Legal Liquid: 14G Fusion Pro Peninsula (Apex + low nutrients)

[dmw913]

Well, it took less than a year and getting rid of every piece of fish gear I owned to make me super sad and unwilling to continue to go reef-free!

Short backstory: New job, new house, tank crash means no more fish when we moved. I was sad and couldn't take it anymore so I figured out how to get a tank at my office.

I just couldn't shake the desire to dig back into a small reef. I was looking for something that would give me a break from the daily doldrums without an overwhelming time commitment. I've had a IM Nuvo Fusion before and liked the tank but didn't really want to repeat myself with the exact same tank so I settled on the new Fusion Pro 2 14 gallon peninsula. A little more water, a little more space for coral, and the peninsula style should fit very well with the area of the office set aside for the tank. So here goes nothing. Please join me as I set up some Legal Liquid!

TANK: IM Nuvo Fusion Pro 14 G peninsula.
R. PUMP: IM Mighty Jet 326 gph DC pump (included with tank kit)
LIGHTS: AI Prime HD (white) w/ "L" mount as opposed to flex arm
FLOW: AI Nero 3 + split return
ROCK: BRS Marco dry rock (~ 8 lbs)
SAND: Carib Sea Ocean Direct (5 lbs)
SALT: Tropic Marin Syn-Biotic
HEAT: Finnex HMS 50W Titanium
WATER: RO/DI w/ 5 stage BRS Value Plus unit
ATO: Osmolator Nano
CONTROL: Neptune Apex (hoping for a Black Friday sale!!!)
CYCLE: Fishless with Dr. Tim's One & Only

Follow along and provide input if you'd like. All feedback is welcome!

 

[blaxsun]

Very nice!

 

[RC51]

Well, it took less than a year and getting rid of every piece of fish gear I owned to make me super sad and unwilling to continue to go reef-free!

Short backstory: The Red Sea 90 gallon pictured above crashed and before I could recover it, I was lucky enough to get a new job that required us to move. We decided to build a new home in a pandemic--I don't recommend--and my sweet husband politely asked that I not set up a tank in the brand spanking new house. I readily agreed only to find myself missing the life of a reefer and all of my friends here. Thus, I started looking around my office and thought that I could assuage my fishy needs with a small freshwater tank. Sure, NP. Was fun for the entire 30 minutes it took to set up and now I just get to enjoy the cute fish and not do much of anything with the tank.

I just couldn't shake the desire to dig back into a small reef. I was looking for something that would give me a break from the daily doldrums without an overwhelming time commitment. I've had a IM Nuvo Fusion before and liked the tank but didn't really want to repeat myself with the exact same tank so I settled on the new Fusion Pro 2 14 gallon peninsula. A little more water, a little more space for coral, and the peninsula style should fit very well with the area of the office set aside for the tank. So here goes nothing. Please join me as I set up some Legal Liquid!

TANK: IM Nuvo Fusion Pro 2 14 G peninsula.
R. PUMP: IM Mighty Jet 326 gph DC pump (included with tank kit)
LIGHTS: AI Prime HD (black) w/ "L" mount as opposed to flex arm
FLOW: AI Nero 3.
ROCK: BRS Marco dry rock (20 lbs ordered). Planning a NSA aquascape. Have chisels, glue, etc. on order as well.
SALT: Tropic Marin Syn-Biotic
HEAT: Finnex HMS 50W Titanium
WATER: RO/DI w/ 5 stage BRS Value Plus unit
ATO: TBD - Would like Osmolator 3155 but not sure the magnet puck will fit in the sump area. Thoughts? Experience?
CONTROL: TBD. Is it worth it to shell out for an Apex or stick with something like an Inkbird for heater protection? Input?

Items are ordered and will be here next week. Follow along and provide input if you'd like. All feedback is welcome!

Noice

 

[dmw913]

Look what showed up today!!! Rock should be here tomorrow to start smashing and 'scaping.

 

[WestonNanos]

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy, nice tank! I have the same one ! Ill be super interested to see how you manage the extra flow of the nero 3 (especially if youre planning to have a sand bed!!!) .... as i am only using the flow from the return pump and getting a bit of sand kicked up...

As for the ATO, i am using the ice cap and so far have nothing but good things to say about function, fitment etc!

 

[dmw913]

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy, nice tank! I have the same one ! Ill be super interested to see how you manage the extra flow of the nero 3 (especially if youre planning to have a sand bed!!!) .... as i am only using the flow from the return pump and getting a bit of sand kicked up...

As for the ATO, i am using the ice cap and so far have nothing but good things to say about function, fitment etc!

Thanks! I plan to set the return quite low as I want the water to move more slowly through the media. I was accidentally sent the original Fusion Pro instead of the Pro 2 so the vendor has also shipped me the new dual return which I think will help me direct flow in a more meaningful way but it hasn't arrived yet. That's actually why I picked the Nero instead of the MP10 because the Nero has a 15 degree tilt option so I will have some options in several ways to direct flow. I previously had an IM 10 with a MP10 in it and felt good about the flow. The other thing that will be interesting is that the aquascape will be freestanding allowing for water passing along both the front and back instead of having the 'scape lean against the back wall. I'll post a pic of how far I get with setup today. Waiting for rock to arrive!

