STEEZY’s Nuvo 20 Build

[STEEZY]

Today I added some chemipure elite and some purigen. I also fired up the UV Sterilizer a few days back.

I added a black ice clown 2 weeks ago and a purple Firefish on Sunday. I also added some tiny hermit crabs, 2 nassarius snails and 1 trochus snail. Everyone is doing good but the trochus snail hasn’t been moving a lot, although he is definitely alive and moving occasionally.

Today, I added my first tester coral, some twizzler zoas.

I downloaded the aquarium camera app, still trying to figure it out but it’s better than before. However what do you guys recommend in terms of a physical camera lens? I have an iPhone 12 Pro but no other camera. Maybe I should try photos under a bit whiter light and make it easier on myself. Anywhere here are the best shots so far, still not very good but hey it’s what I got. And I just got the zoas about 2 hours ago so they are still opening.

 

[STEEZY]

Better pic I just got.

 

[zuri]

good stuff if I may give you alil advice hold up on the purigen, chemipure an uv.
you want the tank to mature in the right order stripping too much or even any seems like a great idea but the tank needs it right now to progress. to much an you invite dino's, chryso's an cyano
keep the fish fed n happy

​

 

[STEEZY]

good stuff if I may give you alil advice hold up on the purigen, chemipure an uv.
you want the tank to mature in the right order stripping too much or even any seems like a great idea but the tank needs it right now to progress. to much an you invite dino's, chryso's an cyano
keep the fish fed n happy

​

Yeah, tbh that’s what I was planning, to keep it out for a while, then the LFS guy recommended putting it in so I just did, dunno why, he just wants to sell stuff. But I am checking the parameters every other day and still have plenty of nitrates and phosphates.

I also added some more marinepure spheres because there was quite a few extra in the cabinet and I dunno if they let out a bunch of extra silicate but immediately started a diatom bloom. The Trochus snail really mows it down so maybe I’ll get another?

current state:

 

[zuri]

That's all I keep is trochus only snail worth it's salt an they love reproduce . An Yea new marine pure will add silcates causing the diatoms . Stop talking to the Lfs guy I'd he's just trying to sell u product lol

 

[STEEZY]

I haven’t done an update for a while but the tank has been coming along nicely and I recently got an Orphek lens kit that has let me take some great photos! Here’s a picture of the tank and some shots of my
favorite corals!

Issues I’ve had:

I had a little Ulva, took out the rock with the main outbreak and blasted it with hydrogen peroxide, wiped it right out.
I had some some small blue leg hermits and had added a Halloween hermit and I thought they were hilarious but they kept ticking off my scoly so they had to go.

Haters gunna hate but QT is not possible for me, also probably added fish too quick and what not but I had also added a green Canary blend and a Swiss guard basslet that unfortunately passed from ich. My clown also had ich for quite a while but he has recovered and been good for several weeks. The purple Firefish never showed any signs of ich.
I added a cleaner shrimp when I had the Swiss guard basslet and he ate it almost immediately. I have added another since the basslet passed and he’s doing great.

 

[STEEZY]

Tank has been doing good, here are some updated shots. A few corals have perished but overall not many

Getting my nitrates from ~20 down to ~10 , SPS seems happier. Got a used aquamaxx nf1 for $40 and that seems to help some, doesn’t pull anything super dark but a consistent dark tea.
Also Got a single ecotech doser and got it dialed in after a few weeks with All for Reef. The dkh is staying 8.0- 8.2 when I test.

fish have been happy for a while, black ice clown and purple Firefish have been in there for 6-7 months and the tailspot blenny and possum wrasse for 2.5 months.

Favorite corals are the scoly and the torches.

 

[STEEZY]

 

[STEEZY]

That center torch has gone from 1 head to 5 in less than a year. Definitely the most impressive grower, but I guess it’s the one directly under the light ?

scoly did well for several months but started going down hill after I was messing with it since it had an aiptasia on the under side of the skeleton. Then my clown started hosting it (and biting it?) and maybe my emerald crabs picking at it. I couldn’t bear to see it slowly wither away and my LFS took it for a small discount on a wellso (or trachy I guess now). I had one years ago and had better luck. Really bummed to let the scoly go as it was my favorite but hopefully does better for the lfs.

 

[PR_nano]

Tank looks great! Yeah, that torch grew nicely there. Tank looks really clean what’s your water change schedule and what are your current nutrients level?

 

[STEEZY]

Tank looks great! Yeah, that torch grew nicely there. Tank looks really clean what’s your water change schedule and what are your current nutrients level?

Thank you!!

I do 3 gallon water change every week. I’m guessing that’s about 20% (?). I actually just picked up a legit gravel vac from the store and the crap I got out of the sand was NASTY! The crappy one I had before didn’t get anything out of the sand. This one made the water a real dingy brown and the sand is looking a lot better, excited to try it again lol.

Nutrients :

Nitrate hovers 10-15
Phosphate is 0.04

Oh ya forgot to say I have been struggling to keep up with alk, I test it often so no crazy swings but tank is using a lot more lately. Don’t know if that’s from the added SPS frags or maybe from summer, higher evaporation? Had to (slowly) double my all for reef dosage tho, now it seems dialed but still testing and confirming that.

I dose 8ml a day of the AFR, would love to hear other peoples dose on a similar size tank?

 

[STEEZY]

Update:

I have added a springeri damsel about a month ago, I got a small one and she is fitting in well.

Unfortunately the wellso (trachy) went the same way as the scoly. For some reason I cannot keep solitary corals even when the rest of the tank is thriving, so I’m done with them for now.

I have been adding corals, fragging corals and selling corals as the tank grows.

Finally got all dialed with the All For Reef, switched it to dose during the day (5ml total now) and that seem to make a big difference in stability. It is always 8.3 dkh when I test. Previously my dose had gotten higher and higher due to a faulty batch of Hanna reagent.

I will add some update shots in another post.

 

[STEEZY]

My observation chair

 

[STEEZY]

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is looking really good!!!

 

[STEEZY]

Thank you !

I have made some frags of various zoas including the GMKs and sold 5 heads off my big torch.
It feels like a “rewards program “ to get money back from the coral to buy more

 

[STEEZY]

Also:

I had some LPS recession (various acan, scoly, wellso, favia. Painful and expensive!

I had various theories but I think now I have actually nailed down what was happening.

everytime I would change the chemipure elite, the GFO would reduce phosphates so quickly they couldn’t handle the drastic change. I looked at the dates I purchased and the days I saw decline and they were closely associated.

I have also read phosphates are 2nd most important to be stable behind alk for LPS. Don’t know how true that is (?) but interesting.

pete

 

[STEEZY]

I like blue light

 

[BadCrab]

The tank looks stunning - a great variety of colors and textures. I adore the meat corals- happy chunky boys.

Your photography has improved so much since the start of this build thread. I can't wait to see what you do with the tank next!

 

[STEEZY]

The tank looks stunning - a great variety of colors and textures. I adore the meat corals- happy chunky boys.

Your photography has improved so much since the start of this build thread. I can't wait to see what you do with the tank next!

Thank you for the kind words!

I literally just learned if I put it in portrait mode it locks the lens and my iPhone doesn’t constantly try to switch around to the different cameras. That was a great help for sure.