Sangheili's Innovative Marine Nuvo 24 - aka How I ruined my carpet

[Egginis]

Am really liking the progress. Wishing you best of luck with the coral beauty. Hopefully it will be well behaved. Adding supplemental moon lighting is a great idea. Many corals feed and spawn in the night hours. All the nocturnal creatures come out to play and you can get a better view of them. I ordered a red digi from Mstansbury has well and the package came on time and in great shape. Will be ordering from him again as his corals are of high quality. Would love to see some pics of the aquarium and I am sorry to hear about the shipping delay. Hopefully everything will arrive in good shape.

[Angel<3Nanos]

Did your corals arrive??

[sangheili]

Nope! Hopefully tomorrow.

[Angel<3Nanos]

Darn :/

[sangheili]

Corals came in this morning. They all look ok and are in the tank. The only one that I'm questioning is the Duncan as it wasn't opened up by the time I had to leave for class. One of the zoa frags has some form of worm in it. Doesn't look like a bristle worm, it has long feeler tentacles on its head. That frag is sitting in its own cup of tank water for now until I can figure out how to get that worm out.

[Angel<3Nanos]

Are you not dipping your corals sang?

[sangheili]

Are not dipping your corals sang?

 

Every one! 15mins in Lugol's Solution. Didn't seem to impact that guy tho, he has little holes and caves inside this zoa frag. Is there another method I could try? Freshwater dip?

[Angel<3Nanos]

Oh dang! Thats a tough guy then!

 

So Yeah try a freshwater dip.

[sangheili]

Success! 10 minutes in fresh water (the 3rd bath mind you...) and that ugly bastard finally slithered out of his hole. Oh and the duncan is opening up now!

[Cameron6796]

Woohoo pics of the thing

[sangheili]

Woohoo pics of the thing

 

Went straight to the trash can sorry :-(

 

Looked like this (the bottom one) but with maybe longer tentacles:

 

 

[Cameron6796]

Excuse me well i go Ralph haha that thing is gross any idea what it is

[Angel<3Nanos]

Dayum!!!! Lol

[sangheili]

Some pictures for you guys. Today I hung the light from the ceiling, it came out pretty well. One side is maybe a few mm lower then the other but you really have to look hard to see. The light has a temporary shroud on it until i can come up with something better. The light has 120deg optics and the tank is right next to my computer so without the shroud the LEDs shine right into my peripheral vision when I'm at my computer.

 

The rock is a mix of dry rock and live rock - just what I had lying around + some live to seed the tank. Tomorrow the real dry rock comes and aquascaping will begin.

 

[Angel<3Nanos]

Nice!

[dxmaster]

Which LFS are you going to?

 

Ps, found you from LVVR.

[sangheili]

I kind of visit them all dxmaster. I've been buying most of my items from Desert Reef Co, Glass Habitats (these two are the closest to me), and Aquatic Treasures. Sonny @ Aquatic Treasures has the best prices in town by far. Ive bought a few things (mostly freshwater) from Trop-Aquarium and Petco/Petsmart.

[llama roadkill]

Glad to hear that the tank is cycling well. Only fish on your list that I would be wary of are the angels.. It's really 50/50 whether they will pick at coral. As most sites suggest, add with caution. I have a beautiful Bangaii cardinal fish in my 220 gallon reef. He has grown rather large and has a great streamer on him. Swims around the aquarium very proudly. The issue with him is that he ate my equally beautiful cleaner shrimp. There is always the risk it can happen so be aware. Love the selection of the purple firefish and goby shrimp combo. Both these fish will burrow under rock in the sand bed so you would not have many active swimmers other than your clowns. Good luck with your selections.

 

Pics or it didn't happen!

[sangheili]

Aquascape pics incoming! Waiting a bit for tank water to clear up. RO/DI is hooked up also, heres a pic:

 

 

I didn't drill in the valve for the bottom yet. Going to wait a bit to decide if i really need it - I can fill buckets from dipping just as easy and I didn't have a drill bit big enough for the bulkhead I bought.

[dxmaster]

 

I kind of visit them all dxmaster. I've been buying most of my items from Desert Reef Co, Glass Habitats (these two are the closest to me), and Aquatic Treasures. Sonny @ Aquatic Treasures has the best prices in town by far. Ive bought a few things (mostly freshwater) from Trop-Aquarium and Petco/Petsmart.

I love going to Erics shop mainly because Eric is awesome. Sonny and Ho are great too. But I go to Blue Reef most often just because its the closest to me. Have you been to Pisces reef yet? If not, go check it out. Damon just opened it and its hands down the nicest store in Vegas.

[sangheili]

I love going to Erics shop mainly because Eric is awesome. Sonny and Ho are great too. But I go to Blue Reef most often just because its the closest to me. Have you been to Pisces reef yet? If not, go check it out. Damon just opened it and its hands down the nicest store in Vegas.

 

I will have to check that out! Maybe tomorrow if I get time :-)

[sangheili]

Picture time! Aquascape is done. I went with a single island + a bridge island. The bridge island has a big cave under the bridge plus another cave to the right of it through the big rock. The pictures are kind of dim, the light is much brighter in real life.

 

Opinions?

 

[shughes38]

Wow, I cant wait to watch this system mature. Those rocks are going to look great as they color up. There are so many different ways to scape the 24, I'm slightly jealous

 

My one and only suggestion would be to move the left rock more towards the center for better light. It could be the picture, but it looks like it is way off by itself and away from the action.

 

I also love seeing the 24 next to the 4. You forget how big the difference really is.

[Egginis]

I actually like the rock all the way to the left. It will force fish to have to come into the open to get to the island. Having the rock in a shadier area allows you to place lower light loving corals on this island. You also leave space in back to add gorgonians and an area on the sand bed for plate corals or other corals.

 

Great choice of rock and the aquascaping is visually appealing. Can't wait to see what type of goodies you are going to add to your aquarium. If you have the funds, I would suggest a vortech mp10. This powerhead will help move any detritus off your rocks and sand and into your filter chambers and protein skimmer. It has really done wonders for my aquarium and I am thinking of adding a second one.

[sangheili]

I actually like the rock all the way to the left. It will force fish to have to come into the open to get to the island. Having the rock in a shadier area allows you to place lower light loving corals on this island. You also leave space in back to add gorgonians and an area on the sand bed for plate corals or other corals.

 

Great choice of rock and the aquascaping is visually appealing. Can't wait to see what type of goodies you are going to add to your aquarium. If you have the funds, I would suggest a vortech mp10. This powerhead will help move any detritus off your rocks and sand and into your filter chambers and protein skimmer. It has really done wonders for my aquarium and I am thinking of adding a second one.

 

Thanks Egginis! That was my thought with the island - I wanted it away and somewhat shaded plus room for corals on the sand + gorgs in the back eventually. I already have a small Hydor powerhead and combined with the spin streams is doing a pretty good job. My water has been "sandy" ever since I added the dry rock yesterday. Just did a water change and added more filter floss, hoping it will clear it up faster. Seems the sand I added wasn't very flushed.