Custom NUVO 20 Fusion: New Stand

[ninjamyst]

i think it's cool you are cooking traditional chinese dishes. my wife and i are too lazy to cook. i fear the art of traditional cooking will soon be lost with our generation...haha

[xiaoxiy]

i think it's cool you are cooking traditional chinese dishes. my wife and i are too lazy to cook. i fear the art of traditional cooking will soon be lost with our generation...haha

If you ever do decide to pick up traditional cooking again, this is a pretty good website to start with: http://thewoksoflife.com/

 

I like using their recipes as a base, and modifying things to my taste (after I've made the dish a few times).

 

Their mantou (quite a simple dish) recipe is pretty damn easy and creates great mantou, which can then be refrigerated for the week's breakfast!

[xiaoxiy]

Since I have no tank updates, here's a food update!

 

https://flic.kr/p/p2GXSW'>https://flic.kr/p/p2GXSW'>image by https://www.flickr.com/people/126956351@N07/'>yang_xiaoxi, on Flickr

[xiaoxiy]

I hate cyano.

 

Cyano, y u no go haunt someone elses tank instead of mine?

[Angel<3Nanos]

I'm having cyano also. It's receding now that I have some gfo going.

[xiaoxiy]

Freaking winter months. I wonder if there's a correlation between time of year and cyano. lol.

[kimberbee]

More pipefish pics? They are so cute!

[Angel<3Nanos]

Freaking winter months. I wonder if there's a correlation between time of year and cyano. lol.

Thats just what Ive been thinking man! I haven't had cyano. And as soon as climate change happened, boom!

And about 4 of my friends here locally have it as well.

[Justind823]

I have a little cyano going on right now too. Tiny spots but I've never had a problem before.

 

And +1 on more pipefish pics!

[xiaoxiy]

Goshdarn cyano. Must be in something in the air then....

 

If you guys hold out until after Thanksgiving, there's a good chance I'll have my videocamera again. If I do, I'll make a video FTS of the tank and pipefish.

[Steensj2004]

Hey Xia,

Any chance you have some more extensive pics of that Sump build? Does the Acrylic do well siliconed to the glass? Ive heard bad reviews on that. Its a 5-gallon with the room removed, right?

[xiaoxiy]

Hey Xia,

Any chance you have some more extensive pics of that Sump build? Does the Acrylic do well siliconed to the glass? Ive heard bad reviews on that. Its a 5-gallon with the room removed, right?

I don't have more pictures unfortunately. The baffles in the sump are acrylic, and I used a buttload of silicone to adhere it to the glass. I cut the baffles with an 1/8 inch gap to allow for expansion & filled in the gap between the glass & acrylic with tons of silicone.

 

So far it hasn't leaked yet; fingers crossed.

[ninjamyst]

how hard are pipefish to care for?? any special requirements? they look soooo cool.

[Reefkid88]

First off,idk how I've missed this.. I really need to sub to this build. I hadn't poppped in since Sept I think... doh. I love what you've done though,looks absolutely stellar man. Kudos.

 

As for the cyano,it really may be seasonal. I wanna say I read a article a few years back about things like that. And I dare say ZoaPox was a topic as well. I always notice it comes and goes in the warmer months.

 

Once again,THAT TANK DOE

[xiaoxiy]

how hard are pipefish to care for?? any special requirements? they look soooo cool.

The pipefish are probably my favorite fish in the tank right now.

 

I think I got really lucky with the pipefish. The pair I got ahold of have been pretty easy to take care of. They'll pick at mysis shrimp and will really go after cyclops. I feed my tank twice a day now, once in the morning, once at night. I've also been spot feeding the corals mysis every time I feed the tank too.

 

I think the biggest issue with pipefish is getting them to eat. I got lucky, my LFS somehow gets really lucky with their livestock shipments & 90% of the hard-to-get-eating fish will start eating the day they get into the LFS.

 

 

First off,idk how I've missed this.. I really need to sub to this build. I hadn't poppped in since Sept I think... doh. I love what you've done though,looks absolutely stellar man. Kudos.

