Nautical Nathaniel's IM Nuvo 20

[nautical_nathaniel]

Well my weekly updates haven't stayed very weekly lately, but now that I am officially finished with school and the holidays are over, I should have more time to update this thread

Not a whole lot has happened with the tank lately. I got two new zoa frags while in South Florida last week and some dragon's breath macro algae that I want to experiment with in my tank. The two zoa frags are Pink Sakuras and Mohawks. These zoas are relatively fast growers and uncommon in my area so I hope to get my frag tank started by February so I can grow them out and frag them for local hobbyists

Fish-wise, I'm still looking for that perfect goby to go with my goby-less pistol shrimp. Almost pulled the trigger on a good looking pair of Aurora gobies but I really want a Randalls for some reason. However, they appear to be out of stock pretty much everywhere.

The tank seems to be adjusting to Fritz RPM very well. I'm going to go back to reduced dosing with weekly water changes since I was manually dosing and being quite inconsistent according to my water testing results. I'll hopefully have some really nice pics soon, gotta scrape off all of the algae that built up on the glass over my vacation

 

[Aaron Soliz]

Let me start off by saying what an amazing aquarium you have. I have finally pulled the trigger on the same aquarium as you. I do have a question regarding the custom caddy. I have purchased one as I was thinking leaving the filter sock on the other. I was going to just throw chemipure blue in the sock and just wash the sock off once a week. For the other side, since I purchased the custom caddy... I also purchased the 3 stage media pack. I was going to take out the black sponge at the top to put filter floss and leave the carbon sponge and the phosphate sponge in the next couple of levels of the caddy. Any suggestions regarding this method? Or is there a better one?

Thanks for you help friend,
Aaron

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Let me start off by saying what an amazing aquarium you have. I have finally pulled the trigger on the same aquarium as you. I do have a question regarding the custom caddy. I have purchased one as I was thinking leaving the filter sock on the other. I was going to just throw chemipure blue in the sock and just wash the sock off once a week. For the other side, since I purchased the custom caddy... I also purchased the 3 stage media pack. I was going to take out the black sponge at the top to put filter floss and leave the carbon sponge and the phosphate sponge in the next couple of levels of the caddy. Any suggestions regarding this method? Or is there a better one?

Thanks for you help friend,
Aaron

Awesome tank choice! Thank you for the kind compliment

I run two custom caddies, both run the same thing, filter floss on the top and bottom racks and phosphate reducing pads on the middle rack. There's no "one way to rule them all" in regards to the best way to set these caddies up, this is just what's been working well for me and I try to be consistent with every aspect of my tank.

As far as the IM filter sock goes, I find it to be too effective and really hard to clean. The one that I used for 2-3 months early last year would clog up within 2-3 days and completely bypass the sock. After struggling with the sock for a while, I gave up and went with a second custom caddy. My tank's bio load is significantly larger now than it was when I was running the sock so I imagine it would clog up significantly quicker now.

Also, I believe the 3 stage media pack is sized for the original media racks that came with the IM Nuvo Fusion 20 (those thin, clear plastic ones). The foam may be sized too small and not be as effective as custom sizing filter media to the custom caddy. I buy filter floss in bulk as well as a large pad of phosphate reducer and cut them to size each water change. I find it to be way cheaper than buying pre-cut material for the media rack

Hope that helps some! Let me know if you have any other questions about this tank or anything else in general!

 

[Aaron Soliz]

Thank you for the quick response! That does help me out. Okay then maybe I should just go ahead and spend the extra 25 bucks and get the other rack.

Just to make sure I got things straight... on both, the very top you use filter floss , 2nd chamber you have phosphate reducing pads on both and then filter floss again on the 3rd. You don’t use chemipure on either chamber? I would like to have some so i may just stick it on one of the bottom caddies in place of the filter floss.

Thanks bud,
Aaron

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Thank you for the quick response! That does help me out. Okay then maybe I should just go ahead and spend the extra 25 bucks and get the other rack.

Just to make sure I got things straight... on both, the very top you use filter floss , 2nd chamber you have phosphate reducing pads on both and then filter floss again on the 3rd. You don’t use chemipure on either chamber? I would like to have some so i may just stick it on one of the bottom caddies in place of the filter floss.

Thanks bud,
Aaron

Correct, from top to bottom: filter floss, phosphate reducer, filter floss.

Nope, no chemipure. When I did run chemipure, I would put it on top of the phosphate reducing pad since they are so thin in the middle chamber but to me it seems to irritate some of my corals, so I quit using it. I do weekly water changes so I don't run carbon all the time. The only time I use carbon is when I frag any of my zoas or my nephthea leather coral and I use the Innovative Marine media reactor and BRS Rox 0.8 carbon for that.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

01/05/2017 Weekly Update:

Here is a full tank shot to start things off:

Things are going well for the most part, some corals are having issues (mainly my ultra blasto) so I'm thinking about doing a bit of coral overhauling and moving some around while fragging others. All of the fish and inverts are also doing very good, the only aggression I experience any more is my female black and white clownfish chasing around my staghorn damsel (who is an a model citizen).

