CWerner's IM 50 Nuvo AIO build

[Calm Blue Ocean]

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.

Looking good! I've been through a few waves of sponges. Mostly I just let them be and clean them out when I do a deep cleaning on the back chambers every 6 months or so, although I just cleaned my return and skimmer pumps a few days ago because the sponges were getting a bit too friendly with them. So really, unless they are getting into your equipment and clogging things up, I don't think there is really any harm in leaving them.

 

[Ricox]

Looks good!

 

[cwerner]

What are the rest of you doing for nutrient export besides water changes? I've been dosing .5 mL of NP Bacto-Balance weekly since the tank started, but honestly It's stupid to have my dosing pump dose .5 mL of something once a week. I'd prefer daily or hourly doses. I'm curious if it's possible to dilute the bacto balance. Right now I'm dosing so little that I doubt its' dosing an accurate amount of carbon anyways. I'm considering going biopellets, but I don't really want a media reactor hanging off my tank.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

What are the rest of you doing for nutrient export besides water changes? I've been dosing .5 mL of NP Bacto-Balance weekly since the tank started, but honestly It's stupid to have my dosing pump dose .5 mL of something once a week. I'd prefer daily or hourly doses. I'm curious if it's possible to dilute the bacto balance. Right now I'm dosing so little that I doubt its' dosing an accurate amount of carbon anyways. I'm considering going biopellets, but I don't really want a media reactor hanging off my tank.

What kind of numbers are you getting? I've battled high nutrients for the past year with nitrates peaking around 30 and phosphates over 1 at one point.

Water changes are a big part of keeping my system in check but I also I dose 0.7ml TM Elimi-NP daily. I recently switched to Seachem Matrix in the bottom of my media caddy but I don't know if that really does anything extra for me since I do so many other things. I make sure that I swap out my filter floss at least a few times a week. Chemipure-Blue changed once a month and IM GFO every two weeks. With my tank it takes constant vigilance or it all starts creeping up again.

 

[cwerner]

I'm usually hovering around .01 - .03 Phosphates and 1-3 nitrates if I dose phosphate and nitrate every other week or so. Otherwise it seems my skimmer pulls all of the nutrients out of the water column. Which is weird because I think I have a pretty heavily stocked tank as far as fish go.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I'm usually hovering around .01 - .03 Phosphates and 1-3 nitrates if I dose phosphate and nitrate every other week or so. Otherwise it seems my skimmer pulls all of the nutrients out of the water column. Which is weird because I think I have a pretty heavily stocked tank as far as fish go.

All you guys with the low nutrients, I should send you some water from my next water change. I was excited to see my PO4 under 0.3 today. ;Hilarious

I wonder if Tropic Marin's Plus-NP might be a more appropriate product for you rather than Bacto-Balance?

 

[cwerner]

I really like that NP-bacto balance has trace amounts of Phosphate and Nitrates because I have an inordinate fear of dinos after a horrible outbreak of them nuked my last tank. It very well could be that NoPox or Plus-NP could be a better option. I'll have to look into that.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I really like that NP-bacto balance has trace amounts of Phosphate and Nitrates because I have an inordinate fear of dinos after a horrible outbreak of them nuked my last tank. It very well could be that NoPox or Plus-NP could be a better option. I'll have to look into that.

Yeah, just say no to dinos! If there is one thing I could go back and change it would be DON'T GET DINOS. Never thought my young system could bottom out like that so quickly, and never thought something could be so destructive (and I didn't even have a really bad case). I think it took a very long time for my biofilter to recover, way past when the dinos were long gone. I think it's still recovering, and it's been over a year now.

 

[TheWB]

What are the rest of you doing for nutrient export besides water changes? I've been dosing .5 mL of NP Bacto-Balance weekly since the tank started, but honestly It's stupid to have my dosing pump dose .5 mL of something once a week. I'd prefer daily or hourly doses. I'm curious if it's possible to dilute the bacto balance. Right now I'm dosing so little that I doubt its' dosing an accurate amount of carbon anyways. I'm considering going biopellets, but I don't really want a media reactor hanging off my tank.

Just my skimmer for 16 hours a day and replacing floss or pads whenever. I also have chemipure elite which gets changed out every couple of months when I remember. I’m having trouble keeping nutrients up so I’ve been dosing some NeoNitro to keep from bottoming out. I have several bags of matrix in the back chambers as well. I actually think my biggest weapon against high nitrates is my colony of pulsing Xenia. I’m almost afraid to pull it out even though it’s getting too big for my tank. It was given to me so I stuck it in as a 1” frag and now it’s huge. Hasn’t invaded anywhere other than it’s little rock so just leaving it alone for now.

