Surveyman's NUVO 10 Build - REBOOT 2019

[SURVEYMAN46123]

New FTS  11-14-20

 

 

 

6-29-20

 

 

1-30-20

 

 

7-31-19

 

Tank has had its ups and downs lately and not up to my liking.   So I've begun the process of changing things up a bit.   I love the size of this tank and how easy it is to maintain, so no new tank, just some new rock.   Hopefully I can get this tank back to its former glory and be happy with it for years to come.

 

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Hello, my name is Paul and this is an early start to my NUVO 10 build. Hope you follow along.   This is my first saltwater reef tank and hoping to be successful with this wonderful little tank.  For almost a year now I've been doing my homework and reading about anything and everything. Then watching YouTube videos about those items I was reading about. I've been keeping African Cichlids for years now and have always been tempted by the saltwater world. So I started thinking since I have limited room I would try a nano reef.

 

I'm looking to keep ricordea mushrooms, zoas, and a couple LPS. Mainly Hammers and Acans. Possibly a hammer garden surrounded by the acan lords, zoas, and mushrooms. I also have a friend who is going to frag some blue hornet zoas and a dragon soul favia to get me started. As for fish my daughter wants an ocellaris clown and a tailspot blenny. After adding a Skimmer I might throw in a purple firefish. We will see. I plan to do 3 gallon water changes weekly.

 

UPDATE:  I am planning on making this an ephullyia dominated tank.  

 

FTS 4-24-19

 

 

FTS 2-22-18

 

 

FTS: 2-23-17

 

 

Current Equipment List:

 

IM NUVO Fusion 10

AI Prime HD with Flex Arm

InTank Media Basket

Eheim Jager Heater

Sicce 1.0 return Pump

 

Filtration:

 

10 lbs Fiji Pink Sand

8-9 lbs Reef Saver Rock from BRS

Filter floss

Chemi-Pure Blue

 

Livestock:

 

2 Ocellaris Clowns

 

2 Blue Legged Hermits

2 Trochus Snails

2 Nassarius Snails

1 Brittle starfish. 

 

Current Corals:

 

Yellow Hammer (meshed into a green 🤷‍♂️ )

Splatter Hammer

Red Acan Lord

Light Blue/Red Acan Lord

Date Night Paly's

Cornbred Rainbow Infusion Paly

Rasta Zoa

Rainbow Hornet Zoa's

Fruit Loop Zoa

Gorilla Nipple Zoa’s

Scrambled Egg's Zoa's

JF Fairy Tale Zoa's

Utter Chaos Zoa's

Rainbow Incinerator Zoa's

Blue/Green Ricordea Mushroom

Orange Ricordea Mushroom

Gold/Green Ricordea

Purple Rhodactus Mushroom 

Green/Purple Rhodactus Mushroom

Pink/Purple Yuma Mushroom

Candy Cane Coral Colony

Duncan Coral

Purple Gorgs

Pink Blasto

Jack-O-Lantern Lepto

Bejewled Favia

Unnamed Yellow Favia

Red Digi Monti

ORA Birdsnest

Tyree Neon Green Toadstool (Long Polyp)

Neon Green GSP

Grim Reaper Torch

Rainbow Clove Polyps

Kedds Reds Zoas

Nirvana Paly

Gobstopper Paly

Mandarin Orange Zoa

Grandis Paly

Yellow Submarine Favia
Spicy Lemon Favia

Bowtie Bowsers Zoa

WWC Illuminati Zoa

Salted Agave Zoa

Frozen Mohican Zoa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[do not smoke the reef(er)]

Nice little mini set up! looking forward to seeing it come together.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

So tonight my daughters and I decided to do a little scaping inside the actual tank. I received 10 lbs of reef saver rock last week from BRS and wanted to mess around a little. Very impressed with the pieces I received. Plan is to also grab a very small piece of LR with coralline to help seed the tank when I get going. My father is finishing up on my cabinet so it's not ready to go just yet but hopefully it will be wet soon. The only thing is that the damned skkye light mount broke in half. The weight of the light was too much for it. :/ The light is held on tonight with a couple clamps. Going to try to find some acrylic glue to glue it back together. Anyone have this same issue? I barely had the screws clamped down too.

Anyway I like the look of this scape so far. Lots of little places to mount frags and little caves for fish to go. Let me know what you think. Also I am going to start posting updates here and on Instagram. If you want to follow along there too the username is @tehsac_reef

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RIP Sebastian]

Looks like a great little tank! I'd love to have one for either a pair of Jawfish or Mandarins.....

Followed!