I left the tank with a house sitter/checker for 8 days while I was on vacation for the Christmas holidays and New Years and it seems that all of my green star polyps have died/melted back, several of my cheaper zoas melted back, and my SPS corals experienced significant amounts of growth. I'm thinking the reduced feeding made phosphates and nitrates drop down to the point where my SPS corals were loving it and could fix calcium carbonate at higher rates. However, none of my named zoas appear to have been affected by any of this and added a couple of new polyps as well. My ultra blasto colony seems to be the only LPS coral that struggled during this, I already had some receded polyps along the top of the colony and they seem to have receded a bit more, exposing the skeleton in some areas (I am considering fragging this coral and moving it down towards the bottom of the aquascape if I can find room for it).

Since this is the first week of 2018, I thought I would share my 2018 goals for the tank and this hobby:

• I want to steadily replace non-named run-of-the-mill corals with more collector varieties. I'm already planning on going to at least one coral show this year (CODEX in Montgomery, AL) to get some high end corals and I hope to go to more shows/frag-swaps as the year goes on.
• Part of getting more named/collector varieties of coral is also due to me wanting to start a frag tank. Nothing too big since I will probably be moving in May/June/July to South Florida. Probably a 20 gallon or so system with a ten gallon or so sump to grow zoas, lps, and lower light sps in. This is also a chance for me to explore how to use overflows and sump systems since all I have experience with now is AIO tanks.
• I've started out the year with ~1600 followers on Instagram. If you don't know, my Instagram handle is nautical_nathaniel and it is focused almost entirely on reef keeping. My goal with all of this for this year is to finish the year with ~3000 followers and at least one corporate sponsor.
• I want to step up my photography game, I'm looking at getting a new camera soon as well as a more appropriate lens setup for doing macro/close-up images of my corals and fish. I'm hoping I win the photo of the month at some point so I can get one of those sweet photography ports

Whelp, this update was pretty long winded but if you made it this far thanks for stopping by! Here's to a great year!

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Tank is looking really clean i like it! what frag rack is that on the right? its so unobtrusive, i want it!

Edit: also what part of s flo? im in wpb

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Tank is looking really clean i like it! what frag rack is that on the right? its so unobtrusive, i want it!

Edit: also what part of s flo? im in wpb

Thanks! The frag racks I use come from a company named Blue Tide Acrylics on Facebook and Instagram

There's a 90% chance I will be moving down to the North Palm Beach area early Summer.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Thanks! The frag racks I use come from a company named Blue Tide Acrylics on Facebook and Instagram

There's a 90% chance I will be moving down to the North Palm Beach area early Summer.

Nice thats about 10 minutes from me. I added you on instagram and saw you got that dragons breath from Blue Atlantic there in NPB! I go there all the time. Small World

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Nice thats about 10 minutes from me. I added you on instagram and saw you got that dragons breath from Blue Atlantic there in NPB! I go there all the time. Small World

That's awesome! I plan on joining the Palm Beach Marine Aquarium Society and getting to know some local reefers when I get down there, so I'll keep you in mind

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I added a new DIY Frag Rack to my tank, here is the build thread.

I made it so that it looks somewhat natural using Two Little Fishies Stax rocks which are made from Marco Rocks

I also got a new 35mm Prime Lens for my Nikon D3200 which I hope to use to make some way better pictures than what I normally get with Samsung Note 8.

I've moved several corals around and got some new ones. In a couple of weeks I'll be going to CODAX in Montgomery, AL to get some more corals to fill up the space I've made

 

[kdc]

I love your tank. I just caught up on it and plan to follow your adventures with fragging in FL.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I love your tank. I just caught up on it and plan to follow your adventures with fragging in FL.

Thanks! I will be holding off on the frag tank until I move in the Summer, until then I will be working on growing stuff in my display tank for fragging later so far I have several pieces of nice LPS and SPS as well as 6 or 7 named zoa varieties.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

General Update 1/26/2018

• The new DIY frag rack is doing very well, so far it's biggest fan is my pistol shrimp who has dug tunnels all around it. I think it's the happiest shrimp I've ever seen ;Hilarious I'm also very pleased with its performance overall, all of the zoas I put on it are open and happy (and hopefully growing).
• A couple of weeks ago I got a perfectly healthy small royal gramma to add to the tank, I've since realized that I've reached my fish limit and will not be able to get a goby for my pistol shrimp but since I have been unable to find a big yellow watchman or any Randall's gobies, I'm not too upset about this. The Gramma's name is Sir William
• My black and white clownfish experienced a bit of pop-eye several days ago (link to thread) but a little epsom salt cleared it up in two days and now she's back to normal. Many thanks to @Humblefish and @melypr1985 for the help! I'm think it was caused by her chasing my Staghorn Damsel around her Frogspawn.
• After I moved some corals and fragged a bunch of zoas, I now have this big space on the top right of my aquascape that looks promising for more acros and some encrusting corals. I'm on the lookout for awesome corals but I think I'll be waiting until CODAX to get some more. Unlike the Florida Frag Swap, CODAX is right after payday and also after all the bills have been paid ;Greedy

