IM Nuvo 14 Gallon, small kitchen reef tank.

Rover · Apr 26, 2019

Hello,

I'm kicking up my reef tank addiction again, after needing to shut down my old 75 gallon tank when my apartment said no more fish. Now I've moved out, own a house, and I can do what I want!

I built the stand myself out of 2x4's, loosely following Rocket Engineers guidelines with a couple of supports removed because... frankly... at the size I'm dealing with its LUDICROUSLY over engineered. I'm pretty sure this thing could support my car if I could balance it on it, but I'd rather that then risk a spill in my house.

The tank has been running for a few weeks now. The live rock thats in it was 'cooking' in a local fish stores barrel of water for nearly a year, and one piece of live rock (The one the green coral is on) is actually from my old fish tank that was shut down in August! The local store kept it, all my fish, and a few other corals of mine, and has been selling them and giving me an in-store credit. All the fish are gone and most of my corals, but when I went back in they still had these so I got them back. I don't plan to add any more corals except a few zoanthids my girlfriend loves, and some green star polyps to grow on the back wall of the tank, if I can get them to do it.

This tank is a placeholder to satisfy my girlfriends desire for tiny fish until I get the house situated (and the money in place) to afford stocking/setting up the 60 gallon cube we have.

Photos to come in next post!

Equipment used:
- IM Nuvo 14 All In One Aquarium
- Coral Box Moon LED Light
- Eheim Jager 50w Heater
- Ecotech MP10
- Coral Box A100 Auto Top-Off

Livestock:
Current
- One Yellow Clown Goby
- Clean up Crew
- Green Nephea Tree coral (I think)
- Daisy Coral (I think)

Planned
- Watchman Goby + Shrimp pair
- ONE other fish. Maybe a pink-streaked Wrasse? Filefish? (Local store has some that eats meaty foods, and my girlfriend adores them for some reason). Yellow-Striped Cardinal fish? Not sure! Again, I tend to stock by the whims of my girlfriend, but I'm the one that puts the foot down on too many/wrong types if I know there will be a conflict with fish or tank size.

Rover · Apr 26, 2019

I didn't bother with any build pictures, because frankly... Its just a bunch of 2x4's drilled together. I skinned it with 1/8" board that was cut to size by my local home depot, just to give it something nicer. Haven't yet figured out how I plan to close the front.

Last week sometime. The worst of my diatom bloom came and passed, now just some hair algae. Hey, at least its color.

This was the first coral I ever bought in my first tank, because I was told it was 'hardy' and would last. I'm honestly very happy that it didn't sell, and I was able to get it back.... Although a few limbs were cut off it for fragging!

The little yellow sploot, as my girlfriend calls him, hasn't left this coral other then frantic dashes for food. When he was first introduced we got him fresh at the store off the plane, so he was unhappy and sunken bellied and otherwise pretty listless. He has been getting chunky, his color is coming back, and he is more animated now.
Yellow Clown Goby!

SPR1968 · Apr 26, 2019

Great write up and very nice pictures

The tank looks great especially the ‘substantial’ stand!

cojo8888 · Apr 26, 2019

Looks awesome. How long did it take to cycle? I started mine on 4/16 and it did cycled according to test kit. However I'm hesitating to add any live stock because it's too early....

Rover · Apr 26, 2019

cojo8888 said:
Looks awesome. How long did it take to cycle? I started mine on 4/16 and it did cycled according to test kit. However I'm hesitating to add any live stock because it's too early....

It cycled in about two days, if you mean how long it took to process out about 2 ppm of ammonia. I manually dosed ammonia, and waited until the nitrates went up (lol, to about 100 ppm, oops) then I dosed again and in less then 24 hours it was untraceable. A few water changes later, and it was good to go. I let it sit for about two weeks anyway, just to let things settle in a bit. After that, I went and got back my corals, and then got my first fish.

