ua hua’s IM Nuvo 10

ua hua · Jan 22, 2019

So a little background before I begin this journey. I have been in the aquarium hobby for over 35 years but has been a couple of decades since my last salty adventure. I have kept an aquarium of some fashion since I was the age of 7 as my father got me involved in the hobby when I was very young. He used to breed many different kinds of fish as I was growing up and had a fish room with over 30 tanks. That’s how my love of this hobby started and here I am several years later still loving it as much as I did as a child.

I have kept everything from African cichlids to community tanks. The last 15 years I have been strictly focused on the planted tank side of the hobby but have always loved and admired the beautiful reef tanks. I still currently have a 90 gallon high tech planted tank(no plans to make this into a reef yet) and a 5,000 gallon water garden. I have kept a reef tank before but as I have said the hobby has advanced so much since those days. I have always followed along with the changes and lived vicariously through others tanks. I wouldn’t consider myself a beginner but at the same time one thing I have learned in all my years in this hobby is no matter how much you think you know there is always so much more to learn. Hence the reason I have joined this forum. I have lurked behind the scenes for several years and now that I have finally decided to dip my toes back in the salty side I thought I would share my journey and have the help of others, that from what I have seen are more than willing to share their advice and experiences.

I have been gathering the materials to start a nano reef tank and finally got it set up this past weekend. The equipment list is as follows.

Innovative Marine Nuvo 10
In tank media basket
AI prime hd w/ 18” arm mount
Sicce .5 with spin stream
Eheim 50 watt heater
IM desktop skimmer
Aqua auto smart micro ATO

I’m still not sure what kind of circulation pump I will be using but am leaning towards the Jebao sw2 but am not sold on that one yet.

The tank is currently cycling and will be a slow process before it is stocked because....
1. I’m not sure what I will be putting in it for livestock but have a few things in mind.
2. I know that nothing good comes in this hobby without patience.

NY_Caveman · Jan 22, 2019

Looks like a great start. Welcome to R2R!

flchamp89 · Jan 23, 2019

Really like the rock work. I think I have the same jug in my Amazon cart for my ato. Hows it working?

ua hua · Jan 23, 2019

flchamp89 said:
Really like the rock work. I think I have the same jug in my Amazon cart for my ato. Hows it working?

Thanks. It works good so far. I’m a little worried about the spigot at some point in time leaking or accidentally bumping the spigot but for the time being it is going to work. I may try to find a better solution in the future but it has to be small enough to fit in the little cabinet that I have. I have the same aqua auto micro ATO on my sump for my 90 gal. planted tank that has been running for over a year and I love it. As long as the sensor is cleaned occasionally it works flawlessly.

I’m still debating on what I want to use for a circulation pump for this tank. I’m leaning towards a Jebao sw-2 but have learned enough times you get what you pay for and I’m not sure if saving a little money now is worth it in the long run. The other one I was thinking was the Aquami kps. Does anyone have any luck with the Jebao or is it a cheap pump that I can expect to go to crap in 6 months? I don’t need a ton of flow and if I knew for sure I would be upgrading tanks in the near future I would just buy the MP-10 and dial it way down but for the money I think I could buy things to put in the tank for the price difference.

ua hua · Jan 23, 2019

A few more pictures of the scape. There is not very much room in the rear chambers of these things and I have managed to use just about every inch possible. I’m really wanting to order a circulation pump for this but I’m having a harder time making this decision than all of the rest of the equipment. I’m stuck between going the cheaper route and getting a Jebao sw-2 or spending a little more coin now and not regretting the purchase 6 months from now. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

ua hua · Feb 1, 2019

I received a few more pieces that I had ordered this week. I finally got my ATO system all hooked up and it couldn’t have came any sooner because adding water everyday was getting rather annoying even if it was only a cup. One less thing to have to worry about. I also got my Hanna alkalinity checker, a new refractometer as mine was from the 90’s and didn’t get taken care of very well. I also decided on the Jebao sw-2 pump and it came as well. I must say I’m pretty impressed by this cheap little pump. It really moves the water(and sand). I can’t find the perfect spot for it yet and I’m sure it will change once some livestock is added. For those that have these IM tanks where do you position circulation pumps? I put it on the back wall because I didn’t want anything obstructing my view from the side of the tank since that is where I look through when sitting on my couch but seems that the flow is just hitting the front glass and bouncing straight back which is making the sand on the side of the tank blow around. It doesn’t help that I used Oolite sand which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best choice for substrate but I liked the looks of the really fine sand. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Not much else will be going on until the cycle completes. I have been using Dr. Tims ammonium chloride and now it’s just a waiting game. I have been trying to decide on what fish I want to put in here but it is difficult to decide. I know that I will only have 2-3 total with one of them being a goby. I like the looks of the pink bar goby or shark nose goby. I would love to hear others favorite goby and why. My kids would love a clownfish because of Nemo of course but I’m not sure that is the route I want to go. The main focus I want to be is the corals. I have over 100 fish in my planted tank and this one I would rather have the attention be on the corals.

