My IM Nuvo 20 First Tank

[ElZesto]

Hey Reef people! I've been lurking here for a few months learning about the hobby and as of 10/7 I have a tank, so I figured its time to start a build thread so I have something to keep track of things.

Hardware:
Innovative Marine Nuvo 20g Long
2 IM 130gph Return Pumps (included with tank)
2 200 Micron Filter Socks (included with tank)
50w Aquatop Heater (says up to 13g but LFS recommended this size so I went with their advice)
Tunze 5017 ATO (used 3yrs, I purchased a new pump)
SMATFARM G5 95w Aquarium Light (was trying to find a used AI prime, but couldn't so I went with this on sale for 120 seemed hard to beat) didn't add until 10/27/24

Current Livestock:
2 Ocellaris Clownfish

Planned Livestock (subject to change):
Starry Blenny (really like these guys vibes, zany fellas)
CUC (waiting for it to be necessary and will add as needed, currently nothing in the tank for them to eat)
A Clam (Once the tank is very established, probably around 6 months in. I don't know much about them yet but my GF really wants one so that's her project)
Likely Zoas and BTA (Subject to change, not super worried about it now since I think I'll probably wait at least 3-6 months to get a feel for taking care of the tank before introducing any corals)

Aquascape/Tank Basics:
So I started the tank using RODI from the LFS in some food safe 5g buckets from the hardware store, and I mixed in salt to 1.026. I used a 20lb bag of Caribsea live sand for a 1" sand bottom which I read was ~1lb/gal, but I ended up with 2-3lbs left over and the sand is close to 1.5-2". Not really sure what happened there, and I may need to remove some sand later but I figured more bacteria would be better to cycle, although the thick sandbed feels like it could be an issue if bristleworms every show up. Very open to feedback from more experienced people lol. I used around 20lbs of dry rock from the LFS.
Pics of me playing with aquascaping in a box with some tape dimensions, and the tank after actually assembling it. My GF and I liked the bigger rock on the left over the small one after actually seeing it in the tank.

Cycling:
The tank was filled with the ~17lbs of live sand, ~20lb of dry rock, saltwater, a 2oz bottle of Dr Tims One and Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria for Saltwater, FritzZyme Fishless Fuel (ammonia, 4drops/gal, 80 drops) on 10/7/24. Disclaimer here: I bought the Dr Tims from the LFS, and using the instructions on the bottle and guidance from the LFS guy, I added the ammonia targeting 2.0ppmm and then waited for ammonia to drop, I was told this is a week or two before its safe for fish. I was unaware of the calendar on the Dr. Tims website, and I did not know you were supposed to keep adding ammonia so my tank only had the one treatment. This has been a learning experience for me but more on that later lol... Now its time to wait...

10/8/24: Looks like I overshot 2.0ppm, but its so hard to tell with the dang API kit. Let it sit... Time heals all wounds...

10/13/24: I've been testing every other day and Ammonia is finally starting to drop, hooray! Soon we get fish, as I see the tank everyday the anticipation is building...

10/15/24: Oh my gosh! Ammonia is at 0! I cant believe it! Hooray!

10/16/24: Here's where I start to screw things up... I'm very excited that the ammonia is at zero, and from the guidance from LFS that I bought the Dr. Tims/sand/rock from, ammonia=0 is time to introduce some fish. So I go to a different LFS (its closer to my house) and pick out two Ocellaris; a black one with an orange face, and classic orange one. The LFS person gives me a rundown about how to drip introduce the fish, what salinity the fish are currently in, hydrogen peroxide dip, and feeding. Great! I take the lil guys home and I setup the drip and introduce the black one since its salinity was lower, and therefore drip will take longer. While this is happening I figure I should do a full test to get a baseline, and double check things are good. My roommate who does freshwater (no saltwater experience) sees this test and is like "woah man that's not safe, you're not done cycling until nitrite is at 0." I'm confused because I'd read online that nitrite doesn't matter for saltwater, LFS guy I bought the original supplies from didn't mention that (or I failed to write it down in my notes, more likely), and I said "hooray ammonia is zero its ready for fish" to the LFS I bought the fish from and they also didn't ask about nitrite. I contact the LFS I just bought the fish from (at this point in time the bucket I have the fish dripping in has less than doubled in volume, so its not any where near full concentration of my water yet) and they tell me the tank is not done cycling, and thankfully offered to take the fish back and foster them until the tank is done. I take the fish back feeling like an absolute moron for screwing this up already, but oh well, live and learn and I'm just glad I didn't harm the lil fellas. Pic of test:

Nitrate looks crazy high but I suspect it was actually 0 and the concentration of nitrites is screwing up the test.

