Here we go again.... Nuvo 30 Black Anemone Tank

[Halo_003]

Plumbing completed. First time I have ever worked with it, pretty happy with the result. Aiming to have water in the tank this weekend. Also the new skimmer arrived and it is HUGE. 

 

Leveling foam and a couple of LED things are coming Thursday. In these pictures I was holding the LEDs with one hand and the phone with the other, which is part of why they aren't amazing. If all goes as planned, hopefully I'll be filling on Friday.

 

 

 

[kinetic]

Not to throw another wrench into the aquascaping, but there's not much room for coral growth. Your rock are so close to the top already. If you want your rock to be the centerpieces, than that's fine, but if you want room to grow those out, I think going with shorter scapes would be better. I'm all of beautiful rockwork, but there's something to be said about letting corals grow out naturally to define the scene.

 

By the way, that plumbing is beautiful. I like the use of the 45 degree elbows.

[Halo_003]

Thanks for the compliment on the plumbing, it wasn't exactly how I planned but the center brace on the stand turned out to be slightly in the way.

 

On the rockscape, I absolutely agree actually. I was playing around with it today after more mock up work and landed on the below, what do you think? It gives me that bit that breaks the surface which I wanted, but it also gives a decent amount of room for anemones to spread out at different lighting levels. As a bonus it still gives a decent amount of negative space.

 

Once I get a light hanging it will be so much easier to take pictures, especially from straight on. Right now it is very hard due to all of the reflections.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, full sump shot. As you can see, it's packed with the FC-180 skimmer and the Vertex Reactor. Also in there is a DCT 6000 main return pump, an AquaMedic DC 1.2 DC pump for the reactor, the heater, and the Seneye. To the right is where I am mounting the controllers, I am waiting on some adhesive velcro to come in to finish with that part.

 

 

The skimmer is awfully cool looking though, but I do want to source a white air line.

 

 

[kinetic]

I'm no expert, but I guess it's good. Most of the rock is a vertical wall. It's all subjective. My rock is less wall, and more surface area. My BTAs open upwards, rather than sideways off the side of a rock wall. I'd say consider a platter to showcase your work on, just in case you like that. This is still really dominated by a rock wall. You can probably tell, I subjectively like low flat areas of rock to let things grow upwards onto.

[samnaz]

Nobody ever wants yellow airline tubing. Aquamaxx obviously didn't get that memo.

[Halo_003]

3 hours ago, kinetic said:

I'm no expert, but I guess it's good. Most of the rock is a vertical wall. It's all subjective. My rock is less wall, and more surface area. My BTAs open upwards, rather than sideways off the side of a rock wall. I'd say consider a platter to showcase your work on, just in case you like that. This is still really dominated by a rock wall. You can probably tell, I subjectively like low flat areas of rock to let things grow upwards onto.

Hmm.... You are correct. I've tossed around the idea of bringing my old rock scape into this tank, it was in a 12G long previously. It would be what I would call very minimalist in this bigger tank, but it's something I'm considering.

 

 

 

I'll see if I can find the original image (scape is in the first post in that thread). It's currently in a Rubbermaid tub with my clownfish and Acans. It unfortunately is covered in bryopsis and hair algae, but what I have considered is dosing fluconazole and then bringing it to the new tank once it is free of algae. That would be about an 8" high rockscape if I brought it to this one. The plus side is it would not require a long cycle time. The downside is it would have to be dosed for algae, scrubbed, and cleaned of the vermetid worms that are covering it.

 

That tank I really consider a failure, but a learning experience. Ultimately I just was so busy in school that I didn't have time or money to do it justice, and I'm hoping that this tank is much better. I let it get infected with pest algaes and they took over, stifling a lot of the livestock I had. I eventually swapped out the reactor closed loop for a sump and a MAME overflow, but never really improved it very much, more of maintained. The idea of getting the rock from it cleaned up and using it in this system is appealing. I've been tossing around as I really loved how it looked, it would be cool to resurrect it. 

 

Edit: thinking about it... Maybe it would be better to just bleach that rock and use it freshly cleaned. I'll have to look in to what is required to cleanse it properly while maintaining the 'live' aspects of it.

[kinetic]

1 hour ago, Halo_003 said:

Hmm.... You are correct. I've tossed around the idea of bringing my old rock scape into this tank, it was in a 12G long previously. It would be what I would call very minimalist in this bigger tank, but it's something I'm considering.

 

 

 

I'll see if I can find the original image (scape is in the first post in that thread). It's currently in a Rubbermaid tub with my clownfish and Acans. It unfortunately is covered in bryopsis and hair algae, but what I have considered is dosing fluconazole and then bringing it to the new tank once it is free of algae. That would be about an 8" high rockscape if I brought it to this one. The plus side is it would not require a long cycle time. The downside is it would have to be dosed for algae, scrubbed, and cleaned of the vermetid worms that are covering it.

