Talia's IM Nuvo 10

[TaliaShepard]

An aquarium journal seems fun...

 

I kept reef tanks on and off for 7 years, my biggest was a 40B and my smallest has been a 5g. After being out for a few years, the bug hit again so I decided to splurge and get the IM10 Nuvo as I have been lusting after it for a while. 

 

Equipment: 

 

Tank: IM Nuvo 10

Light: AI Prime HD+

Stand: used from thrift store 

Pump: Sicce 1.0 turned all the way down; RFG nozzle ordered  

Filtration: InTank Media Rack: filter floss, Fluval biomedia rings, activated carbon 

ATO: to be determined but probably autotopoff.com 

 

Rock and Sand:

5-6lbs of Fiji Pink Sand 

approx. 8-10lb of tonga and fiji(?); I am not sure what the one rock is but the big centerpiece is tonga from one of my old tanks 

 

Livestock:

 

CUC

1 Trochus snail 

2 Bumblebee snails 

1 blue legged hermit 

 

Coral

1 very unfortunate orange monticap 

Green Frog Spawn 

 

Tank Goals: Don't kill it! lol 

 

I've kept reef tanks for a while but never very successfully, I get lax with water changes and keeping up on top off so this tank is being run with that in mind and we are going for an ATO right off the bat. I currently hate the rockscape. I thought I was going to like it but I'm not happy with it yet. I am very attached to this big piece of tonga and at the time was envisioning this nice open rock scape with lots of sand bed appropriate corals. Now I am second guessing that and realizing how much of a PITA it is going to be mounting corals on a near vertical surface. I can't decide if I need to rearrange some rock still or maybe add more rock. There is a rock hiding behind the frog spawn. 

Equipment wise everything is running good except for the Sicce 1.0. It is too strong and even turned all the way down threatens to drain the return chamber in the back before the overflow can fill it. I got the 1.0 to handle the RFG nozzle. That will be here on Tuesday so I am hoping that solves the issue. 

 

The tank cycled in a little over a month and I decided after adding the CUC that the frogspawn would be the first coral piece added. It has four heads with one looking like it wants to split. It was grumpy the night I added but has been good since. He's happy at the bottom getting used to the light, but I'm hoping to move him to the top of the big tonga piece in the next little bit.  His monticap friend was an unintentional acquisition. The hobbyist I got the frogspawn from had a ton of it and was trying to move it. He had a huge basketball sized skeleton of it plus a ton in his main display and frag tank.

 

Needless to say, I was sent on my way with a sizeable chunk of it. I am worried about it, it was lower but I know they like light so I moved it to the top and tonight with much cursing, stinky aquastik, superglue, and glued fingers I managed to get it mounted a little worse for wear on the side of the tonga piece directly under the return pump where it will get the best direct flow. It is a very pretty neon orange color under the light and if you look super closely you can see the polyps on it. It's been in the tank for four days now and so far has not lost any color but it's a bit white around the perimter and there are a few places where it got banged up tonight during the mounting process. I feel bad for it, it was incredibly unhappy with the mounting and unleashed slimeagghedon on the tank.  

 

That catches everyone up to where we're at currently with it. I'm hoping to head to a shop this weekend and pick up some easy softies to start filling in some spaces. Eventually, the tank will be a softy/lps mixed reef with apparently one SPS along for the ride if it survives. I'm hoping to eventually add in palys, zoas, rhodactis, rics, sinularia, duncans, candycane, would love a nice trachyphilia eventually, and maybe some acans or lepastrea once we get going. This tank is in the living room so I'm wanting lots of color and movement. I debated on fish for a bit but I think I've settled on a single or a pair of neon gobies and maybe a small interesting invert. I don't want to overstock on fish.

 

Since the monti is in there I'm keeping a closer eye on parameters than I normally would. So far so good, with 0,0, trace nitrates, and alk holding steady around 9.5. I planned to think about dosing once the tank was more stocked, that may get bumped up with giant monti taking up space in there. 

 

Sorry for the picture, it is a crappy cell phone picture. I'm envious of the picture taking skills on this site! The montis colors are completely washed out, it is much more virbrant under the prime. If anyone has any ideas on stocking, fixing the rockscape, or how to keep poor monti alive I'd love to hear! 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

19 minutes ago, TaliaShepard said:

An aquarium journal seems fun...

