Dystopium's 100G Innovative Marine NUVO EXT 100 Mixed Reef Aquarium

[Dystopium]

This has been a long time coming. It has been 15 years since I last had a nano-reef tank. Boy have things changes. I used to be able to start up a tank with Fiji live rock and sand. No more. I have been amazed the last few weeks as to just how much the hobby has changed.

I have decided to start up a much larger mixed reef to enjoy with my wife and little kids.

I could use some help determining plumbing, stocking, and chemistry.

Equipment​

Tank​

[1] NUVO EXT™ 100 Reef Ready Aquarium w/ Black APS (Arriving January)​

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[2] Ecotech MP40 Pump w/ QuietDrive (Mobius Ready)​

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[120] Marco ReefSaver Rock​

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[1”] CaribSea’s Arag-Alive! Special Grade Reef​

Sump​

[1] Fiji Cube FIJI-36 Advanced Reef Sump 2nd Gen​

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[1] Neptune Systems COR-15 Intelligent Return Pump​

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[1] Tunze Master DOC Protein Skimmer 9410 DC​

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[1] Brightwell Aquatics Xport BIO Plate​

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[2] 500 Watt TH Titanium Heating Element​

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[1] Calcium Reactor (TBD)​

Control & Lighting​

[1] Apex Controller System​

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[2] RADION® XR30 G5 PRO with XR30 Diffuser for Radion G5 LED Light​

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[1] Deluxe Aquarium Controller Board - Black - Adaptive Reef​

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[1] UV (TBD)​

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[1] Dosing (TBD)​

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[1] Testing (TBD)​

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[1] ATO (TBD)​

Stock List:​

I do not plan on adding all of this day one. I figure it may be a year or two until it is fully stocked. I am looking for recommendations for colorful fish if possible. I assume there will be some clowns and a tang that the kids will pick out; the rest is still up in the air. I had a Yasha Shrimp Goby paired with a Randall’s Pistol Shrimp in the old tank, so may look to do so again.

Fish​

Anthias​

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Firefish (Maybe Helfrichi Firefish, Firefish Goby)​

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Orchid Dottyback​

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Blue Hippo Tang (Tank to small???)​

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Four-Line Cleaner Wrasse / Fourline Wrasse​

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Yellow Tang​

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TBD​

LPS​

TBD​

SPS​

Grizzly Adams Acropora​

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Emerald City Tenuis Acropora​

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TBD​

Cleanup Crew​

Peppermint Shrimp​

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Sexy Shrimp​

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Purple Reef Lobster (Heard that this may be a problem, but would love feedback)​

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TBD​

Thoughts​

Current Plumbing:

This is an area that I want to be able to carefully plan out. I will have to start out with a single pump ($$$) but would like to be able to add another in the future. Basically, one to run the UV Sterilizer (TBD) and another on dedicated return/backup. I want to leverage 3-way valves to simply reduce the plumbing and junctions necessary. I have attached the plumbing layout below. Happy to hear some thoughts. I did not show unions, but there will be plenty.

I will continue to update the thread as the project progresses.

 

[Peace River]

It looks like you have a good plan and a lot of nice equipment! Good luck with the new system!

 

[Dystopium]

Bigger update today. I am working on the plumbing layout to incorporate a manifold for GFO/Carbon as well as two accessory ports. This in in line with my original design. Ditching the T-Valves in the design, as they are 10X what I could do Gate/Ball + tees. Settling into the design below that will allow me to leverage a single pump to drive everything in the event of a pump failure/maintenance. I am surprised that more people don't have redundant pumps setup like this, as I could find no real R2R or Youtube references. Going to put it out on the Gear forum to see if I am crazy or missing something. Eventually I would like to incorporate motorized ball values to interface with the Apex for a pump maintenance mode and automatic pump failure cutover. I think I can do it with only 2 solenoid ball valves.

Most of the gear has arrived except the tank and UV and it is really filling up the office. Been picking up rock and rubble frags from many sources and have managed to keep my dry rock cost under $2/lb. with most being Marco and the rest being Caribsea Moani dry rock.