 

As for the cyano,it really may be seasonal. I wanna say I read a article a few years back about things like that. And I dare say ZoaPox was a topic as well. I always notice it comes and goes in the warmer months.

 

Once again,THAT TANK DOE

Thanks man! I'm hoping the cyano goes away soon. I've started dosing Dr. Tim's Waste Away in order to seed my biopellets to hopefully outcompete cyano. I hear an unbalance of bacteria + carbon dosing = cyano heaven.

[ninjamyst]

how do you manage nutrient level with such frequent feeding??

[xiaoxiy]

how do you manage nutrient level with such frequent feeding??

So right now, my nutrient levels are reading near 0's across the board. I'm not sure whether that's because of the cyano is sucking everything up up tho, and if my feedings are contributing to the cyano?

 

All in all, I go through 4mL of TLF marine snow, 1/4 cube of cyclops, 1/4 cube of mysis, and 1/2 a scoop of BRS reef chili in a day. (This feeds all of my corals, 2 clownfish, 2 pipefish, a ycg, and skunk cleaner shrimp)

 

I have quite a hefty nutrient export system in place to hopefully export the nutrients.

 

My firstline of nutrient export is my filter sock. I swap filter socks every day, to remove any uneaten food that gets swept over my overflow.

 

Then my water hits a reactor with Seachem Matrix Carbon & Phosguard, which I swap out weekly during WC.

Then my water moves through a biopellet reactor.

 

Finally, my water is skimmed with a SCA301 skimmer before it is pumped back into my return.

 

I used to feed a lot more when the tank was new. I used to go through 4mL marine snow and a food mixture of 1/2 cube mysis, 1/2 cube cyclops, 1 scoop brs reef chili, spread throughout the day with 5 feedings. I ended up cutting back when the cyano broke out.

[Reefkid88]

Yeah you'd think with all your levels are 0 that you wouldn't have any sort of algae,but its not always true. Even with 2 .5 gallon water changes on my tank,I've still got rusty brown algae growing on the glass and starting to take over the rocks. I don't get it,and I'm running a Gnome skimmer,carbon and a dash of GFO media.. Boggles my mind lol. All I feed is about .5-1ml of Dr.G's LPS Frenzy once a week.. So I'm right there with you man.

 

Once the system balances out,I think you'll mange to rid your system of that nasty crap. My system is still trying to recover from my Zeo Experiment lmao.

[xiaoxiy]

Yeah you'd think with all your levels are 0 that you wouldn't have any sort of algae,but its not always true. Even with 2 .5 gallon water changes on my tank,I've still got rusty brown algae growing on the glass and starting to take over the rocks. I don't get it,and I'm running a Gnome skimmer,carbon and a dash of GFO media.. Boggles my mind lol. All I feed is about .5-1ml of Dr.G's LPS Frenzy once a week.. So I'm right there with you man.

 

Once the system balances out,I think you'll mange to rid your system of that nasty crap. My system is still trying to recover from my Zeo Experiment lmao.

Nature man. Shit sometimes doesn't make sense.

 

I was following your Zeovit experiment the entire time. So sad that things went south .

 

Oh, you reminded me. I'm also dosing 2 drops of amino LPS every day, 1 drop of sponge power three times a week, and 1 drop of coravitz two times a week ontop of my feeding. (Been doing these dosages for almost 3 months now).

[Reefkid88]

Very true,half the time its hit or miss. What you're dosing is fine,its all food. How are the NPS still reacting to the Coralvital (that's what you're dosing right ? ). So are you done with stocking or do you have more corals planned for this sexy tank ?

 

 

It was bound to happen lol. I was dosing almost full Zeo,in a 2 gallon. Instead of it helping all my sps,it killed about 8+ frags,which honestly I knew was going to happen. Like I stated,it was a experiment,but I knew what the outcome would be lol. I'm still trying to get my Red Planet to color back up,its still like a pale purplish color but is still encrusting and has nice polyp extension.

[xiaoxiy]

Very true,half the time its hit or miss. What you're dosing is fine,its all food. How are the NPS still reacting to the Coralvital (that's what you're dosing right ? ). So are you done with stocking or do you have more corals planned for this sexy tank ?