 

I kept reef tanks on and off for 7 years, my biggest was a 40B and my smallest has been a 5g. After being out for a few years, the bug hit again so I decided to splurge and get the IM10 Nuvo as I have been lusting after it for a while. 

 

Equipment: 

 

Tank: IM Nuvo 10

Light: AI Prime HD+

Stand: used from thrift store 

Pump: Sicce 1.0 turned all the way down; RFG nozzle ordered  

Filtration: InTank Media Rack: filter floss, Fluval biomedia rings, activated carbon 

ATO: to be determined but probably autotopoff.com 

 

Rock and Sand:

5-6lbs of Fiji Pink Sand 

approx. 8-10lb of tonga and fiji(?); I am not sure what the one rock is but the big centerpiece is tonga from one of my old tanks 

 

Livestock:

 

CUC

1 Trochus snail 

2 Bumblebee snails 

1 blue legged hermit 

 

Coral

1 very unfortunate orange monticap 

Green Frog Spawn 

 

Tank Goals: Don't kill it! lol 

 

I've kept reef tanks for a while but never very successfully, I get lax with water changes and keeping up on top off so this tank is being run with that in mind and we are going for an ATO right off the bat. I currently hate the rockscape. I thought I was going to like it but I'm not happy with it yet. I am very attached to this big piece of tonga and at the time was envisioning this nice open rock scape with lots of sand bed appropriate corals. Now I am second guessing that and realizing how much of a PITA it is going to be mounting corals on a near vertical surface. I can't decide if I need to rearrange some rock still or maybe add more rock. There is a rock hiding behind the frog spawn. 

Equipment wise everything is running good except for the Sicce 1.0. It is too strong and even turned all the way down threatens to drain the return chamber in the back before the overflow can fill it. I got the 1.0 to handle the RFG nozzle. That will be here on Tuesday so I am hoping that solves the issue. 

 

The tank cycled in a little over a month and I decided after adding the CUC that the frogspawn would be the first coral piece added. It has four heads with one looking like it wants to split. It was grumpy the night I added but has been good since. He's happy at the bottom getting used to the light, but I'm hoping to move him to the top of the big tonga piece in the next little bit.  His monticap friend was an unintentional acquisition. The hobbyist I got the frogspawn from had a ton of it and was trying to move it. He had a huge basketball sized skeleton of it plus a ton in his main display and frag tank.

 

Needless to say, I was sent on my way with a sizeable chunk of it. I am worried about it, it was lower but I know they like light so I moved it to the top and tonight with much cursing, stinky aquastik, superglue, and glued fingers I managed to get it mounted a little worse for wear on the side of the tonga piece directly under the return pump where it will get the best direct flow. It is a very pretty neon orange color under the light and if you look super closely you can see the polyps on it. It's been in the tank for four days now and so far has not lost any color but it's a bit white around the perimter and there are a few places where it got banged up tonight during the mounting process. I feel bad for it, it was incredibly unhappy with the mounting and unleashed slimeagghedon on the tank.  

 

That catches everyone up to where we're at currently with it. I'm hoping to head to a shop this weekend and pick up some easy softies to start filling in some spaces. Eventually, the tank will be a softy/lps mixed reef with apparently one SPS along for the ride if it survives. I'm hoping to eventually add in palys, zoas, rhodactis, rics, sinularia, duncans, candycane, would love a nice trachyphilia eventually, and maybe some acans or lepastrea once we get going. This tank is in the living room so I'm wanting lots of color and movement. I debated on fish for a bit but I think I've settled on a single or a pair of neon gobies and maybe a small interesting invert. I don't want to overstock on fish.

 

Since the monti is in there I'm keeping a closer eye on parameters than I normally would. So far so good, with 0,0, trace nitrates, and alk holding steady around 9.5. I planned to think about dosing once the tank was more stocked, that may get bumped up with giant monti taking up space in there. 

 

Sorry for the picture, it is a crappy cell phone picture. I'm envious of the picture taking skills on this site! The montis colors are completely washed out, it is much more virbrant under the prime. If anyone has any ideas on stocking, fixing the rockscape, or how to keep poor monti alive I'd love to hear! 

 

 

I like the shape of that monti. 😊

 

you’re correct about that branch...... it’s a really cool shape but impossible for most corals. 

 

looking forward to seeing what you come up with. 🙂

[TaliaShepard]

It is a really interesting shape! If it survives, it'll be interesting to see how it grows. 

 

Currently, I'm seeing two possibilities with the scape. You are definitely right about that tonga branch though I still love it, it's an incredibly unique rock. The top is actually a lot deeper than it looks and has plenty of great mounting spots. There were tons of places to plop that monti up there, but I wanted it under the return nozzle and off to the side so it has plenty of room to grow. The sides of the branch though will not hold much of anything except maybe some low light softies that won't mind being shaded or I get really creative with epoxy and do some experimenting with mounting things out and sideways.

 

The other idea I'm considering is adding more rock and building up the sides to form a U shaped scape so I still have all the branching on top to mount corals but those sheer sides are taken care of and filled in. This would also have the benefit of lowering the flow in the middle of the U for the corals that don't feel like getting blasted with that sicce 1.0 though fingers crossed I'm expecting that RFG nozzle to make a big difference hopefully.  

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, TaliaShepard said:

It is a really interesting shape! If it survives, it'll be interesting to see how it grows. 

 

Currently, I'm seeing two possibilities with the scape. You are definitely right about that tonga branch though I still love it, it's an incredibly unique rock. The top is actually a lot deeper than it looks and has plenty of great mounting spots. There were tons of places to plop that monti up there, but I wanted it under the return nozzle and off to the side so it has plenty of room to grow. The sides of the branch though will not hold much of anything except maybe some low light softies that won't mind being shaded or I get really creative with epoxy and do some experimenting with mounting things out and sideways.

 

The other idea I'm considering is adding more rock and building up the sides to form a U shaped scape so I still have all the branching on top to mount corals but those sheer sides are taken care of and filled in. This would also have the benefit of lowering the flow in the middle of the U for the corals that don't feel like getting blasted with that sicce 1.0 though fingers crossed I'm expecting that RFG nozzle to make a big difference hopefully.  

 

I like that idea. The U would create a little cove for things to hide away from the hustle and bustle.

[billygoat]

Jeez, check the water movement at the top of your front window! That Sicce is a beast 😄

 

You're definitely off to an interesting start with that curious rock. I am looking forward to seeing where you decide to go with it. Multiple shelf-style corals like the Montipora you've already got would make an amazing display at the top of that thing.

 

Following along!

[TaliaShepard]

21 hours ago, billygoat said:

Jeez, check the water movement at the top of your front window! That Sicce is a beast 😄

 

You're definitely off to an interesting start with that curious rock. I am looking forward to seeing where you decide to go with it. Multiple shelf-style corals like the Montipora you've already got would make an amazing display at the top of that thing.

 

Following along!

Lol yeah it is a beast that continually threatens to empty the return chamber! I've got it turned way down to keep it in check but it's still kicking the current up, let's all be thankful I'm using the heavier fiji pink or we'd have a blizzard in there! I went with the 1.0 because of the RFG nozzle since everything I read said it worked better with an overpowered pump, sadly my timing is messed up and the nozzle won't be here until Tuesday. The stock filter makes monti sad so overpowered sicce it is! 

 

Ooooooooooooh! I love your idea, plating corals all along the top would look killer! We'll have to see if I'm brave enough to go for it. SPS is in general out of my comfort zone, I'm already obsessing strong over unintentional monti with my face smashed to the glass trying to see if he's happy. I can tell from across the room if the frogspawn is happy, the monti makes me more nervous. I'm pretty sure it has it's polyps out (so tiny!) and the color seems okay and still bright and vivid. There is one section where it is curled more strongly towards the light that has lightened a bit since being moved up, I'm keeping an eye on that and the rim, I can't tell the difference between "healthy, translucent color on the rim" and "help, I'm bleaching!" on the rim. 

 

If I do decide to be brave any other suggestions for more tolerant plating species besides montis of all colors? 

[billygoat]

The other cool thing about that weird rock is that it produces a large area of shade underneath of it, which could allow you some interesting stocking options in that area as well. Maybe you could move one of those other rocks into its shadow (perhaps as part of the "U-shape" discussed above) and set up a low-light mushroom garden? With time you might be able to get them to grow up the "stalk" of the big rock, which would look super cool.

 

The monti looks pretty good to me, but I don't really keep SPS so I am hardly an expert 😅 I'm sure some of our more coral-savvy companions will chime in on that point.

 

Also that right-hand rock with the big holes in it is just begging to be inhabited by some kind of blenny. I hope you get one of those eventually too 😄

[TaliaShepard]

Thought an update would be nice. The tank is not dead yet so yaaaaaay, though an unfortunate accident involving my cat, the light, and the canopy while I was away did cause the death of the monti and frog spawn 😞 cat decided to try jumping on top of the tank and knocked the light onto the screen, the light then burned the crap out of everything in the top half of the tank and those two just did not recover. 

 

Otherwise, the tank is running well! I was running a SMART ATO on the system (after doing this I will never run a nano without an ATO again! So amazing!) but I just upgraded to the SMART AWC which I am super stoked about it. It changes out a small amount of water every 12 hours and runs the ATO at the same time so water quality is good and more important consistent! I blast the rock work with the turkey baster, poke at the substrate, and change the filter floss once or twice a week. 

 

I've added more rock, though my funky tonga piece is still the center piece. I'm not entirely happy with it but getting there. There are also three new fish/shrimp inhabitants: a scrawny yellow clown goby I'm working on fattening up, a Randal's Goby and his partner in crime the Pistol Shrimp. The Pistol and the Randal's are the favorite things I have kept in a tank ever! 

 

Current Corals:

GSP

Xenia

Yellow/orange paly/zoa?

Green discosoma mushroom

blue/yellow rhodactis 

Orange/red acans 

yellow zoas 

green palythoas 

neon green cabbage leather 

 

I am slowly adding in new corals and letting frags grow out. The GSP has really filled out and I intend to let it take over it's entire rock island before pruning it back. I know it's considered a weed but it's the most attractive coral in the tank right now.  

 

I would really like to play more with my lighting, I'm not entirely happy with the super blue saturation of the current LED settings so I need to play around with that. 

 

Here are some photos I took and attempted to edit the blue out of in snapseed (free app and pretty cool). I am terrible at this so they are crappy and painful to look at, sorry and I promise it looks better in person! The acans and the yellow zoas are closed up and unhappy because they were just added to the tank right before the picture was taken. Also, please ignore the disgusting algae wall on the right hand side, I'm leaving it right now to encourage pod growth to help feed poor mr. skinny clown goby. He periodically swims over there and grazes off of it so it stays for now! 

[TaliaShepard]

Tank is happy today and I found a new camera app to adjust white balance with to try to get better pictures, still need to play with it though. 

[TaliaShepard]

Update Time! 

 

The tank is looking good since installing the auto water changer. I am currently trying to drag my nitrates down (50ppm) so I have it doing close to 80-90% water change over a week period. It's very neat to be able to pull off these large water changes by having it change a small amount of water every 4 hours. 

 

Water params

 

Nitrate: 50ppm (grrrrrrrrr 😞 ) 

Phosphate: .04 (via ulr hanna checker, I'm surprised this is so low given how high the nitrates are...) 

Alk: 7.9-8.0 (I haven't decided yet if I want to fiddle with this or leave it be) 

 

The corals seem happy, I've added some more rics, a Hollywood Stunner Chalice that I can't figure out where to place, and my new favorite thing: a Rock Flower Anemone! Any ideas where to mount the Chalice is greatly appreciated! 

 

I have very sadly lost my yellow clown goby 😞 I realized last week his weight issues were due to a high parasite load and I sadly lost the bugger before I could treat. I will not be trying again, that is the second clown goby I have watched waste away in my tank despite eating like a pig and I have to conclude they are just not good candidates for the captive life outside of large SPS dominated systems. The Randall's goby and pistol shrimp duo continue to do well and are very entertaining. The blue legged hermits are their usual bull dozing fat happy selves. I'm still playing with taking phone pictures and adjusting the WB to get closer to life colors and I think I am getting closer. Here are some of my latest attempts.  

 

Any advice on where to mount that Hollywood Stunner Chalice frag is appreciated! 

[Nanoreefer7000]

Hey, great thread. I'm in the initial stages of setting up my nuvo 10 now and debating between the sicce 0.5 and 1.0. How did you find the flow after adding the RFG?