Hunter's Nuvo 20 Mixed Reef

[alsoHunter]

My name is Hunter. This is my first foray into reefkeeping. Coming up on 8 months without a major incident, so I finally feel like everything is stable enough to post a build thread. Thank you to everyone on here who post progress and reviews and try to give advice and answer questions. Lurkers like me appreciate it.

Goal from the start was a mixed reef that I can upgrade as I go.

Fill Date: 02/11/2018

Equipment:
IM NUVO Fusion 20
-AI Hydra 26 [upgraded from AI Prime on 10/04/18]
- Tunze Ozmolator 3152 ATO
- (2) IM Custom Caddys w/ filter floss, sponge, and CP Blue Nano
- MJ1200 pump to replace stock IM pump
-IceCap 1k Gyre
- Hydor Koralia 425
- IceCap Backup Battery
- Eheim Heater

Stock List:
- 2 clownfish
- Ruby red dragonette
- Citron Clown Goby
- Pom Pom Crab
- Cleaner Shrimp
- Fighting Conch
- A few hermit crabs
- Variety of snails - Nassarius, Astrea, Trochus, Cerith, Nerite, Red Collar
Coral
LPS:
Duncan
Blue Sympodium
Frogspawn
Toxic Green Torch
Red/Blue Micromusa Lords
Purple/Green Acans
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
Jack O Latern Lepto
Blastomussa Merletti
Cotton Candy Chalice
Mummy Eye Chalice
Unknown Green/Purple Chalice
Unknown Purple/Green/Red Chalice

SPS:
Rainbow Monti
Jedi Mind Tricks Monti
Season’s Greetings Monti
Boston Bean Montipora Digitata
Mystic Sunset Monti
Purple Birdsnest
Purple Bonsai Acro
Unknown Green/Pearl Acro

Softies & Nems:
Orange Ricordea Yuma
Orange Ricordea Florida
Pink Ricordea Florida
Red Discoma
Zoanthids - various unknowns, blue hornets, orange oxide, sunrise supernova
Metallic Palys
Sunny D Palys
Yellow/Green Rock Flower Anenome


Future Plans: Tank stand cover, better cable management, RODI/salt mixing set-up, maybe a skimmer

Current Full Tank Shot - 10/04/18

When I have more time, I'll go through my pics and post some progress shots over the last 8 months, and some better coral pics. Still trying to figure out how to get consistently good pictures.

Thanks.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R
Very nice looking tank

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, very nice looking Nano tank

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks great @alsoHunter ! Welcome to R2R!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Great looking tank Hunter! Welcome to R2R!! I know you said you were ready to post now that it's stable, don't hold back on the bad times when/if they happen (hope they don't) and how you overcome them. That's how a few of us learn.

 

[alsoHunter]

Filled on 02/11 - Base aquascape is just 3 live pukani rocks and one dry rock in caribsea indo-pacific live sand. Bio-Spira added.
AI Prime added on 02/15. At this point my equipment is stock pump and filter sock, eheim heater, and the AI Prime.

02/15/18

Tank seemingly cycled pretty quickly, so we got two little clownfish as our first citizens. They're named Walter and Elana after the couple who built our house in 1918 and lived there for like 5 decades.

02/16/18

About two weeks in, we start to notice some diatoms(?) accumulating on the rockwork, so we did our first 5 gallon water change and got our first CUC: 3 astrea snails, 5 nassarius snails (one of I later discovered was a blue legged hermit in disguise.) Also added some more dry rock to fill out the scape. Plan here was to slowly add dry rock before I really needed it, so I could take my time and avoid shocking the tank.

02/23/18

That weekend I got our first gear upgrades, replacing the stock pump with a Cobalt MJ1200, and adding a Hydor 425 powerhead. Of course this got my excitement level way up, so I went to the LFS and got a Duncan for our first ever coral...then we went back the next day "just to look" and came home with the frogspawn and sympodium because they were doing a 2 for 1 sale. We probably should've waited longer, but luckily it all worked out.

02/24/18 - Duncan Added

02/25/18 - Frogspawn and Sympodium Added

We cut the sympodium frag in half to place it on a ridge, after it didn't seem to be opening up, we moved it down to the lower ridge and it opened pretty quickly after that. Glad we did, because the shading would've been a pain if it stayed that high up.

By the end of February things were good and I was starting to feel more confident.

 

[alsoHunter]

March 2018
One month in is where i started to see a little algae and cyano blooming on the sand bed and glass.

03/08/18

So I went to the LFS to bolster the CUC. That weekend I picked up:
- Banggai Cardinal
- Green Torch
- Rainbow Monti
- 2 margarita snails (both died after a few months for no obvious reason)

03/11/18

Our poor banggai cardinal only lasted a week. Went missing after 4 days, then we found her shredded and floating by the overflow. I'm thinking she got chased into the powerhead. RIP.

Ended up back at the LFS. Picked up:
- cleaner shrimp
- jedi mind tricks monti
- blue ricordea florida
- orange ricordea florida
Added some new dry rock too.

03/16/18

I don't have any pics, but on 3/29 i added two custom caddy media baskets and a Tunze ATO to the back sump area. The ATO is still probably my favorite equipment upgrade. Water level is such a big variable to have under control.

So that's March. Getting some good growth on the duncan and sympoduim. Everything seems happy. But if you notice in the last pic, I'm starting to get some hair algae building on the back wall. The uglies were coming.