Sublunary's 16 Gallon Gamble - Beginning of the End

[sublunary]

In late 2017, I ended a 9 year love-hate relationship with my 12 gallon nano-cube. After the first hurricane-related tank crash, things were never quite the same...

 

I recently came into possession of an un-opened IM Nuvo 16.  On first Googling, it looked like a great tank, and I rushed to accept it.  On second Googling, I found all the reports of Nuvo 16s cracking at random...  So.  I know what a risk I'm taking setting it up, but I'm still going to do it.  I intend this to be a short-lived tank.  In 2019 I will be moving into a place where I'll be able to set up a much bigger tank and this one will be packed up or repurposed. 

 

The Goal: 

To revitalize my love of the hobby after a depressingly slime-filled few years. At the same time, practice skills and plans for my hypothetical future seahorse tank - such as keeping it as pest-free as possible. Also, re-learn to love taking tank pictures.

 

The Equipment:

IM Nuvo 16

AI Prime HD

Sicce Syncra 1.0 

Smart ATO Micro

 

The Contents:

Marco Rocks dry sand and rock

Red Sea Coral Pro salt

IPSF WonderMud and LiveSand Activator

Back Chamber Macro: Cheato

ESV B-Ionic Two Part

 

The Critters:

IPSF assorted hermits, snails, worms, stars and pods

Cerith, Bumblebee, Dwarf Cerith, Dwarf Planaxis, and Periwinkle snails

Arthur the money cowrie

Pom Pom Crab

Yasha Hase and Candy Striped Pistol

 

The Corals:

Green toadstool leather from IPSF

Assorted Zoas from Ocean Gallery II, KP Aquatics, Underwater World, and Pop Corals

Assorted gorgonia from KP Aquatics

Ricordea florida from KP Aquatics

Blue sympodium from Underwater World

Blastomussa from Underwater World

Walking Dendro from a Reefapalooza vendor

 

Most Recent (crappy) FTS:

11/29/18

 

 

 

[sublunary]

I'm been slowly collecting supplies for this for months.  The day after tomorrow, I will be putting together the tank stand. (It says it takes 2 people, so I'm waiting for someone to be around to help.)  Then I can really get moving!  If I'm not too indecisive building a scape, it should be wet by Sunday night.  

 

Right now my big debate is whether to go with just dry rock and biospira for the cycle, and then purchase microfauna, or to get a small piece or two of live rock.  My first set up had all live rock and I loved the variety and surprise of it.... but if I've learned one thing in reefing, it's that I am terrible at controlling pests once they get into the tank.  My later iterations of the nanocube started with dry rock, and I never felt like I got a strong collection of microfauna going (though I think some of that had to do with failing to clean the back chambers thoroughly enough after tank crashes and carrying over some undefinable yuck).  

 

Decisions, decisions...

[sublunary]

Scape plotting tonight...

[sublunary]

Set up went well I think.  Stand went together easily.  Tank passed the leak test!  The display section is a little narrower than I had thought, so scape idea had be modified a bit, but just a bit.  Now just waiting for the sand dust to settle a bit before I turn the pumps on.

 

I've also decided to go with the AI Prime for lighting.  I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it and playing with all of the colors. 

[sublunary]

My AI Prime arrived last night and I had so much fun playing with it!  The last time I bought lights, it was a big deal to have white and blue LEDs on separate dimmers.  Being able to tweak the spectrum as much as I want and program it with this much detail is incredible.  I've already spent several hours pouring over other people's settings, and am a bit overwhelmed by the options.  I've noticed a bit of discoball effect, but I'm ok with that. It will be less noticeable when there are colored things in the tank, I think. 

 

I decided to go the lower-risk route with my rock.  I've seeded my dry rock with biospira and ordered assorted microcritters from IPSF.  They won't arrive until the 15th, and waiting is killing me.  I don't ever remember being this impatient.  I want my tiny brittle stars!  

 

[Andreww]

Good start! Are those acrylic feet holding the tank? 

Also did you get the Prime HD?

Like I suggested in another thread, try to get blues and violet/uv at same intensity, with a bit of red , no green, and whites about half the amount as the blues.

