btmedic04's Nuvo 20 and 10 build thread

[btmedic04]

Did the guards work? Won’t the snails just block the water from entering the guard area and still mess with water level?

yeah, the guards work by keeping the snails off of the overflow itself. they still reduce the water level but its almost nothing compared to a snail being directly on it. My snails can now sit on there and theres still enough flow that it wont reduce my center chamber in the back.

So


Sorry for the double post stupid phone lol and what do you mean by surface skimming? I have a skimmer in the back chamber sorry if that’s a stupid question still relatively new to all this lol

My phone does the same thing all the time lol! and its all good bud! we're all here learning! What I meant by surface skimming is in the display tank, a visible film of proteins, dust etc will usually form on the surface of the water unless there is an overflow with teeth or an overflow like on our nuvos. as the water flows through and down the overflow, it creates enough suction and turbulence to prevent that film from forming. At least on my nuvos, those guards blocked enough flow to prevent the surface skimming from taking place until I modified them by taking out a couple horizontal bars. Once I did that, that surface scum stopped forming in the display

 

[Anthony Danta]

yeah, the guards work by keeping the snails off of the overflow itself. they still reduce the water level but its almost nothing compared to a snail being directly on it. My snails can now sit on there and theres still enough flow that it wont reduce my center chamber in the back.



My phone does the same thing all the time lol! and its all good bud! we're all here learning! What I meant by surface skimming is in the display tank, a visible film of proteins, dust etc will usually form on the surface of the water unless there is an overflow with teeth or an overflow like on our nuvos. as the water flows through and down the overflow, it creates enough suction and turbulence to prevent that film from forming. At least on my nuvos, those guards blocked enough flow to prevent the surface skimming from taking place until I modified them by taking out a couple horizontal bars. Once I did that, that surface scum stopped forming in the display

Ok awesome I get what you’re meaning. I am gonna pick some up and try them out and run them normal and keep a eye on the surface if I notice that stuff building on the surface I’ll try modifying them like you did. Thanks man!

 

[Anthony Danta]

So when I modify these do I want the pieces i cut out to be at the water level? Can you post a pic of how yours looks installed in the tank so I do it right the first time lol. I Installed them and seems to be keeping my water level steady but just after 1/2 a day I can see the surface getting dirty so I wanna modify it like you did thanks!

 

[btmedic04]

So when I modify these do I want the pieces i cut out to be at the water level? Can you post a pic of how yours looks installed in the tank so I do it right the first time lol. I Installed them and seems to be keeping my water level steady but just after 1/2 a day I can see the surface getting dirty so I wanna modify it like you did thanks!

I'll take a pic for you when I get home from work today. Heres a pic of them before I installed them. I think I took out two horizontal bars

 

[Anthony Danta]

I'll take a pic for you when I get home from work today. Heres a pic of them before I installed them. I think I took out two horizontal bars

Ya i have the midsize ones and they are bigger so i just need to know where is your water level at compared to the cut outs im assuming its right in the middle of the pieces you cut out but just wanna double check before i chop these up lol thanks man

 

[btmedic04]

Ya i have the midsize ones and they are bigger so i just need to know where is your water level at compared to the cut outs im assuming its right in the middle of the pieces you cut out but just wanna double check before i chop these up lol thanks man

Totally understand bud! As promised here are a couple of pics. One view from under the surface, and one from above. I hope these help!

 

[Anthony Danta]

Totally understand bud! As promised here are a couple of pics. One view from under the surface, and one from above. I hope these help!

Awesome kinda what I thought I needed to do but figured since you were successful I’d just double check haha thanks much appreciated!

 

[btmedic04]

Awesome kinda what I thought I needed to do but figured since you were successful I’d just double check haha thanks much appreciated!

For sure bud! I'm glad I could help you out!

 

[Aeb1419]

How do you like the protein skimmer on your 20 gallon? I am looking for one and haven't decided what I should get. Also how much flow you got going on in there?

 

[btmedic04]

How do you like the protein skimmer on your 20 gallon? I am looking for one and haven't decided what I should get. Also how much flow you got going on in there?

I'm mostly happy with my skimmer. It does pull some nasty stuff out but it requires monthly maintenance otherwise the air inlet clogs with calcium carbonate build up. This leads to a few days of microbubbles afterwords. As far as flow, I have a sicce 1.0 that puts out 251 gph and I have my mp10wqd programmed at 30% reef crest, 30% gyre, 30% lagoon, 10% constant. That's up to 450gph. So total is 701 gph before losses. So roughly 35x turnover.

 

[Aeb1419]

I'm mostly happy with my skimmer. It does pull some nasty stuff out but it requires monthly maintenance otherwise the air inlet clogs with calcium carbonate build up. This leads to a few days of microbubbles afterwords. As far as flow, I have a sicce 1.0 that puts out 251 gph and I have my mp10wqd programmed at 30% reef crest, 30% gyre, 30% lagoon, 10% constant. That's up to 450gph. So total is 701 gph before losses. So roughly 35x turnover.

