CWerner's IM 50 Nuvo AIO build

[cwerner]

Well the tank is cycled and the fish are being transferred! This cycle was really fast compared to my old tank. I think purchasing live rock and using marine pure blocks from my old tank really helped the cycling speed of this one. I've been taking ammonia and nitrite/nitrate readings every day and have never had detectable levels of ammonia and my nitrite levels are now at 0 as well. Nitrates are now hovering between 20-50 ppm.

My plan is to do a large water change and then use a bag of gfo to get my nitrates and phosphates down into very low range and start my carbon dosing with Tropic Marin NP Bacto Balance.

I ended up ordering the PLS-50 from mode aquariums. The Tunze 9004 I had was generating a ton of micro bubbles that were going into the main display. Too bad.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Well the tank is cycled and the fish are being transferred! This cycle was really fast compared to my old tank. I think purchasing live rock and using marine pure blocks from my old tank really helped the cycling speed of this one. I've been taking ammonia and nitrite/nitrate readings every day and have never had detectable levels of ammonia and my nitrite levels are now at 0 as well. Nitrates are now hovering between 20-50 ppm.

My plan is to do a large water change and then use a bag of gfo to get my nitrates and phosphates down into very low range and start my carbon dosing with Tropic Marin NP Bacto Balance.

I ended up ordering the PLS-50 from mode aquariums. The Tunze 9004 I had was generating a ton of micro bubbles that were going into the main display. Too bad.

Looking good! The Tunze is a nice skimmer and I used one in my old 46Bow but didn't like that it would only fit in the first chamber of the IM tank. There was at least one person here who successfully used one with a 50 Lagoon (@Griev I believe) but he had a very particular setup with mangroves in the second chamber that likely helped with filtration. I will say without a doubt that the PLS-50 is the real deal, though. It fits in chamber two and skims out stuff that I can't even see through! My IM NuvoSkim had skimmate that was just slightly discolored water most of the time (and we won't get into the multiple pump failures). I've already seen a significant improvement in my numbers (PO4 and pH) and I am glad I took the chance. Hopefully your experience is similarly positive!

 

[tnw50cal]

See my built thread on my IM 50 lagoon, I have a Reef Octopus classic 90 HOB skimmer on mine----love it. The 1st few days of break in are fun but after that it's great. Best skimmer I've ever owned.

 

[cwerner]

See my built thread on my IM 50 lagoon, I have a Reef Octopus classic 90 HOB skimmer on mine----love it. The 1st few days of break in are fun but after that it's great. Best skimmer I've ever owned.

If this skimmer ends up not doing the job that is my most likely alternative. The only reason I didn't pick it before was I was hoping for a cleaner look.

 

[cwerner]

Well all of the fish are transferred, my ammonia and nitrites are at 0, I'm considering that a success. Honestly I'm a little surprised that it resulted in 0 losses, but we'll see if that holds up. I received my PLS-50 and have it running. I'm pretty happy so far. Love that it fits in the second compartment.

I'm going to start ramping up my carbon dosing regimen. .3 mL per day of TM NP-Bacto-Balance. To start up to a Max of .5 mL per day for a new tank my size. I'm running a bag of gfo to lower my nitrate and phosphates levels to the recommended amount before starting my dosing. I added pods and am dosing phytoplankton right now since I'm scared they won't have enough food right now

 

[cwerner]

Thought I should provide an update on this since it's been a couple weeks.

The tank is doing well! In fact, it's doing rather suspiciously well. I keep waiting for a shoe to drop since my first tank I was kind of plagued with issues with tank parameters and this one has been pretty smooth sailing despite being sumpless and a lower water volume.

The skimmer is doing a great job. I have to empty the collection cup every few days.



I've been doing small water changes pretty steadily and my tank parameters as of testing tonight are as follows:

Temp: 77F
Nitrates: 8ppm
Phospates: .03ish ppm
Calcium - 420-450 ppm
ALK: 8.0
PH: 8.2

I'm currently dosing .3 ml per day of the bacto-balance by Tropic Marin, which seems like pretty much nothing. The numbers are roughly staying the same though, I'm not sure if my carbon dosing is actually doing anything, or if my skimmer is just removing nutrients from the water column before it can cause any nitrate or phosphate spikes. On top of my carbon dosing I'm also dosing 15 mL of phyto pods per day to make sure that the pods I put in stay alive. I'm also nervous about my UV killing the pods as well but I see them on the glass pretty regularly so it doesn't appear to be killing all of them at least. My Ca and ALK numbers haven't dropped at all, I wish there was an easier way to get a more exact Calcium reading. It's really tough even with the Red Sea Pro kit to get a very exact measurement. I have the Hanna Checker for Ca as well and it's really tough. I'm planning on upping the dosage of bacto balance to .4 mL per day and see if my numbers start decreasing. Once I actually start seeing numbers decrease I will start dosing the 2-part ESV additives to bring it back up.

