Hobbs Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Hobbs's 8gal Nuvo Reef Chronicling the development of a pristine nano ecosystem. Goal: minimize weekly maintenance while maintianing a portable and hardy marine reef Specs: Tank: Nuvo Aquarium Nano Reef 0202 8 gallon capacity Filtrations: Mechanical Sponge, activated carbon sponge, phosphate sponge Light: 8 watt 14,000k (6 white diodes, 4 blue) Sand: Arag-Alive Bahamas Oolite Live Rock: 6.6 lbs of cured live rock, fairly porous but could be better. Coralline growth present Water: R/O with salt from LFS. Total water is 5 gallons Start date: 8/5/17 Reasoning: Wanted a small durable aquarium that would be easy to move every year. Modern and sleek design with LEDs was a massive plus. Wanted to maximize biological filtration so wanted as fine as sand as possible and as much rock that would asthetically fit in the tank Initial thoughts: The tank is too small for all the fish I want, the sand is too fine, the light needs to be stronger. Still looks super cool. Plans: Have 2 small fish, maximize symbiotic pairings, have lots of inverts and corals. Maybe future anemone or clam (need vast lighting overhaul first, I know ) Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 8/19/17 Tank appears to be done cycling, diotomes are present as well as some copepods. Coralline algae is spreading and showing up on glass, so I decided to get some livestock. LFS (AA) had a good selection of nano fish and due to the symbiotic pairings that I love, I got a candy cane pistol shrimp and a blackray shrimp goby. I also got a grouping of fire and ice and green Zoos, 4 astrea snals, and 4 small blue leg hermits. The shrimp goby paired up immediately with the pistol shrimp while I was drip acclimating. After 2h I put everything in. Zoos opened up very quickly, crabs and snails immediately started chomping down, but the shrimp and goby were MIA. Definantly need a new light for better colors Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 After a week of an occasional headshot, I finally found my pistol shrimp and blackray goby! They were ravenous and ate up all the arctipods I put in so I fed them more! Super glad with my purchase. Zoos are very healthy too though I found that one aptasia anemone hitchhiked. I used a pipette with boiling tap water to scald it, then I pulled it out with a forceps. Hope it's gone for good! I want to pick up more corals and maybe another shrimp fairly soon since everything is doing so well, but am holding off due to bioload. Really want some shrooms though... Next fish will probably be around thanksgiving and I'll be getting a possum wrasse hopefully! 1 Quote Link to comment
blizzardscout2 Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Looks great, symbiotic relationships are really fun to see. The possum wrasse would be a great addition in time. Quote Link to comment
Narzyzz_12 Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Off to a great start, if you ever decide to keep stony corals the AI Prime is the best bang for your buck.I have a Nuvo 8 as well and have been able to grow acropora,montipora,zoanthids and a few other under it without much problem. I would also invest in an ATO if you don't have one already. Quote Link to comment
blizzardscout2 Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 +1 for ATO. Best investment you will make. Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted August 28, 2017 Author Share Posted August 28, 2017 I was looking at the Kessil A80 as well, and that seemed a bit better than the AI Prime (but I know almost nothing about LED reef lights...). The ATO will probably be the next thing that I buy, in addition to a little refugium that can go in back where my heater would typically go. I might hold off with a light upgrade for now and just keep more low light corals. Definantly thinking a mushroom tank with ricordeas on my middle rock layer as well as red and blue stripe mushrooms on the bottom layer. Found a new LFS this weekend that specializes in Coral Frags so I was able to get a couple cool ones for really cheap. I'm counting my hammer as a mushroom then cause its billowy and if you squint your eyes it looks like a toadstool type of mushroom. Unfortunately they are not opening up as well as I expected but I figure it is because it's a new tank. Also if anyone wants a recommendation on fish, I would not recommend a blackray shrimp goby and pistol shrimp in such a small tank. SAND IS EVERYWHERE and they constantly hide. Really cool fish so I'm glad I got him but it's pretty annoying. Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted September 14, 2017 Author Share Posted September 14, 2017 Just wanted to give a quick update. Everything is settling nicely and all of the corals are fully open. Both Ricordea are about to split so I decided to pick up a couple corals and a cleaner shrimp so I could have a bit more activity in my tank. My black ray goby usually perches on the sand in front of its burrow and will grab particulate out of the water and feed my candy an snapper behind it. I have not yet gotten a good photo of him because he is even more skittish than the goby. Oscar saying hi Top Left: Green Hammer Coral (8/27/17) , Middle Right: Red Montipora (9/13/17), Top Right: Green Trumpet Coral (9/13/17), Middle Right: Pink Yuma Ricorded? (8/27/17) Pepe just chilling in the cave I almost reached my max of 6mb so unless anyone know of a way to exceed it, I have to make another post for more pictures... Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted September 15, 2017 Author Share Posted September 15, 2017 Left: Orange Florida Ricordea (kinda finicky) (8/27/17), Middle: Green Trumpet Coral (9/13/17), Bottom Middle: Blue Mushrooms!!! (9/13/17) Wasn't going to get the trumpet coral but it was super cheap and wanted a new home... Also anyone know what the brown algae on my sand is? I think it is just diatoms but nothing is eating it, everything is either on the rocks or the glass. Fairly sure it isn't cyanobacterium. Do i need more clean up crew? 4 astrea, 4 small blue leg hermits, and 1 narcissus snail. He may have have tried playing with my snapping shrimp this morning, he has been hiding and didn't come out when i fed everything. Also oddly enough, my goby does not like arctipods and will hardly touch them. He will not feed the shrimp either with them. They both seem to love flake food though. Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted October 2, 2017 Author Share Posted October 2, 2017 Picked up a couple new corals over the weekend, also ordered a new light which should be arriving tomorrow! It is an ABI Tuna Blue LED Coral Reef optimized spectrum PAR38 23 watt. I also finally switched over to a 50W Cobalt aquarium neotherm heater. Works super well and I highly recommend it to everyone. On a different note, my cleaner shrimp went missing for a week (thought it was moulting) and when I found it again it had short antennae that was super bent.... Never seen or heard this before so if anyone knows what happened or how to fix it please let me know!!! He is hiding much more but still eating On a much better note, the new corals I got are super cool!!! Tricolor Acan (please help with subtype ID) Common Toadstool Coral Unfortunately the leather had a super cool brittlestar hitchhiker that I killed with iodine.... oh well! Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted October 2, 2017 Author Share Posted October 2, 2017 I wanted to have some before shots of my tank before I switched over lights as well as to monitor growth. Still petty young tank but I like it. Can't wait for the corals to fill out!!! Algae on sand btw is from too long of light cycle. I picked up 4 cerith snails (one of which quickly got killed for its shell) which is helping with the algae too On the front right of the tank, I am planning on building the rock work out a bit more and I'm planning on getting some rock flower anemone's. I also want a gorgorian- they are my favorite, but I don't quite know where to aesthetically put it (ideas anyone?) and I'm not sure if it fits the theme RFAs hopefully will be hosted by sexy shrimp or a porcelain crab In case you couldn't tell, my monti died pretty quickly- i think my snapping shrimp spewed sand all over it... 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 Shrimp's molt might've gone wonky. Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 Love the new light, it makes all the coral colors pop (except the acan’s). I picked up an Australian elegance coral Oct 13th and a yellow clown goby as well. Between being too busy with school, waiting to see if the coral survived, and having a really hard time taking pictures I haven’t posted any updates. Finally found and am using the Lightroom CC app on IPhone and taking pictures RAW seemed to help. Elegance coral flowing in the current Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 Overlooking most of the corals in my tank. The black ray goby and the pistol shrimp moved to the front right rock corner and the cleaner shrimp is hiding in back Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 clown goby parched on the blue mushrooms. He’s skinny and pale colored, but I’m slowly getting him to eat the arctipods, though he won’t touch pellets or flakes. Cleaner shrimp molted again and is back to normal. Considering redoing the aquascape of my aquarium to make it more L shaped and have more room for coral and the elegance coral. The trick to the elegance coral that I have found is. Opposite what most people say. Higher flow and light than what would typically be expected. It must be on sand or else the rock will cut the fine skin of the coral when it expands. Also feeding. It 2x a week helps. Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted November 6, 2017 Author Share Posted November 6, 2017 Finally after 3.5 weeks I got my clown goby to eat flakes (without spitting it out)! Had to mix with arctipods but now he’ll have some alone. Also decided against remodeling because of limited space either way and deciding I liked it well enough. Can’t wait to get more coral’s and inverts after finals! Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 It’s been too long since I’ve updated, but thought i had to include some pictures to progress growth of the aquarium. Also picked up a couple new things Pictures are from Dec 11. Since then there has been a bunch more growth and some rearrangement. Will update later with new pics elegance coral with a new flower nem behind it! Moved my Orange Ric so it wasn’t growing on the edge of the rock. Seems to like it much better here Little stump from the Orange Ric remaining On a sad note, the black ray goby died on dec 16th. It jumped out of the tank with only a 2mm gap going around the edge. Considering replacing with a yasha goby and another lid clown goby and cleaner shrimp survived 10 days without active feeding thought my roommate could take care of them during Christmas and my Ski trip but that did not happen unfortunately... Future plans: slight rearrangement of some coral, a tiny bit of more rock so i can get the Rock Flower Nem out of the shot glass. Works super well though to keep it immobile and healthy Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 Picked up two new corals, a photosynthetic gorg and a ricordea! My tank is unfortunately almost full of corals so it looks like ill be moving to stocking with invertebrates next! For the less blue pictures i installed the old lighting and turned off the actinics. Makes it more similar to what