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I decided to make a thread documenting my Innovative Marine Nuvo EXT 100 build. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions. I am a little late starting this, so the build is nearly complete at this time, but we all know a tank is never truly "finished" anyway.
So this build started out as my "dream tank" build. I know for some of you this may seem like nothing, but for me this has been well over 10 years in the making.
I will try to split it up into several posts to make it easier to follow the pictures as I progressed through the build. Plus this gives me the opportunity to take a break from this write up since it may take a while to go over everything haha.
Below I will list the equipment I originally planned to use, as well as document what ended up changing once the tank was running:
Innovative Marine Nuvo EXT 100.
Custom designed/built wood stand.
Petco 40g breeder DIY sump.
36" aquatic life t5/led hybrid fixture.
2x AI hydra26hd's.
Amazon par38 grow bulb over fuge.
Vertex omega 150 skimmer.
Sicce 1.5 dedicated manifold pump.
Pentair 25w smart uv sterilizer.
Brs carbon/gfo dual reactor.
2x sicce 3.0 return pumps.
2x finnex titanium 300w heaters.
Tunze 3155 ato.
Jebao dp4 dosing pump.
Skimz dlc3 dosing container.
Neptune Apex system controller.
Originally I planned on using a pair of icecap 3k gyres, you will see them in the photos. They ended being too strong for the tank and I am currently looking for their replacement. I have an ecotech mp40 on the way to try. If that works out I will purchase a second one.
In preparation for the tank, and in the name of redundancy, I ran a completely dedicated gfci circuit for the tank, as well as utilized a 2nd/separate gfci circuit. I split the 2 eb832's across both circuits. This way if one breaker trips, I still have a back up. I have placed 1 return pump, 1 heater, and 1 powerhead on each eb832 in hope's that in the event of a breaker failure, I still have a tank capable of supporting life. All of the equipment drawing significant power is on the eb832 plugged into the dedicated circuit. The remainder of the equipment is plugged into the eb832 on a shared circuit with other items in my living room.
Items that still need to be completed:
1. Canopy for the lights. I have them temporarily hung from a 2x4 bracket that is sitting directly on the glass. I unfortunately have not had time to start building the canopy yet but I hope to get to this soon.
2. Stain/attach wood lip on top of stand. Unfortunately I wasnt thinking about humidity, and stored these boards in my shop that isn't climate controlled. They warped a bit and no longer fit as well as I would like. I have discussed it with my stand builder and he is going to remake the boards for me.
3. Wire management. I have a few wires that just simply were not long enough to reach. I have extension cords now, just need to make time to get in there and fix it. I also did not account for the amount of wiring running into and out of the stand, so I will need to drill an additional hole for wiring.
4. Ato reservoir. I plan to make a custom ato reservoir using acrylic. I have the acrylic so it is just a matter of making time to do it. For now i am using a black plastic trash can, you will see it in the pictures.
There are a few other things I plan to add in the future, I'll post those things as they come up.
Here is a quick photo of the tank today.
So this build started out as my "dream tank" build. I know for some of you this may seem like nothing, but for me this has been well over 10 years in the making.
I will try to split it up into several posts to make it easier to follow the pictures as I progressed through the build. Plus this gives me the opportunity to take a break from this write up since it may take a while to go over everything haha.
Below I will list the equipment I originally planned to use, as well as document what ended up changing once the tank was running:
Innovative Marine Nuvo EXT 100.
Custom designed/built wood stand.
Petco 40g breeder DIY sump.
36" aquatic life t5/led hybrid fixture.
2x AI hydra26hd's.
Amazon par38 grow bulb over fuge.
Vertex omega 150 skimmer.
Sicce 1.5 dedicated manifold pump.
Pentair 25w smart uv sterilizer.
Brs carbon/gfo dual reactor.
2x sicce 3.0 return pumps.
2x finnex titanium 300w heaters.
Tunze 3155 ato.
Jebao dp4 dosing pump.
Skimz dlc3 dosing container.
Neptune Apex system controller.
Originally I planned on using a pair of icecap 3k gyres, you will see them in the photos. They ended being too strong for the tank and I am currently looking for their replacement. I have an ecotech mp40 on the way to try. If that works out I will purchase a second one.
In preparation for the tank, and in the name of redundancy, I ran a completely dedicated gfci circuit for the tank, as well as utilized a 2nd/separate gfci circuit. I split the 2 eb832's across both circuits. This way if one breaker trips, I still have a back up. I have placed 1 return pump, 1 heater, and 1 powerhead on each eb832 in hope's that in the event of a breaker failure, I still have a tank capable of supporting life. All of the equipment drawing significant power is on the eb832 plugged into the dedicated circuit. The remainder of the equipment is plugged into the eb832 on a shared circuit with other items in my living room.
Items that still need to be completed:
1. Canopy for the lights. I have them temporarily hung from a 2x4 bracket that is sitting directly on the glass. I unfortunately have not had time to start building the canopy yet but I hope to get to this soon.
2. Stain/attach wood lip on top of stand. Unfortunately I wasnt thinking about humidity, and stored these boards in my shop that isn't climate controlled. They warped a bit and no longer fit as well as I would like. I have discussed it with my stand builder and he is going to remake the boards for me.
3. Wire management. I have a few wires that just simply were not long enough to reach. I have extension cords now, just need to make time to get in there and fix it. I also did not account for the amount of wiring running into and out of the stand, so I will need to drill an additional hole for wiring.
4. Ato reservoir. I plan to make a custom ato reservoir using acrylic. I have the acrylic so it is just a matter of making time to do it. For now i am using a black plastic trash can, you will see it in the pictures.
There are a few other things I plan to add in the future, I'll post those things as they come up.
Here is a quick photo of the tank today.