Mas0n's Home Office Nuvo 40L

[Mas0n]

It's good to be back!

After a 10 year break from the hobby (college, jobs, buying a house, bla bla bla), I found a great deal on a used IM 40L for my home office.

Months of waiting for something to pop up on Facebook Market place was worth it. Someone was exiting the hobby and was selling a very well taken care of IM 40L AIO, with pretty much everything needed for set up, and more!

Here's a list of all the major equipment I scored in this deal:

1	IM 40L w Stand
3	AI Prime 16HD
3	Prime 16 Mounts
1	Ai Nero 3
2	Cobalt Neotherm Pro 100W
1	NF-1 Skimmer
1	Tunze 9001 Skimmer
1	Aqua Auto Micro
3	Auto Aqua ATO Lite
2	Aqua Neat Pumps
1	Eshopps Frag Rack
1	Sicce Syncra Silent 3

+ tons of chemicals, carib sea rock, various tools, etc! He pretty much just wanted all of it gone lol.

I took inventory of everything included and it came out to around $3600 new, obviously resale value isn't all that high on aquariums and gear, but for the $600 I paid, I think I did alright. The seller was very nice and knew the value, just wanted it gone to make room for a new car project.

Here it is empty the day I picked it up!

That night, I ordered a BRS 5 Stage RODI kit, some Dr Tim's bacteria + ammonia, and some other little goodies to get this thing going.

Over the past few days I've been working on cable management:

As well as mixing salt water and getting the cycle started! I'm on day 4 and everything is going smoothly. The water is clear, ammonia is present, and there are very small levels of nitrite and nitrate!

Current picture:

My current plans for this tank are a nice mixed reef with 3-4 fish. I'm really interested in getting a nice zoa garden going as well.

Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to chit chatting with y'all and documenting the process here.

 

[Peace River]

Congratulations on the new adventure! It looks like you are off to a good start!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It's good to be back!

After a 10 year break from the hobby (college, jobs, buying a house, bla bla bla), I found a great deal on a used IM 40L for my home office.

Months of waiting for something to pop up on Facebook Market place was worth it. Someone was exiting the hobby and was selling a very well taken care of IM 40L AIO, with pretty much everything needed for set up, and more!

Here's a list of all the major equipment I scored in this deal:

1	IM 40L w Stand
3	AI Prime 16HD
3	Prime 16 Mounts
1	Ai Nero 3
2	Cobalt Neotherm Pro 100W
1	NF-1 Skimmer
1	Tunze 9001 Skimmer
1	Aqua Auto Micro
3	Auto Aqua ATO Lite
2	Aqua Neat Pumps
1	Eshopps Frag Rack
1	Sicce Syncra Silent 3

+ tons of chemicals, carib sea rock, various tools, etc! He pretty much just wanted all of it gone lol.

I took inventory of everything included and it came out to around $3600 new, obviously resale value isn't all that high on aquariums and gear, but for the $600 I paid, I think I did alright. The seller was very nice and knew the value, just wanted it gone to make room for a new car project.

Here it is empty the day I picked it up!

That night, I ordered a BRS 5 Stage RODI kit, some Dr Tim's bacteria + ammonia, and some other little goodies to get this thing going.

Over the past few days I've been working on cable management:

As well as mixing salt water and getting the cycle started! I'm on day 4 and everything is going smoothly. The water is clear, ammonia is present, and there are very small levels of nitrite and nitrate!

Current picture:

My current plans for this tank are a nice mixed reef with 3-4 fish. I'm really interested in getting a nice zoa garden going as well.

Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to chit chatting with y'all and documenting the process here.

Love the aquascape!

 

[Mas0n]

Love the aquascape!

Thank you! It's hard to see it fully with the corner perspective.

My original plan was to have several rock peaks that swept up to the right and decrease in height as they got to the right side of the tank. They all ended up around the same height lol, but I'm happy with it. Lots of room for coral!

 

[Mas0n]

The cycle is coming along nicely! I'm on day 4 right now of using Dr. Tim's bacteria and ammonia.

Hate reading these API test kits, been eye balling the Hanna master kit... lol

Looks like 2-3 ppm ammonia, 1-2 ppm nitrite, and 10-20ppm nitrate. Unless I'm colorblind, please feel free to correct me lol.

 

[davidandrzej9]

Really nice rockwork, I just picked up an IM40L 2 months ago, wasnt so lucky on getting a good deal lol, But I will be following along!

 

[JoJosReef]

Amazing deal!! Following. Always nice to see another IM 40L build. @Blopple @trophyhimbo can be jealous with me

 

[Mas0n]

Nothing crazy today, just a little less ammonia and little more nitrite + nitrate. Cycle is still coming along nicely

Played around with Adobe Lightroom after taking some macro shots.

 

[Mas0n]

Woo! First bit of life added!

While my cycle hasn't "completed", the ammonia levels have hit 0. I figured this would be a good time to add a small fish, while I wait for the nitrites to follow suit.

I picked up a little blue-green chromis, nothing fancy but he's a cool little dude. It's been fun to watch him gain confidence and venture farther and farther away from his little cave.

I also broke down and purchased the Hanna Marine Master... The API kits I have are annoying to read and I was going to slowly buy Hanna checkers, but having everything in one is really appealing + it was 18% off! How could I resist?!

