btmedic's Nuvo 20

[btmedic04]

Hello and thanks for stopping by. After a few years out of the hobby, this is going to be the build thread to my triumphant (hopefully) return! Anyway, on to my equipment choices and pictures!

Equipment on hand:

IM Nuvo 20
IM Nuvo 20 APS Stand
Sicce 1.0 return pump
Cobalt Neotherm 75w heater
Eshopps nano skimmer
IM minimax desktop reactor
12lbs reef saver rock
20lbs bimini pink sand
Hand pump primed siphon

Equipment still to be ordered:

Ecotech Radion XR15 G4 Pro
Ecotech RMS XR15 mount
Ecotech MP10QD
Trigger systems 5 gallon ATO reservoir
Autoaqua Smart ATO Micro 120p
Flipper nano magnetic cleaner
InTank media basket x 2
Marinepure Spheres

Ancillary equipment still needing to be ordered:

new sediment filter, carbon block, ro membrane and di resin for my ro/di. during its last year in operation, it was on well water and has sat dry for the better part of 3 years.
Red Sea Coral Pro salt
Refractometer calibration fluid
Dr Tims one and only
Dr Tims ammonium chloride

Future upgrades:
Apex Jr

Plan: Mixed reef with a lower requirement maintenance schedule.

 

Let me know what your opinions on the aquascape is as well as the level. I think its good enough for government work, but theres that perfectionist in me wanting to correct it

[Clown79]

Everything Looks great!

 

The cats adorable too😊

[btmedic04]

13 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Everything Looks great!

 

The cats adorable too😊

Thanks! I almost went with the 25 lagoon like you suggested, but it blocked a few inches of the view on my tv.  Im still happy with my nuvo 20 though!

 

His name is Forest and he is my mild cerebellar hypoplasia kitty. He's 6 months old and insisted on helping me put the stand together. He's a very sweet boy and I'm thankful to have him 🙂

[Lula_Mae]

I admit, "good enough for government work" made me giggle.  The scape is neat!  Will you be fusing rocks together with something like reef welder?  My IM 14 has only 3 rocks making 2 islands, with the idea of making it easy to remove for sandbed maintenance, although the frag plugs all over the sandbed kind of negate that haha.  Kitty is adorable.  Feel free to share pictures of pets because we love them here!  I share pics of my hedgie all the time.

[btmedic04]

6 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

I admit, "good enough for government work" made me giggle.  The scape is neat!  Will you be fusing rocks together with something like reef welder?  My IM 14 has only 3 rocks making 2 islands, with the idea of making it easy to remove for sandbed maintenance, although the frag plugs all over the sandbed kind of negate that haha.  Kitty is adorable.  Feel free to share pictures of pets because we love them here!  I share pics of my hedgie all the time.

I'm glad you got a chuckle out of that 🙂 and thank you! I have already fused the scape together into the two pieces you see with instant ocean hold fast. The structure on the left was originally 3 different pieces and the one on the right was 4. My plan is to add a piece of live rock onto the left structure or in front of the right structure when I begin my cycle. I was thinking the same thing as you when it comes to sand bed maintenance, but I will more than likely have a sandbed covered in frag plugs too lol. Thank you and I will share more pictures 🙂 Hedgies are so cool! 

[btmedic04]

Swung by my LFS to pick up refractometer calibration fluid, RO water and salt and ended up leaving with that plus an MP10WQD, and a 1lb piece of live rock to help seed. Also my Dr Tims one and only and ammonium chloride showed up today as well. So I'll begin my cycle tonight as I'm currently mixing saltwater and I'll pick up my ATO and light next week

 

 

[btmedic04]

Looks like I got a faulty MP10. The only button with an audible click is on the far right. Mode doesn't change the mode <,<

[btmedic04]

check that lol. On a whim, I opened the backside up and pushed down slightly on the PCB in the controller and it looks like it seated the buttons. I am now able to select modes. Unfortunately, Ill have to play with it tomorrow as its WAY past my bed time lol

[btmedic04]

