Nuvo 40

[ReefBonanza]

Hey reefers, time for an update here! Do you care? Of course you do!

I have finally increased my Kessil 360X to 65% intensity with good results. The corals seem to like to extra bit of light, and are thriving. The tank is about 5 months “new”. I have still been testing salinity, temp, ALK, phosphates, nitrates, calcium, and magnesium 2X/week religiously. I honestly make life plans around testing parameters/water changes LOL. Of course I am a reef freak! Phosphates are normally at 0.05 (Hanna) with nitrates at 2 (Salifert), about to switch to Aquaforest once I run out of solution soon. Only running filter floss media, Red Sea carbon, and IM midsize UV in rear chambers. Really minimal, considering no skimmer.

The latest corals I have added are my trachyphyllia, pink hippo/chucky’s bride zoas, and JF purple tide montipora digitata. I just purchased a German blue montipora digitata from Tidal Gardens that will be arriving next week. I am going to place it between my bubblegum digi and the purple tide digi.

I had some cyano about a month ago. Nothing serious, just a small patch in the back. I turned up the MP 10 to 80% reef crest and cyano went sayonara. I have some tiny bubble algae too that grows sometimes, but I usually just manually remove with great results regardless whether I pop them or not. When I remove them, I feel like I am playing operation with my forceps LOL. Then, when they float away, I feel like Mr. Myagi trying to catch flies. So much fun!

For those that may have not seen an earlier post I made, I won a Kessil 360X and a coral caddy at an event last weekend. I am really excited about it. I do not plan on using it as of now because I am happy with one light on my tank. I have learned thus far that there are a lot of ups and downs in this hobby. Right now, I feel like my tank is in a good spot and I am happy about it. I also just got my new lid from OctoAquatics. I really like it! It has a feed door that I have been yearning for.

Well, that’s it for now Thank you for reading, or at least pretending to.

Here’s a few pics!

Looking Good !

 

[Daniel92481]

^ Thanks man!

 

[PacoPetty]

Looks amazing!

 

[Daniel92481]

^ Thanks Paco! I appreciate the love!

 

[Tahoe61]

I am embarrassed to say I missed this thread. I have the same tank, but without the awesome scape. My tank is 5 months old.



You need to post more. Tons of IM 40 and under threads.

 

[Daniel92481]

Thanks man! I have seen your thread many times!

 

[Daniel92481]

When I built the scape, it baked in the good ole’ Texas heat for over a month. In other words, the rock putty was dry LOL

 

[Husker-reef]

I have the aquatop AIO 40. It’s been setup for a week now. Waiting on it the cycle. Finally got a scape set up I somewhat like. Might take out another big piece and try to break it up smaller with a hammer. I like your scape a lot. Can you post a daytime pic. I have about 27lbs in there

a hammer.

 

[Daniel92481]

^Awesome man! I appreciate it! Here is a whitish/daytime pic from a couple of months ago.

 

[Calpoly2103]

Nice tank man ! Nice growth over a short time and cool zoas !

 

[Daniel92481]

Nice tank man ! Nice growth over a short time and cool zoas !

Thanks a lot! The tank just hit 6 months last week. Stay tuned for an update soon!

 

[Daniel92481]

Hello reefers!

I hope you are managing to keep yourself, as well as your families safe during these unfortunate times we are all going through.

It has been a couple of months since my last tank update, so I thought I would take the time to post one today!

Since my last update, I have been working a lot, but have managed to keep a routine maintenance schedule going. The tank is currently around the 7 month mark since it’s start up back in October. I am still testing all parameters, but have only been testing salinity, ALK, and phosphates on a super duper regular basis. I usually test ALK and phosphates 3-5x/week since I have a smaller water volume. Testing my phosphates before feedings tells me if I might have overfed on the last meal. They have been consistent between 0.03-0.1. As far as ALK levels, the tank stays between 6.8-7.2. Whenever I have a couple of readings below 7.0, I add 5mL Kent’s Marine A&B with good results. I have found that adding 5mL, will add 0.3 to the ALK levels. When it comes to nitrates, calcium, and magnesium, I have changed my testing to once every two weeks. I am still doing the same water change schedule weekly of 5 gallons with Red Sea blue bucket salt and home made 0 TDS liquid gold (RO/DI.) For those of you that might have seen, I recently won a raffle from BRS...woohoo! I was able to add between $500-600 worth of stuff to my cart and it would all be shipped for free. Yea! I couldn’t believe it either. Somehow, someway, I won. When I was adding things to my cart, I started thinking about maintenance items, including Hanna reagents for ALK and phosphates. I ordered 20 of each, 3 buckets of Red Sea blue bucket salt, Red Sea carbon, filter floss, and other misc items! The reagents will last me a year. So yea, I definitely have no excuse for not testing. I am still running only filter floss, carbon, and UV in the back chambers.

I feel like the tank is doing well, I’m getting some good growth from the zoas. Some seem to have exploded with growth over the past few weeks. The Nirvanas particularly! Also, the God of War zoas always amaze me with their WOW color. Another one I like is the JF poison potions. They are super bright and edible looking, even if they are poisonous haha. The best growth has come from Nirvanas, psychosis, frozen apples, God of War, WWC whammin watermelons, sunny D’s, Helter Skelter’s, and most recently, JF Kung fu fighters and CC bowsers. The KFF’s have been in the tank for almost 5 months and just now exploded with growth. Tripled in size! The bowsers started with 2 polyps, and are now about 10+ in the last month. They have been in the tank for about the same amount of time as the KFF’s. The plate coral perched himself up on a rock and has been doing even better than before. I moved him over to make space for the trachy, placing him flat on the sand. The next morning, he decided he wanted to claim the rock. Because of this, I moved the ricordea a few inches to the right. He seems to like his new spot, and has actually changed his shape to adapt to his new home. So cool!