Spent some time working to mount the Apex, EB8, MP40 driver mounts, and Cor15 Driver.

Still up in the air on pipe size, I may upsize the pipe to 1.5" all the way up to the bottom of the return gauntlet and drop to 3/4" there as the tank only has 3/4" return bulkheads. Any advantage to running 1.5" up to the top of the return (besides the minimal frictional loss from the fillings?

That's all for today.

 

[Dystopium]

Decided to add AquaMaxx Fluidized GFO and Carbon Filter Media Reactors off the tees from pump 1. Bit the bullet and ordered the second pump. Picked up 2 65 Gallon Norwesco tanks for a mixing station. Going to start this with Marin Pro Reef and ordered enough to preserve a horse. Going to try and plump it this weekend and build a stand. I have been back and forth on what I was going to do for dosing and water changes. Decided to but once and cry once with the DOS heads and Trident. Along with that came an ATK, LDK, and a bunch of other goodies. Decided on the Kessil H80 Fuge light for down below. I have been going back and forth on quarantine and what I was going to do for it, I settled on a NUVO Concept Encore 20 Pro. One side for corals and another for fish. I realize this may limit me if I want some larger tangs and such, and in that event I will recommission my 20G 15 year old AIO tank for that. After all the test kits, media, and addons, I am going to go start saving tears to populate the tank once it arrives. Should have enough by then.

 

[Dystopium]

Built the mixing station today. Going to start to plumb it early next week.

Also worked with the kids on an aquascape. Way too cluttered for my taste, but I like were my littlest one is going to give hiding spots to his eel. Not on the plan, but may have to setup a garden eel tank for him.

 

[coronarex]

Great build!!! Everything looks awesome. I excited to see your plumbing. Following!

 

[Dystopium]

Little update today. The tank was supposed to have shipped on the 22nd. Hopefully this holds and I am able to start on plumbing next week. This has turned into a real project. We needed to run a few GFCI outlets to the living room. Since there was no real access to the area we needed, we decided it was a good idea to go ahead and frame out a small door to access the electrical. It is a relatively small project, but building a custom door was not on my Saturday plans. Bonus, we have a "mini" fish room now; that we can now use the area for ATO storage.

Finishing up with water station. Decided to tie everything into Apex and run an EB4 to run the PMUP for ATO, Leak Detectors, and temperature monitor for the salt water. Can't quite decide if I want to put the DOS here for the auto water changes or near the tank.

I finally mounted the SpectraPure 6 Stage RO/DI System. Averaging around 300 TDS incoming and 0 outgoing. As an added bonus, it now allows me to make the 30+ Gallons I need to run my 1 BBL brewing system (another hobby). No more lugging 1 gallons jugs there.

Going through the process of leak testing the mixing station. Every joint that had threads and tape is leaking. I knew I shouldn't have used the sprinkler nipples I had, but oh well. Ordered some schedule 80 nipples and will drain, sanitize, and finish plumbing the Fresh Water and Salt Water bulkheads, along with the Bulkhead for the heater/PMUP/Temp Probe. Finally starting to come together.

 

[Poseidon's snail]

nice!!!

 

[Dystopium]

Tank has shipped. Plumbing my tank next week. Ended up designing a system that allowed me to drive everything in the from one pump in the event of a failure/maintenance regardless of which pump. I have UV and Return2 plumbed from Pump 2 (Cor15). The manifold and Return1are plumbed from Pump 1 (Cor20). Below is a mock up I did with some 1/2" PVC not to scale. Going to hang on 2 Aquamaxx XS reactors (GFO/Carbon) and have one free for whatever.

Space is going to be tight, but everything fits with 1 1/2" PVC plumbing.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! Love the way everything is coming together! Can't wait to see this one fully up and going!

 

[JayRozzer]

Following! Do the IM tanks have the plastic in the corners that protect the silicone ? Deciding on an Ext 100 or Red Sea 425/525.

 

[Dystopium]

Following! Do the IM tanks have the plastic in the corners that protect the silicone ? Deciding on an Ext 100 or Red Sea 425/525.

Tank arrives Monday after a little delay. I can double check, but don't think is has the corner protections.