[SURVEYMAN46123]

So I have decided to tweak my idea of the corals I want to keep. Since this will be my first reef tank, I think keeping things simple would be best. Also I'm not sure about dosing and such as I still need to research that further. So here is my question to those following. Could I keep mostly Zoa's, Ricordea Mushrooms, a Xenia, and one or two hammers mixed in using Instant Ocean salt? I may try to keep an acan and a favia down the road but want to keep it simple and hardy at first.

 

If not, what should I dose outside of weekly water changes?

[Everardc]

Once its all set up and you have coral in there, test weekly and you'll know what you need to dose. Don't ever dose ANYTHING without testing BEFORE and AFTER.

But I admire this little tank, you have yourself a follower. Its cute :3

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Thank you, I will do just that.

 

Well this tank has been put on hold for a couple more weeks. First my father has been ill and hasn't been able to put the finishing touches onto my cabinet that he is building for me. His health is more important in my opinion. I've waited this long, I can wait a few weeks longer. Also I had a washing machine and water heater fail on me, so yea that ate into the budget. Oh well I will get this wet soon enough.

 

Thanks to dmw913's thread (http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/379736-im-nuvo-fusion-10-bt-denises-office-tank-skimmer-choice-made/?p=5456632) I'm considering the Sicce .5 pump before I even add water. I'm thinking this will be much needed upgrade since I do not plan on running a powerhead within the display. I can also re-use the stock pump in my salt mixing bucket.

 

As for lighting I am still up in the air on what I want to eventually upgrade too. I love the AI Prime, but I have seen a few more Kessil A80's in posts and on instagram. The only thing with the kessil is I would have to purchase the controller extra. Decisions, Decisions.

 

Anyway thought I would give a little update. Hopefully soon enough there will be photos of a tank full of water.

[dmw913]

Survey,

 

The Sicce is working well so far and I really do love my Prime. However, note that if you use the AI tank mount for the Prime, I don't think there's a bat's chance you'll get the Eshopps skimmer in the second chamber. I went with Reef Glass and will post progress as I've never used that type of skimmer before. The AI mount really juts out into the chamber. If you go for Prime I would strongly consider gooseneck mount for this reason. I can post pics if requested. Also, just got my box of MarinePure biomedia. If you'd like, I'll send you a few to put in the tank when you set it up to help with bio filtration. I put a few in my bottom section of the media caddy. PM me an address.

 

Sorry to hear about father and home repairs! Hope everyone and everything is on the mend quickly.

 

Best,

Denise

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Denise,

 

Thank you, everything will sort it's self out in time. Just a bummer everything happens when it does.

 

That would be awesome of you. I will send you a DM soon. Also thanks for the heads up on the mount. I was afraid of that when I was reading within your post. If I do get a Skimmer I may go the route you have chosen. However I have bounced the idea around of doing 3 gallon changes weekly and not adding a Skimmer. We will see what happens, I need to get this wet first. ?

[RIP Sebastian]

Denise,

 

Thank you, everything will sort it's self out in time. Just a bummer everything happens when it does.

 

That would be awesome of you. I will send you a DM soon. Also thanks for the heads up on the mount. I was afraid of that when I was reading within your post. If I do get a Skimmer I may go the route you have chosen. However I have bounced the idea around of doing 3 gallon changes weekly and not adding a Skimmer. We will see what happens, I need to get this wet first.

 

Nanobox! Nanobox! Nanobox!

[SURVEYMAN46123]

 

Nanobox! Nanobox! Nanobox!

 

 

Eh I dunno. I don't know much about them and the price is a bit off putting to be honest.

[RIP Sebastian]

 

 

Eh I dunno. I don't know much about them and the price is a bit off putting to be honest.

 

It's worth it. There's a used Tide Plus M on the hardware classifieds for 200. Do it.

[Droy008]

TBH, the prime is just as capable as the nanobox. Similar light output, both have WiFi apps, spectrum control, and the prime has more mounting options. The main selling point for the nanobox is supporting a nano-reef member/vendor.

Also please don't read into this as a guilt trip.

While I do have a nanobox unit, I bought it used for cheaper than a prime. If I was buying a new light, I'd likely go with the prime, just for cost alone.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

 

It's worth it. There's a used Tide Plus M on the hardware classifieds for 200. Do it.

 

If I was in the market for a new light right now, I would consider it. As of now I'm going to run with the SKKYE light until probably this summer.