ua hua · Feb 16, 2019

After dosing with Dr. Tims ammonium for several weeks and constantly testing my cycle has finally completed and rocks are covered in diatoms so I thought I would start with some cuc. I ordered the clean-up package from reef cleaners. I just ordered the package for the 5.5 gal for now but added 8 dwarf planaxis. Out of the package all of the nerites and 1 of the nassarius are moving around but none of the others after a day of being in the tank. I know that they can go through some shock from being shipped but how long before I should consider that they didn’t make the trip?

NY_Caveman · Feb 18, 2019

Personally I would say 24 hours. Usually within a day I have seen movement on snails that arrived cold and stressed.

Res_Ipsa · Feb 18, 2019

Great looking 10g so far and well done on getting yourself up to speed on all the latest and greatest in the hobby. I'm new to it myself but I'm sure you're seeing that there's definitely some good gear available to keep these tanks maintained.

uhgster1 · Feb 18, 2019

Welcome back! I was in the same situation as yourself. I was very successful with discus during the 90’s and and took a longer than wanted break from the hobby (Army). I started out with the exacte same setup you have. I’m back up to a 65 gallon now but I loved my Nuvo. It is truly a different time. You’re going to be surprised at how easy it is now. Patience is the key.

ua hua · Feb 24, 2019

uhgster1 said:
Welcome back! I was in the same situation as yourself. I was very successful with discus during the 90’s and and took a longer than wanted break from the hobby (Army). I started out with the exacte same setup you have. I’m back up to a 65 gallon now but I loved my Nuvo. It is truly a different time. You’re going to be surprised at how easy it is now. Patience is the key.

Very nice looking tank. It has been some time since I have had a reef tank but I have always kept up on the changing times even though I didn’t have a reef tank myself as I always knew that at some point in time I would have one again.

Now on to the updates. Out of all the snails I ordered only the nerites and 1 of the nassarius lived but I must say after contacting John at Reef Cleaners he made it right and earned a customer for life. It’s one thing to own a business and it’s another to take care of customers and earn their business and he did just that. I usually am not one to give reviews or put a company or product on blast but what I will do is let people know when someone goes above and beyond to take care of the customer. All of my parameters have been stable and I thought it was time to try out some corals. I have a few zoas coming for now and then won’t be adding anything for a month or so. I’m still on the fence as to what fish to get for this. It’s hard to make a decision when you know that 2-3 fish is all that will be going in. The pink bar goby keeps catching my eye as does the shark nose goby. More than likely one of those two will be the first fish in the tank. After that I still can’t decide.

ua hua · Mar 6, 2019

I was hoping someone could tell me if this is diatoms or some other type of algae. It started out as a brown dusting all over the rocks and sand that I thought was just the normal diatoms but has since turned into a hairy algae in the last two days. I can brush it off and siphon it out and by the next day it’s back and seems to be more than where I removed it. Any help would be appreciated and if it’s just part of the normal new tank syndrome then I will just let it be but I never had diatoms that looked like this.

uhgster1 · Mar 6, 2019

You're still going through the ugly phase. Do some water changes and stir up the sand before you siphon the water out. Honestly, I did two water changes a week for the first few months and my tank never got that bad. After the uglies I did water changes once a month. You have an ATO, right? That's the beauty of a little ten gallon. A five gallon water change really clears things up.

Bcheek · Mar 11, 2019

How are you liking the spinstream? I keep thinking about getting one but i've heard so many mixed reviews

ua hua · Mar 23, 2019

Bcheek said:
How are you liking the spinstream? I keep thinking about getting one but i've heard so many mixed reviews

It’s been good so far and don’t really have anything bad to say about it.

On to the current state of the tank. The tank is still having the weird looking brown algae but it has definitely slowed down. I added some Phosguard to the rear chamber in a media bag in hopes to lower the phosphate a little. I have been manually removing it with water changes and is not coming back like it was but it’s still there. I know that being such a new tank that it’s bound to go through an ugly phase as that is the case whether we are talking a reef tank or a planted freshwater tank. I have learned patience after many years in this hobby but I really like to know what is causing a certain condition/problem so I don’t continue to do the same thing and expect a different result.