The ugly stage has started somewhat. I'm not getting large outcroppings of algae, but cyano will pop up a bit in the sand and green algae is growing on the rocks, but I think I'm also seeing spots of coralline starting on my bare rocks, which is really exciting because my old tank never really grew coralline well. When (or if?) I start getting more algae I'll plan on getting a lawnmower blenny or something along those lines. I'd love to get a tang but there isn't really a species that would do well in this size tank. I'll play it by ear and see what happens. Here is a picture of the tank with the lights off. My phone camera really makes the green POP, it doesn't look like this in real life, but there is some algae growth on the rocks.

 

[cwerner]

Here's the latest update. I've made some coral purchases! I also picked up a lawnmower blenny as there's now enough algae in the tank (I think) to support one. I also picked up some nassarius snails to help stir up the sandbed.

I picked up a nice elegance and birdsnest, as well as a combo pack that I'm not having much luck identifying. My parameters are remaining roughly the same, I upped the NP Bacto-Balance dosing amount to see if I can lower nitrates a bit more. I'd like to be running under 5 nitrates and .01-.03 phosphates if possible. I could get a nice picture of my lawnmower blenny as he burrowed into a hollow under a rock and has darted into it any time he sees any movement.

Corals:



If anyone knows what the above corals are I'd love to know. I wish LiveAquaria would label what they actually send you in the combo packs.

Birdsnest:



I see polyp extensions, but it looks rather pale for something that's supposed to be orange.

Elegance:



I'll be honest. Half of the reason I got into the hobby was seeing the Tidal Garden video's on caring for Elegance corals and being absolutely mesmerized. I think these are the prettiest things in the hobby and I'm going to try really hard to take good care of it.

 

[cwerner]

Well I made my first major mistake in the tank. I upped the dosage of my Bacto Balance and bottomed out the Nutrients. Unfortunately this seems to have killed my birdsnest. Everything else appears to be surviving just fine, but I need to get the numbers back up to where they need to be. I'll probably dose Phosphates and Nitrates to get them to a healthy level. I'm also sure that the amount of GHA growing on the sandbed is contributing to sucking away my nutrients. I'm going to heavily dose Coral Frenzy to try to get my nutrients back in balance. I'm terrified of dinos after my experiences with my last tank, so I want to ensure that doesn't happen again with this one.

 

[dphan2007]

love the tank setup brotha. Keep it up.

 

[Rhino]

How are you still liking the lights? I’m looking at getting a pair for a 40 breeder I’m putting together.

 

[dphan2007]

Here's the latest update. I've made some coral purchases! I also picked up a lawnmower blenny as there's now enough algae in the tank (I think) to support one. I also picked up some nassarius snails to help stir up the sandbed.

I picked up a nice elegance and birdsnest, as well as a combo pack that I'm not having much luck identifying. My parameters are remaining roughly the same, I upped the NP Bacto-Balance dosing amount to see if I can lower nitrates a bit more. I'd like to be running under 5 nitrates and .01-.03 phosphates if possible. I could get a nice picture of my lawnmower blenny as he burrowed into a hollow under a rock and has darted into it any time he sees any movement.

Corals:



If anyone knows what the above corals are I'd love to know. I wish LiveAquaria would label what they actually send you in the combo packs.

Birdsnest:



I see polyp extensions, but it looks rather pale for something that's supposed to be orange.

Elegance:



I'll be honest. Half of the reason I got into the hobby was seeing the Tidal Garden video's on caring for Elegance corals and being absolutely mesmerized. I think these are the prettiest things in the hobby and I'm going to try really hard to take good care of it.

I agree with you. We all have that own coral that makes us happy! Love the tank so far!

 

[cwerner]

Well I am back. A lot of life has happened since I last updated this thread. My MIL was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and with COVID still rearing its ugly head we had no childcare with two young kids. My time to manage the tank went down exponentially with my wife working thirds and me working firsts + childcare taking up a lot of the time in between.

The tank has been in sort of a holding pattern for the last several months and unfortunately DID suffer neglect, but things have gotten a bit better and I am back on the horse.

My tank is still definitely in the ugly phase, which is probably not helped by the fact that the skimmer and filtration I have appear to be doing TOO good of a job at nutrient reduction and the phosphate and nitrate levels have been undetectable for a couple months now. I was hoping to resolve this with heavier feedings, but so far it hasn't results in higher levels. I'm doing manual Cyano and GHA removal, luckily I seem to have avoided Dino's so far. It's likely the algae growth is what is actually sucking up these nutrients, so I've actually started dosing Brightwell NeoNitro and NeoPhos to get the levels at around .03 Phosphates and 5 ppm Nitrates.

I also have made a couple of equipment changes to the tank as well. My Maxpect lights have been replaced with the new Current USA R24 lgihts. This wasn't due to the performance of the light hardware, but I was pretty curious about the new lights and the form factor matches my tank a lot better. So far I'm a fan of the new lights, but only time will tell. I do actually prefer the Current method of using Bluetooth rather than Wifi, I have yet to see a Wifi connected lighting system really handle connecting to your home network really well and the apps tend to be buggy as well, but that is more an industry-wide standard rather than a specific fault with Maxspect.

I still have my Elegance Coral and Mushroom coral. The Elegance is in a bad way due to the neglect, but I'm trying to nurse it back to health. I've also placed an order for some more corals that should be arriving next week.

