Bread’s Nuvo 20 Dropoff

[Jaren45]

 

Where the 2nd chamber spills into the return section. I've always been told to run it this way, not as low as in the picture but I have my ato sensor right after the "waterfall". Lets the filtration work a little better I guess

[less than bread]

12 minutes ago, Jaren45 said:

 

Where the 2nd chamber spills into the return section. I've always been told to run it this way, not as low as in the picture but I have my ato sensor right after the "waterfall". Lets the filtration work a little better I guess

I'll have to play around with it but mine there is no 2nd chamber before the return section, just the overflow and then 1 large return section so I'm not sure I'd be able to have a low water height since that's where the heater sits.

 

*Nevermind. I see what youre talking about. The divider was just hidden under my light clamp

[less than bread]

Kind of disappointed the back of the tank is not see through so I could run a refugium light through it.
 

As it stands the plan is to run a media basket in the overflow chamber with floss followed by live rock, then a chaeto refugium in chamber 2, lastly I guess I’ll put my heater and perhaps my cheap uv sterilizer in the return chamber. Or I may just skip the whole refugium idea. Idk, honestly kind of frustrated with how this AIO is set up.

 

but thinking about it, I don’t plan on keeping SPS other than maybe a monti, should I just forgo the refugium? My current tank is doing fine and the only added filtration I have is floss with softy and lps frags and 1 clown

[Jaren45]

4 hours ago, less than bread said:

Kind of disappointed the back of the tank is not see through so I could run a refugium light through it.
 

 

It's just vinyl you can totally remove a section of it or the whole thing if you want

[less than bread]

9 hours ago, Jaren45 said:

It's just vinyl you can totally remove a section of it or the whole thing if you want

Can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Thank you

[less than bread]

Wasn't going to do an ATO since I've never used one for my Evo 13.5, however, I have a trip coming up at the end of the month and since this is an open tank, the evaporation is pretty substantial. If I let it go for more than a couple days without refilling, the return would be sucking up air, which, checking my notes, is not a good thing.

 

Do you put heaters in your ATO reservoirs to match tank temp or is it fine going in at room temp since it's just a little bit at a time? I have a 150w heater for the main tank which I believe is more than enough to keep the temp constant even with cooler ATO water coming in.

 

Also removed the vinyl from the back (thank you @Jaren45) so now I can run a chaeto fuge under the floss in chamber 1 with the light coming through the outside of the tank. Never really wanted to run bio balls or anything like that since there's plenty of beneficial bacteria in the tank. Plus I like the idea of running the fuge light at night to help stabilize pH. I really was going to forgo the whole idea of a refugium but after taking PAR readings throughout the tank, the display is really lending itself to a mixed reef set up so that's what I'm going to go for.

[Jaren45]

I don't know anyone who's ever heated their top off water. I'd be more worried about your water change waters temp

[less than bread]

Well that was stressful. Moved all my livestock from the Evo to this tank. Not that anything went wrong, just a little nerve racking causing that much stress to the whole system. I think everything went well though. None of the corals closed up fully even. The euphyllia are definitely regressed down but tentacles are still out more than I thought they'd be. All zoas are open. Clownfish look a little scared and confused (understandably) but fine. They're hanging out together next to their favorite torch. Peppermint shrimp went into hiding immediately which he did in the other tank anyway. Rock flowers have anchored and are open. Snails are snailing. Leathers look good. Have the lights turned down and will bring them up slowly.

 

The thing I will still need to monkey with is flow. Didn't realize how strong the stock return pump in this tank is. I have it turned all the way down to the lowest setting and I feel like it's still blowing things around a bit. As the euphyllia extend more I'll take a look at it again, just a little surprised how strong the flow is from the return.

 

Will get a picture as everything opens back up.

[less than bread]

Here is the first shot of everything as it sits. A couple corals I’m a little concerned about but I keep telling myself “it’s only 1 day into the move, let them setting and don’t mess with it”. Easier said than done. Lol

[less than bread]

Things are trending back upwards. Was having problems with flow and corals being angry because of it. From the above pictures you can see I just had a RFG nozzle on the return. The pump on this tank is really strong and even on its lowest setting, water was getting blasted out, hitting the front glass and shooting straight down to the bottom, whipping my corals around. The first attempt at a fix was putting a piece of tape over part of the nozzle with a rubber band to hold it. That seemed to help some but obviously not an ideal fix. Then on Sunday I remembered my Evo 13.5 came with a dual duck bill nozzle so I put that on to split and disperse the flow.

 

It seems to be working because in the last day, corals are starting to look much better. Really glad most corals seem to be fighting through this tough transition. Will do the first water change either today or tomorrow to get fresh nutrients in there for them. Also plan to take PAR readings soon to ensure everyone is getting the light they need.

[less than bread]

Frogspawn has some catching up to do but very happy things are opening back up. Kraken and Davy Jones are very happy their favorite torch is much more wavy now.