 

I have been looking at the Kessil A80's alot lately, however I am not completley sold yet.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Today I received a box at work with a couple goodies. A Sicce .5 pump and the Tunze Nano ATO. Probably the last few bucks I'll be spending for awhile on this tank. Money has been tight lately as I had a washer and a water heater go out on me over the past couple weeks. Then this evening my well pump decided it wanted to crap out on me. One day I'll get this tank wet. :/

[dmw913]

That sucks!!! Keep your chin up.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Some positive news, my cabinet has been given its first coat of stain and I should have it in my possession in the next week or so! ?

 

Everything is waiting here ready to go and to start cycling. I do have a question though. My oldest daughter loves tail spot blennies and wants that to be our first fish. Knowing they like to graze on algae is adding one after a cycle recommended? Or should I wait until the tank matures a bit?

[teenyreef]

Some positive news, my cabinet has been given its first coat of stain and I should have it in my possession in the next week or so!

 

Everything is waiting here ready to go and to start cycling. I do have a question though. My oldest daughter loves tail spot blennies and wants that to be our first fish. Knowing they like to graze on algae is adding one after a cycle recommended? Or should I wait until the tank matures a bit?

I just found your thread! I really like the scape you're planning on, and that's great news that the cabinet is almost done.

 

Personally, I would not make a tail spot blenny your first fish. Most of us who have kept them have had trouble keeping them alive for the long term (like more than a year). They just don't seem to be very resilient. On the other hand, as long as they get through the usual first couple weeks of stress, clowns are very tough and usually live a long time.

 

I'm biased since I have a Nanobox Mini Tide for sale now and will have another one up for sale soon, but for what it's worth, the gooseneck mounting bracket on both of mine is very thin on the tank side, and leaves room for the Eshopps Nano skimmer.

 

Used Nanobox Minis are cheaper than a new AI Prime HD. But both of mine have the Storm controller which means no wifi control. Having used both, I don't think it's a big deal because the Storm is so easy to use and it's nice to have it handy right by the tank instead of firing up an app on the phone every time I want to take a picture, but all the cool kids use wifi controllers now

 

Seriously, though, I think any of the options you are looking at will work great on this tank.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Thanks Teeny! Gonna epoxy them together this weekend in hoping that the tank will be getting wet next weekend.

 

So I got a little peek at the cabinet tonight. My father is going to be staining it this weekend and bringing it down later next week weather permitting. The left side is going to store my supplies and ATO container. I picked up a simple 2.5 gallon jug from Walmart to hold my RO water.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

My dad dropped of the finished cabinet today.  Saltwater is being mixed and I will be setting this tank up tonight!   

 

 

 

 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Yesterday I finally was able to get this tank up and running.  The original post has been updated to my current equipment list and a new FTS.  Also removed the small book I wrote in my first post.  LOL

 

Setting up was a breeze except for the Tunze Nano ATO.  The clamp that holds the tubing to the tank mount wasn't lining up so I used some small zip ties to attach it.  I pointed the hose downward so it filled cleaner than just splashing on the back wall.  Also where the return tube attaches to the pump was too small.  A small chainsaw blade file did the job to trim away some of the access plastic.   Lastly my 9 yr old daughter who was excited beyond belief decided to play with the float magnets.  Took me 20 minutes and a small hammer to pry them apart.   

 

Other than that, the tank is cycling using the filter sock.  I am going to add a bottle of bacteria this weekend to jumpstart the cycle.  

 

Oh and I apologize, all photos were taken with my iphone.

 

FTS: 2-23-17

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cabinet and Cabinet Drawer details.  Pretty proud of this piece and love that it was hand made by my father.

 

 

 

Typical after water has been added photo. 

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

Nice to see this get started, I'm sure it is for you too!!

[SURVEYMAN46123]

Thanks!  Yes this has been a test of patience so far for sure.  

 

Now its time to wait for the cycle.  

 

I think my initinal clean up crew will be:

 

1 Trochus Snail

1 Blue Legged Hermit

1 Scarlet Hermit

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

[do not smoke the reef(er)]

10 minutes ago, SURVEYMAN46123 said:

Thanks!  Yes this has been a test of patience so far for sure.  

 

Now its time to wait for the cycle.  

 

I think my initinal clean up crew will be:

 

1 Trochus Snail

1 Blue Legged Hermit

1 Scarlet Hermit

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

+1 for trochus, they are beast when it comes to getting algea and never need to be flipped over. They don't go too much on my sandbed though.

 

I personally do not like crabs in my current tank. It seems that every crab i have put in my tank decided to nip and nip at my zoas. That got an immediate sump ban. Ended up taking them back to the LFS and got some more snails. I do like the crabs though as far as purpose, just couldn't take a $2 crab nipping at a 50 polyp

[teenyreef]

I'd go with one hermit in a 10g tank. They will tend to eat your snails as much as they eat your algae, and you can always get more if you need them.