SliceGolfer's IM Nuvo 20 - Skimmer went ROGUE!

InvaderJim · Jan 21, 2020

Great looking tank. Definitely giving with one a follow.

SliceGolfer · Mar 1, 2020

This weekend I made a huge change to the tank. I switched from two AI Prime HD lights to a single 24" Reef Breeders Photon V2+. It has been a couple days since the swap out and I am very pleased with this light. The spread is much better over the full 24" of the tank. The color, spectrum, and intensity matches (if not better) than the AI Primes. I'm seeing a response in the corals, with increased polyp extension, feeder tentacles, and fluffiness. I haven't had a chance to make a PAR mapping as the meter was checked out at my LFS.

Current programming of the Reef Breeders Photon V2+ is as follows. This will be adjusted once PAR mappings are taken.

This week has also been a battle with pests. I've had some bubble algae and aiptasia pop up here and there. I added 3 Berghia Nudibranchs two weeks ago, and hadn't seen any progress against the aiptasia. So I used Frank's F-Aiptasia to put the hurt on all the aiptasia I could find. What's interesting about this was the noticeable rise in my calcium level. A week prior, my calcium was 452 and after using F-Aiptasia calcium had risen to 466. Something to note if you're using this product. It could be an anomaly, so I'll watch this in the future.

This week's test results:

If anyone is still following this thread, thanks for stopping by.

Tahoe61 · Mar 1, 2020

Lol.

Fantastic tank.

What are you doing to maintain the big 3?

SliceGolfer · Mar 1, 2020

Tahoe61 said:
What are you doing to maintain the big 3?

I run two Jebao DP4 dosers, one with Alk, Ca, Mg, N03 and the other with Quantum Bio-Enhance, Bio-Kalium, Bio-Metals, and Bio-Gen. I manually dose P04 and Microbacter7 weekly. I do water changes roughly once a month when I siphon detritus. I test Alk 2x a week, everything else weekly.

InvaderJim · Mar 1, 2020

Interested in hearing more about your dosing routine. I noticed you’re dosing nitrates and phosphates.

edit: just saw your new post

SliceGolfer · Mar 1, 2020

I am dosing N and P. With three fish and feeding 2x a day I still end up needing to dose to keep up with demand. I try to keep my N03 between 2-5ppm and P04 at 0.10 so I get something measurable on my Hanna checkers. Adding the MB7 weekly breaks down N and P so the SPS corals have all the major nutrients for growth.

evo187 · Mar 1, 2020

new lights look great!!

SliceGolfer · Mar 2, 2020

Trying a new 10x macro lens and 15k filter, shooting from my iPad Pro. Will try again tomorrow when I have more time. Looks promising!

Great looking Acan. This guy had 2 heads when I got it.

One of my favorites; a Sector One Favites. The bump in the center is the original frag plug.

Group shot.

SliceGolfer · Mar 14, 2020

It's been two weeks since the last update. What's been going on?

Lighting:

Love, love, love the Reef Breeders Photon V2+ fixture, and so do my corals! I'm seeing increased colors, increased consumption in Alk/Ca/Mg/N03/P04, some corals that looked blah or OK are coloring up nicely. Zoas are going insane and I'm going to have to find a way to frag these guys back some. Still need to rent a PAR meter from my LFS to dial in the intensity but for now everything is doing nicely with my conservative setting.

Chemistry:

It's been a topsy turvy couple of weeks. After adding the new light fixture, all my levels have been out of whack. I assumed this would happen and why I test Alk on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The first week I saw significant drops in almost all levels. This week, things are a bit, well, goofy. I think by dosing a little more P04 over the week it impacted calcification and things slowed down. Alk has been on a steady increase, Mg leveled out, and Ca took a nose dive.

Equipment:

After reading quite a few posts on the InkBird falling out of calibration, I re-calibrated mine and found it to be off. The InkBird was reading 3 degrees hotter than the tank actually was, causing the tank to be colder than desired. Calibration brought this back on track and the tank shows it. LPS are open a bit more and there is a bit more activity in the tank.

Because of the power supply issue related to the skimmer on my other tank, I purchased a universal power adapter and swapped out the adapter for the IceCap K1 Nano on this tank. It has made some difference, but not overwhelming like the other tank.

I've switched over to cleaning with food grade citric acid and really like the results. I can mix up a batch, and one by one, drop in the item to be cleaned, come back in 30 minutes and rinse. And if you're a sour candy fan, dip your finger in the citric acid for a tart, tasty treat!

Fish:

I regret to say that I lost the Royal Gramma. To be honest, he's never been the same since I mounted some SPS corals on the rock work 6 months ago. Most of the time he would hide in one of the caves and only come out for food. Over the past 4 weeks, he has been eating less and less. This week I found him stuck to my MP10, lifeless. I wish I knew what caused the decline as I can only relate it to mounting frags some time ago. The two Black Percula Clowns are doing great and swim all over the tank. I'm thinking a couple new tank mates are in order, maybe some Bangaii Cardinals.

Corals:

I've been moving the Acans over to the Waterbox, getting everyone off the bottom of the tank. I want to ramp up the lighting to support the SPS corals better and having lower light corals on the bottom prevents me from increasing PAR. As it was with the AI Primes, the bottom was getting 150 PAR and IMO those lights weren't cutting it for this tank. I'm thinking the Duncan and Pink Goni will stay in this tank long term. The Pink Goni is steadily growing and it adds a nice punch of color.

Since there has been some growth to many of the SPS corals, with assistance I've been able to identify one of the SPS as Green Sarmentosa. It is very colorful and I can't wait for this one to sprout up. Everything else is doing nicely and I think it's time to get many of the frags mounted and off the rack.