 

That tank I really consider a failure, but a learning experience. Ultimately I just was so busy in school that I didn't have time or money to do it justice, and I'm hoping that this tank is much better. I let it get infected with pest algaes and they took over, stifling a lot of the livestock I had. I eventually swapped out the reactor closed loop for a sump and a MAME overflow, but never really improved it very much, more of maintained. The idea of getting the rock from it cleaned up and using it in this system is appealing. I've been tossing around as I really loved how it looked, it would be cool to resurrect it. 

 

Edit: thinking about it... Maybe it would be better to just bleach that rock and use it freshly cleaned. I'll have to look in to what is required to cleanse it properly while maintaining the 'live' aspects of it.

I wouldn't use the old rock. That's so much work for little gain. The proper way would take you months. From my research, the best way to kill old rock is: 

1. Bleach or muriatic acid to kill everything
2. Scrub like a crazy person
3. Let dry for a few days
4. Soak in RO/DI with some dechlorinator if using bleach (like Seachem Prime) for a day
5. Repeat 1-4
6. Then leave in RO/DI water with lanathum chloride to absorb phosphates for a week, and repeat until all phosphates are leached out. This can take months.
7. Dry completely for a week
8. Soak in RO/DI and test for phosphates again. If you detect phosphates after a day, start dosing lanathum again.

Best just to use new rock.

[Halo_003]

What is your take on killing the vermetid worms and algae and bringing it over live? Worth it? If you click that link the picture of the scape is in the first post.

[Nixperience]

I’m following this. I’ve basically been evolving my IM 30 from a mixed to a softy/Anemone tank. Don’t forget about RFAs!

[kinetic]

10 hours ago, Halo_003 said:

What is your take on killing the vermetid worms and algae and bringing it over live? Worth it? If you click that link the picture of the scape is in the first post.

Not worth it. Lots of better options in my opinion.

[Halo_003]

While I struggle with trying to figure out what to do about a rock scape, I got the cabinet to 98% today. The last thing I want to do is add another strip of LEDs to brighten it up a bit more.

 

 

I was about 5" short of that cable routing but whatever, I had zip ties. I can only order that stuff 5' at a time from Amazon. It took about 3 hours to get this done. On the left is a DJ power strip, which everything is plugged in to. On the right are all of the controllers. Only one power cord exits the cabinet, just the one for the power strip.

 

Plugged in to that strip is: 

 

Skimmer

ATO

DC return pump

DC pump for reactor

Maxspect Gyre

Neotherm heater

LED power supply (cabinet LEDs)

 

This was my first time using those cable routing tubes, overall I'd say they're worth it, but they are a bit of a pain to use.

 

 

 

On the note of the rocks, here's the current status:

 

 

I am not a big fan of it. I am getting more and more tempted to bring over my old rocks after a fluconazole treatment, I really loved how it looked.

[Andreww]

Looking sharp so far. Great ideas from the other members as well. I tend to agree with the lower more spread out rockscape. You want your nems up top but not so close to the water line that they get blasted onto the rocks...I’d say the rock in the left has to be chiseled by at least a third and separate into 2 islands, do green as well as red BTA, and maybe rainbow if you find one paired with some rock flower anemones on the bottom near the foot of the rocks. 

Thats just my opinion, a BTA only tank is one of my dreams and after seeing Melev’s 60g cube full of nems I know what my next tank will be:)

[kinetic]

I'm going to venture a guess that you'll have a major deadspot (even with a gyre) behind that huge rock on the left. It will get some flow, but you'll need to "vacuum" up that area quite a bit when you do water changes.

[Halo_003]

8 minutes ago, kinetic said:

I'm going to venture a guess that you'll have a major deadspot (even with a gyre) behind that huge rock on the left. It will get some flow, but you'll need to "vacuum" up that area quite a bit when you do water changes.

The more I look at it, the more I hate it. Very good chance unless I can figure something out that I like I will just clean my old rocks and bring them over. It looked like this:

 

 

 

[Andreww]

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Love that scape.

And anemones have just one way of coming off the rock, climb down to the base in case they wanna move around....or let go and float and get sucked right into the powerhead. 

Ok so let’s see...main rock full of BTA’s, small rock and on the sand under the big rock lots of RFA. I’m getting excited like it’s my own tank:))

[Reefkid88]

Dude,that scape is incredible !!! 

[Moorahs]

1 hour ago, Reefkid88 said:

Dude,that scape is incredible !!! 

^ what s/he said! 

 

Don’t “settle” - the tank is awesome, you don’t wanna dislike what you see every time you look at it...

