The Nuvo 25 Lagoon Redemption Story - Starting From Scratch Again

[mckinney0171]

It's got a footprint I really enjoy. Maxes the spread out for most single unit lights and is built well. This is the first iteration of the tank and it's survived quite a bit through the move and all of that fun stuff. My only complaint is it's hard to find a skimmer that fits the back chambers. That's probably an issue with most AIOs though. Can't wait to see your build!

Thanks. I've been out of the hobby for a few years. Trying to convince my wife to approve again. This is the tank that I've been researching the most. I also like the footprint as you suggest. I'm very curious on your cycling routine as well.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Thanks. I've been out of the hobby for a few years. Trying to convince my wife to approve again. This is the tank that I've been researching the most. I also like the footprint as you suggest. I'm very curious on your cycling routine as well.

I’ve changed from the original plan. I went for Dr. Tim’s One and Only for the Nitrogen cycle, then I’ve only been dosing AF life source since, wet fiji mud. I’m feeding what I would consider heavy and my nitrates are trending down. I only have filter floss for filtration so far and change that every 3 or 4 days. Also running a skimmer but it’s not grabbing anything really. Skimmate isn’t even brown lol.

I’ll add that when I dosed Dr Tim’s, I cut pumps off and did the “finger over the hose” deal and sprayed it directly into the sand and onto the rockwork. I like to think it helped.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Took a pic I’m kind of proud of. Pretty common fish, but the thing just fascinates me.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Tested the water again today. Nitrates are at 8.6, down from 9.6 a couple of weeks ago. I did a 5 gallon water change in between and have fed heavy so far. My Banggai Cardinal has gotten noticeably chunkier. A true patriot.

I have some oddities with my alk however. After some light googling, it looks like dry rock can bind calcium and use up Alk (answered here by another confused reefer by Randy Holmes-Farley https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-dry-rocks-can-they-leach-out-alk-and-calcium.769881/ ) The title is a bit misleading. The OP meant to state that the dry rock was seemingly absorbing Cal and Alk.

I've measured my freshly mixed salt, Red Sea Pro (it was in stock and didn't cost 100ish bucks at the time) and it comes out to 10 DKh. I have a floating hydrometer on the way (not a swing arm, the glass float) to verify my salinity testing is actually accurate as I know this should mix to 11.5 DKh.

Alk measurements so far in the tank:
2022/06/06 - 6.5
2022/06/07 - 6.6
2022/06/08 - 6.5
5 GALLON WATER CHANGE on 2022/06/10
2022/06/11 - 7.0
2022/06/14 - 6.9
5 GALLON WATER CHANGE on 2022/06/24 (Tested freshly mixed salt and it was 10 DKh with same tester I use for my tank, Hanna Alk checker)
2022/06/26 - 7.0

There is no clean up crew in this tank yet, and no corraline algae growing. With a totally dry start I guess my tank is another example of dry rocks grabbing calcium and alk out of the water column. I can't help but feel that this contributed to my initial try with dry rock being incredibly unsuccessful.

I'll keep on with feeding heavy since the export seems to be working thus far and hopefully once there's a layer of life on the rocks my alk stabilizes to what my salt mixes to. I don't plan to dose to counteract this at all, especially now that I have an idea of what's going on. Will wait to add first corals until alk matches what my salt mixes to after some more months of water changes and testing.

Found this interesting and figured I'd log it and share.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Did a phosphate test yesterday. Reagent mixed clear for the Hanna ULR checker and must have stayed clear through the test and read as 0.00. Not super concerned since there is only one fish that doesn’t dart around the tank.

I’m impatiently waiting for my rocks to get ugly so I can get that part out of the way. Blasting the rock with light until I see anything grow. There’s a very small bit of “fuzz” but we’ll see where I end up in the coming weeks. I can’t even see the fuzz when lights are on. There is what I interpret as a biofilm on the glass that comes up every once in a while, mainly after putting AF lifesource in.

