Murr7's Evolving Nuvo 20

Murr7 · Feb 27, 2019

This tank started as a good deal with aspirations as frag tank but ended up as a hospital tank. Currently it is a holding tank while I am in the process of dismantling my other fish tank, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/37g-bow-front.244753/ which hasn't been updated in a long time, but it's final evolution will be a display tank housing some of my favorite corals. The tank is currently running and has been for a about 1 year, the fish were added about 3 weeks ago, most of the coral (minus the sps) have been in the tank since it was set up. I currently am adding sand to the bottom because I'm not a fan of the bare bottom look. I'm adding the sand slowly because of the live stock already in the tank, I'm shooting for having all the sand in in about 2-3 weeks. Now for the good stuff.

Equipment
Nuvo 20
2 AI Prime HD
Tunze 9001 Skimmer
2 Tunze 1073 return pumps
2 Spinstream
1 Jebao OW-10 powerhead
Neotherm 75 or 100?
IM Aquashield
Autoaqua micro ATO
Marine pure gems
Lots of Apex goodies once I take down my other tank

Fish
Starry Blenny
Sixline Wrasse
Springer damsel
Mating pair of black clowns - still in the old tank because their anemone isn't cooperating

Corals
Reefkoi bounces
Og bounces
Godspawn bounce
Lava lamp shroom
Rainbow rhodactis
Warpaint Scoly
Red cynarina
Micromussa
Assorted zoas
Leng sy monti
Rainbow Stag
PC Rainbow
Forest fire digi

I will get more live stock and coral photos tomorrow when I have some time to take good ones. Thanks for reading and stopping by.

NY_Caveman · Feb 28, 2019

Nice! Just checked out your old bow front thread. Looking forward to this.

Murr7 · Feb 28, 2019

Ok a couple quick pics because my og caught my eye.

Murr7 · Feb 28, 2019

NY_Caveman said:
Nice! Just checked out your old bow front thread. Looking forward to this.

Thanks that tank was really an accomplishment for me but unfortunately AEFW eventually took out all of the SPS. It was quite a sad day throwing out all of the colonies and after that I lost the motivation to start over. I kept up on water changes because I wanted to keep the bounces and fish alive but I had no motivation to restart the sps until recently.

Murr7 · Mar 3, 2019

Sundays are usually the day I feed the mushrooms and lps. Todays meal consisted of brine shrimp and reefroids. I snapped a couple photos with the pumps and powerhead off in the middle of dinner time.

The PC rainbow frag is starting to get a blue encrusting ring which is exciting.

Murr7 · Mar 3, 2019

This week I am planning on adding the two clown fish and their anemone from my bowfront. As well as a 50% water change and more sand added to the sand bed.

Murr7 · Mar 4, 2019

With minimal effort I caught the clowns and the remove their anemone. I was thinking of selling them as a group but I've had them for years and the sentimental value was too high. Also I love the sebae and it has color like no other I've seen in person. This concludes the fish I'm going to add. I may add some form of shrimp down the road if the sixline cooperates. I also would like to add one more small island on the sand opposite shelf rock is depending where the nem wants to set up shop.

FTS

NY_Caveman · Mar 5, 2019

Beautiful anemone. I know it is temporary, but it scares me having him so close to the powerhead.

Murr7 · Mar 5, 2019

NY_Caveman said:
Beautiful anemone. I know it is temporary, but it scares me having him so close to the powerhead.

Thanks it is quite a creature but it scares me too haha I'll have the powerhead off until he sets his foot down. At one point early in my reef keeping years this anemone was shredded by a powerhead, the ones with the suction cups, that let go. It was quite a mess but the anemone lived. The nice thing I've found about sebaes is that they love to be in the sand which usually keeps them far from powerheads.

NY_Caveman · Mar 5, 2019

Great point. Glad he survived!

Murr7 · Mar 11, 2019

I'm currently typing this 8 hours from my tank on my first work trip of the year. While this should only be a 5 day trip, it's a great first test for the nano. This isn't my first work trip with a reef tank or my longest, some of them last up to 20 days, while this isn't ideal for keeping a reef tank it isn't impossible with a good prep plan.

This is my preparation plan.
3 Days before I leave I feed my corals rather heavy (reef roids, reef chili and a little brine shrimp). I turn off the flow in the tank when I feed like this for the mushrooms and lps to have a chance to eat. While the pumps, powerheads and skimmer are off I remove them for inspection and a quick clean. I'll replace things after cleaning (takes about 30-45 min) and start each one up making sure they work properly. I have now hooked up all the equipment to the Apex so I can control the tank from everywhere. Once the tank is back running I mix up a new batch of salt, I use a 20 Rubbermaid trashcan to mix and store my saltwater. After about two hours of the tank running I do a 50% water change in the hopes of getting most of the uneaten food and whatever else may have gotten stirred up from the pump cleaning. I always make sure I have extra premade saltwater in case I need to walk someone through an emergency water change, this has saved my tank more than a few times. These preperations are time consuming to do all in one day but I've found that getting it all done at once doesn't allow me to skip a step. I always try to give myself a couple of days after the tank prep so I can observe and make sure things are correct. On previous trips I have hastily done a water change the day before I leave only to check my Apex and see my salinity completely off once I arrive at my destination. I hope my routine will help avoid those kinds of issues on this trip and future ones as well.

My current Apex tank parameters

Murr7 · Mar 15, 2019

Gone 6 days and the tank survives, needs a good cleaning but everything is accounted for.

Murr7 · Mar 16, 2019

A few early morning shots under the blues.

Murr7 · Mar 16, 2019

My furry helper while I mix up some salt.

Murr7 · Mar 20, 2019

Little tank update...
The anemone is doing something odd it is going on a small nightly walkabout only to return to it's corner when the lights turn on. The live rock is beginning to go through it's ugly phase and small green hair algae has cropped up every where so I'll be keeping an eye on that. My rainbow acan frag got pushed into my small brain frag and part of it's flesh is gone. The mouth is intact and it responds to food in the water, hopefully it will make a full recovery. On a good note the sps is slowly ecrusting and small spots of coralline have begun showing up on the back wall. Also my mother Sunkist bounce split. I will post a couple up pics this weekend after a water change.

Murr7 · Mar 31, 2019

I thought I had cleared of the ugly stage in my tank but it seems to have been delayed. About a week ago the tank started to get quite a bit of bubble algae popping up around the mushrooms so I manually removed it, added a small amount of gfo and did 2 5 gallon water changes days apart. I was afraid that after adding the clowns the nutrient level had spiked and I wanted to stop the algae before it went rampant. This stopped the bubble algae but it led to a dino outbreak which is even more annoying than bubble algae. My plan of attack is to remove gfo and add carbon, stop all water changes and feed heavier than normal to raise my phosphate. I also am going to pick up some pods from my lfs and phyto to help the pods out compete the Dino's. If all else fails I will do a blackout period but I'm saving that for worst case. Wish me luck I hate Dino's.

Murr7 · Apr 28, 2019

Just a quick FTS, finally cleared the Dino's out and added a new piece of live rock to change up the scape and it's more pleasing to my eye. I'll have some pictures of my coral coming later.