Duelling Nuvo 10s

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jurgenph

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Did you use an ABS sheet to protect the bottom of the nuvo 10’s or no? Considering bare bottom for mine

i did not, bare glass bottom.

but i do not stack rocks, so not afraid of rocks falling.

J.
 
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jurgenph

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story time :)

so, my previous tank (40B) was setup from the start with the idea of low to no maintenance, and near zero water changes. long story short, that doesn't work on a new tank. it seemed like my lazyness and attempts to automate all the things just came back and bit me in the behind.

i was always fighting "something".
low nutrients, high nutrient, bleaching, browning stn, rtn, zoals closed for weeks, sponge apocalypse, diatom apocalypse, various algae, slacking on siphoning detritus and just letting it build up under the rocks in the dead sports...

with all that experience, i'm going to force myself to do biweekly water changes for the first few months, with as little dosing as possible, depending on stocking and uptake, manual dosing when required to keep things stable.
monthly water changes once things start to stabilize.

currently dosing "a few drops" of NaNO3 per week. one drop daily, or "when i rember"
one drop of Brightwell amino acids, or acropower, depends which bottle i grab.

i will be running skimmerless this time. just one less piece of equipment to worry about or clean and maintain.

current method of filtration consists of an IM filtersock, filled with some cut up pieces of Polyfilter for both mechanical and chemical filtration.
socks seem to last about a week. i ordered many extras, as i feel like i'm going to be too laze to wash them.

i still haven't decided what ATO i'm going to be using.

i try to de weekly tests of what i think is important... and will do a few triton tests per year to make sure i'm testing correctly, and test for all the other things i don't test for myself.

as of today (only tested the "left LPS tank" i'm hoping the other one is close enough to it :)

SG: 34.4 ppt (hanna)
Alk: 9.4 dKh (hanna)
Ca: 418 (hanna)
PO4: 0.061 (hanna ulr)
NO3: in between 2.4 and 5

and i moved two cerith snails and two small hermits into the left LPS tank.


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juanrmattos

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Very nice, I can totally relate to your reasoning of going smaller due to expense, even more, the set of challenges on smaller reefs are perfectly comparable to any big reef out there (Less water, less equilibrium... Or hard to control).

Best of luck!!! :)
 
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and i moved two cerith snails and two small hermits into the left LPS tank.

well... they must like it here.
that's the longest trail of cerith eggs i've seen, so far :)

15681713560220.jpg



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jurgenph

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so, i don't have a par meter.

this can't be good if i start a post with that :)

but it looks like some, or most of the corals are trying to tell me that they are getting too much light. even on the bottom.

so i dialed the lights down a bit. going from 50% peak power on the uv, violet and blues to 30%
and from 15 to 10% on the white. not using the green and red at all.

a total of 20 watts (as displayed in the app, not measured)
i need to find my kill-a-watt and plug the light into it.

we'll let this run for a week or so and see if things respond better.

the challenges of using lights that were not designed for a nano tank on a 10 gallon :)

15682621150180.jpg


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jurgenph

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So I ordered that uv sterilizer.

Then I thought, 1ml of H2O2 a day isn't going to hurt anything...

My uv sterilizer got delivered today.

And the bloom is gone! Looks like the peroxide took care of it.

too soon!

there was still a little bit of a hazyness to the left tank, compared to the other one, so i ran the UV anyway.

today they are both clear! i'm pleased with my purchase.

it does add some heat to the tank, it's running at 80F now, the one without at 78F.

but it looks like some, or most of the corals are trying to tell me that they are getting too much light. even on the bottom.

so i dialed the lights down a bit. going from 50% peak power on the uv, violet and blues to 30%
and from 15 to 10% on the white. not using the green and red at all.

things are starting to look better.

i moved most of the surviving frags into this one now, to get a good gauge of when i've found this setup's sweet spot, and can start stocking new corals.

cellphone picture with orange filter.

15684251475610.jpg


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jurgenph

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i still haven't decided what ATO i'm going to be using.

installed an ATO on the left tank today, if this goes well, i'll setup the same thing on the other one.

decided to try the IM hydrofill titanium.
i liked the idea of conductivity sensors.

i also got the IM ATO pump, but it's surprisingly more powerful than i thought. when usinf it with dosing lines, hooked up into a kamoer tube holder with very small outlets, it sprayed a jet of water into the tank, and splashed all over the place :)

so i hooked up the Toms aqualifter instead. that one barely has enough head and flows nice and slow at this height.

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jurgenph

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i got this little yuma in september 2018
and it never really did well.

until recently...

when i first got it, september 2018

15685173248911.jpg


fast forward to end of june 2019... this was right after the troubles with the 40B, and i moved it into the temp. 5 gallon fluval, right before i went on vacation.

15685176077332.jpg



and today, it's looking really nice, and has quadrupled? in size!

15685165649240.jpg



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That Hydrofill looks amazing! I've struggled with Optical sensors getting cloudy and not working properly. I've also struggled with magnetic sensors getting jammed by Kalk or something, the titanium probe solves all that perfectly. I wish there was a way I could add one to my Apex.

Myself, I've settled on a pressure-based normal level sensor from Avast, it's been foolproof for me in this role. I have an optical one for overfull protection (they have never failed open) then an under full sensor that's mechanical because they typically only fail at the waterline where Kalk turns solid.

I love your tanks as well, I had considered that one and the Cubey for my build, they were the top two contenders. I was hoping to use the light from the Cubey but it turned out that it didn't put out enough Par. It's growing orchards for me now.