Thanks for the info. That is alot of flow. Im assuming you need that for SPS. Good to know. Nice build!

 

[Aeb1419]

How often do you do water changes and how many gallons? And what do you run in the Media reactor?

Sorry for the questions its just you seem very successful and I hope to do the same.

 

[btmedic04]

I've added new corals since my last update. Everything is still growing like weeds. My acro has almost encrusted all traces of the superglue blob it was on. I had to back my radions off to 35% AB+ as I started noticing some of my corals were bleaching a bit. Note to self, rent a par meter in the near future.

Also my green clown goby came down with ich in the nuvo 10. The tail spot has no signs or symptoms of it, but I removed both and they are in the infirmary for the next 30 days. They will go into the nuvo 20 while the 10 goes through its fallow period. Second note to self, begin to QT corals for 76 days before they go in. This leaves me in a bit of a pickle as I leave for annual training next month and did not want to make any changes to any of my tanks while I'm gone. My lady has agreed to tend to my tanks while I'm gone. Shes even going to do a water change, however I may have her just do a larger one on the 20 and forego the change on the 10 since the bioload will be greater in the 20. Third note to self, take the lady out somewhere nice to let her know I appreciate her watching my tanks while I'm gone.

Thanks for the info. That is alot of flow. Im assuming you need that for SPS. Good to know. Nice build!

Thank you! Everything seems to be happy as theres a nice mixed of high and low flow areas. I'm seeing awesome growth with my sps, zoas, and acans. I wish my euphyllia would grow a bit faster but I'm sure I'm just being impatient lol

 

[btmedic04]

Current FTS

 

[btmedic04]

How often do you do water changes and how many gallons? And what do you run in the Media reactor?

Sorry for the questions its just you seem very successful and I hope to do the same.

No need to apologize! We're all here learning and anything I can do to help, I'll share!

I do weekly water changes. 3 gallons for the nuvo 20 and 2 gallons for the nuvo 10. I change my floss during my water changes. I run 2 tbsp of rox 0.8 carbon in the media reactor on the 20 and 2 tbsp of rox 0.8 carbon in a media bag on the 10. I change those out every 2 weeks. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[btmedic04]

I picked up a couple of frag racks from a r2r member who was local to me as well as a Laura's purple acro from him last week. I picked up a raspberry millepora, gold millepora, red digi and another acro from another local reefer as well. I need to start planning my upgrade because these nuvos are getting awfully full!

 

[btmedic04]

Wow I cant believe i haven't updated since June! I had to leave for 3 weeks in July due to annual training for the reserves, so my girlfriend had to check in on my tanks while I was gone. She asked me to write out my maintenance schedule and did an awesome job taking care of things while I was gone. Her only prior fish keeping experience is maintaining a 1.5 gallon betta aquarium. My nitrates climbed from 5 to 20 on both tanks while I was away, but a couple of water changes corrected that and i almost killed my pink digi in my nuvo 10 by having the intensity set too high on my lighting. Dropping it down 5% has made a huge difference. I also picked up my first BTA last weekend. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it has yellows, pinks and greens on it, plus I was only charged $35 from my LFS. One of the perks of being a regular there lol.

 

[juanrmattos]

Hey!, found your thread on the Tunze Giveaway contest... Following

What is your coral feeding regimen?

Cheers

 

[btmedic04]

Hey!, found your thread on the Tunze Giveaway contest... Following

What is your coral feeding regimen?

Cheers

Sweet deal and welcome to my build thread

Currently I dose aquavitro fuel in both tanks twice a week. The 20 gets 4ml and the 10 gets 2ml. Sometimes I'll substitute a does of the aquavitro with brs reef chili. The corals that are able to eat larger food are fed LRS reef frenzy nano. Phosphates are barely detectable (but unreadable) with my red sea test kit. Nitrates are around 4-5ppm.

 

[btmedic04]

Today I noticed a rattling sound coming from my mp10 in the nuvo 10, so I swapped wet sides and took apart the offending piece. That's where I discovered the plastic shaft protector had completely separated at the base. I also noticed a slight orange discoloration along the base. Thankfully I caught it early before too much corrosion occured but now I have to contact ecotech for a replacement considering this wet side assembly is less than 3 months old.

I've been purchasing parts for my 40b upgrade and will begin preparing these tanks for transfer. Currently I'm cycling an additional 20lbs of dry rock to help minimize damage to the bio filter since I will not be reusing any sand from these systems.

Current FTS and a bonus shot of my clown goby resting on my scoly (surprised the scoly hasnt eaten him yet)

Broken wet side compared to spare wet side