Little update. I'm day 3 into my cycle and am getting very faint nitrite and nitrate readings. Ammonia is still around 2ppm after dosing dr Tim's ammonium chloride and dr Tim's one and only. I started my skimmer yesterday to break it in and I'm glad I did that now as my display is full of microbubbles. My icecap ato and marinepure gems arrive Monday so im pretty excited about that. My intank floss holders and floss has arrived today so I'll be cutting those into 3x3 squares. I'll have to figure out what to do with the 20x2 and 10x1 strips left over. Maybe I'll stitch them together with some fishing line. Waste not, want not right? Lol

 

 

[btmedic04]

Day 6 into my cycle. My ph his hovering around 8.0 to 8.2. Ammonia is around 0.5ppm, nitrite around 1ppm and nitrates are 10-20ppm. My marinepure gems and icecap ato arrived today. I'm not going to lie, when I saw the tiny box the gems came in, my first thought was "is that it?" Lol. Still though, 135 m2 is a huge amount of surface area when you think about it. Also, how did I run a reef tank without an ato before? By far the best investment one can make into this hobby. I also installed my IM minimax reactor. I'm currently not running any media in it, but figured I'd break that in while I cycle. My skimmer is still putting microbubbles into the display, but it's a lot less than what it was before. I also scored an ecotech reeflink from a local reefer for $50 and set up my mp10 on a schedule. All I have to do now is order my radion xr15, the rms mount and wait for my cycle to complete. Anyone want to start kicking around ideas on what kinds of corals and livestock I should add?

 

 

[Joevember]

Congrats on the new setup, I'm running a very similar one.

 

For stocking, I'd go with a couple euphyllia, a bunch of colorful sps, and some cool sand dwelling LPS. Just a bunch of colors in there!

 

Also, have you thought about getting a dosing pump? I'm getting one soon so I won't keep having to dose myself every day.

[btmedic04]

14 hours ago, Joevember said:

Congrats on the new setup, I'm running a very similar one.

 

For stocking, I'd go with a couple euphyllia, a bunch of colorful sps, and some cool sand dwelling LPS. Just a bunch of colors in there!

 

Also, have you thought about getting a dosing pump? I'm getting one soon so I won't keep having to dose myself every day.

Thanks! I definitely like frogspawn and hammers. Torch kind of has me a bit worried about their sting. I really like monti's, stylo's and acro's. And I was thinking zoas as well. I know I'll eventually need a dosing pump, but I'm unsure as to which one. Which one are you going for? In the meantime I'll be hand dosing until it becomes a need

[Joevember]

37 minutes ago, btmedic04 said:

Thanks! I definitely like frogspawn and hammers. Torch kind of has me a bit worried about their sting. I really like monti's, stylo's and acro's. And I was thinking zoas as well. I know I'll eventually need a dosing pump, but I'm unsure as to which one. Which one are you going for? In the meantime I'll be hand dosing until it becomes a need

I think I'll go with a Jebao because of the cost. It's about 60, while coral box/eshopps/bubble magus are like 200. The price difference is crazy. But, the reliability and accuracy is better with the more expensive ones.

[btmedic04]

I got my ecotech radion xr15 pro and rms mount today. Holy smokes its powerful at full tilt. I should probably let my neighbors know I'm growing coral and not something else! 😂 I also tested my cycle today. Currently at:

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 1.0
Nitrate: 30

The xr15 is going back off until nitrite hits 0 as theres no point growing algae in the meantime lol

 

[btmedic04]

Just wanted to post an update. My tank can now completely process 2ppm of ammonia in a 24 hour period with zero readings for ammonia and nitrite. I have also started getting diatoms beginning to show on my rockwork and film algae on the glass so tomorrow I'll be picking up a pair of trochus snails and picking up fish later on in the week. Should I get my clowns first or the royal gramma? I was going to wait until tomorrow to do my water change, but decided to do it tonight since I had the motivation (funny how diatoms in a new tank can do that lol.) I ended up doing a 10 gallon change out of the 14 gallon total volume since my nitrates were ~40 ppm. I found hitchhikers on the glass that are either hydroids or baby aiptasia on the glass, so they were vacuumed out. Ill be keeping a close eye out to see if they return and if so, will take appropriate measures (wait out the hydroids or get a peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia)

Current test readings
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10 (guess the color with API kits is always fun)

Also this coming Monday, my red sea reef foundation test kit and algae control test kit arrives so I'll have more accurate numbers going forward.

hitchhiker shots if yall want to give me your opinions on them

 

[btmedic04]

Hey folks, so it turns out those hitchikers were bryopsis algae that must of came in on the piece of live rock and survived the cycle and lights off. It is spreading on my rock work but I have some fluconazole en route. Hopefully its here Saturday on time and I can begin treatment before this stuff explodes. Wish me luck!