 

[cwerner]

Just my skimmer for 16 hours a day and replacing floss or pads whenever. I also have chemipure elite which gets changed out every couple of months when I remember. I’m having trouble keeping nutrients up so I’ve been dosing some NeoNitro to keep from bottoming out. I have several bags of matrix in the back chambers as well. I actually think my biggest weapon against high nitrates is my colony of pulsing Xenia. I’m almost afraid to pull it out even though it’s getting too big for my tank. It was given to me so I stuck it in as a 1” frag and now it’s huge. Hasn’t invaded anywhere other than it’s little rock so just leaving it alone for now.

My pulsing zenia frag that was about 2" in size about a month ago is already about twice that size. I'm growing a back panel of GSP so I'm sure that that is also sucking up some nutrients. It's not growing as quickly as the Xenia, but it's growing pretty quick.

 

[TheWB]

My pulsing zenia frag that was about 2" in size about a month ago is already about twice that size. I'm growing a back panel of GSP so I'm sure that that is also sucking up some nutrients. It's not growing as quickly as the Xenia, but it's growing pretty quick.

My Xenia is about 8”L x 5”W x 4H” all from a 1” frag on a 2” rock. I don’t even understand how it can all be attached to such a small rock, it’s crazy. Terrible picture but look at this thing.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

My Xenia is about 8”L x 5”W x 4H” all from a 1” frag on a 2” rock. I don’t even understand how it can all be attached to such a small rock, it’s crazy. Terrible picture but look at this thing.

Haha, I've got one of these, too. One inch rock and yet it's a big pulsing monster. No idea how it has so much mass with so little to attach too. I had a huge xenia colony in my old thank that I'm sure was a key to keeping my water quality in order. I am a xenia fan.

 

[TheWB]

Haha, I've got one of these, too. One inch rock and yet it's a big pulsing monster. No idea how it has so much mass with so little to attach too. I had a huge xenia colony in my old thank that I'm sure was a key to keeping my water quality in order. I am a xenia fan.

I like Xenia too but I’m running out of real estate and I don’t want it attaching to anything else.

 

[cwerner]

Got some new coral yesterday from the Cultivated Reef sale that @Zach B let us know about.

Got a couple cool-looking acros and a procillipora:

CR Commoners Envy:

Ora Pearlberry:

CR Electric Myagi Tort:

I also made the switch to Brightwell's BioFuel CWM for carbon dosing and it's much easier to dose as I can dose 2.5 ml a day starting dose rather than .4 ml a week. The downside of course is it doesn't last as long, but it's much cheaper per volume than NP Bacto Balance. I'll be keeping a close eye on phosphates and nitrates over the next few weeks to ensure I don't strip them out.

 

[Zach B]

Got some new coral yesterday from the Cultivated Reef sale that @Zach B let us know about.

Got a couple cool-looking acros and a procillipora:

CR Commoners Envy:

Ora Pearlberry:

CR Electric Myagi Tort:

I also made the switch to Brightwell's BioFuel CWM for carbon dosing and it's much easier to dose as I can dose 2.5 ml a day starting dose rather than .4 ml a week. The downside of course is it doesn't last as long, but it's much cheaper per volume than NP Bacto Balance. I'll be keeping a close eye on phosphates and nitrates over the next few weeks to ensure I don't strip them out.

Awesome!

 

[cpschult]

Have any updated pictures of tank?


The xenia can be a monster nutrient export mechanism too. My wife loved the look and I had it in my 125 gallon years ago. I don't think I'll have in a tank again though.

 

[cwerner]

Well...I could use some good vibes boys. I realize I haven't updated this thread in quite a while. A lot of life has been lived since my last update. In the last year and a half or so I've had the following life events:

My mother-in-law was diagnosed with Breast Cancer (she is okay now)
My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer (she is also okay now)
My uncle had a heart attack (he has lost 30 lbs and is doing much better health-wise)
My brother-in-law had a heart transplant.
My other brother-in-law had a mitral valve replacement.
I got a new job (More money, but much more time away from the tank).

I've been kind of just doing basic maintenance on the tank for the past year since everything has been so crazy. Honestly 6 months ago I cam pretty close to taking down the tank since I had so little time and frankly mentally I wasn't in a good place. Luckily I was still doing 10% water changes and regular feedings. The nutrients in the tank slowly creeped up, but not to any dangerous levels for anything except the most sensitive acro's. I saw some decent coral growth with my LPS and softies, but my SPS mostly just maintained themselves, with a couple colonies dying off due to my neglect.

Unfortunately I had disaster strike this morning. My wifes cats managed to sink both of my Current USA R24 reef lights under the water (One of the weaknesses of Flex Arm mounts). One of the lights was still running, so it looked like it wasn't completely dead. I think this caused copper release into the tank, at least that matches the symptoms.

It nuked several of my most established corals

I've done an emergency 100% water change now, and cleaned up as much of the coral as I could. Here are the things that are dead:

All of my established SPS (Myagi Tort, Pearlberry, Green Slimer, Birdsnest, and one coral I never figured out what it was)
My Elegance Coral
Several colonies of my Yellow polyps
All of my duncans detached
About half of my candycanes.

