dieSalzwasserqual
New Member
Welcome to my build thread! I've been a longtime lurker on the reef forums and am on my third reef tank, but this is my first build thread on Reef2Reef! I mostly see this as an opportunity to keep track of my own thoughts and observations and hopefully use to look back on my updates on this thread and identify any trends I might not notice in isolation.
As a bit of background, my first reef tank was a 40 breeder with a reef octopus HOB skimmer, a Chinese black box LED, and a whole lot of ambition. I had this tank for a couple of years while I was in high school, and had to break it down when I went off to college on the opposite coast. I was constantly plagued by aiptasia and and pink fluffy algae, and my frequent RODI filtration in the backyard annoyed my parents to no end, but I absolutely loved this tank.
(A photo of my pest filled passion project)
When the pandemic hit and I was stuck learning via zoom in the "hometown annex" of my university, I decided that getting back into reefing with better equipment would be the way to go. I went with a Red Sea Reefer 170, which is currently sitting sans water in the corner of my room as I write this, which was such an amazing upgrade. I cannot speak more highly about the quality and experience that Red Sea tanks offer. A cross country move after graduating college and a rather time intensive public service job have made restarting the Reefer 170 an unattainable goal for now, but once a reefer, always a reefer, and I need the smell of freshly mixed saltwater in my life again.
(A picture of the Reefer 170 setup in its prime. Notice the absence of aiptasia and cotton candy algae. Progress!)
Anyways, this thread is not about either of these past tanks, but rather the setup that is newly wet today: My new IM Nuvo 10!
Some basic tank specs for the setup I have planned:
Display: IM Nuvo 10 12”x15”x13”
Lighting: Kessil360x
Filter Media: Stock back chamber media basket with activated carbon and GFO
Heater: Eheim Jager 100w
Circulation: Stock MightyJet return pump and VorTech MP-10w QD
Skimmer: Innovative Marine Nuvoskim DC Protein Skimmer
ATO: Manual top off as needed
General thoughts on this build:
And here it is! My new setup! Please feel free to chime in with any advice or thoughts!
The free macro algae TBS included in the shipment of rock has been left to its own devices since being placed in the tank and has taken over the rock on the right. I plan on trimming it back next week and removing it from the front of the display in about a month. Right now it adds some interesting motion to the tank and fills in the rock scape.
Did a quick water change this morning using distilled water, and I'm thoroughly enjoying how easy it is to do a large weekly water change on this tank! I ordered more reagent for my Hanna Alkalinity tester as well as some All for Reef from BRS today, but especially for the first couple of months I'm hoping that water changes will be enough to maintain stability for the few corals I'll be adding.
I also picked up a couple of test frags today to see if the tank is stable enough for coral! The two I picked up were a cheap Acro frag (I know this is more needy than I initially planned, but for $10, it seemed that a cheap unnamed acro was at least worth the try) and green star polyps (absolutely a weed, but I love brightly colored corals with motion, and I plan on keeping on top of this as it spreads). The LFS employee who helped me out today showed me a colony of the Acro I picked up and said that it was a solid choice for a test frag based on their experience with the coral.
Not reefing related, but this tank is actually one of a pair! I have twin IM Nuvo 10s next to one another, one freshwater planted that will be a neocaridina shrimp tank and the other a reef!
This is an old pic of the two next to one another before I put the Kessil 360x on the reef:
As a bit of background, my first reef tank was a 40 breeder with a reef octopus HOB skimmer, a Chinese black box LED, and a whole lot of ambition. I had this tank for a couple of years while I was in high school, and had to break it down when I went off to college on the opposite coast. I was constantly plagued by aiptasia and and pink fluffy algae, and my frequent RODI filtration in the backyard annoyed my parents to no end, but I absolutely loved this tank.
(A photo of my pest filled passion project)
When the pandemic hit and I was stuck learning via zoom in the "hometown annex" of my university, I decided that getting back into reefing with better equipment would be the way to go. I went with a Red Sea Reefer 170, which is currently sitting sans water in the corner of my room as I write this, which was such an amazing upgrade. I cannot speak more highly about the quality and experience that Red Sea tanks offer. A cross country move after graduating college and a rather time intensive public service job have made restarting the Reefer 170 an unattainable goal for now, but once a reefer, always a reefer, and I need the smell of freshly mixed saltwater in my life again.