 

[Mas0n]

Welp, I have learned several valuable lessons recently... Bit of a rough start so far.

RESEARCH before buying a fish, I didn't realize how common Uronema is in Chromis. Unfortunately, the Chromis had Uronema and passed away today. Shout out to @Jay Hemdal for being so helpful and informative.

PATIENCE... I bought the Chromis for PetCo right after their acclimation... Rookie mistake, should have watched the fish for a while, ensured it was eating, etc. Looked healthy, but I didn't spend enough time closely examining the fish. I should have waited a few days, and went to a more reputable store, I figured that since it was the first fish in the tank, I could get away with it. Nope.

Current plans: Run UV + 10 days of Metroplex to hopefully remove a lot of the Uronema if not irradicate it. It doesn't seem logical to break it all down as I will more than likely introduce it Uronema at some point in the future anyway. Then I will run carbon and do a large water change before introducing another fish (that isn't susceptible to Uronema). If all goes well for 2 weeks, I will slowly add a CUC and hopefully snag a frag or two of Zoas.

I may also send a sample of my water to AquaBiomics after this to test for the presence of Uronema, what a great learning experience.

 

[Ghostweim]

I have the same tank and have been struggling with cable management. Really like how you mounted yours and may copy. Nice looking rock scape too!

 

[Mas0n]

I have the same tank and have been struggling with cable management. Really like how you mounted yours and may copy. Nice looking rock scape too!

Thank you! Velcro command strips are awesome lol.

 

[Mas0n]

Alrighty! Time for a quick update on the tank, ran some Metroplex for a few days, did a big water change and then ran some carbon to remove any left over meds (still running it).

Additions! I picked up a few fish recently, a fire fish to test the waters who is doing really well:

That same day I picked up my first coral for the tank, a nice frag of Bam Bam Zoas and a small frag of GSP, which is surprisingly not doing well, going to reposition it soon.

Seeing as the fish and Zoas have been doing well, I picked up a pair of clowns today. A smallish black storm (Nemoo) and a medium frost bite (Dale). These little dudes are awesome!

The blue areas on the frost bite are awesome!

More coral coming soon! Going to hold off on adding anymore fish for a while, I plan to eventually add a midas blenny or a small wrasse. This is definitely enough bio load to get things going and to build up some nice biological filtration.

 

[Mas0n]

Current FTS!

Went to Queen City Corals yesterday and picked up my first LPS, and a few Zoa frags! More Zoa pics to come, they're kind of tricky to get good shots of!

LPS:
Acan - Idk what kind
Torch - "Black Light"
Hammer - Green Paint Splatter

Everyone is settling in nicely and opening up. These are my first Euphyllia, in my past tanks I mainly kept softies.

I'm REALLY digging the acans, the texture and colors are amazing.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

 

[Ghostweim]

Nice frags! I am Jonesing for some new frags in my tank too! Lucky that you have a decent LFS close by - kinda jealous since I pretty much have to buy online for anything decent around here.

 

[Mas0n]

Nice frags! I am Jonesing for some new frags in my tank too! Lucky that you have a decent LFS close by - kinda jealous since I pretty much have to buy online for anything decent around here.

Heard that! My "local" ones within 45 mins are lack luster. Dirty tanks, not much variety, and high prices. I traveled just under 3 hours to a larger city, and man it didn't disappoint. The picture below was about half of their store.

I haven't purchased any corals online yet, seems like an interesting process. Especially to just having living creatures show up at your door lol.

 

[Ghostweim]

Looks like an amazing selection! I have had really good luck from Tidal Gardens - all of my frags have been from them.

 

[Mas0n]

UGLY STAGE IS HERE. Yuck. Going to order some pods soon, should help to combat some of this and provide tasty treats to the fish fam.

Appears to be a nice little outbreak of Diatoms. Hopefully not dinos, my nutrients have been running super low, removed carbon and turned off the skimmer for a while to hopefully get things a little dirty.



Additionally, I recently discovered my Alk was low and have been monitoring pretty closely lately. When I tested on 12/19/23, it was 5.9 dKH, today it is 6.2dKH, I've been doing a small amount of All For Reef to raise this over the next few weeks.

Here are my params as of today:

Everything looks pretty solid. Phosphate has been hovering around that range consistently, removing the carbon has finally given me a nitrate reading, a whole 2.1 ppm!

I have been doing some research on alkalinity levels, I am going to switch salt slowly over time. I don't think Coral Pro Salt with its 12-12.5 dKH is what I'm looking for at the moment. Something closer to 8-9, would be ideal. Maybe their blue bucket will be my choice. I wouldn't have purchased Coral Pro, but the tank came with a full bucket.

 

[Reef By Steele]

I like Fritz blue box. My LFS recommended it when I got back into the hobby and have been using it ever since. Mixes quick and clean. I have been out of the maintenance routine for several months while my shoulder recovers so honestly can’t remember what it reads out of the box, but I think 8-9ish.

 

[SliceGolfer]

Fritz RPM Blue is what I use as well. There is a production code on each box that you can verify the batch details. The other salt close to this is Aqua Forest Reef Salt mix. I can get Fritz locally at $60 for 200g so sticking with it!