 

[dmw913]

Ok. Here's what I got done today. Rock arrived. BRS sent relatively small pieces but I still needed a chisel and hammer. Thoughts on the aquascape? Too much, too little? Any feedback appreciated.

 

[dmw913]

We have water!!! Got the 5 stage RO/DI set up and made up my water this morning. Using Tropic Marin Syn-Biotic salt. Roughly 1/2 cup per gallon to get to 35 ppt. Dissolves super easily. Added Ocean Direct sand. Interestingly, only used one 5 lb bag. I didn't want a deep sand bed but I thought I'd use closer to 10 lbs.

Return pump is the included Mighty Jet. Had a couple of issues with a super weird loud noise from the pump as I was getting started but it worked itself out and is now very quiet. Utilizing the new Nuvo dual flow nozzle. I took most of the loc line out because it poked out too far into the tank for my liking but I do like the ability to split the return into multiple directions.

Also hooked up the Nero 3. Was as easy to set up as advertised. Absolutely painless and it puts out some water! Currently set at under 50% random flow. Will continue to fine tune as we get further down the road.

Also installed an old iPad in preparation for my Apex system. (See left portion of pic for the beginnings of the control panel.)

Letting things run, come up to temp, and get rid of all the cloudy. Will begin Dr. Tim's fishless cycle process tomorrow.

 

[dmw913]

Good news and bad news...

Bad news: Fried a heater. Something happened and my bio media bag floated to the top of the middle sump chamber and forced the top 1/2 of the heater out of the water. Since some of the heater was still in the water, that helped disperse some of the heat so there wasn't significant damage but it did melt a portion of the plastic safety cage around the heater. Unplugged heater, tossed it and grabbed a new heater in the interests of safety. Made sure to use the heater suction cups now so that if the bio filter bag has an issue again, it can't push the heater up. Whew! Avoided anything more serious.

Good news: Tester coral -- green striped mushroom -- in place. Put it on an island so it can't get out of control as greenies are known to do.

Other news: Installed ATO.

We're moving right along.

 

[dmw913]

We have fishies!!! Went through the Dr. Tim's nitrogen cycling and all appeared well so I went to my LFS to pick up two fish from Sea and Reef Aquaculture. I was able to get a Snow Storm and a Mocha Storm. They are adorable, eating well, and seem to enjoy their new environment. The Snow Storm was very interested in me trying to take a pic of him so please enjoy the silly selfie from him. The little dot on his chin just kills me!!!

 

[dmw913]

Based on a discussion in another build thread, I took this video to show how I have set up my flow using a split return and a Nero 3. There's a shot of the water movement at the top of the tank near the end. I have set the pump at random during the day with a high of 60% and a low of 30% and the sand doesn't move (very fine grain Ocean Direct). Night setting is about 30% constant for everything to take 5. You can also see how I used the split return to send some water behind the aquascape and then some angled to the front to interact with the Nero. Also of note, the Nero is angled as much as possible so it actually is hitting the front left corner of the tank and bounces back.

Also, nitrates are a little higher than I would like at this point at approximately 18. Doing a 50% water change and have ordered the new IceCap K1 NEO skimmer to help get that handled. A little nervous as it is brand new with no reviews. I'll let everyone know how it turns out. Also dosing 5 drops of Microbacter7 daily to support continued biological filtration growth. Phosphate is at .01 so no issues there but will continue to keep an eye on everything.

Finally, really enjoying logging everything in Aquarimate.

 

[dmw913]

Went a little nuts on the @Zoanthids live sale and now my reef looks like it's been run over with little army of frags! They are all doing well and the tank is settling in nicely.

Things that have happened since last update:
1. Installed @synergyreef 5 gallon ATO container. As always, they do a fantastic job. They even moved the clear panel from front to side for me at no additional charge since the container is visible and has be be mounted on the side. They are great!!!
2. Set up all reminders, schedules in Aquarimate. That is helping me stay on task.
3. Dosed pink and purple coralline algae. We'll see if it works.
4. Installed K1 Neo Skimmer from IceCap. Was quite skeptical but so far it's finally broken in and pulling out some gunk. I'll take what I can get from a nano skimmer.

Included are a few photos. I'm struggling with getting decent shots because I think the windows are putting too much light on everything. I'll keep working on it.

 

[dmw913]

11/27/2021: Received Apex this week and currently waiting for controller board. While I waited, I threw in the probes for them to be getting settled per BRS setup video prior to calibration and to see where my levels are for a starting point.

Temp was fine during the day but was dropping over a degree once the lights ceiling window and one heater could not keep up with the drop in temp over went off at the end of the business day. Tank had to be set up near a floor to
night. I would have NEVER known about this without the Apex monitoring as the tank had recovered by the morning. I added an additional Archea nano heater (50w), set them at roughly the same temp and now the tank is stable within ½ a degree even though the office is cold at night. Phew! Not sure how hard this would have been on the corals over time but fixing it can’t be bad!