 

[JayRozzer]

Tank arrives Monday after a little delay. I can double check, but don't think is has the corner protections.

Cool, thanks! Looking forward to following along.

 

[Dystopium]

Big day today. All the plumbing dropped as well as the tank. Tank appears to be in good shape. No forklift punctures and such.

The stand took a hit somewhere along the way, but I don't see any obvious damage. @Innovative Marine I would love to know what the mounting options are of the APS stand. The extruded aluminum has some sort of T-Track. Any ideas if there are fittings that could be recommended to support the plumbing from said track instead of drilling or wrapping some soft of clamp brace to the frame? I assume I could position screws in the track as well, but would love to hear from the experts.

Laid out all the plumbing as ordered per my earlier design. @Bulk Reef Supply missed some Tees in the shipping pick process but came through and told me they would have them shipped out today. Another 3 days of waiting is OK.

Guess I will be working on putting the stand together tonight in preparation for dry fitting. Electrician comes Monday for 2 20 amp circuits, and I still need to run the ATO/AWC tubing with an Aquabus cable. Going to be a busy few days.

 

[Cwentz758]

Did you get your stand together? I noticed the pvc top you screw down for some reason won’t match up on all four corners I always have overhang and then one side pulled in no matter what I do

 

[PanhandleReef]

Did you get your stand together? I noticed the pvc top you screw down for some reason won’t match up on all four corners I always have overhang and then one side pulled in no matter what I do

Mine was same way. Mine is about 1/8” out of square. I’ve taken apart twice to try and fix it with no luck. I haven’t put the tank on yet though so I don’t know how it will look when I do that.

 

[Cwentz758]

Mine was same way. Mine is about 1/8” out of square. I’ve taken apart twice to try and fix it with no luck. I haven’t put the tank on yet though so I don’t know how it will look when I do that.

Ya, I have left over leveler pad I can probably stick on to make up the difference.

Just really weird the dimensions are right just isn’t square.
Thanks

 

[Dystopium]

Been holding up on the updates, as I have been really nose to the grindstone for the tank. Got the Stand built. Innovative marine never replied to my question about mounting, do I went my own direction. I added some M4 crews and washers into the slide track to provide mount points should I need them. I haven't attached anything quite yet, but I am glad I did it. No chance to add them once the tank was placed on the stand.

With the help of a few neighbors, I managed to drag it into the house and onto the stand. Cwentz758 my PVC board had a small lip, but it was less than a 1/16" and was flush/square on front and sides. The back just hangs off a 16th in the back.

A quick overview of the plumbing plans and some testing with all "white" PVC proved that the tank stand and sump were just too small for my plans. If this had been the 150/170, and the sump was 4 inches deeper, I could have done my dual pump A/B side plans.

Did a quick rethink on the plans with the wife, we decided to go with one pump, and simplify the returns so that everything went through the U/V. I am glad I went with 1 1/2" PVC up to the returns.

Setup cutting and finishing stations with a miter saw for cutting the schedule 40 and router to chamfer the edges.

I should have setup more suction with the shopvac to collect the cuttings.

A 45 degree Chamfer bit set just about the surface of the routing table to trim the edges. The fist few were practiced on the white pvc (didn't go so well), and the chop saw took some adjusting to get a clean edge. as you can see from the piece below, mistakes were made.

Dry fitting went well. The tank is a little further off the wall than I was hoping, but it was a sacrifice we need to make to accommodate the UV with the 1" drains, and 1 1/2" returns.

I was very happy with the cement from Weld-On. Cut, Chamfer, Blow out with air from compressor, clean, prime, cement, and repeat. It took the better part of the day to go through the motions.

Glued and in position. Found a few leaks at the flow sensors. Note: Don't over tighten the Neptune Flow Sensors or risk sheering the sensor ABS plastic. They really should look into using PVC for the sensor body. Luckily the LFS (Coral Corral) had one in stock. Only set me back 30 minutes. Decided rather than hide all the electronics under the stand, I was going to move everything under the stairs behind the tank. A small cable pass trough was installed, but I quickly discovered I really should have opted for a 2 gang cable pass through. Went ahead and had one overnighted from Amazon, only to sit and look at it with dread at the thought of disconnecting everything and passing it back through.

