to color that way again.

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I picked a two headed clove frag for $10 in my search for a wide variety of corals and have learned that it's the very first indicator of water quality issues. It is almost always open, but after about ten days it closes up and won't come back until I do a water change, It grew two more heads, but I lost one of them before I learned that water changes were the issue.

This LPS is developing at least two new coralites along the bottom, and had colored up quite a bit in the Fusion 10. If you look at it in the month 1 and month 2 pics you can also see that it appears whiter around the rim now. You can just make out the new coralites above the visible bit of frag plug:

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Here is a side by side showing lightening of some of the corals in month 2 - I think this is because of the brightness of the light. I have a Monty that broke in three pieces and I've got it in the top, middle, and bottom. The color goes from bright pink, to medium purple, to brown from top to bottom.
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The halimeda is a hitchhiker that turned up in my old DT several months ago. It has a pattern of growing and dying off and then growing somewhere new again.

Also, the ricordea yuma seems to be colonizing the whole left front corner of the DT.

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  • 2 years later...

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