i am seeing but not quite as bright. Much happier with these photos though My rock Nem Pink, orange, and yellow (orange and green), ric garden Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 Absolutely love my elegance coral Gorgorians are one of my favorite Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Picked up a couple new things for the tank at 50% off. Got one of the cool inverts I wanted, but unfortunately they did not have any of the others. Also no shrimp gobies :(. I moved last week and everything went well. I pulled out the zoa rock and most of the water. Kept everything else in the tank and had my fiancé drive 20min with it on my lap- advantage of a tiny tank. I’m gone for a week, so she will be taking care of it while I’m gone. Hopefully will put in an order for my yasha when I return. Now pics!candy cane pistol doing well still. Comes out a couple times a week to say hi.every night is a new game of peekaboo beautiful purple sea blade. Opened up immediately. Will need bigger tank ASAP. Also my mushrooms have started to have babies! Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted April 19, 2018 Author Share Posted April 19, 2018 I bought a new high fin goby a couple week, unfortunately it somehow jumped out through my lid... and went carpet surfing... there is at most a 2mm gap along an edge so if I ever get a new one again I will need to make a better lid. To mourn its loss I made a possibly rash purchase but it was super cool and really cheapmy new Rainbow Bubble tip anemone! It’s about 1.5” across so perfect until I get a bigger tank The boxing crab has been roaming a lot recently and I was able to snap a great shot of it! My trumpet was getting a bit big so I decided to frag it. I gave the mother colony to my parents, and grabbed a tiny drag of birds nest for funzies. Posted to keep track of growth. Colors on the nest aren’t great right now but it was growing in a low light tank so I hope my LEDs will brighten it up Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 Slightly premature done with finals treat blue porcelain crab! 1 Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted May 22, 2018 Author Share Posted May 22, 2018 I’ve been having a couple problem with pests, next tank I will for sure need a quarantine. I am worried that most of them came in on the very first frag I got-Zoa’s and more recently have been spreading. Aiptasia- noticed within 1 week of buying. 2 heads that over the course of a month I destroyed with boiled fresh water. No problems for a couple of months Bubble Algae- Noticed a tiny piece start growing in the middle of the frag about a month after buying. Slowly has spread throughout the tank-picking off what I can but I have been noticing more and more in tiny cracks. I probably have too many crabs already for an emerald... Vermitid snails- I’ve never seen them before so I did not notice the thin black stalk protruding from the polyps. Now they are on all the rocks. Every week I kill the ones I can get to with a dental pick. Any tips? Super glue doesn’t work well either. Thinking of dipping my rock in iodine when I move Asteria snails- no clue where these came from but I like them and think a couple of them are the signs of a mature tank and not actually a pest Flat worms- 😐 just noticed these last week. Completely covering my elegance coral. Pulled out the coral and redipped it. Was angry for a couple days but is opened up quite nicely now. Bought flatworm exit, removed the carbon, put the recommended amount of drops in, waited 45min and none of the flatworms were dying.... ended up putting in 8x the amount of drops that should’ve worked. Will need redose in a couple of weeks in case of eggs. No clue where these came from... maybe some on trochus snail or BTA I bought? TLDR: QUARANTINE EVERYTHING Tank is maturing nicely and the corals are wide open and growing. All my Inverts are happy and healthy. BTA has grown a lot already. Overall still very happy with my tank. I’m moving mid July so I am holding off on getting anything new till then. I am going on a vacation for a week, will my Clown Goby and Cleaner Shrimp be okay if I don’t buy an automatic feeder? I almost feel like a week is pushing it but I don’t wanna have a huge nutrient spike Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted August 13, 2018 Author Share Posted August 13, 2018 Picked up a couple of fun things recently to celebrate! Also tank just reached 1 year old and doing well! I moved 7/15 without any problems. Detritus got kicked up so there was some hair algae bloom, not too bad though black and regular snowflake clowns FTS, with blues on Utter chaos bought 8/3 with 1.5 polyps. Picture on the 9th. Now has 2 more polyps so it is doing super well Rastas. 1 polyp on 8/3, picture on 9th. 4 polyps currently. Isn’t opening up much but is growing still... my rainbow BT split! They are moving around a bit but seem happy. Probably split from the stress of the move. Definitely need a better camera still because pictures are bad and super blue even with editing. More of monitoring growth. Clownfish aren’t hosting yet but still hopeful! Quote Link to comment
Hobbs Posted January 16, 2020 Author Share Posted January 16, 2020 Long overdue update. After transferring most of my corals to my new 30gal (now 1 year old, I let it sit empty apart from some Zoas, clown goby, and snapping shrimp. Finally decided to fill it back up! Current stocking list: Fish: Yellow Clown goby Inverts: 1 candy cane pistol shrimp 3 sexy shrimp 5 bumblebee snails hermits astrea snails Rainbow BTA Coral: Bicolor Radioactive hammer Splatter hammer Gold hammer Some sort of green hammer Purple tip hammer Dragon Eye Zoas Fire and Ice Zoas Quote Link to comment
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