Bay Area Nuvo 10

[AyeNick]

Hi all, and hi to the Nuvo 10 community! For the past year or so, I've been wanting a reef of my own, and I'm now addicted.

I decided on the Innovative Marine Nuvo 10 for the compact size and transportability, given that I plan to take it to college eventually.

As of the moment I am writing this, I currently have put the rock and sand into the tank, after cycling the rock for about 3 weeks in a 5-gallon bucket using Fritz Turbo Start.

The sand is Fiji Pink, and the rocks are Walt Smith 2.1. 

I have the tank on the 10 gallon white JBJ Nano Cubey Stand, which looks really great with the tank.

 

Equipment List

IM Nuvo 10 Tank

10 Gallon White JBJ Nano Cubey Stand

AI Hydra 26 HD (Modified AB+ Settings)

Cobalt Neo-Therm 50 watt heater (best heater on the market)

Sicce Syncra .5 Return Pump

Vortech mp10wqd

inTank Media Basket (Running inTank filter floss, 2 chemi pure blue nano packets, and 1 marinepure cube)

Tunze Nano ATO 

(Not running a skimmer, I'm running 4 MarinePure cubes in the second chamber)

Aquatic Life 100gpd RODI unit

Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt (mixes extremely fast)

 

Tank as of August 16, 2019. No light or ATO yet.

 

Tank as of October 2, 2019. Hydra 26 with diffuser has been added. Snails, hermits, and goby have been introduced. No corals quite yet.

 

 

[AyeNick]

I cycled the rocks and MarinePure inside a 5-gallon bucket filled with saltwater from my LFS. I poured in half a bottle of Fritz Turbo Start 900 and dosed Dr. Tim's ammonia. 

I let it run with occasional bacterial boosts from a capful of FritzZyme 9.

Today I added salt and sand into the tank which was full of RODI water, and added the rocks and MarinePure cubes into their respective places. 

I poured in the remaining half of Fritz Turbo Start which was sitting in the fridge, and dosed just a little bit of ammonia. 

I have a Red Sea Marine Care test kit coming in the mail on tuesday so I'll post the results of the parameters then.

[xM3THODx]

Looks like your off to a great start! The tank looks perfect for the stand is sure to be a sweet little show reef.  Probably a little early to tell, but what do you see your tank stocked with?

[AyeNick]

17 hours ago, xM3THODx said:

Looks like your off to a great start! The tank looks perfect for the stand is sure to be a sweet little show reef.  Probably a little early to tell, but what do you see your tank stocked with?

Thanks so much! I think the stand with a white AI Prime would create a really clean, contemporary aesthetic. I see it getting stocked with 1 clown, not 2, since they would eventually grow out of the tank. I think I might also add another fish, maybe a goby, firefish, pink-streaked or tanaka's wrasse.

[Christopher Marks]

How's your new nano reef coming along @AyeNick?

[AyeNick]

On 9/8/2019 at 7:44 AM, Christopher Marks said:

How's your new nano reef coming along @AyeNick?

Tank is coming along very well, I haven't had much money recently to buy a clownfish quite yet, but the upside to that is that my tank has been cycling and maturing for 2 months now, I will post a full update later today, there have been many changes that I'm eager to share!

[AyeNick]

Hi all,

 

The tank has matured quite a bit.

 

Light

Since my last post, I managed to pick up a Hydra 26 HD for $250, which is quite a bargain.

I separately purchased the flex arm and diffuser for the light. 

The arm is quite large for my tank, so I may or may not explore a new mounting solution. But it works!

I purchased the diffuser because there was a heavy disco ball effect going on with this light, which is quite a downside.

It's going to be necessary for me to lower the light intensity, since it's the equivalent to 2 AI Primes.

However, the benefit to 2 pucks is much more even light distribution, less shadowing.

I set it to a custom modified AB+ spectrum. The light ramps up to a mostly white period starting at 8:00am, until about 1:00pm. It adjusts to a bluer spectrum by 1:30, and stays that way until about 5:30 or so. For 30 minutes it ramps to a deep blue/actinic setting for the rest of the night, which ends at 9pm.

 

ATO 

I am using the Tunze Nano ATO. It's been working just fine. 

It's real plug-and-play as soon as you set it up.

For an ATO container, I'm using this: https://www.target.com/p/8-w-x-4-d-x-11-5-h-plastic-food-storage-container-with-snap-lid-clear-made-by-design-153/-/A-52380577

It's about 1.5 gallons, has a hole in the lid that the ATO pump perfectly fits through, it's great to pour fresh RODI water in.

 

Hanna Salinity Tester

This little handheld tester set me back about $75, which is much cheaper than the Milwaukee Refractometer, and so far has done it's job perfectly.

 

Cycle

The cycle has been going for about 2 months now. It's gone very well, Ammonia and Nitrites hit zero last month, but I had a problem with high nitrates.

A small bloom of cyano reduced nitrates down to zero, and I was able to get inverts.

I went to Neptune Aquatics in San Jose and picked up 2 Nassarius Snails, and 2 Blue-Legged Hermits.

Hermits are doing well, but I never get to see the snails due to their tendency to burrow under the sand.

 

Goby

I picked up a Court Jester Goby. I only learned after purchasing that they're sand sifters, which means that feeding him will be a challenge.

So far he's been hiding in the little cave, but he's definitely still alive, so I'm not quite sure what he's eating.

[Ranjib]

Looking good 🙂