IM Nuvo 10 Return to Reefing

[dieSalzwasserqual]

Welcome to my build thread! I've been a longtime lurker on Nano-reef forums and am on my third reef tank, but this is my first build thread here! I mostly see this as an opportunity to keep track of my own thoughts and observations and hopefully use to look back on my updates on this thread and identify any trends I might not notice in isolation. 

 

As a bit of background, my first reef tank was a 40 breeder with a reef octopus HOB skimmer, a Chinese black box LED, and a whole lot of ambition. I had this tank for a couple of years while I was in high school, and had to break it down when I went off to college on the opposite coast. I was constantly plagued by aiptasia and an pink fluffy algae, and my frequent RODI filtration in the backyard annoyed my parents to no end, but I absolutely loved this tank.

 

 

 

 

(A photo of my pest filled passion project)

 

When the pandemic hit and I was stuck learning via zoom in the "hometown annex" of my university, I decided that getting back into reefing with better equipment would be the way to go. I went with a Red Sea Reefer 170, which is currently sitting sans water in the corner of my room as I write this, which was such an amazing upgrade. I cannot speak more highly about the quality and experience that Red Sea tanks offer. A cross country move after graduating college and a rather time intensive public service job have made restarting the Reefer 170 an unattainable goal for now, but once a reefer, always a reefer, and I need the smell of freshly mixed saltwater in my life again. 

 

(A picture of the Reefer 170 setup in its prime. Notice the absence of aiptasia and cotton candy algae. Progress!)

 

Anyways, this thread is not about either of these past tanks, but rather the setup that is newly wet today: My new IM Nuvo 10! 

 

Some basic tank specs for the setup I have planned:

Display: IM Nuvo 10 PRO 2 12”x15”x13”

Lighting: Kessil A80
Filter Media: Stock back chamber media basket with activated carbon and GFO
Heater: Eheim Jager 100w
Circulation: Stock MightyJet return pump and VorTech MP-10w QD

Skimmer: Innovative Marine Nuvoskim DC Protein Skimmer

ATO: Manual top off as needed

 

General thoughts on this build:

• Sand: I've gone back and forth on this, and while I do think that I'll remove the sand bed at some point in the future, at least for the first year I'm going with a simple Caribsea Pink Fiji. The BRS TV experiments and the countless build threads I've seen of beautiful tanks with spotless sand beds seem to weigh the scales for me towards a sand bed rather than bare bottom. Having the extra surface area for bacteria while the tank settles into a normal seems to be a good idea, and if I ever decide to get serious about turning this tank into an SPS dominant system I can remove the sand bed, leave the tank alone for a month or two, and then get going. 
• Lighting: I'm using the Kessil A80 I had from my last tank, and I also have the Kessil 360x I used for that tank in my closet, but the 360x seems like an incredibly overkill choice for this tank, especially now while I'm trying to keep things simple. The most light intensive corals I am even considering at this moment would be a monti cap or pocillopora at the very top of the rock work, and while the A80 might be underpowered for these, I would rather have too little light than too much while I get this tank going, and SPS are not in the cards for months.
• Water Changes: I'll admit that like many reefers, I have not been the most diligent about weekly water changes in the past. This has pretty clearly been the source of my past problems with SPS corals, and while the siren song of a water changeless reef maintenance regiment continues to ring in my ears, I am committed to following the successful methods of folks on this site. Reef keeping may seem like rocket science at times, but it seems like the best rule of reefkeeping is the simplest: follow through on regular water changes. My plan is for about 2 gallons a week, which would be about a 15-20% water change weekly.
• Stocking: I love ocellaris clownfish and want to keep the bioload in this tank low, so I'm thinking of keeping the fish in this tank to a single clown. I might change my mind and go for a pair, but I'd really rather not risk nitrate and phosphate issues down the line simply because I want two clowns in the tank.
• Rock: When I used dry rock for my Reefer 170, the results were ugly at first, and the algae issues only got better when I added some KP aquatics live rock. It seems like folks on the forums are moving away from the sterile starts that were all the rage a couple of years ago, and I think my experience tracks with that shift in the conventional wisdom. I've noticed that Tampa Bay Saltwater aquacultured live rock has historically been held up as the gold standard, and I'm thinking of trying out their nano tank package of premium live rock shipped through the mail. It is cheaper than KP aquatics and I only need a few pounds for this build. I want to keep the scape pretty minimalist to avoid a claustrophobic look to the tank, which is easy to achieve in a small cubic tank shape. 
• Flow: With the dual outflow from the MightyJet pump that came with the tank reducing the flow pretty significantly, I added an old MP10 I had saved. When I add sand and rocks, I may remove this additional flow, but it seems like many folks who run successful IM Nuvo 10 setups have another powerhead for more random flow so I figured I might follow in their footsteps. 