Still hitting the tank with the SPS setting (95% all channels with a ramp up and down) on the noopsyche light and the 6th will put me around 3 weeks. Still haven’t taken the time to tweak it to lower red and green channels and mess with white vs blue a bit.

Very happy with the rockwork still. When I’m feeding I like watching how the flow is and without corals, nothing settles anywhere. Turbulent around the rockwork as well.

Planning to do another water change tomorrow to see if my alkalinity raises past 7. I have a floating hydrometer, not a swing arm, that I’m going to use to calibrate my refractometer and verify I’m mixing to the correct salinity.

Hoping everyone is having a great weekend so far!

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Good news! First coral went in yesterday. YAAAAAY!

Bad news! My extra thick superglue gel came out VERY thin, ran down one side of the coral, then onto my fingers, then glued the coral to my hand in my haste to get it in the tank.

The coral is in, but one side is about covered in glue. Going to try tweezing off what I can today but lessons have been learned.

Happy to share my screw-ups for this build. Do a test blob with your glue somewhere other than on your coral.

I will say polyps have been out and the part not covered in glue still looks good. Just so stinking aggravating that it happened.

I’ll try getting a pic here shortly to show the sorry state I put this poor frag in.

 

[Volcom6981]

Awesome build! In your previous post you said you were waiting for your rocks to go through the ugly stage, did the ugly stage ever come then? Did you get any other fish yet for the tank?

 

[jabberwock]

Following, I have an IM 25 lagoon I am waiting to get wet. For CUC I suggest nessarius snails, and maybe a sand tiger conch. They do a nice job of keeping your sand bed clean. Just say no to crabs.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Awesome build! In your previous post you said you were waiting for your rocks to go through the ugly stage, did the ugly stage ever come then? Did you get any other fish yet for the tank?

Thank you!
I need to update that. Nothing grew outside of a white film on the glass and black acrylic, some VERY light diatoms, and a stringy white “algae” with my lights on the built in SPS setting. I decided to just go ahead and do a tester coral and see how things play out.

Given the glue fiasco I may have just stressed the poor thing out though lol. Polyps are still coming out days after and the skin hasn’t retracted further from where the glue was so we’ll see how it gets on.

No other fish yet. Want to work out the stringy stuff before any increase in bio load.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Following, I have an IM 25 lagoon I am waiting to get wet. For CUC I suggest nessarius snails, and maybe a sand tiger conch. They do a nice job of keeping your sand bed clean. Just say no to crabs.

Thanks for following! They’re awesome tanks. I actually want to run without a typical clean up crew if I can. Copepods, toothbrush, and a siphon hose is the CUC for now. If it gets too bad I’ll pick some snails up but I want to avoid pest introductions as much as possible.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Did my normal 5 gallon water change yesterday and Alk seems to be slowly increasing, up to 8.9 DKh now.

Still having a bit of what looks like starved turf algae. I take a tooth brush to it an hour or two before changing my filter floss but inevitably miss some. Starting to see some diatoms on the rockwork now as well. I've added a bottle of a copepod mix so hopefully it's only a matter of time before that's cleared up. Had a very small spot of cyano at the rocks base on the left. Adjusting the flow on the left powerhead had that cleared by the next day.

Coral isn't doing too well. The tissue that was damaged by the glue incident seems to have healed and has polyps again, but it's pale in color and the PE is not great all around, but still present on all sides of the coral. My phosphates and Nitrates have bottomed out since I added the coral and the color change may have lined up with that. It's hard to say between this being a new tank, the coral having to recover tissue from super glue that dried on half of it and was ripped off, low nutrients, or some other variable.

I decided since the tank is still early on and only has one coral, I'd give the Tropic Marin carbon dosing products a go, starting with Plus NP. The bottle states to add 1ml to every 24 gallons. With displacement and the generous labels IM gives their tank's capacity, I opted for roughly .25-.30ish ml. Roughly 30 minutes later, my water got noticeably clearer. I didn't even realize it was stained/cloudy until I looked at the tank again and saw clean edges on the rock work.

