watanabeireef- NUVO25reef

[watanabeireefer]

Welcome to my build thread and thanks for stopping by!

The Details:
This thread is going to follow me taking my very new reef, I decided to go with a NUVO 25 gallon. I have had several years of saltwater and reef keeping experience and have recently decide to jump back in. The tank has been aquascaped with roughly 18 pounds of reef rock. My vision was to create hiding spaces for fish and invertebrates while still having an open concept with plenty of water movement. The tank water is still settling, so it's not entirely clear. 

 

Please feel free to comment and provide any feedback. :)

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @watanabeireefer! 👋

 

I love the aquascape you've created in your Nuvo 25, it has a lot of depth and looks really cool from above too, lots of great surfaces to mount coral.

 

How long has it been since your last reef tank?

[watanabeireefer]

Hello there 

 

Thank you! I will be posting more as I go along here. Last tank I had was a 225 gallon reef, with acro's in 2009. So I have patiently waited to get back into it.

 

JM

[watanabeireefer]

My tank(Nuvo 25 gallon) has been up and running for about two weeks now. The tank is still cycling, I tested about five days ago and had an ammonia reading of .25PPm. Three days ago, I have noticed my first bloom of algae on the sand. It appears to be brown diatom algae,  as of checking it today it seems to have began to decrease. I will test water parameters again tomorrow, salinity has been a little high. 

 

White there haven't been any photos something I wanted to share was how I did the aquascaping layout. I use two large pieces of cardboard one to set out all the rocks and another to lay out the dimensions of my tank. I used the second piece of cardboard as a "space to design the aquascape the tank within the confides of the tank dimensions. There were two over postives I found, first- there was the opportunity to change and sculpt the rocks with a 360 degree perspective. The second, there was no chance of bumping into or scratching the glass, when every rock when into the tank it had a pre-determined place. This wasn't my first go around aquascaping, but it certianly worked out well for me. I am very pleased with my finally design for now. 

 

What were your experiences aquascaping your tanks or others, what do you feel worked best or didnt work? 

 

 

Looking forward to posting some pictures of livestock, as tank continues to cycle through soon!

 

[watanabeireefer]

L

 

 

Green toadstool leather, frostbite clowns(Pair), Green BTA, Tiger sand conch. The sand conch is by far one of the coolest inhabitants, I have ever had in all my years of reefing. I would highly recommend getting one of the opportunity arises. Corals have been in the tank a week now, The fish have been in the tank for two weeks. 

 

Please if any one has any suggestions for zoas and Acans what your favorite are share or would recommend. 

 

Happy Reefing 🙂

[Opotter]

Looking good so far!!  You are a couple steps ahead of me on the same tank build!  Following along to compare 🙂

[watanabeireefer]

Thank you!! I like your rock work as well,  you did a great job, I initially had some thoughts on doing some similar, doing to separate pieces. I see you used the cardboard as well to lay out your aquascape. How you did you find it when planning?

 

I'll be following along your thread as well. Also how did you find the autotop off and the cost? I have been considering doing one

 

JM

[Opotter]

Cardboard worked great!  I saw someone else on here do it first.  Best way ever to sit and try multiple aquascapes without scratching your tank.

 

I love love love that top off.  It’s definitely a purchase you won’t regret.  My salinity sits at a perfect steady number all the time.  I think it was like 125-130$, but they go on sale.  If cost is an issue I would put it on my Black Friday list for Nov.

[watanabeireefer]

I would probably just wait until it went on sale to get it.  I wish, I would of seen it first!!

 

My salinity has constantly been hovering around 1.025 to 1026, mostly 1.026. But I  definitely want to get one. The other two things, I was considering were a dosing pump, as I began to consider or put Acros in the tank, if I so decided that route. Also, I heard they make oscillating heads for the returns back into the tank. So that is something else I have been considering, but I do have excellent water movement. That pump is eventually going to come out.  

 

 

I will be following along! Hopefully we can compare as we throughout the process. So we both have better tanks 🙂

[Wonderboy]

Nice work so far - looking great - tagging along  :]

 

I sometimes use stencils of tank footprints to get a better idea of how the rock should go in - but frequently, I scape in the tank. I guess it has always depended on time and/or the amount of materials involved.

[watanabeireefer]

Thanks! Using a pencil sounds like a great idea as well. I will have to keep that in mind as I move forward. 

 

I had the luxury of time, because there was no live stock to transfer or that was waiting. 

[watanabeireefer]

So about a week a go I picked up some orange Zoas, overall they seem to be doing fairly well. However, I have noticed through the week at times they may close for a period fo time then open again. Some of the polyps look extremely happy, while others look like they may benefit from perhaps moving the piece. I wanted to give it about a week to see where how they were doing and the chance to adjust to the new setting. I had Zoas many years ago, several different times, they always seemed to be happy and thriving. So this is a first for me! I do plan on getting maybe two more types of

Zoas further down the road. I want these to settle down. 

 

 

The first picture was Thursday afternoon. 

 

The second picture was Friday night 

 

Just wanted to get some different prospectives and thoughts. 

[Opotter]

Nice zoas!  They look pretty happy to me!

 

As a side note, I just saw a picture of your conch in the photos section.  I don’t know why but I think conchs are so damn cute.  I find it weird to think a snail is cute.  I might need one of those!!  How is it doing in your tank?  I’ve read 30gal minimum and lots of sand space or they starve.  Are you supplementing feeding?  Our set-ups are so similar I figure it will be a pretty good gauge.

[watanabeireefer]

Thank you!

I picked him up about two weeks ago, he has been doing great since I put him in. I don't target feed him, I just leave him to his own devices. He actually has been doing such a good job cleaning my sand bed it has been a little cloudy. On a different note, I never had one before. Its' probably my favorite thing thing in the tank. It cleans the tank extremely well, its also one of the most interesting things to watch. 

 

He has plenty of room to move about the tank, he does a great job of making his way around the entire tank. However, I noticed for whatever reason, it doesn't going through the "cave" in the middle of my tank. He looks very happy and has plenty of space. You can definitely do one, I don't think you'll be disappointed. I picked this one up for about seven bucks. 

 

If you want, I have plenty more pictures or video. Let me know ! 

 

JM 

[watanabeireefer]

Just an update, here is the most recent tank shot and picked up two new pieces today (Acans). This my first go ever with Acans also an updated on the Zoas. 🙂

 

[watanabeireefer]

So its been a while since my last update, some delays and sanfus with the tank and sometimes life just gets crazy.  

So I added several pieces and now am in the process of waiting for things to color of grow in. Overall the tank is still cycling through the algae process, now I still get a little brown and the hair picked up a little. I also tried reef roids, which did spike everything a little quicker, it could be a combination of both! 

 

So a few side notes the hammer and frogspawn, actually were given to me by someone who is starting a new tank, I really couldn't be any happier with both pieces. If I hid a choice I would of found something similar, both are two of my favorites. For the hammer on the bottom, it is actually the same piece, but has adjusted as well yet. The tank they came from had T5 lighting. 

 

I also picked up some Acans with outstanding color, the blue one is like nothing I have ever seen. I really have enjoyed the acans and look forward to picking up one more.   

 

Also the water has been cloudy since, I picked up a goby. That will be for my next post in the coming days 🙂