A few weeks ago, I noticed I had the dreaded aiptasia anemones growing. I spotted 5-6 that I could see. After talking myself out of the flamethrower, I managed to purchase 3 nudibranchs from saltyunderground.com. I actually just received them today. I am hoping they work better than my flamethrower idea. They are so tiny and weird!

Other than all that, probably not too much else. Just trying to keep things as stable as possible, while continuing with the husbandry aspects. Thank you all for reading! Here are a few pics!

 

[Daniel92481]

Update bump in case you missed it yesterday!

 

[Brandon.helvie]

Daniel,

Appreciate the invite over to your build thread. Your tank looks great. I like the zoa placement and will look stellar when it fills out. It looks like you already have some great growth comparing now and your initial set up. While your rock structure is a bit different than mine, it isn't awfully dissimilar. What are your thoughts on the use of 1mp10? Do you feel like you get sufficient flow through your tank? I initially wanted an mp10 but due to budget issues it didn't happen. Im currently running one jebao slw20 and will most likely get a second for the other side. heck of a set up!

 

[Brandon.helvie]

Also, if im seeing it right it looks like you may get the same brown film build up on the back pain as I do. Then the micro bubbles stick to it. If im seeing that correctly?

 

[Daniel92481]

Hey, sorry, just seeing this! I appreciate your kind words about my tank. I have gotten some good, steady growth from most of the corals. My zoas are really taking off. As well as my bizarro cyphastrea! That thing is really encrusting the rock work nicely. As far as my MP10, I love it! I have it cranked up to 80% on reef crest and do not have any dead spots within the tank. Good flow throughout. I really like the MP10 because of its minimalist design, ease of maintenance, and its sleek look. I couldn’t be happier with a different power head. I really feel like it is worth the price. I’m not seeing the buildup you mention? Maybe it’s detritus or film algae. Whatever it is, it doesn’t last long with my trochus snails, blue legged hermits, and my new pincushion urchin. He eats everything! Including my coralline! Hopefully the coralline will spread faster than he can munch.

 

[Tahoe61]

Hi Daniel

Did you see any improvement in amount of Apitasia after nudibranch introduction?

Woohoo on the raffle, good choices on testing materials.

The Torch and Zoanthids garden are really taking off. I have wanted to add Browser and Nirvana, but I an running out of room.

Our tanks are almost the same age. Interesting to see the different styles.

What ATO are you using?

Edit: Still Smart ATO.
Did you ever put a skimmer on.

 

[Daniel92481]

Hi Daniel

Did you see any improvement in amount of Apitasia after nudibranch introduction?

Woohoo on the raffle, good choices on testing materials.

The Torch and Zoanthids garden are really taking off. I have wanted to add Browser and Nirvana, but I an running out of room.

Our tanks are almost the same age. Interesting to see the different styles.

What ATO are you using?

Edit: Still Smart ATO.
Did you ever put a skimmer on.

Hey there! Yes! I was just commenting yesterday about how I had put two nudis in the tank about two months ago to deal with a minor aiptasia problem. I could visually see about 7 or 8 aiptasia when I put the nudis in. Over the weekend, I actually spotted a nudi on my glass. This was the first time I had seen one since I put them in. I am 100% satisfied with them, as they have pretty much eliminated all aiptasia that I can see. There was a huge one growing on my whammin watermelons that I prayed about lol. Within a week or two...GONE! These are amazing little creatures. See below for a pic of the rare sighting. Yea, I was really lucky on that raffle! I guess that’s what a raffle is all about. The luck of the draw! I spent $350 on my trachy that day, so winning the light and coral caddy really paid off. As far as testing goes, I feel that it is paramount in this hobby. Especially when just getting the tank up and going. It really helps to know your parameters. As you know! The zoa garden is really taking shape as of late. The two you mentioned, the nirvanas and bowsers have blown up! The nirvanas are probably my fattest colony at about 25+ nickel sized heads. The bowsers went from 5-15 polyps in about a months time. I also have about 15 polyps of JF poison potions. They are my favorites so far. So weird how they multiply exponentially depending on the colony size. Yea, I’m right at about 8 months since start up. I’m still using the smart ATO micro with good results. It’s a great ATO. I had some hair algae growing in the rear chamber, and it actually alerted me that the sensor was being blocked. I had no idea. Such a cool feature. As far as a skimmer, no I haven’t. Unless something drastic changes, I probably never will. I’m happy with trying to keep it simple back there. I am only running filter floss/balls, carbon 24/7, and UV. That’s it! Actually, my filter floss/balls are the same ones I have been running from the start! They come from the IM midsize purity pack. I alternately rinse one every Friday with a water change. 8 months in...still going strong.

 

[Tahoe61]

Wow very cool.

When it works do not change it.

I run the same UV sporadically for algae or bacterial blooms, I feed pretty heavy.

For supplements I use Kent A/B as well.

 

[Daniel92481]

You’re right! If changes are to be made, I try to do them one at a time. +1 on Kent Marine A/B. It’s so effortless to make adjustments with it. I really like it.