btmedic04's Nuvo 20 and 10 build thread

[btmedic04]

Small update. The bryopsis is gone except for one tiny patch on a large grain of sand. I ordered some spinstreams and the overflow guards. One of my trochus snails has blocked them every night at about 12-1am just long enough to turn my ATO on and when he moves, the water level raises and it sets off the alarm. Hopefully those guards stop that so I can get a night of uninterrupted sleep lol! Also here is a picture of the start of my zoa garden and a current FTS during dusk

 

[btmedic04]

Its been a little while since my last update, so I though I'd post some good news and bad news.

The good news is I picked up a purple hammer frag and it is looking nice and happy as are most of my zoas. The rastas zoas dont stay open all day so I'm not sure whats going on there, but I'm seeing a few baby zoas popping up on the other frags. My trochus snails are still cruising around the tank and I added a couple of nassarius snails. I have only seen one pop out of the sand one time since I put them in though. The hermits have started changing to different shells that I have added to the aquarium. Not sure if i saw one that expired or a molt last night though. my numbers are still looking great as far as calcium, alk, mag, ph. phosphates and nitrates are still undetectable with my red sea kit.

Now on to the bad. I noticed my smaller black snowflake clown had a single white dot on his fin a week ago. well it was a bit concerning but it went away on its own. a couple days later I noticed a few more spots were back so I decided to quarantine both of them even though the female hadn't shown any signs and both were eating like pigs and active. From what I've read, brook kills super fast so I decided to treat this as ich. Set up a 10 gallon petsmart tank with a seachem ammonia badge, hob, heater, lid, a 3" pvc elbow and about a third of my marine pure gems in the hob and over a 2 day period dosed cupramine up to a 0.5 concentration as per my salifert copper test. their 30 day copper treatment ends on January 17th. My nuvo 20 cannot have fish in it until March 2nd. So it looks like I lost this gamble and will not be making that mistake again!

Lessons Learned:
even though the LFS may run their livestock through copper treatments, it may or may not be at therapeutic levels.
Quarantine! Quarantine! Quarantine!
a $40 topfin 10 gallon kit from petsmart and a $3.26 pvc elbow and $7 ammonia badge is well worth the investment for nano sized fish

Now to end on a more positive note, this has prompted me to begin my bedroom nano I have ordered the following parts

Nuvo 10
Cobalt MJ 1200 (wanted to try something new this time around. May end up swapping it and the Sicce 1.0 in the nuvo after a good bleach and scrub)
IM spinstream
75w cobalt neotherm heater
Micmol Aqua Mini Light
10lbs carribsea special grade
Intank floss holder
Intank refugium basket
IM Chaetomax refugium light
Autoaqua Smart ATO
2 quart Marinepure 1.5" spheres
Some left over dry rock that I didnt use in my nuvo 20
100ml biospira

 

[reef-rc]

I see the reef addiction has kicked in full swing (20G in October, 10G in Dec.) .

I'll be curious what ur plan is for Nuvo. My Waterbox 10G was started late October and I just recently started a separate thread for that here. The tank is also in my bedroom and I use it as a night lamp since it's on a very late cycle

 

[btmedic04]

I see the reef addiction has kicked in full swing (20G in October, 10G in Dec.) .

I'll be curious what ur plan is for Nuvo. My Waterbox 10G was started late October and I just recently started a separate thread for that here. The tank is also in my bedroom and I use it as a night lamp since it's on a very late cycle

Hahaha yeah it has! I haven't quite decided yet what the theme for my nuvo 10 will be. I didnt go crazy on equipment for this build like I did for the nuvo 20, so Im thinking a zoa/acan/rock nem garden but I am open to suggestions! I'm currently leak testing and I think I may need to pick up a different pump as I am not impressed with the cobalt MJ1200's noise level. My sicce 1.0 is dead silent in my nuvo 20 so I may pick up either a sicce 0.5 or 1.0 and relegate the MJ to water change duties

 

[kamla]

How far does the slipstream stick out ?

Could you get a pic from top down ?

Thax

 

[btmedic04]

How far does the slipstream stick out ?

Could you get a pic from top down ?

Thax

Sorry for the late response! I'd say it sticks out an inch and a half at most. ill post some pics when I get home from work tonight. also im about due for a thread update lol

 

[btmedic04]

Here's a little teaser video for you all



That's my spirit animal lol

 

[NY_Caveman]

That's my spirit animal lol

Ha! Awesome.

 

[SDK]

Lol. My one XL size Banded Trochus does the same thing....

 

[Res_Ipsa]

Funny video of that trochus! Mine also love climbing on my return nozzles, powerheads, overflows, etc....crazy little buggers.

 

[btmedic04]

As promised here's my very late update. The nuvo 20 is continuing to mature. Most of the rock work is covered in coralline and the first few spots are appearing on the back wall. My trochus snails are making babies but I haven't seen them since the only time I saw the babies. Sunday I'll be able to put fish in as that will complete my 76 day fallow period. I have added my first few bits of LPS. A hammer, a trumpet and I cant decide if the green and purple is a favia or acan. What do you guys think?

The clowns survived their copper treatment and haven't had a single sign since they came out of the hospital tank. They're currently in the nuvo 10 which has become a QT of sorts as it goes through its ugly phase. Anyway on to the pics

 

[btmedic04]

Here was a poorly taken picture of the baby trochus snails

 

[NY_Caveman]

This looks like Favia to me...

and this looks just awesome.

 

[btmedic04]

My nuvo 20 has finished its fallow period and the clowns are back in. Saw the yasha goby pop up on liveaquaria but I hmmed and hawed too long and they sold out. Drats! To make up for it though, I picked up 3 new corals. An acanlord, and my first two pieces of SPS; a stylophora and a chili pepper montipora. They're all on the sand bed for the week until they acclimate and then I'll get to mounting. I'm thinking the stylo will go on the top of the rock work on the left, the montipora on the top shelf on the right and the acan on the rock work below and to the left of my hammer. What do you all think?

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[Murr7]

Tank looks great I'll be following along. I just converted my nuvo 20 from a frag tank to a full blown reef tank.

 

[reef-rc]

Sounds like a plan with the stylo and monti. They both will appreciate stronger flow and lighting. I have 3 different color stylo. 2 has been in the middle of the tank and they definitely like that stronger water movement and lighting.

I would not recommend putting it close to that hammer due to it's stinging tentacles.

 

[btmedic04]

Sounds like a plan with the stylo and monti. They both will appreciate stronger flow and lighting. I have 3 different color stylo. 2 has been in the middle of the tank and they definitely like that stronger water movement and lighting.

I would not recommend putting it close to that hammer due to it's stinging tentacles.

I was thinking that it may be too close there. I can shift some sand from there as that portion of rock comes towards the front of the tank. Alternatively I suppose I could leave it on its frag disc on the sand bed or see if theres another spot on the rock work. The zoa colony on the sand bed is not secured to the main rock structure, so maybe I can move that to the right rock structure and put that acan there. Where would you consider placing it?

 

[reef-rc]

I would give 1"-2" of room for the hammer. Below is my hammer which has 4 heads I think. As you can see from the pic, the tentacles it put out there. With more flow, the tentacles can reach out father. I think mine goes out about 3"-4"

Based on the pic of your tank I would considered placing the stylo and monti here or even on the same side together.

 

[kamla]

Thax
Kamla

 

[btmedic04]

Things have been doing great this past week. I've put the stylo, monti and acan in the locations I think they will be permanently located but haven't secured them to the rock work just in case they dont like those spots. Everything is growing as I'm having to dose 10ml of liquid soda ash every day to make up for the daily 1 dkh alk drop. I think it may be time to invest in a dosing pump and have been eyeing the coral box wifi kit on reefbreeders.

In other news, I added a six line wrasse today bringing my total fish load to 3. That leaves me with 1 fish spot left for a goby + pistol shrimp.

Current parameters
Temp 77.9
Nitrate 0.125
Phosphate undetectable
Alk 9.2
Cal 440
Mag 1460
Ph 8.4
Salinity 1.026

Pics taken during dusk cycle 3/9/19