Plan to test nutrients again tomorrow to see if there is any change, but hoping to start the daily carbon dosing so the tank gets into the rhythm of it. Here's some pictures below of how the tank is fairing. Nothing too spectacular to look at yet, but the Banggai and the cleaner shrimp are pretty entertaining for now. Fun to see how that timid little fish has gotten so comfortable with no other fish in there to worry about. It'll follow me around all 4 sides when it's close to feeding time.

The sole frag in the tank is a PC Rainbow that is certainly not a rainbow at the moment. It does have that purple-ish color at the base still though.

Hope everyone is enjoying their labor day weekend!

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Went a long time without an update, but not much has happened really.

I've been dosing NP Plus daily and I have .01ppm Phosphates. Yahoooo.
Coral is regaining some color and polyps extend much more than they were prior. The skin has recovered and it's just "touched down" on the rock and is starting to build a base. Does not look great, but it is growing which is cool.

Pistol shrimp and goby pair are in! I got a high fin goby and candy cane pistol. Both are doing well and are creating their little tunnel network. I never get tired of watching them work. It ranks higher for me than watching a clown and anemone.

Unfortunately, I lost my cleaner shrimp. I have a few theories on the cause but I'm not 100%. I'll be waiting a long time before I try another, if I do. They've always been hit or miss with me.

Stringy white-ish algae is still pretty much everywhere, but is lessening a bit.

I decided to give the coralline in a bottle a try from Arc Reef. Followed the directions to a tee and stashed away the brush they included for some hard to reach areas to clean I come across. Since I don't have snails or hermits and don't keep plugs, I'm curious if the bottle does actually have coralline in it and works. If it does, it seems like a decent way to have a pest free way to introduce coralline algae if you want it. No evidence of coralline yet but we'll see how it gets on.

Here's the obligatory FTS and a video of my pistol shrimp meticulously carrying one grain of sand at a time out of the burrow.

 

[jabberwock]

Nice that they posted up front and center in the tank!

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Nice that they posted up front and center in the tank!

Definitely a big fan of that! They tunneled their way to the back of the rock too though. Can't blame them for wanting a back door I guess.

 

[OldRed1]

Cool build! Excited to see the growth in your tank!

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Cool build! Excited to see the growth in your tank!

Thanks! I was looking at your tank earlier haha. Coming along great over there.

 

[OldRed1]

Thanks! I was looking at your tank earlier haha. Coming along great over there.

I appreciate the kind words! I’m enjoying the journey with live rock, but I see builds like these and I get envious of how much control you have over your rockscape. Really love the design potential you have with your lagoon, too!

Are you planning on getting a goby to pair with your pistol?

 

[OldRed1]

Derp, I missed that you got a high fin goby. Those are awesome fish.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Quick pic of the polyps and the coral getting some color back. Still very pale but getting there.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Well, nutrients bottomed out again. Not super concerned about it. Upped the dosage on TM's Plus NP to about .75ml every morning while the coffee brews. Coral is continuing to regain its color and base out though! Super excited about that.

No coralline algae showing yet but it hasn't been very long since I added the bottles of magic algae juice.

I noticed that my algae has decreased SIGNIFICANTLY. There's a bit of a turf type of algae but all the long strands and the pockets of it in the rocks are gone. Noticed a ton of particulate in the water and was confused. Turns out the copepods I added months back exploded and they are everywhere. My banggai cardinal is comically round and I'm living for it.

I'm digging the performance of the Icecap K1 Nano Skimmer. It's pretty loud, but it's pulling out some dark skimmate. The smell is....impressive.

I'll try my best to get a decent picture of the coral later tonight. Not sure if the change in color will come through on camera but hopefully I can get a decent pic.

Maintenance routine and numbers have been pretty much the same for a while now so nothing to note there.

Edit: Attached pics