Whiskey
 
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jurgenph

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Myself, I've settled on a pressure-based normal level sensor from Avast, it's been foolproof for me in this role. I have an optical one for overfull protection (they have never failed open) then an under full sensor that's mechanical because they typically only fail at the waterline where Kalk turns solid.

AH! yes, the ATO on my very first tank, a Spectrapure LiterMeter III, used a pressure switch too. worked flawlessly, until the day that i dropped the dang thing, and it shattered into many pieces of sharp plastic :)

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AH! yes, the ATO on my very first tank, a Spectrapure LiterMeter III, used a pressure switch too. worked flawlessly, until the day that i dropped the dang thing, and it shattered into many pieces of sharp plastic :)

J.
That's the pump I have on mine! The parastolic pump. I LOVE it!!! I'm sure it won't be an issue for you, but I really struggled with the Aqualifter pumps. My tank was larger and cooled by evaporation so it toped off allot and the aqualifter would wear out. Now I have a chiller.

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That's the pump I have on mine! The parastolic pump. I LOVE it!!! I'm sure it won't be an issue for you, but I really struggled with the Aqualifter pumps. My tank was larger and cooled by evaporation so it toped off allot and the aqualifter would wear out. Now I have a chiller.

i wanted something that was low flow. the aqualifter barely makes it, pumping slightly over it's rated head pressure :) i only evaporate around 300-400ml per day per tank. and it's surprisingly quiet, i usually don't hear the pump, but i notice the trickle of water entering the tank :)

i'm going to order the same setup for the other tank, so i can stop the manual top-offs.

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i wanted something that was low flow. the aqualifter barely makes it, pumping slightly over it's rated head pressure :) i only evaporate around 300-400ml per day per tank. and it's surprisingly quiet, i usually don't hear the pump, but i notice the trickle of water entering the tank :)

i'm going to order the same setup for the other tank, so i can stop the manual top-offs.

J.

Yeah, for you I think it's probably a great choice. Myself I was toping off 2-3 gallons per day and the pumps would burn out or jam up every year or so. It's worth mentioning that my topoff water is in the garage and pulled probably 40 feet to the tank. That failure wouldn't even have been a problem considering the pump cost except they seemed to do it when I was away from the tank.

Whiskey
 
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found one pice that will look a bit better.
it's narrower, and taller. this will make a nice psp island/pillar!

11 inches tall! so this will almost stick out of the top of the water.

the bad news... it's never been wet, so this will take a few weeks before it is ready for the tank :(

15661438952160.jpg

well, that didn't work out as expected...

by the time i had glued enough frag plugs under it in order to level it out so it wasn't leaning and uncomfortably unbalanced, it was just too tall.

so... i took my saw to it, and took the bottom off :)

back into the curing bucket it went.


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well, that didn't work out as expected...

by the time i had glued enough frag plugs under it in order to level it out so it wasn't leaning and uncomfortably unbalanced, it was just too tall.

so... i took my saw to it, and took the bottom off :)

back into the curing bucket it went.


J.

Nice! I've cut plenty of LR in my time. These smaller tanks are tougher to get an interesting aquascape, but with saws and glue we can always figure it out.

Whiskey
 
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removed the UV from the left tank.
put in a filter sock, and stormed the tank with a turkey baster.
will do that a few times today to get most of the crap removed, without having to siphon.

i'm currently dosing two drops on NaNO3 daily, as well as one drop of brightwell amino acids.

the right tank will be "mostly ignored" for the next few weeks, while i dial in the left one.

and the new piece of rock will be added to it soon.
i won't be testing it, just a water change every now and then.

once i got the left one under control, i'll focus on the right one.

there still is a zoa frag in it, to see how it does in that one, running a higher intensity lighting schedule.
as well as a few birdsnest frags that are doing quite poorly right now.

i have also ordered two diffusers for the hydra 26hd's
someone lined to them in another thread, and i could not resist :)


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jurgenph

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it has been done! the big chunk of liverock in the right tank has been replaced a a slightly smaller piece of liverock, that has been curing for a little over two months now. it's nice and white (even with filter, the picture doesn't show how white it is), and will grow lots of diatoms and ugly brown stuff within days, i assume... :)

i like this much better, and should allow me to place 4 or 5 nice pieces of SPS.

15692046432270.jpg



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jurgenph

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so today kicks off the start of an A B test, or a left right test... or a blue, less blue test :)

even though the spectrum looks visually pleasing, i thing some of the corals aren't 100% liking it.

the left tank will be getting more blue, while the right tank is now getting more white.
the "blue" tank will get 5% white at peak intensity, and 25% uv, violet, royal blue and blue. for a reported 16 watt power by the AI interface.

the "white" tank is running 20% across all channels (no tank has green or red led powered), for a reported 17 watt power.

the only reference coral i have right now is a rasta zoanthid frag, that is in both tanks.

as for the rest of the frags, these are the ones i worry about

duncan : has not been opening up nicely since it got moved in this tank, put in in low light, high lifgt, doesn't seem to matter.

ponape and birds of paradise birdsnest, in two locations, lost most colors, still alive, but not looking great.

green star polyps: are not opening up nicely. and if they do, they stay pretty small.

green zoanthids (not sure of lineage, but you've all seen them, they are dark and light green) and some fire & ice zoanthids. they look like they are getting too much light. they are hugging the frag plug. no stems whatsoever.
and so are the rastas btw :)

i'm going to let this run for a bit, and see what happens.


J.
 

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