Here are a couple pictures of the lights attached to my tank:

 

[cwerner]

Just wanted to provide an update for some of the Coral that's currently in my system. They're in the sandbed currently while I wait to make sure they're healthy and getting what they need before I glue them to the rock....I also am waiting for a Par meter rental from BRS to arrive so I know of the better spots to place some of these. Most of these are lower light corals and I don't want to put them where they'll be getting blasted so I need some real numbers.

I placed my order for these @Tidal Gardens except for the Hammer, which came from a LFS. The frags are in good condition and look great! Now lets hope I can keep them that way.

Hammer:



Duncan (This one especially looks really good in the tank):



Zoa:



Red Sea Xenia:



Birdsnest:


I've had this toadstool for a while and it's put up with all my abuse:

 

[Tidal Gardens]

The toadstool could definitely get some lower light.

 

[TaylorP78]

Thought I should provide an update on this since it's been a couple weeks.

The tank is doing well! In fact, it's doing rather suspiciously well. I keep waiting for a shoe to drop since my first tank I was kind of plagued with issues with tank parameters and this one has been pretty smooth sailing despite being sumpless and a lower water volume.

The skimmer is doing a great job. I have to empty the collection cup every few days.



I've been doing small water changes pretty steadily and my tank parameters as of testing tonight are as follows:

Temp: 77F
Nitrates: 8ppm
Phospates: .03ish ppm
Calcium - 420-450 ppm
ALK: 8.0
PH: 8.2

I'm currently dosing .3 ml per day of the bacto-balance by Tropic Marin, which seems like pretty much nothing. The numbers are roughly staying the same though, I'm not sure if my carbon dosing is actually doing anything, or if my skimmer is just removing nutrients from the water column before it can cause any nitrate or phosphate spikes. On top of my carbon dosing I'm also dosing 15 mL of phyto pods per day to make sure that the pods I put in stay alive. I'm also nervous about my UV killing the pods as well but I see them on the glass pretty regularly so it doesn't appear to be killing all of them at least. My Ca and ALK numbers haven't dropped at all, I wish there was an easier way to get a more exact Calcium reading. It's really tough even with the Red Sea Pro kit to get a very exact measurement. I have the Hanna Checker for Ca as well and it's really tough. I'm planning on upping the dosage of bacto balance to .4 mL per day and see if my numbers start decreasing. Once I actually start seeing numbers decrease I will start dosing the 2-part ESV additives to bring it back up.

The ugly stage has started somewhat. I'm not getting large outcroppings of algae, but cyano will pop up a bit in the sand and green algae is growing on the rocks, but I think I'm also seeing spots of coralline starting on my bare rocks, which is really exciting because my old tank never really grew coralline well. When (or if?) I start getting more algae I'll plan on getting a lawnmower blenny or something along those lines. I'd love to get a tang but there isn't really a species that would do well in this size tank. I'll play it by ear and see what happens. Here is a picture of the tank with the lights off. My phone camera really makes the green POP, it doesn't look like this in real life, but there is some algae growth on the rocks.

So part of the reason that the carbon dosing may not be working super well is that your phosphates are pretty low, the carbon dosing is just adding food for the bacteria to consume the nitrates and phosphates but they need both in order to actually work, without phosphates that are able to be decreased you can’t decrease your nitrates with carbon dosing.

 

[TaylorP78]

If you are able to stay away from carbon dosing I would because it acidifies your water quickly lowering ph, I personally have done carbon dosing with great success you just also need to make sure your on top of ph and alk.

 

[TaylorP78]

Also if you happen to finish using the par meter before the trials up I’d be willing to pay you to let me use it for a day or two, if that’s okay with you.

 

[cwerner]

We could probably work something out. If you work at Best Fish this weekend I might be able to drop it off for you to use. Go ahead and DM me if you want.

 

[cwerner]

I was able to rent a PAR meter from BRS and take some par measurements with my tank with the new reef lights.

Honestly I was pretty happy with the results. Seems like pretty even lights and on my rocks it looks like there's plenty of par for SPS:



I'm still battling cyano. I'm not dosing carbon at all and my skimmer still seems to be lowering nitrates and phosphates. It's a pretty wet skim so I may try to adjust it to skim a bit drier.

 

[cwerner]

Thought I would update this thread.

My cyano is looking much better. I'm still struggling to keep my nutrients up. Water my last tank it is a complete paradigm shift to be struggling to not have enough nutrients. I might be dosing phosphates and nitrates for a long time.

I'm thinking of adding a timer for my skimmer to only have it on for a certain length of time each day like 16 hours or so and try to get it dialed in.

Also, my baffles are absolutely packed with pineapple sponges, I've heard they're mostly beneficial and tend to die off and reach equilibrium. Unless someone has more information I'll probably plan on just leaving them. I also picked up a cobolt neotherm for heating since it looks like my aqueon had only been keeping the tank at 75-76 or so and it's getting older anyways.

I picked up a nice Chalice coral as well as some trumpets since my last update. Here's a full tank shot so far.