 

 

 

 

 

[less than bread]

Was away for a long weekend trip to Yellowstone, Wyoming (Thurs-Sun), came back to a light dusting of diatoms which I expected. I am pleased it was not a super ugly breakout as what happened in my first tank. CUC is happy. Water change tomorrow before finally moving all corals to their permanent spots. Looking forward to clearing up space on the sandbed and being able to start visualizing what the rest of the tank will look like

[less than bread]

Not a whole lot left to add. I’m thinking another torch or two and another acro/birdsnest. Really just want everything to grow out now

[less than bread]

Added probably the last animals to this tank. A tiger pistol shrimp and wheeler's goby. Will get pictures of them once they decide to show themselves again. The pistol hung out on the rocks for a hot second after I added him and then promptly disappeared into the rockwork. Saw the goby sticking his head out from behind a rock on the upper level this morning and haven't seen him since. Pretty shy creatures to start but I'm sure I'll see more of them once they get comfortable.

[less than bread]

I’ve heard of his-and-hers sinks before, but his-and-hers euphyllia is a new one

[less than bread]

So time for a first "mixed reef" update after adding my first SPS frags to this tank. Would very much appreciate insight and suggestions as I try this out.

 

Added a red plating montipora, I assume it's a capricornis, and some kind of green acropora a few weeks ago. I cannot track down the exact date I added them since technically they were free after using store credit, but let's just say it was November 1. They started down at the sand bed, then a few days later, glued them to their spots in the upper part of the tank. After about a week, the flesh of the acro began stripping away and within 3 days it was bare skeleton... yep, acros live up to their reputation. The montipora looks fine, still nice and red and bumpy.

 

On November 12, I added a forest fire montipora digitata and so far so good there. Beautiful red polyps came back out within a day. The only eventful thing with that one was that it detached from the frag plug but luckily just settled on the rock next to it, even though it does get med/strong flow. Glued it back on and we've been good since.

 

 

Much of what I have read in regards to keeping SPS with LPS and softies, especially in a nano tank, is that it would behoove the reefer to stick to the easiest SPS species they can such as birdsnest/montis, ones that can tolerate higher nutrient levels/non-constant parameters which makes sense. I would love to have an acropora thrive in this tank but clearly the tank's maturity/my reef keeping practices are not up to snuff yet, which is fine. For right now, I will continue with the plate and digi montis and focus on keeping them healthy in this system. I'm not dosing anything, 10% water change every week, test alk, cal, phos, nitrate every week, test salinity pretty much every day.

[Maas101]

Probably too soon to move the acro it's best to leave them at the bottom for a week or two and then slowly move them to their final place. They do demand stability in water parameters but also lighting.

[DevilDuck]

Tank is looking great! Are you seeing any big fluctuations in our alk/nitrate/phos?

[less than bread]

4 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

Tank is looking great! Are you seeing any big fluctuations in our alk/nitrate/phos?

As long as I keep on top of water changes, everything has been pretty solid so far. I really should start recording my readings though so I can see them clearer over time vs just measuring and going "yep thats good" lol. Especially cause I know needs will begin to change as my stony corals get bigger. Might as well get ahead of it.

[less than bread]

So my tank dwellers are getting bolder and bolder. I can’t even stick my hand in the tank anymore without my larger (still relatively small but larger of the 2) clownfish attacking me. This actually just became apparent over the last couple weeks. I wonder since the two clowns have been together for about 2 months if the larger has just recently completed the transition to female. Not sure how long that process usually takes but that’s my theory. Now that she has fully become female, she dominates the tank and certainly isn’t scared of me.

 

Even my little peppermint shrimp comes up and scratches at my fingers haha

[less than bread]

Something I’ve noticed in my tank that could potentially help an issue I’ve heard of others dealing with and that I dealt with is when you have a spirited clown that decides to host a torch coral.

 

Torch corals are extremely popular in this hobby as are clownfish. This creates a cool but potentially problematic situation where a clown will host the torch coral like its an anemone. This is great at first but can lead to a lot of stress for the torch coral and can even kill it.

 

My torch was getting absolutely molested (for lack of a better term) by my growing female clownfish. I added another torch next to it and she has started going in and out of both which has really relieved the overall stress on both.

 

Everyone is much happier now. The clown thinks it’s just a bigger house and each torch gets a rest as she goes in and out of both.

[less than bread]

Finally put together the DIY lid I bought a while ago. The other day my goby tried to touch the light and almost got there so I figured it was time to do this.

[debbeach13]

Looks like a pro made it... Everyone likes a tight fit.

[less than bread]

22 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Looks like a pro made it... Everyone likes a tight fit.

Surprised myself that I didn’t screw up the measurements

[less than bread]

I need to get a camera or at least one of those lenses people use for better pics. But anyway, new additions: Forest Fire Mushroom and Fire & Ice Zoa