None of my fish are dead so far, I think it depends on if there was just copper released, or if they picked up some stray voltage in the tank.

Honestly I'm pretty happy that my family is in a better spot health-wise than it has been in the past year. If this had happened 6 months ago no question I would have dismantled the tank and given up the hobby, at least temporarily. What's somewhat surprising to me is that I feel no desire to quit with this major setback, even though 6 months ago even when the tank was in good shape I was tempted to pack it all up.

I'll update the thread once I have more info, but I haven't given up on this dang money-suck of a hobby yet.

P.S. I ordered a ReefBreeders 24 V2 Photon fixture and the Maxspect 2k with Hydros Wave Engine LE to replace my shorted lights, controller, and wave pumps

 

[TheWB]

Well...I could use some good vibes boys. I realize I haven't updated this thread in quite a while. A lot of life has been lived since my last update. In the last year and a half or so I've had the following life events:

My mother-in-law was diagnosed with Breast Cancer (she is okay now)
My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer (she is also okay now)
My uncle had a heart attack (he has lost 30 lbs and is doing much better health-wise)
My brother-in-law had a heart transplant.
My other brother-in-law had a mitral valve replacement.
I got a new job (More money, but much more time away from the tank).

I've been kind of just doing basic maintenance on the tank for the past year since everything has been so crazy. Honestly 6 months ago I cam pretty close to taking down the tank since I had so little time and frankly mentally I wasn't in a good place. Luckily I was still doing 10% water changes and regular feedings. The nutrients in the tank slowly creeped up, but not to any dangerous levels for anything except the most sensitive acro's. I saw some decent coral growth with my LPS and softies, but my SPS mostly just maintained themselves, with a couple colonies dying off due to my neglect.

Unfortunately I had disaster strike this morning. My wifes cats managed to sink both of my Current USA R24 reef lights under the water (One of the weaknesses of Flex Arm mounts). One of the lights was still running, so it looked like it wasn't completely dead. I think this caused copper release into the tank, at least that matches the symptoms.

It nuked several of my most established corals

I've done an emergency 100% water change now, and cleaned up as much of the coral as I could. Here are the things that are dead:

All of my established SPS (Myagi Tort, Pearlberry, Green Slimer, Birdsnest, and one coral I never figured out what it was)
My Elegance Coral
Several colonies of my Yellow polyps
All of my duncans detached
About half of my candycanes.

None of my fish are dead so far, I think it depends on if there was just copper released, or if they picked up some stray voltage in the tank.

Honestly I'm pretty happy that my family is in a better spot health-wise than it has been in the past year. If this had happened 6 months ago no question I would have dismantled the tank and given up the hobby, at least temporarily. What's somewhat surprising to me is that I feel no desire to quit with this major setback, even though 6 months ago even when the tank was in good shape I was tempted to pack it all up.

I'll update the thread once I have more info, but I haven't given up on this dang money-suck of a hobby yet.

P.S. I ordered a ReefBreeders 24 V2 Photon fixture and the Maxspect 2k with Hydros Wave Engine LE to replace my shorted lights, controller, and wave pumps

Sending some good vibes your way man. That’s a rough year for anyone. All I can say is hang in there, get the new equipment up and running, and try to save whatever you can. Sometimes corals make a comeback so maybe you’ll get lucky with a couple of those sps pieces, you never know. Good luck.

 

[cwerner]

Well, to replace my old lights/wavepumps I picked up the following:

Photon 24-V2 Pro LED Light
2K Gyre Flow Pump (2000 GPH) with WaveEngine LE Controller

HYDROS Control X4 / XP8 PRO Pack​

HYDROS ATO Auto Top-Off Kit​

Basically, I used this as an excuse to re-do most of the electronics in my tank, and finally use a controller on my heater, which I've been using a Cobolt heater since this tank has been up with no backup.

I'll try to take some pictures of ripping my existing equipment out, and replacing it with the new equipment, as well as doing what I can to cat-proof my cabinet and tank baffles.

 

[cwerner]

Well the lights and Gyre with Wave Engine arrived yesterday:

I got the electrics mounted underneath the cabinet in a semi-neat cable run that should allow for expansion and further changes. I admire the looks of the guys that have everything zip-tied to perfection, but man if they ever have to go back and change anything it becomes a big PITA:

The light is pretty clean looking except for the mount. I might try to figure out another mounting option since the legs on the tank aren't too sharp looking.

This gyre is a beast. I have it between 1 - 10% power in Gyre mode and it's still kicking detritus all over the tank. Once things settle down I'm sure it will provide some great movement, but I'm going to be changing my floss a lot for a couple days most likely.

Most of my SPS colonies have completely given up the ghost and I've removed them. one colony of unkown (maybe Tort?) acro's are hanging on, with the part that was closest to the light bleached out and a couple spots of STN. My duncans and my hammer has completely detached, as did my Elegance. A couple of my candy canes detached, but the rest appear to be hanging on. My Acan looks pretty happy and hungry, but he was further away from the light.