Surveyman's NUVO 10 Build - REBOOT 2019

[SURVEYMAN46123]

New vid from last night.   Everything seems very happy.   Just wish it would grow quicker!   haha

 

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Saturday I purchased a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp for the tank to have some movement other than corals.   Little bugger keeps hiding behind the rock work.  :mad:  However he seems to be doing well.   I've read forum posts where they don't do so well acclimating and pass away either the day of or a couple days later.   I did not acclimate him in the bucket, but fastened the bag to the tank and kept it floating so there were no temperature swings.  Every 15 minutes or so I would remove a turkey basters worth of water and discard it, then add in the same amount from the tank to slowly raise the salinity.   Seems to have worked out great.

 

Also last evening was day 65 with my reef.   Things have started to grow a bit more since adding the reef roids, but things still seem slow.   I'm not sure if its the lighting or something else.   However I'm just taking things slow and let things happen when they happen.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SaltyBuddha]

Looking good! Definitely looks like your candy cane is getting bigger. I've heard scarlet shrimp are super friendly once they acclimate. 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

My phosphates still seem to be high to me.   I'm not sure if its something I'm doing wrong or if its a new tank/new rock kind of deal.   I've been thinking of placing a pouch of phosban and purigen in my media basket with my chemi-pure to help with this issue.   Any thoughts?  The corals still seem happy but I think they could be happier to be honest.

 

I am also still considering a macro algae reactor for this tank, but that might not be until next month.

 

 

[FishWrangler]

cleaner shrimps are usually really friendly and will come right to your hand and pick/clean your skin....it's what they do.   Too bad my female clown attacks me (doesn't break the skin but still makes me jump...even when I'm expecting it) and I can't play with the shrimp.

[gone_PHiSHin]

i would highly recommend you test first, then add some GFO

 

if you do add any without testing first, start small.  i use about a tablespoon in a fine mesh bag in my IM10

[SURVEYMAN46123]

3 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

i would highly recommend you test first, then add some GFO

 

if you do add any without testing first, start small.  i use about a tablespoon in a fine mesh bag in my IM10

 

Gotcha.    I'm going to do it slowly if I do it at all.  

 

As for the shrimp I hope he will become more active.   Right now he is slowly starting to come out more.

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

So nothing new to add.  Tank is still fallow, shrimp is doing great!   The nitrates are definitely up but I'm not sure why.  I feed reef roids lightly once a week now and change the floss every two days.   I havent done a WC for two weeks so that might be it.  Everything looks happy but the film on the glass and dirty sand every day is driving me nuts.  As for algae the coralline is starting to encrust and it's a nice purple color.  

 

I'm not sure if I should add a skimmer or add the macro algae reactor I have been thinking about. Or add some matrix and purigen to the media basket and hold off on either of the above.  

 

I'm also looking at adding a powerhead.  Any suggestions?  I'd like to add a monti cap and a birdsnest to the top of the rock work by the end of summer as I think that area looks very bare. 

 

 

 

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

So I decided to add a small bag of purigen and a small amount of phosguard in the media basket with the chemi-pure blue.  I rinsed both out and added it to the tank after a 2 gallon water change yesterday morning.   When the lights flipped on this morning I noticed the tank was very cloudy.  My thought is the phosguard is the culprit so I'm debating on removing it and only using it when I need it.   Thoughts?  

 

I've also purchased a used reactor with a small pump.  My thought is to slide said pump in chamber two and pump back into the third chamber.  This will be my macroalgae reactor that I plan to light up after the lights go out on the tank.   Has anyone tried this out yet or am I going to be the one who does trial an error on this?  ?

 

Ive decided to hold out on a light for now.  I'm not seeing significant growth but I'm not seeing any die off either.  I have however seen growth with my zoa's.  Each has grown 2-3 polyps this past month alone.   Im also looking at the aqamai powerhead but may hold off.  I think instead of a birdsnest and plating monti I'm going to cover the top of the rock with a couple more hammers and frogspawn.  I love movement in the tank and that will be a great look I believe.  Won't need a powerhead if I go that route.  The sicce and spinstream work great.  

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Well a sad update, if anyone is still following, I found the shrimp this morning dead on the sand bed.   I also found my trochus, and astrea snails dead, and some carcasses of amiphpods as well.   The hermits, cerith, and nassarius snails all seem happy and doing their job though.   No idea what has happened.    I removed the phosguard yesterday and added a bag of carbon to help clear up the water.   I also did another 2 gallon water change yesterday afternoon.