Got the scape, sand, and water added.

Turned out pretty nice. Started Cycling the tank with @DrTim today.

Got the QT tank setup and the kids decided it was time to send a few critters through quarantine.

Got two clowns and a dozen or so snails going through general QT at the moment. A larger Black Ice Clownfish and a smaller Ocellaris Clownfish. They are currently both female. They seem to tolerate the copper well, are eating like pigs and getting along.

Still need to complete the following:

• add the 2 x MP40s and install the doors
• dial in the flow a little better
• Setup Trident
• Setup DOS for 2 part, AWC
• scrub every line of apex code 10 times over.

 

[Cwentz758]

Been holding up on the updates, as I have been really nose to the grindstone for the tank. Got the Stand built. Innovative marine never replied to my question about mounting, do I went my own direction. I added some M4 crews and washers into the slide track to provide mount points should I need them. I haven't attached anything quite yet, but I am glad I did it. No chance to add them once the tank was placed on the stand.

With the help of a few neighbors, I managed to drag it into the house and onto the stand. Cwentz758 my PVC board had a small lip, but it was less than a 1/16" and was flush/square on front and sides. The back just hangs off a 16th in the back.

A quick overview of the plumbing plans and some testing with all "white" PVC proved that the tank stand and sump were just too small for my plans. If this had been the 150/170, and the sump was 4 inches deeper, I could have done my dual pump A/B side plans.

Did a quick rethink on the plans with the wife, we decided to go with one pump, and simplify the returns so that everything went through the U/V. I am glad I went with 1 1/2" PVC up to the returns.

Setup cutting and finishing stations with a miter saw for cutting the schedule 40 and router to chamfer the edges.

I should have setup more suction with the shopvac to collect the cuttings.

A 45 degree Chamfer bit set just about the surface of the routing table to trim the edges. The fist few were practiced on the white pvc (didn't go so well), and the chop saw took some adjusting to get a clean edge. as you can see from the piece below, mistakes were made.

Dry fitting went well. The tank is a little further off the wall than I was hoping, but it was a sacrifice we need to make to accommodate the UV with the 1" drains, and 1 1/2" returns.

I was very happy with the cement from Weld-On. Cut, Chamfer, Blow out with air from compressor, clean, prime, cement, and repeat. It took the better part of the day to go through the motions.

Glued and in position. Found a few leaks at the flow sensors. Note: Don't over tighten the Neptune Flow Sensors or risk sheering the sensor ABS plastic. They really should look into using PVC for the sensor body. Luckily the LFS (Coral Corral) had one in stock. Only set me back 30 minutes. Decided rather than hide all the electronics under the stand, I was going to move everything under the stairs behind the tank. A small cable pass trough was installed, but I quickly discovered I really should have opted for a 2 gang cable pass through. Went ahead and had one overnighted from Amazon, only to sit and look at it with dread at the thought of disconnecting everything and passing it back through.

Got the scape, sand, and water added.

Turned out pretty nice. Started Cycling the tank with @DrTim today.

Got the QT tank setup and the kids decided it was time to send a few critters through quarantine.

Got two clowns and a dozen or so snails going through general QT at the moment. A larger Black Ice Clownfish and a smaller Ocellaris Clownfish. They are currently both female. They seem to tolerate the copper well, are eating like pigs and getting along.

Still need to complete the following:

• add the 2 x MP40s and install the doors
• dial in the flow a little better
• Setup Trident
• Setup DOS for 2 part, AWC
• scrub every line of apex code 10 times over.

Sweet!!!

I had some extra leveling mat from my sump I cut a sliver and put it on the missing lip of pvc on the stand. Shouldn’t see it once the tank is on. Hopefully our floors are done in the next few weeks and I’ll have my stuff up and running!

 

[925Reefer]

Tank is looking sweet! I’m setting up a 150 INT at the moment, waiting on some help to get the beast into the house... What UV did you end up running and what size? Will definitely be following along for your build!