 

And here it is! A photo of my new setup! A blank canvas right now, but hopefully one with a lot of promise. Please feel free to chime in with any advice or thoughts! 

 

 

[ReefMom47]

Nothing more exciting than a fresh start!

[debbeach13]

Welcome back. If you're looking for some inspiration, check out the featured Nano Reef Aquariums under the library forum. There are several IM PRO 10 that were featured as TOTM. Have fun.

[dieSalzwasserqual]

A boring update!

 

I went ahead and ordered one of the TBS Treasure Chest "Box of Rox" a couple weeks ago, and so far the customer service seems great! The TBS team reached out over email with a short questionnaire about the size and age of my tank as well as asking if I had any special requests. Their outreach email was prompt, with an explanation that bad weather was delaying their shipments, and offering a few different dates for delivery to make sure I was home when the rocks come. I'm expecting the live rock shipment on April 4th, so definitely looking forward to finally putting rocks in the tank!

 

Otherwise, ghost feeding the tank every day and dosed MicroBacter7 until I finished the bottle. I'll do a ~80% water change the weekend before the "Box of Rox" arrives to start with a fresh slate. So far, no algae, weird smells, or anything else concerning! Just a glass box with fresh saltwater smell!

 

FTS:

 

I spent today touring the LFS's in my area, and discovered an absolute gem in Blue Ribbon Koi and Marine out in Manassas, VA! They had such friendly staff, extremely clean tanks, and affordable frags. They were even selling pretty large chunks of a broken down Stylophora colony for 75$ a piece! An absolute steal in the DMV. Visited 7 stores in total, and really enjoyed visiting NOVA Tropicals again, who have the best freshwater selection of any store in the area. Their coral selection looks very healthy, though they are a bit more expensive than average. Thoroughly enjoyed my little LFS odyssey, and picked up some cherry shrimp and java moss for my twin IM Nuvo 10 planted tank. 

 

 

 

[growsomething]

Sounds like fun.  I would love to get the Nuvo Encore to do a planted and reef tank side by side sort of like you've got going.

Most folks here have moved away from pO4 reducers but if it worked for your past tanks, why change I guess.

I used KP rock and had maybe a 2 day mini cycle, but no hitchhikers really died, so I could say essentially no cycle.

I will be removing my sand and rip cleaning or replacing it with 1/4" deep new since like you I like the look.  At the 3 year mark I seem to have ots and a cyano outbreak, and the sand bed won't stay clean of detritus no matter how much stirring I do.  Best of luck.

[dieSalzwasserqual]

Yeah I'm excited about this new setup! One benefit to having the two tanks separate over the NUVO Encore style tank that's joined is that I can choose to have an MP 10 on either side of the tank!

 

This is how I have the tanks set up (please excuse the cloudy water! took this right after a water change):

 

 

One thing I did change this week which absolutely ruined the mirror image look was swap out the A80 I had on there for my old 360x. I have a wifi dongle for the 360x which makes it so much easier to control, which ultimately made it worth it for me to choose function over form. Will likely need to rent a PAR meter to dial the 360x in right, but right now I'm running it with a max 20% intensity and a ramp up/down. With the wifi controls for the 360x also comes access to the violet channel kessil offers, which I've never messed with before! Going to have to dig into the forums to see how other kessil users have been using the violet channel. From the minor fiddling I've done so far, I really love how the violet channel changes the color mix! 

 

Picture of empty tank w/ overpowered 360X installed:

 

Also installed the skimmer in the back, which is making a low level rattling noise which I will need to fix this coming weekend. A skimmer is almost certainly overkill for this tank, but the aeration it provides seems like it is worth it. 

 

Still ghost feeding pellets and swapping in reef roids once a week to mix things up. 