10/24/24: Spent a good amount of time reading about the nitrogen cycle and feeling like a fool after last weeks debacle. Good news everyone! The test is good and as you can see the nitrate dropped to ~0 as I suspected, so I wasn't wrong about everything last time just most things lol! Today we get our fostered fish friends back!

I go through dripping them in, hydrogen peroxide dip them (1ml H2O2/16oz water for 30 mins), and drop them in the tank.

The fishy friends in question:

10/27/24:
Today I added a light. I wanted to find a used AI Prime 16HD, but I've been looking for a month and nothing has popped up so I said screw it and got another light that had good enough reviews: SMATFARM G5 95W light. It was easy enough to setup and looks great. Here's where the tank is today (its finally come together a bit):

The two return pumps, heater, and tunze ATO in the rear chamber.

Look at those lil guys!

Current light settings. Haven't played with it much or read enough about light tuning yet, but since nothing is really light sensitive yet I figured I'd just dial it back for now (from the default ~90%'s), and set the sunrise/sunset schedules.

Front view, it sure is a fancy looking bucket of water lol.

 

[ElZesto]

Now that there's fish in the tank, I've been keeping a very close eye on parameters because I'm a bit hesitant about the cycle actually being complete since I never "re-fed" the tank ammonia but too late now so I think this might just be a 50/50 fish-in/fishless cycle. Currently I've been testing it every 2 or 3 days with my API kit, and I have a Seachem ammonia alert in the tank. The other thing I'm watching for is for Nitrate to rise over time from the fish being in there. I've been advised a good rule of thumb is 50-100ppm is where its dangerous for fish, and a water change is required to remove some. I've also been told a water change is generally not needed/can stall a cycle in the first month, so usually do the first WC at one month, then weekly/bi-weekly as needed after that. Now the issue is that the two methods I have to test Nitrate are API saltwater testkit, and some Tetra easy strips. The API seems to read 5-10ppm, and the Tetra is 40-80ppm (which would mean time for WC).

The decision here is either trust the Tetra and do a 20% WC tomorrow, or stick my original plan of first WC at one month. I'm leaning toward doing the WC tomorrow because better safe than sorry. I think the real answer here is to invest in some Hanna testers to eliminate this stupid guesswork. Very open to advice here! Thanks!

 

[ElZesto]

I did a ~15% WC, and both tests read the same after but hey at least the water looks great and I’ve established my WC method is good lol. In the change I noticed I was picking up more food from the sand/floating around the tank than I thought there was so I need to dial back my feeding a bit. That or add something to eat the excess… perhaps a shrimp or blenny but I feel like I should wait for some algae to develop so I don’t introduce them to a dessert… time will tell…

 

[Fishy Guy]

Great start! I wouldn’t put too much trust in the test strips but you definitely didn’t hurt anything with a water change. One of the nice things with a nano is how easy water changes are.

The Hanna checkers are definitely nice for nitrates and phosphates. Bottoming out is more detrimental than getting high right now though.

You should be able to add some CUC soon as you’ll start to get diatoms with the light on. Looking forward to following along.

 

[edsbeaker]

Hi and welcome!
It’s nice to see that you’ve done your homework before starting this little adventure! Your aquascaping looks really nice too!

 

[ElZesto]

Great start! I wouldn’t put too much trust in the test strips but you definitely didn’t hurt anything with a water change. One of the nice things with a nano is how easy water changes are.

The Hanna checkers are definitely nice for nitrates and phosphates. Bottoming out is more detrimental than getting high right now though.

You should be able to add some CUC soon as you’ll start to get diatoms with the light on. Looking forward to following along.

Thanks for the feedback! Good to know about phosphates, I haven’t tested for that but I put in a filter rack today after the WC with fiber balls and carbon. It came with GFA too, which I specifically didn’t put in because I didn’t want to filter any phosphate. I’m glad to hear this sounds like it was the right call lol.

Hi and welcome!
It’s nice to see that you’ve done your homework before starting this little adventure! Your aquascaping looks really nice too!

Hello! Thanks!
I thought I’d done an ok job until I immediately made a mistake hahaha. It seems everyone has a different method when you get down to it, but give it time seems to be what every one agrees upon… But hey, the best way to learn something is by doing it, just trying to not hurt any of the guys along the way. So far so good

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Tank is looking good. The nuvo is a great tank, i loved mine.

I wouldn't worry to much this first month. Keep consistent with multiple low amount feedings a day. And watch the tank. You can learn alot just by watching the tank progress.

 

[edsbeaker]

Hello! Thanks!
I thought I’d done an ok job until I immediately made a mistake hahaha. It seems everyone has a different method when you get down to it, but give it time seems to be what every one agrees upon… But hey, the best way to learn something is by doing it, just trying to not hurt any of the guys along the way. So far so good

Unfortunately, there will be mistakes along the way. I’ve been in the hobby for 30 years and I still make mistakes and am still asking questions and learning. The biggest piece of advice I can pass on is the one I hear the most: PATIENCE!!!! Nothing good ever happens fast in this hobby. Small little well thought out changes are way better than quick knee jerk reactions that will only lead to making the situation worse or cause eve n more problems. issue.
Use the knowledge from some of the most experienced reefers right here on R2R. Most importantly, enjoy it!

 

[feline]

Excited to see progress

 

[ElZesto]

Update!
Tanks doing well as are the clowns. Yesterday I got a basic CUC:
1 Red Fire Shrimp

He seems to be acclimating well. He instantly found this cave-ish spot and stayed there overnight/in the morning but now hes moved to a different much harder to see cave lol.

4 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
1 Nassarius snail


I also got some real testing equipment. I got a great deal on some used Hanna testers so I now have a HR Nitrate (and like 50 extra reagents), LR Nitrate (will probably never use but we'll see), Calcium (need new reagents), and Alkalinity (need new reagents). I got them all for $50 along with some other goodies from a guy getting out of the hobby so I'm stoked on it. I still need to get a phosphate tester most likely but I figure that won't really matter until I add corals that are sensitive to that so no rush. I also scored a Hanna salinity tester and I've got to say that thing was AWESOME for drip acclimating the livestock, especially for the shrimp as I was told they're very sensitive to salinity changes. Doing constant checks with the refractometer got old very quickly lol.

Current parameters:
Salt: 1.025-1.026sg
Temp: 79.3
NH3/NH4: 0ppm
Nitrate: 27.1

Out of curiosity I also did a test with the API test kit and Tetra strip tests.
API: If I had to guess I'd say in the teens, which isn't insanely in accurate but still a bit too finicky if I were to keep something sensitive.

Tetra: Unacceptably inaccurate IMO, ALTHOUGH it was great during cycling to do a quick y/n test for nitrite. I don't see myself really ever using these again though.

I'm looking at getting a frag of Zoa's from a friend this Saturday, and maybe a little GSP to add some more color. If things stay stable I'll probably try it. We'll see...

 

[ElZesto]

Oh I almost forgot, I also designed/added a drop-in filter media caddy to give beneficial bacteria more places to grow. I don't think this is 100% necessary due to the amount of sand/dry rock coral in the tank, however, I really don't like the look/shape of the purple manmade rock in the tank and would like to replace it with a little cave/coral rack type rock. I worry about removing any rock from the tank in favor or replacing it with dry rock as I also remove whatever filtering bacteria is growing on the removed rock, so I figure adding some media to act as a bonus place for bacteria would be a good call to do at least 2 weeks ahead of time of the swap.

Its printed out of Overture PETG, .8mm nozzle, 100% infill. Then rinsed off, alot.

 

[Jason Scalise]

Nice .
I have the same tank.
My Build thread is here in case there are any shared ideas that are helpful.

 

[ElZesto]

Nice .
I have the same tank.
My Build thread is here in case there are any shared ideas that are helpful.

That ATO system is insane lol I love it. I've been thinking about adding redundancy to mine because the optical sensor and float valve both seem unreliable to me to stop an overfill event.

That refugium setup is very cool, I've been planning/designing something very similar but haven't actually built it yet because no need to this early. A little concerned about it working a bit too well as it did for you but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

 

[Fish Fan]

Really nice work! Best of luck!

 

[Jason Scalise]

That ATO system is insane lol I love it. I've been thinking about adding redundancy to mine because the optical sensor and float valve both seem unreliable to me to stop an overfill event.

That refugium setup is very cool, I've been planning/designing something very similar but haven't actually built it yet because no need to this early. A little concerned about it working a bit too well as it did for you but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

2 years in and have not needed to adjust the ATO in any way. total autopilot so far.
failure point, frankly, is likely the ATO pump itself that lives in the fresh RO reservoir (as they fail sometimes). But I get an alert should it not power on in a 24hr period...as it comes on for 90sec each morning.
The things we do for tiny animals and amphipods.....

 

[ElZesto]

Update: Found everyone dead this morning and... I'm devastated. SPOILER: Test your water/don't add it to your tank if you order pods online (RUSALTY / https://www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com is the website I ordered from).