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

As promised, here are a couple of pictures I took with my Nikon D3200 and new 35mm prime lens

Sauron the Pink Streaked/Cryptic Wrasse:

Gumdrop the Staghorn Damsel:

 

[Evan West]

So what is currently your stocking for this tank? I run a 20g tank as well with a clown, starry blennie, royal gamma, and cherub angelfish and ive always felt those 4 fish was a pretty full stock.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

So what is currently your stocking for this tank? I run a 20g tank as well with a clown, starry blennie, royal gamma, and cherub angelfish and ive always felt those 4 fish was a pretty full stock.

Currently I am in a less than ideal situation regarding how many and what types of fish I have. At the moment there are 6 fish in my aquarium, some of which will need to be removed eventually as they grow up: Ocellaris Clownfish, Longnose Hawkfish, Staghorn Damselfish, Cryptic Wrasse (AKA the Pink Streaked Wrasse), Royal Gramma, and the most recent addition (few days ago), a Randall's Goby. I also have a bunch of inverts (Flame Shrimp, Tiger Pistol Shrimp, Banded Serpent Star, Sand Sifting Star, Black Urchin) and a small army of hermit crabs and snails for a cleanup crew.

I'll admit that's a lot for a 20 gallon and a potential risk to the overall stability. I am actively trying to figure out which route I want to take with getting things under control. The recent addition of my natural frag rack took up quite a bit of space for the fish to swim around in so I'll probably be removing that once I get the zoas it's holding sold.

I also have the issue of my clownfish aggressively hosting euphyllia corals (and aggressively protecting them too). At the same time her coral of choice is a quickly growing frogspawn coral that is stinging some of my corals. I would like to frag and sell the frogspawn but I'm worried that the clownfish will host my much more expensive and fragile gold torch, so in the short term I am probably going to rehome the clownfish and sell the frogspawn. That will solve some stocking and aggression issues (both fish related and coral related).

Long term, but maybe as soon as this summer, I will be upgrading the tank. I will probably be going to at least a 75 display tank if everything pans out the way I want it to so that will solve my fish growth issues. My Longnose Hawkfish is still a small fish at 1.5" but he will eventually grow to 6-7 inches and probably take interest in my shrimp, only time will tell on that last part though.

The reason I am in this situation is that I finally found a Randall's goby after looking for one for 6 months and it was in great condition, so I had to have it. It may have been a mistake but I've wanted this fish for a long time and the price was right.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

General Update 2/9/2018:

I am officially clownfishless for the first time since starting this hobby almost 3 years ago. I've sort of came to the realization that you can't easily keep peaceful fish, a clown, and euphyllia corals all together in the confines of a 20 gallon aquarium and expect everything to be peaceful. I also was tired of being bitten every time I went into the tank.

So now I am down to the following fish: Longnose Hawkfish, Staghorn Damselfish, Pink Streaked Wrasse, Royal Gramma, and a Randall's Goby. I finally found the randall's goby after 6 months of searching LFS's and asking them to order one in. Unfortunately, it and my pistol shrimp have not paired up yet.

Now that I have rehomed my clownfish, I am able to remove my large frogspawn that has grown too large for it's spot and is tarting to sting some of my corals and shade out others. My fears before removing the clownfish from the system was that if I removed the frogspawn with her still in the tank, she would move to hosting my gold torch and probably kill or mess it up in the process. I have a lot more money invested in that coral than the clownfish, so I decided to solve the problem of the frogspawn and some aggression issues in the tank by rehoming her. Since then the tank has calmed down significantly but the frogspawn is securely encrusted onto the rock so I will need to invest in some bone cutters before being able to remove it.

In anticipation of a large spot opening up from the frogspawn, I got on Facebook and won some awesome looking zoas through an auction group, here they are:

#1: SLA (St. Lucie Aquatics) Punk Rockers:

#2: SLA Rastas:

#3: SLA Rainbow Rastas:

#4: SLA Orange Mambas: (Didn't actually win these on the auction but they had some WYSIWYG on their site so I added them to the order )

Tomorrow I'm off to the CODAX frag swap and aquarium expo to look for a few SPS corals and hopefully an utter chaos frag and then I will have my rock filled out again. After that I'm forcing myself to sit back and watch things grow since there are some really important things I need to start saving for we'll see how that goes ;Hilarious

 

[Brew12]

I got on Facebook and won some awesome looking zoas through an auction group

Your the one who beat me out on those! :mad:

Just kidding, nice looking frags!

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Your the one who beat me out on those! :mad:

Just kidding, nice looking frags!

I play to win!

Thanks, I hope they look as good as the SLA photos but I'm gonna tune down my expectations a little since this is a Facebook auction we're talking about haha