Chee's Nuvo 20g Mixed Reef

[Chee-tomorpha]

Hi,
New to R2R and reefing. I found a Nuvo 20g with the tank, stand, light, and pump about 7 months back for a great deal. I've been hooked on reefing since.

I have the stock Skyye LEDs I got with the tank and have had some decent growth in my LPS. It's too early to say for the SPS, but they're doing somewhat well at the top of the tank.

 

[EriksOasis]

Awesome looking tank! AIO tanks are a great start. I have been in the hobby for about 6 years and my third and current tank is a jbj 45 AIO and I love it. All equipment is hidden in the back and no worries of a sump.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

Thanks. I do want to upgrade to a larger tank. The 20g is difficult keep parameters stable. I almost killed the entire tank about 3 months back when I changed water, went camping over weekend, and came back to an all bleached out tank. All my fault, didn't mix and check salinity in replacement water as I was rushing to get out the door. The Duncan, Acan, Galaxea, Mushrooms, and Zoas all came back from pale and translucent after months of double checking everything.

Needles to say, I've learned a lot of lessons in the short 7 months. haha.

 

[wannaheli]

I have the same stand, tank, and lights so I would be interested in hearing all the lessons you learned. How long do you have the lights set for each day? I have mine for 6 hours because I want to make sure everything gets acclimated. I'm a complete newbie and have only had the tank for about 2 months.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good so far.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

Sorry about the late reply. Yes, I started with 6 hours and have increased to 8. I found anything more would grow algae, mileage may vary depending on your system and parameters.

Some things I noticed that worked for my tank so far:
- Doing weekly 2 gallon water changes helped a lot at the beginning. I'm now starting to see that I could do 2 week intervals, but my bio load has declined and I feed very lightly.
- Invest in an RO unit, that you can add DI resin later. Saves trips to the store and pays for itself very quickly. I was making water runs 2-3 times a week. Less if I had the cover on. W/O cover, I'd go through about 4 gallons of top off water each week. With winter setting in, in MN, I'm sure it'll get worse.
- Invest in an auto-top-off unit with a 5 gallon bucket. Keeping whatever parameters you have is key. An ATO really helps out in a small tank.
- Although water changes can keep parameters in check, I got a skimmer to help keep things stable. Invest in a skimmer if you haven't. I have the tunze 9001, modified the magnet on the skimmer to its side to fit the tank. I didn't want to remove a baffle to fit the skimmer in. There's other choices that will fit without any modifications, I only have experience with this one.
- I have good experience with the spin streams return nozzles, each with its own return pump (original + a small mag I had laying around). Others have recommended Sicce 1.5 or small, or maxi jet 600 & 900 series. No modifications for these to fit.
- If you have the lid, use it. I've lost more money on fish that I could have enough to get a hydra26 light. Also, it helps with evaporation.

Hope this helps. It's a great starter tank for me and I hope you have success with yours.

 

[wannaheli]

Thanks for the write up. The ATO and IM reservoir were probably the best purchases I'm made for the tank. Without an ATO, I'm not sure how I would go on vacation. The IM reservoir is awesome with the pull out tray to fill it. It is incredibly useful.

I don't have a skimmer and am still debating it and figuring out which ones fit my needs the best. Right now I'm doing weekly water changes of about 1.5 to 2 gallons.

Thanks for the info on the lights. I will try to increase to 8 hours and see what happens. I'll give it a few more weeks at 6 hours to get things acclimated.