(A picture of the Reefer 170 setup in its prime. Notice the absence of aiptasia and cotton candy algae. Progress!)
Anyways, this thread is not about either of these past tanks, but rather the setup that is newly wet today: My new IM Nuvo 10!
Some basic tank specs for the setup I have planned:
Display: IM Nuvo 10 12”x15”x13”
Lighting: Kessil360x
Filter Media: Stock back chamber media basket with activated carbon and GFO
Heater: Eheim Jager 100w
Circulation: Stock MightyJet return pump and VorTech MP-10w QD
Skimmer: Innovative Marine Nuvoskim DC Protein Skimmer
ATO: Manual top off as needed
General thoughts on this build:
- Sand: I've gone back and forth on this, and while I do think that I'll remove the sand bed at some point in the future, at least for the first year I'm going with a simple Caribsea Pink Fiji. The BRS TV experiments and the countless build threads I've seen of beautiful tanks with spotless sand beds seem to weigh the scales for me towards a sand bed rather than bare bottom. Having the extra surface area for bacteria while the tank settles into a normal seems to be a good idea, and if I ever decide to get serious about turning this tank into an SPS dominant system I can remove the sand bed, leave the tank alone for a month or two, and then get going.
- Lighting: I'm using the old Kessil 360x I had on my Reefer 170, and while it's definitely overpowered for my current setup, the controllability is fantastic and it definitely sets me up for success later on, though shadowing will be a concern at some point.
- Water Changes: I'll admit that like many reefers, I have not been the most diligent about weekly water changes in the past. This has pretty clearly been the source of my past problems with SPS corals, and while the siren song of a water changeless reef maintenance regiment continues to ring in my ears, I am committed to following the successful methods of folks on this site. Reef keeping may seem like rocket science at times, but it seems like the best rule of reefkeeping is the simplest: follow through on regular water changes. My plan is for about 4 gallons a week, which would be about a 50 % water change weekly.
- Stocking: I love ocellaris clownfish and added a pair this week and also have struggled with low nitrates and phosphates in the past so may add another fish to help increase the bioload. Otherwise, sexy shrimp may be in my tank's future!
- Rock: When I used dry rock for my Reefer 170, the results were ugly at first, and the algae issues only got better when I added some KP aquatics live rock. It seems like folks on the forums are moving away from the sterile starts that were all the rage a couple of years ago, and I think my experience tracks with that shift in the conventional wisdom. I ordered live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, and while there were weather delays the customer service was fantastic and I cannot speak more highly of them.
- Flow: With the dual outflow from the MightyJet pump that came with the tank reducing the flow pretty significantly, I added an old MP10 I had saved. When I add sand and rocks, I may remove this additional flow, but it seems like many folks who run successful IM Nuvo 10 setups have another powerhead for more random flow so I figured I might follow in their footsteps.
And here it is! My new setup! Please feel free to chime in with any advice or thoughts!
The free macro algae TBS included in the shipment of rock has been left to its own devices since being placed in the tank and has taken over the rock on the right. I plan on trimming it back next week and removing it from the front of the display in about a month. Right now it adds some interesting motion to the tank and fills in the rock scape.
Did a quick water change this morning using distilled water, and I'm thoroughly enjoying how easy it is to do a large weekly water change on this tank! I ordered more reagent for my Hanna Alkalinity tester as well as some All for Reef from BRS today, but especially for the first couple of months I'm hoping that water changes will be enough to maintain stability for the few corals I'll be adding.
I also picked up a couple of test frags today to see if the tank is stable enough for coral! The two I picked up were a cheap Acro frag (I know this is more needy than I initially planned, but for $10, it seemed that a cheap unnamed acro was at least worth the try) and green star polyps (absolutely a weed, but I love brightly colored corals with motion, and I plan on keeping on top of this as it spreads). The LFS employee who helped me out today showed me a colony of the Acro I picked up and said that it was a solid choice for a test frag based on their experience with the coral.
Not reefing related, but this tank is actually one of a pair! I have twin IM Nuvo 10s next to one another, one freshwater planted that will be a neocaridina shrimp tank and the other a reef!
This is an old pic of the two next to one another before I put the Kessil 360x on the reef:
