Nick’s 20G Nuvo Fusion

[Nick Steele]

I missed a few feedings this week due to late nights at work and my nitrates and phosphates dropped down to zero again. Dino’s were coming back very fast and I took action and started dosing right away two days in and I’m getting cyano again which I’m okay with as it should out compete the Dino’s.

Some corals aren’t doing too well but they have all been eating just fine so I’m hopeful they will pull through. My fungia did start to recede on one side but is starting to puff back up today. Acans are growing nicely seem to love the higher nutrients. Sps still don’t seem to be thriving but still slowly growing and have slight polyp extension.

Really hope this Acan keeps this green mouth as it looks so different then the larger heads.

 

[Nick Steele]

I have finally caved and I ordered the Innovative Marine desktop UV. It should be here on Thursday and I’m hoping this will really help out my corals. I’m starting to get worried I might lose some of my priced pieces (pink hammer, green plate and one acan). I did lose one trochus snail this week and another one looks to be on its way out (I thinking they are eating the Dino’s and it messing with them) I also have added carbon in the filter chamber to help out if theres any toxins in the water

I did a deep clean today and changed about 6 gallons while I removed a ton of Dino’s and cyano from my sand bed and the corals in question. I am keeping a close eye on phos and nitrate tonight to make sure I didn’t deplete all of it and that I don’t bottom out again.

Tomorrow I’m picking up 3 sexy shrimp and will be getting a mandarin this week as well so that should help with my nutrients I hope.

Hopefully in a few weeks the UV will have done it’s job and I will be Dino free and getting back into the swing of things.

 

[PR_nano]

The sexy shrimp would be a really nice addition. Looking forward to seeing them in the tank. Are you getting a captive-bred Manadrin or plan to do pods culture or feeder?

 

[Nick Steele]

The sexy shrimp would be a really nice addition. Looking forward to seeing them in the tank. Are you getting a captive-bred Manadrin or plan to do pods culture or feeder?

Shrimp are acclimating now and will get a picture when they settle in hopefully tonight they will be good.

Mandarin will be captive breed and eating frozen and dry foods. Although I will keep an eye on my pods and add more if/when needed.

 

[Nick Steele]

@PR_nano

Shrimp have settled just fine they did eat some pellets earlier and are now eating some mysis. I will make sure they are well feed at least once a day to make sure they don’t go after my corals. I added them right next to my rock flower and hopefully after the Dino’s go away they will live in them.

 

[PR_nano]

They look good! Good idea on feeding them often. I heard they might irritate some SPS polyps but not sure.

 

[Nick Steele]

Since adding the sexy shrimp they are keeping my two rock flowers clean of cyano and Dino’s so that is a plus! They don’t venture far until lights go out when they start climbing on the rocks. They haven’t touched anything that I can tell just yet but still battling Dino’s so not much is looking excellent anyways.

On the Dino front I have been keep nutrients up and I was suppose to get my UV today but it was delayed and will be here tomorrow. I will start using it after my water change to try and help lower the number of Dino’s to start with.

 

[Nick Steele]

After waiting all day my UV sterilizer finally arrived at 8:36pm just in time to install it before lights out. I have been waiting for this thing for a little over a week and I hope it will help push me over the hump with the Dino’s in my tank.

 

[PR_nano]

Hope it works for your dino. I use filter floss on mine instead of the included sponge. I added a extra cutout of floss since there was a gap and detritus and bubble algea was flowing into the other chambers.

 

[Nick Steele]

Thanks man!

I know it’s only been one day but I swear some corals are already opening up more. Plus I couldn’t find any Dino’s on my glass and my sandbed wasn’t riddled with bubbles yesterday either (use to look like a bubble wand when a hermit would venture across the front of the tank lol). I like the floss idea but I use to have to change it out daily due to how much Dino’s got stuck on there and I rather have them go through the UV and die for now. But maybe that can help if UV doesn’t work completely.

 

[BaysEndReef]

Following!

 

[Nick Steele]

Following!

Welcome aboard!

 

[Nick Steele]

I won the @Corals.com giveaway earlier this month and will be receiving some corals very soon!!!

Well yesterday I made a huge investment in time and decided to do a “rip clean” of my tank to try and push Dino’s out!

I had 20+ gallons of premade water on hand to do a 100% water change and remove my sandbed. The ordeal took about 3 hrs but I wasn’t prepared for how much it was going to involve (some of my epoxy came off and I spent 30 mins fixing it plus putting corals on frag plugs). Overall I was worried at first because I didn’t wash the rocks as good as most people do (usually rip cleans are for algae not Dino’s) and had cloudy water once I washed the tank down and placed rocks back in. This morning when I woke up water was crystal clear and I was positive I wouldn't have any sort of mini cycle.

Overall I believe the tank is much more happy with the new water/parameters. Honestly I didn’t check my alk before or after the change but I will soon. All corals look much more happy with the exception of the gsp rock that was overrun with cyano and I washed it in peroxide and now a rock flower nem is attached to it also.