 

One thing I've noticed in my mental review of strengths and weaknesses of my past husbandry is that I did not put nearly enough focus on the impacts food had on coral health. I've always kept very easy fish like clowns that are happy with a medium to light feeding schedule of pellets or flakes, and I've never sat down to think through what role a robust and varied diet plays in my overall coral husbandry efforts. I'm going to lean into frozen foods for my fish in this tank to try out a new approach on coral nutrition, moving closer to a large in/large out nutrient control method. 

 

And I appreciate the note about GFO, growsomething! I've never really had phosphate problems before in prior tanks according to my Hanna testing, so I never really dug into phosphate control methods. In this case the GFO came with the tank so I kept it in the media rack in the back, but that's definitely another area that I would benefit from digging into! 

 

I'll save my musings on how I want to approach water changes and stocking for a future update after I get my shipment of TBS rocks on 4/4. So far, I really appreciate the way this journal has helped me hone in on topics to dig into and keep myself interested during this extremely slow first month! The adage that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank is difficult to live out in real life, but I'm hopeful that this slow start, aquacultured live rock, and more plodding and thoughtful pace will lead to a Teenyreef or Cannedfish-esque nano tank that makes the most out of limits on scale. 

 

[growsomething]

Nice!

[dieSalzwasserqual]

Finally have rocks in the tank!

 

UPS delivered my 5-pound "Treasure Chest Box of Rox" from Tampa Bay Saltwater safely today. The rocks were very professionally packaged and shipped in water. They sent smaller pieces with interesting shapes, which was exactly what I needed for my tank size. I went with 5 pounds to try to achieve a more minimalist aquascape, and though I definitely second-guessed my decision to go with the smallest package of rocks, I think it was the perfect size for this tank. For reference, here is a picture of the rocks, which roughly cover the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket.  

 

 

They also included a free piece of macroalgae! I'm not planning on having much, if any, macroalgae in this tank, but keeping it in while the rock settles into the tank and the small amount of die off I expect seems like a good idea. 

 

 

 

On to the rock and the aquascape!

 

There was a cup (?) coral on the rocks! Very small, with pretty neon green pigmentation. 

 

 

This is the first scape I threw together. I have some flat areas down near the sand for zoas and mushrooms, and plan on a monti cap off on the left beneath the top rock, and maybe a poci, stylo, or green birdsnest up on the top rock. I know the rockwork is definitely on the shorter side, but I think this tank will really shine when corals are able to fill in this empty space in the upper half of the tank. 

 

. 

 

Overall, the customer service experience with TBS was fantastic. Great communication from their team, and my initial reaction is that their rock is fantastic. If anyone has tips on cup coral care or aquascaping this tank, please chime in! 

[growsomething]

Pretty nice!  I went with kpaquatics rock but got nothing on it.  Would love to have some native coral.

[dieSalzwasserqual]

Now that the tank has had a week to settle and there weren't any mini cycles from the TBS live rock, I picked up some clowns! 

 

 

The free macro algae TBS included in the shipment has been left to its own devices since being placed in the tank and has taken over the rock on the right. I plan on trimming it back next week and removing it from the front of the display in about a month. Right now it adds some interesting motion to the tank and fills in the rockscape. The cup coral that came on the TBS rock looks great and expands to be quite large during the day. 

 

Did a quick water change this morning using distilled water, and I'm thoroughly enjoying how easy it is to do a large weekly water change on this tank! I ordered more reagent for my Hanna Alkalinity tester as well as some All for Reef from BRS today, but especially for the first couple of months I'm hoping that water changes will be enough to maintain stability for the few corals I'll be adding. 

 

I also picked up a couple of test frags today to see if the tank is stable enough for coral! The two I picked up were a cheap Acro frag (I know this is more needy than I initially planned, but for $10, it seemed that a cheap unnamed acro was at least worth the try) and green star polyps (absolutely a weed, but I love brightly colored corals with motion, and I plan on keeping on top of this as it spreads). The LFS employee who helped me out today showed me a colony of the Acro I picked up and said that it was a solid choice for a test frag based on their experience with the coral. 

 

 

Overall, a great week in reefing! Excited to have the clowns in the tank and hoping both frags settle in well. Now it's time for me to dig into build threads for 7-15 gallon tanks that have successfully kept SPS!