[kinetic]

12 hours ago, Halo_003 said:

The more I look at it, the more I hate it. Very good chance unless I can figure something out that I like I will just clean my old rocks and bring them over. It looked like this:

 

 

 

 

Just weighing all the options. What if you just bought all new dry rock? Don't deal with the pests, and don't risk the pests coming back. Getting that rock pristine is going to take months at least. Or you can just buy new rock now and make something else / new? I think the rockwork looks nice, but you can definitely do it again in a lot less time than it would be to clean up the old.

[Halo_003]

On 12/8/2017 at 2:16 PM, Andreww said:

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Love that scape.

And anemones have just one way of coming off the rock, climb down to the base in case they wanna move around....or let go and float and get sucked right into the powerhead. 

Ok so let’s see...main rock full of BTA’s, small rock and on the sand under the big rock lots of RFA. I’m getting excited like it’s my own tank:))

Thanks! I am not sure yet about RFAs, definitely will be packing in BTAs. I'm not sure how much diversity I want yet.

On 12/8/2017 at 2:18 PM, Reefkid88 said:

Dude,that scape is incredible !!! 

 

On 12/8/2017 at 3:42 PM, Moorahs said:

^ what s/he said! 

 

Don’t “settle” - the tank is awesome, you don’t wanna dislike what you see every time you look at it...

 

 

 

Thank you both! That setup was done with Fiji rock, which was a lot easier to drill than Pukani from my experience. I'm trying to plan out how I would want to prep it for this tank if I go that route, which honestly is what I'm leaning towards at the moment.

21 hours ago, kinetic said:

 

Just weighing all the options. What if you just bought all new dry rock? Don't deal with the pests, and don't risk the pests coming back. Getting that rock pristine is going to take months at least. Or you can just buy new rock now and make something else / new? I think the rockwork looks nice, but you can definitely do it again in a lot less time than it would be to clean up the old.

Very valid points. The cost doesn't really bother me although this is new Pukani, I just want it to be impressive visually. My thinking at the moment is get the Pukani curing in a tub, and treat the old rocks for the bryopsis using Flucomazole. Once it is gone it would be  a lot easier to crush the vermetids, though to be honest I have no idea how many of them are even left under the bryopsis.

 

That way, if I can't eradicate the bryopsis and the vermetids I'll have the Pukani ready to go, while if it does work then the old rocks will be ready.

 

Theoretically speaking, it is possible the old rock would be ready in a couple of weeks if I keep it live and just address the algae. The bryopsis made me strongly consider quitting the hobby, and if the fluco is the killing blow on it I would be open to bringing that rockscape into the new tank. It doesn't have any pest issues other than more vermetids than I want and the bryopsis.

[flatlandreefer]

On 12/8/2017 at 2:08 PM, Halo_003 said:

The more I look at it, the more I hate it. Very good chance unless I can figure something out that I like I will just clean my old rocks and bring them over. It looked like this:

 

 

 

 

I really like the look of this scape I think it will look incredible once its populated with anemones, this gets my vote.

[Halo_003]

On 12/10/2017 at 9:31 AM, flatlandreefer said:

 

I really like the look of this scape I think it will look incredible once its populated with anemones, this gets my vote.

Thanks! I must likely will be doing that one unless I can figure something else out. I ordered the fluconazole tonight to treat the algae on those rocks, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before I have water in the tank going.

[Halo_003]

While we are on hold waiting for the fluco, here are pictures of the light build. I dug them up from the build thread on RC. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2569326

 

Array 1

 

Array 2

 

Array 3

 

Empty heatsink

 

Hanging kit

 

Completed

 

When I have time my plan is to run 48v power to the fixture itself, and replace the LDD drivers and box with a couple of blueAcro drivers. Some of the threads to affix the splash guard also have stripped, so I am planning to re-tap them and this time use black oxide screws. The clear acrylic splash guard also has a couple of spots where it seems like the LEDs have burned it, so I may look into replacing that as well. Finally, the black acrylic top tends to warp upwards a bit when the heatsink heats up, so I plan to eventually get a new one laser cut and finished out of an exotic hardwood like black and white ebony. The only thing is when doing that I will try to get the center fan hole cut a bit tighter to better force air into the heatsink.

[YHSublime]

RE: RockWork

 

I setup a tank quickly to get some rock cycling, and I was iffy on the rockwork. I hated it. Even once it cycled. I broke it down not long after. I agree that your old rock scape is fantastic. 

[Halo_003]

6 hours ago, YHSublime said:

RE: RockWork

 

I setup a tank quickly to get some rock cycling, and I was iffy on the rockwork. I hated it. Even once it cycled. I broke it down not long after. I agree that your old rock scape is fantastic. 

Thanks! That's exactly what I'm afraid of. I'm going to be breaking up the big rock pile tomorrow to see if I can get better than the old one. I think part of the difficulty is that the old rock was Fiji and the new is Pukani.

[Lypto]

I'm drooling over the plumbing, nice job!