Hammer is opened much more then in the past few weeks and I hope I am able to bring this and my frogspawn back from their deathbed (I love my euphyllia!!). Acans are still nice and puffy. My pink lemonade frag that was growing Dino’s like crazy doesn’t have any on it finally and it’s polyps are back out. The rainbow Millie on the other hand looks like it might be finished with before the rip clean I could see a few sections of living flesh left but idk if sitting in 75F water for a couple hours knocked it dead it’s still in the tank so we shall see.

Here’s some pics (I’ll have to get around to glueing frags back onto the rock work soon.)

Also I finally found my next resident. I got a tailspot blenny that will spend the next few weeks in QT as I got it from a shop that is notorious for Ich. He did eat some spurilina brine shrimp right when he got settled into qt too!

 

[PR_nano]

Awesome Nick, and congrats on the new corals. Tank looks so clean it makes the coral color pop even more. I'm really liking the bare bottom look. Did you also ended up getting the Mandarin Dragonet or just the Tail Spot Blenny?

I may have a couple of question about the rip clean process in a few weeks if you don't mind.

 

[Nick Steele]

Awesome Nick, and congrats on the new corals. Tank looks so clean it makes the coral color pop even more. I'm really liking the bare bottom look. Did you also ended up getting the Mandarin Dragonet or just the Tail Spot Blenny?

I may have a couple of question about the rip clean process in a few weeks if you don't mind.

I did get the mandarin but it’s very difficult to get a picture of him. He is very reclusive and I don’t see him much. He’s very very tiny and the clowns nibbled at him one of his first nights in the tank see a torn dorsal fin but he was still kicking. I found him during the rip clean but didn’t think to get a pic as I was busy.

Part of me likes bare bottom but I like my sand too so we shall see if I add it back over time.

Any questions go for it. I’m not an expert but I did do a lot of reading before I did mine and all seems to have worked out so far (2 days) knock on wood.

 

[GlfFxtrtYnky]

I really enjoyed reading through your tank thread. Rock work is very nice, how are you liking not having sand in there? Ill be following along for more.

 

[Nick Steele]

I really enjoyed reading through your tank thread. Rock work is very nice, how are you liking not having sand in there? Ill be following along for more.

Thanks really means a lot!

Im enjoying the bare bottom for the moment but I do miss the sand. Also my female clown is super weird (eats algae etc) and will random swim behind my trachy and push it around. I don’t like this as the is my favorite coral in the tank atm. I’m debating glueing it to a frag plug but not sure if that will help too much.

 

[Nick Steele]

So 5 days after the rip clean and I couldn’t be happier! Hammer and frogspawn keep opening up more and more each day! Also my fungia plate is finally extending its tentacles again and I need to glue my frags back onto the rockwork this weekend at some point before my coral order comes on Tuesday to free up some space

Although not perfect yet they are much better now then before!

 

[Nick Steele]

So today I received my order from @Corals.com and everything seems happy in the tank besides maybe the plate unless it’s just acclimating still. I have reached out and am chatting with Jonathan who assured me it looks like it should. A+ customer service and shipping/packaging they even wrote congratulations on the shipping box (nice touch)

Everything was opened and happy in their shipping bags. I received 2 Acan frags 1 24k Lepto and a orange fungia plate.

I usually remove frags from their plugs but both of these Acan frags had a good amount of coralline algae on them and both were frag disk so I didn’t remove and just dipped before going into the tank. During the dip I did see a few copepods/amphipods along with a quarter of an asterina star and a dead chiton sadly (would have loved one)

Chiton I believe (was barely visible to the naked eye)

Start of Acan garden (news ones are the purple/green speck one up top and the pink/red/blue on the bottom)

Will probably move this at a later time (24k lepto)

Orange fungia plate (still getting settled)

I also glued down many of my frags and still need to figure out where/how I’m going to make an Acan island.

 

[Nick Steele]

Everything is still going great! Dino’s haven’t came back and I’m now seeing green hair algae growing all around the tank. Only one trochus snail left after my Dino’s so I might go pick up a few this weekend. The single one is bulldozing the stuff but 3-4 is what I’d like in the tank.

Corals are 99% doing great there is one zoa frag that still hasn’t bounced back but it showing some slight color everyday. Everything else is doing extremely well! Hammer and frogspawn keep getting bigger and bigger each day. The new corals are doing awesome and I’m loving the plate coral although I have to find a better way to place it as right now it’s facing away from the front of the tank. Also my tubbs blue zoa has a polyp with much more red of it then any of the others. This is new and I’m not sure if I like it or not.

Full tank shot (ignore the algae spots as I’m not scrapping a lot atm)

Plate coral

Tubbs blue zoas with a morph in the back right

Hammer and frogspawn

Acan garden

My next new resident is going on two weeks in QT and will do another week until he’s added to the DT. I’ve just been observing due to the shop I got him is notorious for ich. So far haven’t seen any so I’m almost positive he’s ich free. He eats like a pig and is getting more friendly every time I feed him. Got a nice little video of him today