Newbie Reefer IM Nuvo 8 Build

[drfu]

IM Nuvo 8 Reefer!

 

Guess its time for me to start up my thread but will keep this brief as i have asked all of you soo many questions already.

 

My background was fw which i still run but got hooked on a You Tube video of the IM SR80 and decided to get into doing a reef. Being a little afraid of failing in sw as well as cost i decided to do a Nano tank and picked the Nuvo 8 back in the beginning of December.

 

Here is my build to date:

Hardware:

Innovative Marine Nuvo 8 in black

Replaced flare nozzle with Aqua Gadget Spin Stream

Replaced stock pump with MJ900, thanks Defender.tx for the advice

Replaced stock media basket with IM Custom Caddy, added ff, cpe & purigen

Added extra pump, Hydor Koralia Nano 240

Have on order from Ebay extra Skkye Light 8 watt 14k

 

Cycled tank in under two weeks with live rock and live sand.

 

Added CUC consisting of 5 Ceriths, 4 nassarius, 3 bumble bee & 1 Banded Trochus snails, no crabs on me!

 

Added coral over several weeks, SPS & LPS hard corals, various mushrooms, softies & polyps.

 

Just added a pair of Kooky juvinile Ocellaris Clownfish

 

Will add a few more colorful corals as frags become available where i live.

 

Will add progress pictures once thread is up.

 

Next will be building my own Nuvo 24 from one of my fw set ups!

[bassinman]

Nice looking set up. Going to do my nuvo 8 build this weekend. Thanks for sharing!

[jolee0722]

8 gallons is small for a clown park and is even pushing it for just one. You should move on or both of them very soon.

[drfu]

8 gallons is small for a clown park and is even pushing it for just one. You should move on or both of them very soon.

 

I agree, my plan was to always move them once they got bigger, maybe within a year to a larger tank. I have started a new build a few weeks ago and this will be there permanent home. Think this tank will have a goby/shrimp combo or a blenny.

 

See thread if your interested, even some thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/341061-aqueon-15-column-fw-to-reef-conversion-build/?p=4635039

 

[drfu]

Haven't been doing as much with this tank as i have been focusing on my 15 gallon conversion to sw from fw. See link above in the last post.

 

Did get from InTank their submersible light, took the stock media basket and put some cheato in it and placed it in the heater column.

 

Did add two Anemone shrimp, they are cool though they harassed a few polyps, but they have moved on to my Devils Hand and it doesn't seem to mind them. Added a couple of colony polyps in different colors and fragged some of my corals for the new tank. My clowns seem very happy now, go all over the front half, the one is hosting my Hydor 240, the other likes to sleep vertical in the corner, man they are strange! Just added an anemone, its the size of an eraser head, feed it a small clump of food every day. Only issue with this tank is green algae film that forms on the glass daily, i use my nano mag on it but the fish hate it, it freaks them out. Still get a bit of diatoms on the substrate where the Nassarius snails seem to miss, or it could be a flow issue? I do dose with Seachems Fuel for the corals, but only once a week, could that be causing my algae?

 

Latest pic

[drfu]

So i moved my powerhead, blew substrate & detritus everywhere, caused massive nitrate spike, what a nightmare, see thread.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/342881-big-nitrate-spike/?p=4666866

 

 

Also got some Aptasia, so i purchased a couple of peppermint shrimp, they took care of that in a day, awesome!

 

Thread http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/343048-tell-me-this-is-not-aptasia/?p=4671073

 

Have a bit of red turf algae i think, cant id it though.

 

 

Thread http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/342800-red-turf-blue-ball-algae-id-questions/?p=4665537

 

 

Picked up a Rock Flower Anemone yesterday, we shall see if the Sexy shrimp go to it and leave my Devils hand alone!

 

Ordered the InTank fuge basket, the IM stock one sucks to hold cheato

[drfu]

InTank fuge basket arrived yesterday, picked up some free chaeto from my lfs(thx Denny from Concept Aquariums), doing my wc today, will keep an eye on levels throughout the week..

 

Peppermint shrimp are doing fine and getting along with my sexy's & my kooky clowns are getting use to them.

 

One clown is now getting bigger than the other so I'm assuming that will be the female.

 

Latest pic w/ new rock anemone, new birdsnest.

 

Now my only thing left to do is find a deal on a mp10 or some other smaller powerhead, hate the look of the Hydor Nano 240, too big and ugly for such a small dt but can't give up the extra flow

[drfu]

Well after a couple of months not much has changed, tank is getting some nice color and has been going quite smooth, here are some changes:

 

Added a small BTA, was the size of an eraser head, now is the size of a golf ball after 3 months. He also split once??? Moved the little one to my 15gallon.

 

Time for clowns to be moved to larger tank as they are growing nicely, too bad as they seem very happy but i know this was temp having them in there.

 

Added a Royal Gramma to replace the clowns with today, will see how he likes it, hope he is not a jumper!!!

[smiley28]

Lemme know how the royal gramma does

[drfu]

Lemme know how the royal gramma does

So far it just likes to hide in the rock, very skittish so I'm not too sure if it was a good purchase or what. Its a very beautiful fish, i just hope i get to see it soon as its been a week.

 

Latest picture, sorry bout the frag rack but as usual, GSP is growing like a weed.

[drfu]

Not much new to talk about, my Royal Gramma is doing well, added a few more zoas, had to grag out my gsp & monti plate as they were both growing like a weed. Both gbta & rfa are doing great. Still having an issue with phosephate levels being too high.