I have my unit at 50% for blues violets uv, 15% red, 20% white...

ramp up and down about an hour and a half, so about 7 hours at the intensity mentioned above. That’ll give you a starting point but IMO it’s a good balance with not too much blue but not washed out look either.

 

[pal]

Love how these tanks look. I had a 24 that cracked. The tanks that crack seem to have two things in common one the use of the acrylic base and the use of power heads on the glass. So maybe ditch the base? 

[Andreww]

Was gonna say, those acrylic feet look sketchy to me. I’d sit the tank on a thin foam mat and call it good.

[sublunary]

Andreww, it is the Prime HD! Thanks for the reccomendations on the settings. I will see how those look to me next time I'm home.  

 

Pal, I hadn't seriously considered that the base was involved in the cracked tanks. I wonder if I drain off most of the water, would it be safe to lift long enough to remove the base? I've already got a foam mat under it all. Or would I need to completely empty it to avoid stressing the glass?

 

The powerhead on the glass connection worries me too. I was thinking of adding a glass-mounted wavemaker (probably a jeboa, since the mp10 is way out of my price range). So I might re think that plan now...

[pal]

I am not 100 percent the stand causes it .The local fishstores display 24 cracked and they thought it was the base that caused it. Mine cracked without the base, but I had a mp10 on it.  I would probably drain all or most of water before moving it.  Pollarcollision  has a beautiful 24 that has been running for years.  I think there are successful 16 build threads on here also. good luck.

[sublunary]

I cannot declaim my love for IndoPacific Sea Farms enough.  They always come through with great stuff.  My tank is now crawling with life!  Mini hermits, 2 kinds of snails, asterinas, mini brittles, bristle worms, spaghetti worms, pods.

 

I utterly failed to get the ulva secured where I wanted it, so it's floating around the tank at random for now.  I haven't had any film algae show up yet, so I expect the ulva to get devoured pretty thoroughly in the next week or so anyway.  In the meantime, it's helping me visualize the flow in my tank and I'm experimenting with ways to point the outlets to get the most coverage. 

 

A cowrie also snuck into my bags.  I've never seen one in person before, so I've been watching in awe all day.  They are very cool critters.

 

 

 

 

Look at that face!

[sublunary]

I found something I miss about my old NanoCube: the hood. My life is now consumed with finding rogue snails and chucking them back in the tank.  The Nuvo lid is just not designed to stop anything that small and determined.

[sublunary]

Apparently I should have QT'd the algae instead of trusting my visual inspection. Just found and swiftly removed this little guy.  Hopefully he didn't bring any stealthier friends.  :|

 

[sublunary]

Moved my leather into the Nuvo yesterday.  It was the one coral that survived the decline of the NanoCube.  This is the happiest I've seen it look in ages. 

[sublunary]

I'm having my first problem with this tank and it's not one I anticipated.  I came home super late last night to my return pump making a quiet but noticable grinding noise. It got a bit better when I nudged the pump away from the wall, so I figured it was just banging against the tank and I'd fix it in the morning.

 

When I finally took a closer look today, I noticed my flow is down to almost nothing. There's a trickle coming out of the returns, but that's about it. I pulled the pump out to check - it's totally clean and the impeller spins just fine. It's just not moving water for some reason.

 

I figured fine, I've got at least one maxi jet around here somewhere. An extensive search turned up two MJ boxes, zero MJs.  So I reluctantly grabbed the pump out of my water mixing bucket. Its base is too big to fit into the back chambers.  Argh. 

 

So for tonight the Nuvo is running on a half-dead pump and an air stone, and I'll be running to the nearest pet store in the morning. Amazon tells me someone bought the Syncra off my wishlist, so hopefully after the family party Thursday I'll be able to fix this problem with the upgrade I wanted. 

[sublunary]

Sometimes it takes me a while to find the simplest solution...  a bunch of chaeto fragments made there way through the return pump and got lodged in the Y joint of the return line.  It was stuffed tight enough to stop the flow completely.  Need to remember to clean that frequently... On the plus side I now have a new back up MJ.

 

Other than that, things are going well.  The Ulva is growing faster than it's being eaten, and I'm still not seeing any film algae.  My copepod population has grown enough to be easily visible, and the amphipods are everywhere. My leather is still happy, even after 2 days of super low flow. 

