btmedic04's Nuvo 20 and 10 build thread

baslewprime · Nov 7, 2018

Good luck with the build!

btmedic04 · Nov 10, 2018

Little update. I'm day 3 into my cycle and am getting very faint nitrite and nitrate readings. Ammonia is still around 2ppm after dosing dr Tim's ammonium chloride and dr Tim's one and only. I started my skimmer yesterday to break it in and I'm glad I did that now as my display is full of microbubbles. My icecap ato and marinepure gems arrive Monday so im pretty excited about that. My intank floss holders and floss has arrived today so I'll be cutting those into 3x3 squares. I'll have to figure out what to do with the 20x2 and 10x1 strips left over. Maybe I'll stitch them together with some fishing line. Waste not, want not right? Lol

btmedic04 · Nov 12, 2018

Day 6 into my cycle. My ph his hovering around 8.0 to 8.2. Ammonia is around 0.5ppm, nitrite around 1ppm and nitrates are 10-20ppm. My marinepure gems and icecap ato arrived today. I'm not going to lie, when I saw the tiny box the gems came in, my first thought was "is that it?" Lol. Still though, 135 m2 is a huge amount of surface area when you think about it. Also, how did I run a reef tank without an ato before? By far the best investment one can make into this hobby. I also installed my IM minimax reactor. I'm currently not running any media in it, but figured I'd break that in while I cycle. My skimmer is still putting microbubbles into the display, but it's a lot less than what it was before. I also scored an ecotech reeflink from a local reefer for $50 and set up my mp10 on a schedule. All I have to do now is order my radion xr15, the rms mount and wait for my cycle to complete. Anyone want to start kicking around ideas on what kinds of corals and livestock I should add?

RFL · Nov 13, 2018

Looks like a great setup! You'll love the AutoAqua Micro ATO system. Mine's been running flawlessly for several years now and keeps the SG spot on. Remember to remove and wipe clean the sensor light periodically just so it doesn't grow 'crud' which could cause it to malfunction. The IM MiniMax reactor is a nice little unit too; silent and effective.

btmedic04 · Nov 13, 2018

RFL said:
Looks like a great setup! You'll love the AutoAqua Micro ATO system. Mine's been running flawlessly for several years now and keeps the SG spot on. Remember to remove and wipe clean the sensor light periodically just so it doesn't grow 'crud' which could cause it to malfunction. The IM MiniMax reactor is a nice little unit too; silent and effective.

Thanks! I actually changed my mind last minute on the ato and went with the icecap ato. The dual optical sensors really sold me on it and I wasn't quite ready to peel some of the backing off of my nuvo 20 lol. But I will definitely take your advice on cleaning the sensor. How often do you clean yours? I was thinking of making it part of my monthly maintenance. Is that too long?

NY_Caveman · Nov 14, 2018

btmedic04 said:

It’s really coming along. Seems you went with a totally different aquascape. I really like it though. Maybe move them just a hair closer together. Seems close to the glass, in the picture at least.

btmedic04 · Nov 14, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
It’s really coming along. Seems you went with a totally different aquascape. I really like it though. Maybe move them just a hair closer together. Seems close to the glass, in the picture at least.

Thank you! Yeah, I changed the scape a little bit and created some more negative space. I agree, It does look awfully close in the picture. Before I put sand and water in, I measured about 1 inch of space between the rock work and tank walls which is double the thickness of the Flipper nano and regular Flipper magnetic scrapers. I just have to decide which one would work better for me

RFL · Nov 15, 2018

btmedic04 said:
But I will definitely take your advice on cleaning the sensor. How often do you clean yours? I was thinking of making it part of my monthly maintenance. Is that too long?

I wipe the sensor clean about once every two months and it literally takes less than a minute to do it. I keep my tank and water pretty clean so I've had no problems by adhering to that cleaning schedule. I really don't know how long it could go between cleanings, but I really don't want to find out either... 'cause that's the kind of thing I'd have to learn the hard way! WHOA! The salinity is 65 ppt! Yikes - another reefer nightmare! LOL.

btmedic04 · Nov 16, 2018

I got my ecotech radion xr15 pro and rms mount today. Holy smokes its powerful at full tilt. I should probably let my neighbors know I'm growing coral and not something else!

I also tested my cycle today. Currently at:

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 1.0
Nitrate: 30

The xr15 is going back off until nitrite hits 0 as theres no point growing algae in the meantime lol

reef-rc · Nov 17, 2018

Congrats on starting your IM Fusion 20!

I started my IM Fusion 20 1.5 yrs ago and still enjoying mine. So much so that I had a spare sitting in the garage from over a year and only just yesterday that I started cycling my 2nd Fusion 20. I plan to update my tanks threads shortly now that I have a little more time.

btmedic04 · Nov 23, 2018

Just wanted to post an update. My tank can now completely process 2ppm of ammonia in a 24 hour period with zero readings for ammonia and nitrite. I have also started getting diatoms beginning to show on my rockwork and film algae on the glass so tomorrow I'll be picking up a pair of trochus snails and picking up fish later on in the week. Should I get my clowns first or the royal gramma? I was going to wait until tomorrow to do my water change, but decided to do it tonight since I had the motivation (funny how diatoms in a new tank can do that lol.) I ended up doing a 10 gallon change out of the 14 gallon total volume since my nitrates were ~40 ppm. I found hitchhikers on the glass that are either hydroids or baby aiptasia (according to the folks in the ID thread) on the glass, so they were vacuumed out. Ill be keeping a close eye out to see if they return and if so, will take appropriate measures (wait out the hydroids or get a peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia)

Current test readings
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10 (guess the color with API kits is always fun)

Also this coming Monday, my red sea reef foundation test kit and algae control test kit arrives so I'll have more accurate numbers going forward.

hitchhiker shots

btmedic04 · Nov 29, 2018

Hey folks, so it turns out those hitchikers were bryopsis algae that must of came in on the piece of live rock and survived the cycle and lights off. It is spreading on my rock work but I have some fluconazole en route. Hopefully its here Saturday on time and I can begin treatment before this stuff explodes. Wish me luck!

in happier news, I have added 2 juvenile black snowflake clowns who seem really happy at the moment.

Im also debating the merits of picking up a nuvo 10 and beginning to cycle it in case I need to move my clowns so I can tear down the 20 and restart it if the fluconazole doesn't work. Thoughts on this?

reef-rc · Dec 1, 2018

If it is bryopsis, early prevention is best of course. Not sure if a complete tear down may be necessary but I understand what you may be thinking.

I am currently battling it myself and is frustrating and do have to pull it out by hand during water change. I am currently trying Vibrant on the Fusion 20 for bubble algae mostly and now bryopsis. Vibrant had helped with bubble algae. From the instructions look like I need to bump up the dosing if I am looking to try with bryopsis. I plan to try the new dosing for a month and see how things go and just watch my corals.

Not sure how you are buying fluconazole. I am planning to use ReefHD Reef Flux if Vibrant does not work out for bryopsis.

JBKReef · Dec 1, 2018

Has the skimmer quieted down? How happy are you so far with the performance?

btmedic04 · Dec 1, 2018

reef-rc said:
If it is bryopsis, early prevention is best of course. Not sure if a complete tear down may be necessary but I understand what you may be thinking.

I am currently battling it myself and is frustrating and do have to pull it out by hand during water change. I am currently trying Vibrant on the Fusion 20 for bubble algae mostly and now bryopsis. Vibrant had helped with bubble algae. From the instructions look like I need to bump up the dosing if I am looking to try with bryopsis. I plan to try the new dosing for a month and see how things go and just watch my corals.

Not sure how you are buying fluconazole. I am planning to use ReefHD Reef Flux if Vibrant does not work out for bryopsis.

yeah, with how it has spread it has me concerned that if I don't beat it now, I'll end up having to restart it. the fluconazole will arrive today. I ordered it from allivet.com and it is 100mg tablets. Ill have to crush them though. Since I have 14 gallons of total water volume, 3 tablets will be enough to dose the tank. I also ordered ReefHD as soon as it came in stock at BRS yesterday just in case this round doesn't completely nuke it. Let me know how the vibrant works for your bryopsis and we can compare notes

JBKReef said:
Has the skimmer quieted down? How happy are you so far with the performance?

It has quieted down quite considerably. my aquarium is in my living room and I don't notice it anymore when I'm watching a movie/show. As far as performance goes, it has been pulling stuff from the water since I fired it up but I don't have a large enough bioload to maintain a full head of foam. After the fluconazole treatment that will change though

btmedic04 · Dec 1, 2018

Just finished weekly maintenance and rewarded myself with a diffuser for my Radion XR15. The visual quality improvement is quite pronounced! Like I think the diffuser should be included in the package right from the factory. Here are my aquariums chemistry readings post water change

Phosphate: 0 (undetectable on red sea pro kit. maybe time to invest in ULR Hannah checker)
Nitrate: 3 (color was between 2 and 4)
PH: 8.2
Calcium: 430
Alkalinity: 8.1
Magnesium: 1360

Fluconazole arrived today and will be going in tonight after lights out. I had to keep telling myself this at my LFS because they had a very nice piece of rock with rasta zoa's and a bit of a green lepto on it as well

btmedic04 · Dec 4, 2018

Today is day 3 of fluconazole being in my system. So far no effects on my clownfish, trochus snails, zoa frag or even my pod population. Now the bryopsis population is a different story. Theres already some die off and recession, but a few other areas that are still pretty deep green. Hopefully those spots start dying off soon. I'll probably pick up a few more snails and maybe some hermits this week. Also I am getting very nice green coraline algae forming on my rockwork and specks of purple showing up as well

btmedic04 · Dec 5, 2018

The bryopsis is really dying back today on day 4, so I put my skimmer cup back on and set it to dry skim. I figure it cant hurt to pull some of that out now since I have 10 days to go until my next water change. I also added 4 dwarf blue legged hermits today who immediately started going to town on the bryopsis wreckage. My LFS is having a coral sale this month too. 10% off of all corals and buy one get one in their $30,$20,$10 frag tanks. I may have picked up a rasta frag and an unknown zoa frag (its got a neon green center and purple skirt) I also toyed around with my phones camera setting a bit. Let me know if these look better to you guys