 

 

It was bound to happen lol. I was dosing almost full Zeo,in a 2 gallon. Instead of it helping all my sps,it killed about 8+ frags,which honestly I knew was going to happen. Like I stated,it was a experiment,but I knew what the outcome would be lol. I'm still trying to get my Red Planet to color back up,its still like a pale purplish color but is still encrusting and has nice polyp extension.

I'm pretty much done stocking this tank. If I do stock, it'll be 1 more fish (been eyeing those tailspot blennies or neon goby). The NPS were reacting real well to Coral Vitalizer before the brown cyano decided to cover them. I've been blowing the cyano off of them with a pipet for the past week and a half, and today was the first day I saw some minor PE again. Fingers crossed to the cyano receding within the foreseeable future.

 

It sucks that you lost the frags so fast. . On the bright side, you have more room in your tank to grab more stuff now!

[Reefkid88]

Have you looked into maybe cutting all those bottles used back to Red Sea Reef Nutrition A&B ? I've been thinking about giving it a shot and see how it does. That's always nice to see things turn around,I know Gorg's are a little on the tough side,especially when you have invasive algae starting to take over them. I'm having some of the same issues with my algae and covering my Zoa's and making them not want to open.

 

I think a pair of trio of Neon's would be awesome,maybe some Sharknose ? Some Trimma's would be SICK !!! I've always loved those little fellers.

 

It's all good,I personally was so excited that I was able to keep Acro's I went crazy with them,and then tried what I deep down inside knew wouldn't work lol And I got tired of them. But... I did get some species of Nana or Horrida looks more like Nana with its fat ass polyps and a purple/red and green Mille,the Nana was free lol so I cannot complain. I would like to keep one little island in my 7 for just sps,which should be up in a week or 2

[xiaoxiy]

Have you looked into maybe cutting all those bottles used back to Red Sea Reef Nutrition A&B ? I've been thinking about giving it a shot and see how it does. That's always nice to see things turn around,I know Gorg's are a little on the tough side,especially when you have invasive algae starting to take over them. I'm having some of the same issues with my algae and covering my Zoa's and making them not want to open.

 

I think a pair of trio of Neon's would be awesome,maybe some Sharknose ? Some Trimma's would be SICK !!! I've always loved those little fellers.

 

It's all good,I personally was so excited that I was able to keep Acro's I went crazy with them,and then tried what I deep down inside knew wouldn't work lol And I got tired of them. But... I did get some species of Nana or Horrida looks more like Nana with its fat ass polyps and a purple/red and green Mille,the Nana was free lol so I cannot complain. I would like to keep one little island in my 7 for just sps,which should be up in a week or 2

I'm gonna stick with Zeovit foods for a while, as it, in combination with the frequent feedings, has made my LPS and rics really happy. LMK how the Red Sea nutrition stuff goes for you.

 

Haha, I may be overstocking if I grab more than 1 fish. Although I might, as neon's have such a small bioload. I've also been looking into inverts, such as sexy shrimp or pom pom crabs. I'm reluctant with sexies as they've been known to munch on corals.

 

I can't wait to see how your tank progresses!

[xiaoxiy]

Holyshit. I heard a huge rush of water from my bedroom and freaked the #### out. Ran out to check on my tank; turned out just to be my upstairs neighbors pouring something down the toilet.

 

Whew.

 

[Reefkid88]

I don't blame you,if its not broke,don't fix it. If it's working,keep on'a trucking lol. I've been thinking about it,because it's only $16 at my LFS,which isn't bad.

 

Eh yeah,I hear you. What inverts were you looking into ? Neon's have such a small bioload I don't think more than 1 would do any harm.

 

 

Thanks man,I appreciate it. Pop in from time to time and see what's going on. I'm still debating on what fish to get. It's going to be wither 2-3 Neon's,a Flaming Prawn Goby or a 6 Line or a Possum Wrasse.... Choices lol

Damn,do you have paper mache walls lol ? Thank god it wasn't the tank lmao.