 

 

[gone_PHiSHin]

sorry to hear of the troubles man.

 

i don't know what caused the water to cloud up...anyone know if chemipure, phosguard, and purigen have any reactions to each other that could have caused this?  i have only used purigen of the three. 

 

cloudy water is usually a bad sign but more than likely is related to the deaths.  good call on another water change and just running the carbon, hopefully that helps stabilize things.

 

you said a couple posts ago, your nitrates are up and you didn't know why, even though you only feed reef roids a couple times a week...are you stirring up your sand regularly?  excess nutrients can collect there and be released...are you removing the filter floss after doing so to remove the collected detritus?  how about cleaning out the back chambers?

 

the excess nitrates are coming from somewhere, and feeding too much is usually the culprit.  you have no bioload as well as saying you don't overfeed your corals, so finding the cause of nitrates is a priority imo. 

 

hang in there, stay on top of things, and keep posting.  i'm following, and i'm sure others are as well who may be more help than i.  

 

 

[SaltyBuddha]

Unfortunate to hear that. I hope you find the root cause soon. Sounds like it definitely had something to do with the new filter additions though. I've always read to go really slow with Phosguard. Like 1/2 of the recommended dose. And they don't recommend to use a lot to begin with.

 

I lost a hermit crab this morning. Found my cleaner shrimp cradling its dead body. It was a very disturbing scene...

[SURVEYMAN46123]

18 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

sorry to hear of the troubles man.

 

i don't know what caused the water to cloud up...anyone know if chemipure, phosguard, and purigen have any reactions to each other that could have caused this?  i have only used purigen of the three. 

 

cloudy water is usually a bad sign but more than likely is related to the deaths.  good call on another water change and just running the carbon, hopefully that helps stabilize things.

 

you said a couple posts ago, your nitrates are up and you didn't know why, even though you only feed reef roids a couple times a week...are you stirring up your sand regularly?  excess nutrients can collect there and be released...are you removing the filter floss after doing so to remove the collected detritus?  how about cleaning out the back chambers?

 

the excess nitrates are coming from somewhere, and feeding too much is usually the culprit.  you have no bioload as well as saying you don't overfeed your corals, so finding the cause of nitrates is a priority imo. 

 

hang in there, stay on top of things, and keep posting.  i'm following, and i'm sure others are as well who may be more help than i.  

 

 

The water has cleared up and I plan on removing the extra carbon this evening.   I stir my sand at least twice a week, and also vacuum it every water change.  As for the back chamber, I usually stick the IM Pump down in and suspend any detritus and siphon that out as well.   The floss is also changed every other day.   I think my issue was that I skipped a weeks water change because I was out of town for work.   That is laziness on my part and I'm the only one to blame.

 

 

17 hours ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Unfortunate to hear that. I hope you find the root cause soon. Sounds like it definitely had something to do with the new filter additions though. I've always read to go really slow with Phosguard. Like 1/2 of the recommended dose. And they don't recommend to use a lot to begin with.

 

I lost a hermit crab this morning. Found my cleaner shrimp cradling its dead body. It was a very disturbing scene...

 

I removed the Phosguard completely from the tank.   I am beginning to think that was the root of the problem.   Everything is back open fully and seems to be in a happy state.   So we will just keep moving on.  

 

That does sound disturbing.

 

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

This afternoon my wife a girls handed me a couple boxes to open.  To my surprise they had gotten me a new light and reactor.  The reactor I purchased was a piece of junk, it was only 10 bucks, but I should have know better.  Plus I have been wanting a new light forever so this was an awesome surprise.  I'm going to get things set up in the morning after I do my weekly water change.  ??

 

 

[neilcostes]

Nice thread

[gone_PHiSHin]

the wife and kids sound like awesome people 

 

your tank is going to love the new lighting.  you will get much better coloration with this light spectrum.  

 

very important though: remember to start low with your settings and GRADUALLY increase the intensity over the course of the next couple months.  the light can do just as much harm as good if you don't let your corals adjust.  a good way to do it for me was to only increase my intensity on water change days, so once a week, and only a SLIGHT increase.  

 

the A80 is a slick light, some may say underpowered, but for everything currently in your tank it is plenty.  there have even been a couple members keeping thriving SPS with them, so i think it's a great light for a 10 gal or smaller.

 

show us some pics when it's all set up!