 

in happier news, I have added 2 juvenile black snowflake clowns who seem really happy at the moment.

 

Im also debating the merits of picking up a nuvo 10 and beginning to cycle it in case I need to move my clowns so I can tear down the 20 and restart it if the fluconazole doesn't work. Thoughts on this?

[btmedic04]

Here's a couple pics of my clowns and Forest inspecting the new roommates 

[btmedic04]

Just finished weekly maintenance and rewarded myself with a diffuser for my Radion XR15. The visual quality improvement is quite pronounced! Like I think the diffuser should be included in the package right from the factory. Here are my aquariums chemistry readings post water change

 

Phosphate: 0 (undetectable on red sea pro kit. maybe time to invest in ULR Hannah checker)

Nitrate: 3 (color was between 2 and 4)

PH: 8.2

Calcium: 430

Alkalinity: 8.1

Magnesium: 1360

 

Fluconazole arrived today and will be going in tonight after lights out. I had to keep telling myself this at my LFS because they had a very nice piece of rock with rasta zoa's and a bit of a green lepto on it as well

[Joevember]

Did you ramp up the light when you put the diffuser on? I'm thinking of picking a duffuser up too.

[btmedic04]

8 minutes ago, Joevember said:

Did you ramp up the light when you put the diffuser on? I'm thinking of picking a duffuser up too.

I was running max growth setting at 40% without the diffuser. I bumped it to 50% with the diffuser. Visually to me it looks about the same but I need to borrow a par meter and get some readings. Here's some comparison photos without and with the diffuser

 

[Joevember]

28 minutes ago, btmedic04 said:

I was running max growth setting at 40% without the diffuser. I bumped it to 50% with the diffuser. Visually to me it looks about the same but I need to borrow a par meter and get some readings. Here's some comparison photos without and with the diffuser

 

That's a lot of difference! I'll definitely add a diffuser to my list.

[btmedic04]

2 minutes ago, Joevember said:

That's a lot of difference! I'll definitely add a diffuser to my list.

oh yeah! massive improvement! you will not be disappointed and it was super easy to install. 4 screws, put the white reflector in (make sure you check orientation) and screw them back on. the diffuser is held in place with 4 magnets so you can remove it easily for maintenance

[btmedic04]

Today is day 3 of fluconazole being in my system. So far no effects on my clownfish, trochus snails, zoa frag or even my pod population. Now the bryopsis population is a different story. Theres already some die off and recession, but a few other areas that are still pretty deep green. Hopefully those spots start dying off soon. I'll probably pick up a few more snails and maybe some hermits this week. Also I am getting very nice green coraline algae forming on my rockwork and specks of purple showing up as well

[btmedic04]

The bryopsis is really dying back today on day 4, so I put my skimmer cup back on and set it to dry skim. I figure it cant hurt to pull some of that out now since I have 10 days to go until my next water change. I also added 4 dwarf blue legged hermits today who immediately started going to town on the bryopsis wreckage. My LFS is having a coral sale this month too. 10% off of all corals and buy one get one in their $30,$20,$10 frag tanks. I may have picked up a rasta frag and an unknown zoa frag (its got a neon green center and purple skirt) I also toyed around with my phones camera setting a bit. Let me know if these look better to you guys

 

[btmedic04]

Small update. The bryopsis is gone except for one tiny patch on a large grain of sand. I ordered some spinstreams and the overflow guards. One of my trochus snails has blocked them every night at about 12-1am just long enough to turn my ATO on and when he moves, the water level raises and it sets off the alarm. Hopefully those guards stop that lol! Also here is a picture of the start of my zoa garden and a current FTS during dusk