 

I feel confident enough to add the frags I'd been QTing.  The first new corals I've bought in years!  I think it might safe to move my Yasha and shrimp over soon too.  I'm tired of doing water changes on two tanks, and they will be happier having sand again...

 

 

[sublunary]

I think I've found a decent camera setting for full tank shots, at least while the rocks are still this white.

 

Hopefully next month I'll be putting in a KP Aquatics order and it will look a little less bare.  I am planning on photosynthetic gorgonians to take up some of that empty space and add some height. I haven't used KP before, but I've heard such good things, I'm excited.

 

Yasha and shrimp were moved over yesterday and adjusted super quickly.  I don't know exactly how long I've had them, but I found pictures from May 2015, so at least that long!  

 

[sublunary]

I'm never putting ulva in a display tank again.   I got home this evening to find a veritable blizzard of microbubbles because whoever has been making lunch of the ulva managed to chop off 2 huge sheets of it that got stuck to the overflow, leaving the pump to suck in air.  I have no idea how long this was going on for, but nothing seems to be too bothered, other than the zoa frag that got knocked off it's rock.  It pushed the water level worryingly close to the rim though. Do not like.  I've been removing smaller pieces from the overflows this whole time, but this is the first time they're been completely blocked.  

[sublunary]

I need to get some more spare shells. The hermits are starting to steal from each other. 

[sublunary]

I haven't been able to place a KP order since I last posted, but I did get one from LiveAquaria!  I've added a couple of ceriths, 2 pom pom crabs, a fox coral and a turbinaria.  I've wanted a fox coral since I saw one on my first ever LFS trip, and decided to pull the trigger.  It hasn't completely settled in yet, but I love it.

 

I asked them to try for male and female pom poms, but I think I got two males (only one gave me a good look at it's abdomen during acclimation).  The bigger one has claimed a cave in the right side rock, the tinier male floats around a lot. 

 

I also got a blasto, which promptly melted.  It was from their CCGC section, which is supposed to be excellent, so I was really surprised they sent me one which looked fresh cut.  The cut skeleton was still sharp white.  Thankfully, the blasto was an afterthought and not the reason I placed the order, and they refunded me no problem.  Still, I feel bad it died. 

 

Work has been complete insanity lately, so it's been a couple of weeks since I've been home while the lights are on long enough to play with the good camera,.  So for now, a crappy cell phone top down:

 

I wanted to do a proper FTS, but I'm having a heck of a time cleaning the glass well enough.  Everything I've tried has left streaks and spots, and it's just not pretty.  I need to come back to it when I'm less generally stressed and can complete simple tasks.  

[rO.oster]

Love the Pom pom crabs!!!  Give us a good look at the fox coral when you can.

[sublunary]

20 hours ago, rO.oster said:

Love the Pom pom crabs!!!  Give us a good look at the fox coral when you can.

 Thanks rO.oster!  The fox is still only half-happy.  Though, the opposite side was the happy looking one yesterday, so at least that's something. 

 

One of the pompoms is hanging out on the turbinaria right now,  and has this orange mass clutched to it's abdomen.  I got all excited, thinking they did give me a female and it even had eggs already!

Nope. It's just carrying around (part of?) a bristle worm like a fricken security blanket. 

 

Fox coral is currently tucked in the lowest flow/light zone in the tank.  It will likely get moved somewhere more visible next time I'm in there moving things around. 

I'm finally getting some film algae, and the rocks are coloring up nicely.  The ulva is nearly gone, and I'm looking forward to being done with it. It's making me crazy and I think my snails will be more interested in cleaning when it's gone. 

 

[Andreww]

Looking good. Have you considered adding more rock ?

[sublunary]

20 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Looking good. Have you considered adding more rock ?

I have, and I will probably end up expanding the right side island.  I want to see what everything looks like once I finally get some gorgonians first.  That should be in the next month or two.  I actually really like all the open space in person, but in photos it does look kind of empty.

 

Also I'm thinking of changing my stocking plans in way that will require more rocks.  I had wanted some trimma tevegae for ages.  The LFS that I've tried on and off to convince to order them for me basically yeahyeahyeahed me out of the store last time.  I think I'm going to end up with an assessor instead, which means I need to build another cave or two. 

[rO.oster]

Bristle worm egg sack! ???