[neilcostes]

Beautiful tank

[gone_PHiSHin]

also, how long has your tank been fallow? i would love to see you get a fish back in there (i'm sure you would too!) but both you and i know you have to remain patient on that

[SURVEYMAN46123]

4 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

the wife and kids sound like awesome people 

 

your tank is going to love the new lighting.  you will get much better coloration with this light spectrum.  

 

very important though: remember to start low with your settings and GRADUALLY increase the intensity over the course of the next couple months.  the light can do just as much harm as good if you don't let your corals adjust.  a good way to do it for me was to only increase my intensity on water change days, so once a week, and only a SLIGHT increase.  

 

the A80 is a slick light, some may say underpowered, but for everything currently in your tank it is plenty.  there have even been a couple members keeping thriving SPS with them, so i think it's a great light for a 10 gal or smaller.

 

show us some pics when it's all set up!

 

Yep it was quite a surprise.  I did a weekly waterchange this morning, but haven't hooked up the reactor yet.  Might do that this coming week once I get a chunk of chateo from a local friend.   

 

As for the light I set the intensity around 30-40%.  It's a guess but I know it's not near 50%.  I've also kept the color around 40%.  More towards the blue but not all the way.  Everything opened up nice and fluffy and seemed to be happy.  The zoa's and ricordea really loved it as the spread out nice and wide today.     

 

I dont plan on keeping any sps other than a couple encrusting monties I have.  Ephyullia dominated tank is my goal with a small ricordea garden and zoa garden.  I want a few more torch corals, hammers, a frogspawn, and octospawn.  ??

 

Oh and my tank has been fallow for nearly 7 weeks.  I'm going to keep it that way until the first week of July.  My oldest is turning 10 and I'm going to get her a tailspot blenny for her birthday. It's her favorite fish.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gone_PHiSHin]

that caulastrea colony is huge!  

 

nice 'n plump

[SURVEYMAN46123]

10 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

that caulastrea colony is huge!  

 

nice 'n plump

Yea I got that from a local reefer.   Actually my 9 yr old bought it off of him for 25 bucks.   Its always nice and puffy.

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

So I'm not sure what is going on with my corals.  The light intensity is low as I'm slowly introducing the light.  The zoa's are open but stretching, the ricordea is curling upwards slightly, the acans are puffy (which is good), and the euphyllia are not fully extending.  Should I do a early WC or turn up the intensity?  Would they be stretching because they are used to a bit more light?  Honestly I'm not sure the output difference between the Kessil and IM light.  

 

All my parameters are well within normal range for this time of week.  Saturday is my usual WC day. My light is on for 11 hours so maybe that's the culprit.  Also I've been running slightly warmer.  Typically my tank is steady 77.2 degrees, but to compensate the AC set on Antarctica, I've turned up the heater.  It's running about a degree warmer than usual.   

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

 

 

[gone_PHiSHin]

if corals are reaching upward i would slowly increase your light.  maybe you could do a search on here for the A80 and see where others who have the light keep their settings at for a better basis of comparison. 

 

go slow for sure but if corals are reaching up then that's usually a sign to increase lighting a little. 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

So I've slowly increased the light daily, and everything seems to be pretty darn happy in there.   Its so hard to get a good photo with my iphone, but I'm loving the color blending and the shimmer.   This little light is pretty damn cool IMO.

 

I've updated my intentions of what I want to keep coral wise.  I'm drawn to my torch coral daily and well, I want more of them!   So my plan is to get a few more torches, hammers, and frogspawn, along with a few more zoas.   My intention is to make this an ephulliya dominated tank. 

 

https://instagram.com/p/BVfbwwnB7Uj/

 

https://instagram.com/p/BViorRth_LH/

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

19 minutes ago, SURVEYMAN46123 said:

So I've slowly increased the light daily, and everything seems to be pretty darn happy in there.   Its so hard to get a good photo with my iphone, but I'm loving the color blending and the shimmer.   This little light is pretty damn cool IMO.

 

I've updated my intentions of what I want to keep coral wise.  I'm drawn to my torch coral daily and well, I want more of them!   So my plan is to get a few more torches, hammers, and frogspawn, along with a few more zoas.   My intention is to make this an ephulliya dominated tank. 

 

https://instagram.com/p/BVfbwwnB7Uj/

 

 

 

https://instagram.com/p/BViorRth_LH/

 

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to see this take shape, I love Euphyllia!!!