Porkpie5000 Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 Hey Everybody! We’ve been lurking for a couple months and decided it was about time we started a journal. Background - We had a 75G mixed reef about 15 years ago. It was a ReefReady Oceanic with a refugium/sump, skimmer, and metal halides. It was a lot of fun but eventually the maintenance didn’t fit with our schedules and we decided to get out of the hobby for a while. About 5 years ago we got back in with a 5G Ecoxotic EcoPico. It was filtered by a MarinePure ROCK and a Koralia 240. We eventually bumped up against the constraints of that system and decided to get something a little bigger with some more flexible filtration options… and here we are. The ATO, heater, fan, and temp controller came over from the EcoPico. Everything else is new. We tried the MarinePure ROCK in the new tank but it was just really boring looking so we switched to the CaribSea Life Rock and put some MarinePure spheres in the fuge basket. Equipment: IM Nuvo Fusion 10 IM Nuvo Fusion 20 Asta 20 LED NanoBox Mini Tide Plus M AI Prime 16HD IM MightyJet Desktop return pump IM Wavelink Desktop circulation pump InTank Media Basket IM AuqaShield Desktop UV InTank Fuge Basket IM NuvoSkim Desktop Eshopps Nano Skimmer Tunze Nano Osmolator ATO AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro 2.5 Gallon Aqueon as ATO reservoir Cobalt 50W Neo-Therm Arctic Breeze Mobile USB Fan Bayite Temperature Controller VCA Random Flow Generator IM Spin Stream x 2 CyberPower 1350 UPS Neptune ApexEL w/Breakout Box and homemade switch box Vertex Sensor-Mag XD Probe Holder BRS 1.1 ml Dosing Pump Dry Goods: CaribSea Life Rock Shapes CaribSea Dry Aragonite Fritz RPM Salt Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt Additives: Tropic Marin ALL-For-Reef Filtration: MarinePure Cubes (in the media basket) InTank Filter Floss (in the media basket) Chemi-Pure Blue Nano (in the media basket) Fish: Benny the Tail Spot Blenny Not-Nemo the Clown Inverts: Snails (whatever is left of the 5.5G Crew from Reef Cleaners) Blue Leg Hermits Shrimpy the Blood Red Fire Shrimp Corals: Various Mushrooms GSP Candy Cane Toadstool Leather Various Zoas Bird’s Nest Torch Duncan 10/22/2018 - Serious disco ball in this one! I really need to glue some stuff to those rocks. Overall, everything seems pretty happy. 9/30/2018 - The giant green mushroom decided to relocate itself and the bird's nest fell over. I'll try to actually get it mounted this weekend. 9/15/2018 - You can see the leather in the reflection back in the corner. The ramekin has a loose mushroom in it that I'm trying to coax into attaching to a frag disk. 3 Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted September 16, 2018 Author Share Posted September 16, 2018 We were having some less than perfectly clear water so I (at least temporarily) pulled the media rack and replaced it with the filter sock that came with the tank. I just dropped the Chemi-Pure pouches into the sock. The water was crystal clear in about 30 minutes. I'm going to see how long the sock takes to clog up and maybe go that route for a while. Quote Link to comment
BriansNanoReef Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 Tank is looking great so far! Grab some Trochus and Nassarius snails. They work wonders! Following along Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 35 minutes ago, Porkpie5000 said: We were having some less than perfectly clear water so I (at least temporarily) pulled the media rack and replaced it with the filter sock that came with the tank. I just dropped the Chemi-Pure pouches into the sock. The water was crystal clear in about 30 minutes. I'm going to see how long the sock takes to clog up and maybe go that route for a while. Tank looks good. You want to have a few filter socks on hand. The one should be washed weekly and replaced with a clean one. Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted September 16, 2018 Author Share Posted September 16, 2018 45 minutes ago, Clown79 said: You want to have a few filter socks on hand. The one should be washed weekly and replaced with a clean one. I have 2 with 2 more on the way. The first IM 10 I got from Marine Depot was shattered. They didn't want it back so I got a few extra parts! Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 7 minutes ago, Porkpie5000 said: I have 2 with 2 more on the way. The first IM 10 I got from Marine Depot was shattered. They didn't want it back so I got a few extra parts! Wow that sucks but good you are getting extras out of it Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted September 16, 2018 Author Share Posted September 16, 2018 Marine Depot customer service was absolutely great about it. They had another tank out to me the next day with faster shipping than I ordered the first one with. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 The tank looks good! I like the scape and the corals seem to be doing well. How long has it been running? 1 Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted September 21, 2018 Author Share Posted September 21, 2018 Thanks! The Nuvo has been running for just over 2 months but about half of the inhabitants came from my VERY neglected EcoPico. We actually just did that scape about 3 weeks ago. We had one of the big MarinePure Rocks in the EcoPico and initially used that in this one. It was really boring looking so I got some MarinePure spheres and stuck them in the second chamber for about a month to get some bacteria going in them and then swapped the big MarinePure Rock for the CaribSea Life Rock that is in there now. I'm REALLY happy with the Life Rock so far and I had to buy so much of it I have plenty left over for another tank when that inevitably happens 🙂 I'm going to give it another couple weeks and then go for a fish. My current plan is a Tail Spot Blenny. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 I love my tail spot blenny! It sounds like things are getting pretty well established which will be good for the TSB. I lost a couple TSBs in my tank when it was still in the first six months, and several other reefers said they'd had similar problems with them not holding up well. Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted September 21, 2018 Author Share Posted September 21, 2018 That's good to know. Is it a starvation issue? We are currently fairly algae free (knock on wood). We went through a pretty good GHA/Briopsis (maybe?) phase at first. I did some fluconazole and then pulled all of it that was still around out by hand when we swapped the scape and so far it hasn't come back. I don't mind feeding nori or something if he needs grazing material. I certainly don't want to add a fish just to watch it die and Belinda gets bummed out when we lose a snail. Maybe I'll rethink the plan and make the TSB a second fish. 2 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 I could never figure out why mine died. No issues with eating, just fine one day and dead the next. When I posted about it, as surprising number of people said they'd experienced the same thing. They just seem to be a little more fragile than the average clownfish. I love fluco - I will never be without some in my cabinet now. Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted September 22, 2018 Author Share Posted September 22, 2018 PolypLabs Coral View Lens came in the mail today. So far I really like it. The lights were already pretty ramped down in this one. I’m anxious to try it tomorrow with the full lighting. 2 Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted October 24, 2018 Author Share Posted October 24, 2018 Everyone meet Benny the Blenny! 3 Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted June 8, 2019 Author Share Posted June 8, 2019 (edited) We had some bad luck with the IM NuvoSkim Desktop. I just replaced it with the Eshopps Nano. Hopefully the pump lasts longer than the 2 weeks that the IM lasted. Edit: Very happy with the Eshopps Nano Skimmer so far! Edited July 24, 2019 by Porkpie5000 Quote Link to comment
Porkpie5000 Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 Thoughts on my new ApexEL Controller after a little over a month: I'm really happy with it so far. I added the breakout box and a homemade button box. I have a button for feed and a button for water change. The do pretty much the same thing but the timeout is longer for the water change. I also connected a float switch in my topoff reservoir to let me know when it is getting low. Everything has been really reliable so far. The simple one button feed mode has made it really easy to our house sitter to feed while we are out of town. I don't have to worry about them forgetting to turn anything back on and being able to see the status of everything remotely has made vacations more relaxing. The closest thing to a downside I can come up with is being able to see my pH swing up and down. It is hard to watch and not try to do something drastic about it. I am thinking about hooking up a CO2 scrubber to my skimmer and see what happens. Mostly just out of curiosity. Bottom line: It certainly isn't a necessity and it certainly is pricey but if you can find it in your budget, it does make life easier. Quote Link to comment
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