Gat's 15g IM Nuvo Reef

[Bevy]

Hi everyone!

My wife and I previously had a 90 gallon reef running along for a year and a half in 2019 before it crashed from Dinos. I'm talking full-on, nothing-I-do-works crash that wiped half the coral and stressed the fish more than I care to remember over the course of 6 months. It was the biggest frustration and disappointment we've had, and happening right in the middle of it was the purchase of our first home and all the work involved with that.
We decided we'd stop banging our heads against the wall in our battle with Dinos and continue giving a bad standard of living to the animals inside, so we surrendered all the fish & corals to our LFS and sold off everything else.

Well, we got to reminiscing recently about how beautiful it was when it was doing well, and now the bug bites again! So we've decided to try a 15g nano, invert-only(maybe a yasha goby/pistol pair down the line we'll see) mixed reef that will let us enjoy taking care of coral and all the cool inverts again and very excited. This thread is to chronicle the new build and provide historical reference when I need.

We're taking it nice and slow, so right now we're still in the planning phase of what we want to do. The only hard-set items are the stand and tank(nuvo 15) as I've already purchased those. I keep going back and forth on whether to use any automation, likely a hydros minnow, to give monitoring/tracking of parameters and handle future tasks like dosing All-For-Reef. OR, just keeping it simple with basic, but quality, equipment. I think I'm leaning more basic but then I start adding up the ATO, possible dosing pump, heater+controller, digital testing kits(I hate interpreting the colors on titration tests), and automation starts looking really attractive.

And then there's the light. Man have I been deliberating in my head endlessly on what to pick for a light solution. Noopsyche? AI? Go balls-out for a Radion? The Kessil shimmer? I had AI hydras on the 90g and LOVED them, but I've heard mixed on the AI Primes with the lenses etc.
Anyways, thanks for reading and I look forward to enjoying the hobby with all of you.

 

[Bevy]

Here's the idea so far:

Heater: Helios 100w
ATO: Tunze Osmolator Nano
Pump: Mightyjet, unsure on the GPH and could use some feedback
Powerhead: I would like to get away with only using the return for flow if possible.
RO and Salt: I plan on eliminating this pain point and just buying from my LFS (Nemo's Reef in Charlotte)
Dosing: Planning to use All-For-Reef when we get here. No equipment picked out yet technically.
Light: Brother I don't even know. I've been trying to crawl through some build threads for the nuvo 15 and see what others have run with success and it's hard to sus out any winners.

UNLESS I go with a controller.... ugh

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Bevy]

Following along!

Thanks! I actually have a question if you know the answer, should this thread have gone in the nano section? I just realized there is a section for nanos specifically

 

[Bevy]

Update,
Tank, stand, rock, sand, heater, and return pump have arrived. Now we get to enjoy the process of breaking down the boulders into smaller, aqua-scapable rocks and deciding a scape.
The rock in the tank is not all the rock to be clear, I just couldn't help but put one in there for inspiration.

 

[Bevy]

Equipment/build so far:
IM Nuvo 15 gallon AIO
No brand stand bought from a craigslist carpenter (It is SOLID)
20lbs of Marco dry rock
20lbs of CaribSea ocean direct sand
Inkbird controller w/ 100w BRS Titanium heater
Jecob EP-1000 DC return pump


Next:
Plan out the aquascape
Fill tank with saltwater and test heater
Start the cycle with Fritz Turbo and Nitrocycle

 

[Bevy]

Aquascape is mostly figured out! Mand is it a little scary to break up rock haha. We like how much habitat space we were able to build in. A lot of little hides and swim-throughs while having as much depth as I think we can really pull off in a small display.

I'm thinking of gluing frag plugs on the bottom to act like little posts so it's easy to place back into the sand if we ever take the rock out (catching fish etc). Also will prevent any rock from shifting with a pistol shrimp etc. Maybe a thin layer of egg crate in the bottom to protect the glass as well.

 

[Bevy]

Glued some frag plugs to the bottom to make it easier to get back in the sand if they need to be removed. Placed some small egg crate type material on the bottom to protect the glass.

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

Love my Nuvo 15. Just bought a second one to upgrade my daughter to from her Eshopps Deskmate

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Love the aquascape and that stand is really cool looking too!

 

[Bevy]

Love my Nuvo 15. Just bought a second one to upgrade my daughter to from her Eshopps Deskmate

Looks like a well-matured tank! What filter roller is that and how is it treating you? I'm trying to decide if I want to go for a roller or not vs a cup with polyfil/floss.

 

[Bevy]

Love the aquascape and that stand is really cool looking too!

Thanks! We spent a good 4-ish hours on the scape. I don't think the pictures do it justice either, I'll probably upload a video.

 

[Bevy]

Video of the scape so you can see the detail better!

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

Looks like a well-matured tank! What filter roller is that and how is it treating you? I'm trying to decide if I want to go for a roller or not vs a cup with polyfil/floss.

It’s the manual desktop from IM. Im only using it because it was free from a trade I tried to make they didn’t work out. I just ran floss in the first chamber for the entirety of that tank being set up until 1 week ago.

 

[steveschuerger]

Nice start. Have you gotten a light yet?

 

[Bevy]

It’s the manual desktop from IM. Im only using it because it was free from a trade I tried to make they didn’t work out. I just ran floss in the first chamber for the entirety of that tank being set up until 1 week ago.

Ah good to know. I'm familiar with floss and it's easy enough to change with a cup so that's probably gonna be the play. I'll be stoked if my IM 15 is as good as yours a year from now. Thanks for the response!

 

[Bevy]

Nice start. Have you gotten a light yet?

Not yet, I'm going to run it for a couple months without light, but I'm leaning toward a kessil a160we because I'm a sucker for the shimmer. I had two Hydra32s on my past 90 gallon and loved em, but the lense issues with the Prime 16HD has me questioning if it's worth dealing with on those.

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

Not yet, I'm going to run it for a couple months without light, but I'm leaning toward a kessil a160we because I'm a sucker for the shimmer. I had two Hydra32s on my past 90 gallon and loved em, but the lense issues with the Prime 16HD has me questioning if it's worth dealing with on those.

FWIW I have a Prime 16 HD on mine and just about everyone that has seen it later in the evening has complimented the shimmer it puts off on my ceiling. Now that video is easier to upload I’ll post one later this evening after it gets dark out.

 

[steveschuerger]

Nicrew has some nice lights as well. I’m a ReefBreeders fan myself and running a Meridian 11 over an IM 25 lagoon. It was being sold on Marketplace for 200 less than new and only 2 weeks old so I grabbed it. Otherwise Nicrew or the new NooPsyche IV pro were my thoughts.

 

[Bevy]

FWIW I have a Prime 16 HD on mine and just about everyone that has seen it later in the evening has complimented the shimmer it puts off on my ceiling. Now that video is easier to upload I’ll post one later this evening after it gets dark out.

Please do! I'd love to see it regardless