Repurposed nuvo 10 to a frag tank

btmedic04 · Oct 13, 2019

Hey everybody! This will be my thread documenting using a nuvo 10 as a frag tank. Initially I had it running for a bit less than a year as a bedroom nano, but upgraded to a 40B build.

Needless to say after 2weeks, i realised that i missed waking up and seeing a reef in my bedroom. With everything doing well in my 40, I decided why not start a frag tank? It would allow me to QT new additions, keep back ups of my favorite corals and solve the problem of not having a nano reef in my bedroom.

Current list of equipment on hand:
Nuvo 10
Sicce 0.5 return pump
Aquagadget spinstream
Sicce nano 250gph powerhead
Cobalt neotherm 75w
Smart ATO micro
Repurposed 2 gallon cereal storage container for ATO reservoir
Coralbox wf-01 doser (not in use currently)
1.5L dosing container (not in use currently)
Approximately 2lbs live rock that's been cycling for the past 6 weeks
1 package of marinepure gems that have been in a tank for the past year
Intank floss holder

Waiting on:
AI Prime HD with gooseneck
Black eggcrate
Tropic Marin All For Reef
BRS Kalkwasser

Debating between all for reef and kalkwasser to maintain alk/cal. Very familiar with all for reef. Never tried kalk. If I went with kalk in the ATO, it would be 1/2 tsp per gallon of ATO water if/when dosing is required. Alternatively my dosing pump can be programmed for 24 times a day and I could use it and the container to dose max potency kalk. What's everyone's thoughts?

Livestock plans:
Six line wrasse (added today)
Adding the following after my light arrives
2x astrea snails from 40b
2x nerite snails from 40b
5-10 dwarf cerith snails from 40b

Peace River · Oct 13, 2019

Interesting! I also have a IM 10g AIO Nuvo that I have thought about doing that with in the future. I like your choices for pump, lighting, and ATO upgrades.

SDK · Oct 14, 2019

Looks good and following. I have a spare Nuvo 10 and was considering the same thing.

Stick with the All For Reef. I switched to it after struggling with kalk in the ATO for the above mentioned Nuvo 10. I found it hard to control the dosing in such a small aquarium, and it just made a mess in my ATO reservoir and pump.

btmedic04 · Oct 14, 2019

ill stick to the all for reef in this one and put either kalk or carbocalcium on the 40b. currently dosing 20ml of all for reef daily in the 40b and its looking to become very expensive very fast lol

btmedic04 · Oct 15, 2019

The primeHD, eggcrate, and marinepure plate arrived today and I spent the last 3 hours putting it all together. I got the new gooseneck mount from AI and it is MUCH better than the original. I'm currently running the BRS AB+ setting since that's what I run with my xr15's on the 40B. I think it turned out pretty nice but let me know if you have any suggestions!

SDK · Oct 16, 2019

Looks great!

I like the way you used the shelving to incorporate some LR without losing any space....

btmedic04 · Oct 16, 2019

SDK said:
Looks great!

I like the way you used the shelving to incorporate some LR without losing any space....

Thanks! All of that rock is rubble which made it easy to do that. Plus the rack needed a little bit of weight on it to hold it down. I also left enough space for a flipper nano to get between the rack and glass for cleaning

btmedic04 · Oct 16, 2019

Started moving frags over from my 40 along with my magnetic frag racks. They add a 3rd tier if I have even more light demanding corals as I was getting around 200-250 par on the top rack and around 125-150 on the bottom rack with my seneye. I also added 10 dwarf cerith snails, 2 astrea snails and 2 blue legged hermits.

btmedic04 · Oct 19, 2019

Did a water change and found I had to start dosing already. So I'm putting in 2ml of all for reef starting and we'll see where I need to go from there. Also bought a firecracker clove polyp frag today who now resides in here. So far things are humming along

btmedic04 · Nov 4, 2019

I swapped out the sicce nano for a jebao sow4 for more random flow. Not a bad little pump but we shall see how it does in the long term. Nothing really new to report here other than that and it's getting filled with frags

Peace River · Nov 4, 2019

Nice! I look forward to seeing where you go with this setup!

btmedic04 · Nov 18, 2019

Been mounting and moving frags over to the 40b and bringing a couple back over here to hopefully recover. My flame angel did a number to the jingle bells cyphastrea. Not sure if it's going to make it, but it will remain in here until it turns bone white.

One thing I noticed was how fast nitrates shoot up in here, so I took a bit of egg crate and rigged it to the primeHD mount to keep some chaeto in chamber 2. Looks to be working well and is rapidly growing. I also did a large water change to bring nitrates down from 50ish to 15ish. I suspect the minimal cuc paired with being bare bottom and only having ~2lbs rock and marinepure gems is the culprit.

That being said, the tank is growing frags and coralline algae has started on the frag rack. Despite this I've still decided to finally utilize the 20 long that's been sitting in storage for the past 5 years. I've picked up another primeHD and mount, a stand and a 10 gallon from petcos dollar per gallon sale. I'll be using left over plumbing parts from my 40b build and picking up the few fittings I'll need to complete the plumbing. I will also be purchasing a fijicube overflow kit, and diy sump kit as well as a hydor seltz d500 for the return. I'm just debating on keeping it a dedicated frag tank or converting it to a reef. Thoughts?

Tailspot and the ravaged cyphastrea