Over the last two weeks I added (at recommendation of LFS):
2 Mandarin Gobies (mated pair, they were great, super bummed to have lost them) added 11/4/24
1 Midas Blenny added 11/12/24

Total deceased stock is:
2 Clowns
2 Mandarin Gobies
1 Midas Blenny
1 Blue Hermit crab

Total surviving stock:
1 Fire shrimp (I really have no idea how this guy made it, but bless him)
3 Blue Hermit Crabs
1 Nassarius Snail
Green Hammer
Green Mushroom (didn't look good most of the day, but got better as the day goes on, we'll see tomorrow)
GSP (stayed retracted all day today, TBD)

Parameters (doesn't tell the full story):
Ammonia: 0.2ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 9.2ppm
Calc: 457ppm
PH: 8.2
Alk: 7.6

Now... I got the mandarins because my GF and I wanted some more fish and the guy at the LFS was like 'oh man these are great, they eat frozen food, they'll be friendly with the clowns, they do this really cool mating dance with a m/f pair every night. I've had a pair in my 30g for like 6 years, you guys will love them.'

He was right. They ate frozen food, they did the mating dance first night and most nights since, and my gf and I would stay up and watch them. I was (am) a huge fan of these guys. My LFS guy did not however mention the picky diet of these guys, and also that a 20g, especially one as new as mine with no copepods or amphipods yet, is severely lacking to comfortably support these guys. After reading about their picky diets that night I was VERY stressed about them. I didn't want to be responsible for them to starve, and it seemed like unless I was willing to setup a pod farm/establish a strong population they were pretty much guaranteed to die a slow death. I went to a different LFS to ask about my concerns the next day. To my relief they said basically the same thing; if they're eating frozen food, and look healthy, you're probably ok. They wont starve over night. If they begin to look emaciated, take them to a tank that is better setup for them and they should be ok. My worries were subsided in the short term, but I knew long term these guys needed better care than they currently had. The plan: order a lot of amphipods/copepods, add half to my tank, and half to a farm tank (storage box with bubbler and heater being fed). Worst case scenario I have two friends with a many year 60g and 160g tank who would take them if I cant support their needs (I was half expecting this to be the route long term, but I wanna at least try).

I ordered 500 amphipods/copepods, and received 2 live bags of each last night. I temp acclimated them, tested salinity of the bags (perfectly matched my tank at 1.025-1.026), turned off flow for 30 mins, and dropped them in. Flow was turned back on and I went to sleep.

I woke up today to my worst nightmare with the tank. All the fish are dead on the bottom of the tank. I'm extremely sad and confused. I took a water sample and their little corpses in a tupperware to my LFS and got a more accurate water test than I can do at home, and had them look at the fish bodies. The only parameter out of wack was ammonia was 0.2ppm, high but not murder the fish high (especially the clowns from what I'm told), and also there was 5 corpses in the tank this morning so not impossible it could've just been from them. They looked at the bodies and confirmed what I suspected: these were 5 healthy looking fishes, except they were all dead.

I've been a bit mopey today since I lost my guys, and still am. Haven't had the motivation to do much, but the two extra bags of pods have been sitting here at temp, taunting me to setup up my farm I was so excited to setup. I drug myself up and set it up, and when I did, tested the water these guys were shipped in as I had no other ideas of what to do.

The copepod water was fine. The amphipod water however was CRAZY high in ammonia. Like 8+ppm. The test I took turned darker green than my API kit can go withing 30s. I have many emotions/though about figuring this out. I'm relieved I found the cause of my fish dying, I'm sad/baffled a business would sell creatures in water so toxic, and I really don't understand how the pods are STILL alive in these conditions. Anyways, probably not news to most of you, but test your water for creatures you order, and dont add it your tank. I never have before with fish but with the pods I didn't have a small enough net to catch them to add them that way, so I just poured it in. Really wish I hadn't done that.

Live pods:

API Ammonia tests (Amphipod water on the left, Copepods water on the left):

A double check test of my amphipod water (this is diluted after adding it to fresh SW in my ne amphipod farm setup, so like... 10X dilution???):

Original ammonia levels must have been CRAZY high.


The pods are now in my little 'farm', and still alive and well. Insane that they are alive in these conditions.

All in all, I'm very sad about the loss of my lil' fellas but a bit relieved I have a definitive root cause of the tank failure. I partially blame myself for being irresponsibly trusting of strange water, but also quite upset that someone would sell livestock in such dangerous conditions and with no mention to NOT add the water to your tank. They sold me poison and I let it kill my pets.
I really enjoyed observing and interacting with the little guys everyday I was in this hobby, and it's been nice to see my shrimp is still ok at least after all. Feeding him dinner was good. I think I'll come back better. I quickly found out why a 20g tank is a bit small, and was already thinking about how to upgrade size to something closer to 40g, so I suppose I'll take this low live stock period as an opportunity to do that.