[growsomething]

Get ready for dosing!

 

How about a pic of the cup coral fully expanded.. 

[dieSalzwasserqual]

15 minutes ago, growsomething said:

Get ready for dosing!

 

How about a pic of the cup coral fully expanded.. 

I'm looking forward to learning how to dial in dosing via pumps when that becomes necessary. I've only ever dosed manually, so that will be a new exciting challenge. 

 

The lights are off for the night, but I'll try to get a photo of the cup coral fully expanded soon! 

[dieSalzwasserqual]

Quick update!

I took a chance on a craigslist frag pack a couple weeks ago, $70 bucks for a Stylo frag, a green slimer frag, a red monti cap, a green monti cap, and two hammer corals. Given the sizes of each frag, about $12 a pop seemed like a steal.

A FTS:
 

They all seem to be settling in nicely, and I've gotten some growth on the green slimer:
 

 

And the Stylo has grown a bit too, with the tips of each branch splitting into two growth sections and the frag plug almost fully encrusted now:
 

 

I've never had success with zoas, and my test frag is not happy so I'm moving them around the tank to find a spot with the right level of flow and light
 

My two original test frags, the mystery acro and the GSP, both seem to be doing fine, and the clowns continue to provide me with a lot of joy. I'm definitely facing some challenges with some algae, maybe some dinos, so I'm going to slow down on water changes and see if that helps. I don't feed that much, but I do throw in a tiny bit of reef roids every 2-3 days, so as long as the corals are happy and growing and nutrients arent spiking, I'm fine riding out this algae.

I've been militant with my alk testing and dosing, and after seeing where my alk has landed after water changes, I think I'm going to try to stay in the low 9's rather than the mid 8's, which is where I've been. Not happy with that first Alk spike which came about a week into dosing All for Reef, but after getting it dialed in, I'm absolutely loving A4R.

Below are my alk tests for the past two weeks:
 

Date	Alkalinity	Dosing
4/23	8.5
4/24	8	Dosed 2.5 ml
4/25	8.3	Dosed 2.5 ml
4/26	7.7	Dosed 2.5 ml
4/27	7.5	Dosed 2.8 ml
4/28	7.3	Dosed 3.8 ml
4/29	9.25	Dosed 0 ml
4/30	8.3	Dosed 4.8 ml
5/1	8.2	Dosed 5 ml
5/2	8.6	Dosed 4.5 ml
5/3	8.4	Dosed 5 ml
5/4	8.2	Dosed 5.2 ml
5/5	8.7	Dosed 4.5 ml
5/6	8.7	Dosed 4.5 ml
5/7	9.6	Dosed 3.8 ml
5/8	9.6	Dosed 4 ml

My next challenge will be acquiring and setting up a dosing pump. I'm thinking of going with the ReefDose 2 from Red Sea, which seems to have decent reviews.

[dieSalzwasserqual]

Quick update!

 

Sadly, one of the clowns managed to jump out of the tank somehow, even with the lid, so down to one clownfish. I also picked up a dosing pump three weeks ago, the red sea ReefDose2. Since I've been using All for Reef, the two dosing heads seem like the perfect option, and I've absolutely loved how easy the ReefDose pump has been to set up and use. I've been dosing 4.5 ml a day, spread out over 8 doses, and my alk has stayed between 9.8 and 9.4 over the past couple of weeks. Now that I have a dosing pump, I cannot believe that I ever tried reefing without one! Dealing with a bit of cyano on the sand, but I got through a bout of Dinos by stopping water changes and removing my skimmer, so I'm planning on a smaller water change this week and just waiting out the cyano. Nothing good happens fast in a reef

 

FTS 6/4/23:

 

 The Green Slimer has been growing, and while I'm a bit concerned about the lack of polyp extension on the underside of the branches, the color seems to be quite vibrant still. Growth pictures here:

 

 

And a different view:

 

 

And the Purple Stylo I have also is looking fantastic! Growth comparison here:

 

 

Another view from today:

 

My Red monti cap is probably my happiest SPS coral, and is starting to encrust on the rock its on:

 

I also found this empty shell attached to the MP10 in this tank, which I'm assuming was a hitchhiker of some sort that died? 

And lastly, some dual tank content!