In closing, everything is coming along nicely. It's been a full year since the first corals went into this tank. Things are hitting cruise control, I clean the glass once a week, swap out filter pads every Sunday, and top off the ATO reservoir. I still dose P04 and MB7 weekly, which happens when I swap the filter pads. Excited to see how things progress once I get the frags mounted and the racks out of the tank!

MasterReef · Mar 14, 2020

SliceGolfer said:
FTS March, 2020:

Hey Reefers!

Super excited to be sharing my new build here at Reef2Reef. I’m a long-time follower of this community and have been a saltwater and reef hobbyist for over 30 years. With family, life, and career, I have been waiting for the right time to start a new tank build. My last tank was way back in 2005, with a JBJ NanoCube 12dx, from NanoTuners. Here’s a pic of 12 gallons of Softy Glory, all that it was:

Fast forward to 2018. I’ve been fighting the reef bug for 3 years, and I just couldn’t shake it. Work relocated me and the fam to the great state of Minnesota, and I visited some of the LFS’s in the area. I walked into a reef mecca in Plymouth, MN and was immediately hooked. I knew I had to have a tank. My supporting wife says, “You work so hard, you deserve this!” That’s all I needed to hear. So, what does a recovering reefer 13 years sober do? Scour the forums, learn what’s hot ‘n not, and then shoot on over to BRS and pickup a car full of reefing gear. BRS is 20 minutes from my house, and that’s just too darn convenient.

Enough with the backstory blah blah, here’s my build:

Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 20
Stand: Bush Furniture computer armoire matching my office furniture
Lights: ~~(2) Aqua Illumination AI Prime HDs with rigid mounts, running BRS AB+ spectrum~~ Reef Breeders 24” Photon V2+ running modded AB+ spectrum
Return Pump: Innovative Marine MightyJet AIO Pump 538gph
Heater: Cobalt 75w NeoTherm
Control: Ink Bird ITC-308
ATO: AutoAqua AWC Auto Water Changer Plus ATO
ATO Reservoir: Innovative Marine 5 Gallon Hydrofill
Flow: (2) EcoTech Marine Vortech MP10WQD paired in Tidal Swell Mode (TSM)
Filtration: (2) InTank Media Baskets, filter pads, bag of MarinePure Gems and MarinePure spheres
Nutrient Export: ~~AquaMaxx Media Reactor converted into DIY Cheato reactor and Cheato~~ Removed summer 2019
Testing: Hanna, Red Sea, Salifert

Dosing:
(2) Jebao DP4 Dosers
BRS Soda Ash
BRS Calcium Chloride
BRS Magnesium
GLA KN03
GLA K2S04
Quantum Bio-Enhance
Quantum Bio-Kalium
Quantum Bio-Metals
Quantum Bio-Enhance

Fish & Invertebrates:
Two Black Ocellaris Clowns - "Ace & Gary"
Three Gold Ring Cowries
20 Banded Trochus Snails

SPS Corals:
Green Spongodes Montipora
Bubble Gum Digitata Montipora
Tubbs Stellata Montipora
Red Encrusting Montipora
Red Setosa
Green Birdsnest
Teal Blue Stag
Palmer’s Blue Millepora
Yellow Tip Acropora
Tri Color Valida
Nana Acropora
Blue Tenuis
Green Sarmentosa Acropora
Unknown Acropora

LPS Corals:
Duncan
Orange Crush Echinata
Dragon Soul Favia
Ice Blue Leptastrea
Honeycomb Leptastrea
Bizzarro Cyphastrea
Pink Goniopora
Ultron Favia
Wolverine Favia

Zoas:
Nuclear Green Dragon Eyes
Rastas
Halle Berry
Black Hornets
Red Hornets
Eagle Eye
Armor of the Gods
Everlasting Gobstoppers
Sunny D
Blond Blue Eye
Agent Orange
Rainbow Infusion

History:

The tank was assembled over Christmas, 2018. Water was added 01/01/2019, all gear tested and configured. Water was brought to temp (78F), specific gravity set at 35ppt. Live rock was added 01/03/2019, and the tank was fishless cycled with Dr Tim’s One and Only and ammonium chloride. The cycle finished in two weeks, which I attribute to the rock and the bottled bacteria. Once the tank could process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours, it was time for a 75% water change. Nitrates were floating around 50ppm at this point, so I was happy to oblige. Knowing I was a day or so from adding my first occupants to the tank fueled the water change excitement.

Future:

My plan moving forward is patience. There are lessons I learned on my own, and from those who post here. My hope is to avoid failures, mistakes, or overlooking something obvious. I’m targeting mostly SPS in this build, but I’m sure Acans and Zoas will work their way into the tank along this journey.

Current water parameters: 03-09-2020

Temp: 77.8F
Specific Gravity: 35ppt
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
Phosphate: .06ppm
Alkalinity: 8.0 DKH
Calcium: 425ppm
Magnesium: 1325ppm

FTS February, 2019:

FTS January, 2019:

Setup:

Live rock added and start of cycle:

AquaMaxx Chaeto Reactor:

Water Station & RODI:

There’s a lot I’ve learned from this community. I want to start by saying thank you, seriously. Without your commitment to this hobby, and sharing information or lessons learned, there would not be this database of knowledge one can so easily tap into to build their vision of a perfect reef.

Until next time!

I really like the RO/Saltmixing station; I think I'm going to borrow it. The MDF probably won't last long without a few coats of paint though. Thanks for sharing.