Keep in mind, most of my sand came out of a fishtank that had been running healthy for 5+ years, and the rock had been submerged, heated, and aerated and curing for almost a full year. The store owner had made that rock-structure and cemented it together to use in one of these tanks before deciding against it and chucking it in his live-rock bin.

So don't take my cycle as a really fair one, the only thing that was 'new' was the tank, everything else had come out of other peoples tanks/set-ups. Even the sand that wasn't new was still my old (well rinsed) sand from my last aquarium.

Rover · May 1, 2019

Journal Update, May 1st 2019:

Coral Box A100 ATO is acting up on me. I think the optical sensor is starting to go, as every so often it will simply not stop refilling until the secondary float is lifted to the top and the alarm sounds, which cuts off the flow. But most of the times the optical sensor will cause it to start until the sensor is submerged, and then it turns off again.
I'm not sure if the optical sensor is on the fritz, or if the tight space within the pump chamber in the back is the cause of the problem. Some sort of reflection/glare issue? I have noticed this tends to occur mostly at 3-4 AM, which may just be due to the way the evaporation is happening, or something changing on the lights at that time.

Yellow Clown Goby is actively swimming around for food now and not just hiding in his tree all the time. His belly is tubby and round and his coloration is coming back from the stress of shipping/acclimatization.

Pink Streaked Wrasse was added to the tank, and has been an active swimmer and eater since being added. Pretty little fish I'm quite a fan of having! Do these live in the sand? At night I can't find her, but I'm not sure if she has a hole in the rocks or if she goes under the sand. Also fairly sure its a she based on coloration.

-Added some GSP and glued it to the back wall, in the hopes it will spread there.
-Green Nepthea Tree is looking healthy and elongated every day, no issues.
-Daisy Coral is opening and looking healthy every day, no issues.
-Diatom bloom has almost completely gone away, only a few deep brown patches in areas of low flow.
-Green Hair Algae of some kind or other has come and somewhat gone. I aided with manual removal, but it seemed to be thinning on its own first.

Rover · May 17, 2019

Journal Update, May 17th 2019:

Coral Box ATO is still driving me wild. It has developed a mind of its own, and is not acting as it should. Fortunately given the tiny size of the tank I only really need to put a quart of water in every 2 days to keep it topped up, so I have been mostly just plugging it in long enough to fill then turning it off again.
Anytime electronics does random non-repeatable errors its a sign the electronics are dying. My suspicion is water damage to the placement of the Coralbox ATO's main controller on the side of the stand, which puts it in the line of drips coming down the side of the tank, to the stand, then towards the controller. I have a spare somewhere I haven't found yet. I did try numerous configurations of the float/optical sensor at different depths, and I cut a piece of rigid plastic to cover the 'sump' portion of the AIO tank to prevent growth of algae in there, but it had no effect on the ghostly possession of my auto-top off.

Added the last fish in. Yellow watchman goby + pistol shrimp. Goodness gracious, that shrimp moves sand something fierce. Every day I wakeup, its new dunes everywhere. Its honestly impressive. They have pretty much hollowed out beneath the main rock all the way down to the glass, and its a mystery each day where their burrow will be. The watchman and the shrimp paired up instantly, and haven't been apart since. I barely ever see them because the moment they see motion they vanish, but I did set up the go-pro one day and connect to it wireless so I could spy on them without being seen. Haha, technology!

- Diatom bloom has gone away, and coraline algae is just starting to grow on the glass and rocks.
- The green hair algae has almost 100% gone away, only a few strands left in a few places.
- Added more of a cleanup crew, slowly sprinkling them in 10-15$ worth a week until I think its good.
- Yellow Clown Goby is fat, active, and starting to perch on the glass to watch me cook in the kitchen.
- Pink Streaked Wrasse is active and animated, she (I think?) is my favorite fish to watch!
- Added the last of our fish; yellow watchman goby+Pistol Shrimp.
- All water parameters holding where I want them to be; 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 2-3 nitrate, 76 degrees F, 1.025 SG.