I purchased several corals through the Aqua SD live sale and after using epoxy and super glue to mount the frags I had an issue with the skimmer going crazy for a couple of days. I couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop filling the collection cup with water and producing so many micro bubbles that I was ready to get rid of it and look for a different skimmer. After lifting the skimmer out of the water and putting it back it started working like it did before. I was thinking the epoxy or glue was making the skimmer go nuts but I hope it doesn’t do that anytime I add corals.

I still have no livestock in the tank other than the cleanup crew. I’m sure I will be adding a fish in the next couple of weeks but I want to make sure that whatever I decide to put in here is what I really want. The shark nose goby has really gotten my attention and would love if I could find a bonded pair so I can have more than one. Here is a few crappy pictures from my phone. It would be nice to see what pictures would look like with some sort of lens but for now this will have to do.

ua hua · May 21, 2019

It’s been awhile since I added to this thread but since it’s more for me to document the progress of this tank I will add a few pictures of the current state of the tank. I have added all the livestock that will be going into this tank. There is a pair of mocha clowns, a purple fire fish, a ORA gold stripe goby and yellow watchman goby. All the fish have been in the tank since the end of March and all are doing great. I thought it would be a good idea to add a tiger pistol shrimp for the goby but after 24 hours in the tank I was regretting my decision. It’s amazing at the amount of sand these little shrimp can move in a matter of hours. The next morning it had arranged the tank to it’s liking and didn’t care one bit about how I had it. It buried all of my mushrooms under a inch and a half of sand and managed to break one of my encrusting monti frags that had started to encrust on the rock. I’m assuming it was trying to use the frag to seal its entrance to the cave. After moving the mushrooms to a different spot and adding some rubble for the shrimp it has slowed down on the renovations. After a few days I actually rather enjoy the little guy and the tank looks a lot more natural with the undulations in the substrate that it’s created. I have added several pieces of coral over the last few months and everything is doing great and growing.

I don’t think I will be adding a whole lot more as far as corals go for awhile. I have a couple of types of zoas that I will eventually add and I really want a torch coral but it seems they are worth more than gold now.

I still have a few little patches of algae but nothing that is a major problem or that is really that unsightly. To me it actually makes the tank feel more natural as long as it’s not out of control. I have pineapple sponges that are popping up here and there, with the majority of them in the back chamber. One other interesting piece I added is a blue photosynthetic sponge that I got locally for really cheap. I have had no experience with these and it has been doing great and attached to the rock structure rather quickly.

ua hua · Jan 15, 2020

Almost a year old. Still a learning process keeping a nano reef. I have lost a few corals here and there but for the most part the majority are doing great. The only fish loss I have had to date(which I have yet to confirm since I have not seen the body) is my purple fire fish. I have noticed that even though it was eating its stomach has been sunken in for a couple of weeks and after weekly maintenance last week it went into hiding under the rocks like it always does but have not seen it in a few days now. It would always come out when feeding but not lately. I still suck at taking pictures whether it’s of my planted tank or my reef tank. I have a nice DSLR camera but have yet to break it out and mess around. All pictures are just iPhone pictures without any type of filter. I plan to get some lens filters for my phone just to see what the pictures could be. Don’t have too many plans to add much more for corals but if something really catches my eye there’s always room for one more. The fish stock is the same as from the beginning with the exception of an emerald crab that took care of the few spots of bubble algae that were popping up and a red neon eviota goby which I rarely see because it’s so tiny and very skittish. I keep thinking I would love to make my 90 gal. planted tank a reef tank someday but I still love that side of the hobby as well.

ua hua · Jan 15, 2020

I don’t know why it posted pictures twice but here is my other winter project I did for my son.

ua hua · Feb 26, 2020

Tank is just over a year old and for the most part everything is doing great. The only fish lost was my purple fire fish which just disappeared one day. I thought maybe it had jumped through the mesh screen but no body was ever found. Most corals have been doing good but have lost all the acans that were in the tank. They would be doing really great and then I started to notice them slowly starting to lose flesh and recede. I also lost 2 hammer corals that were growing really well and one even split into 2 heads and one day started to see signs of brown jelly disease and within a couple days were gone. I have added a few beginner SPS corals like bubble gum digitata and green slimmer acro just to see if I could keep them. After my last water change I went to turn back on my skimmer and the pump wasn’t working. So I ordered a new pump from Innovative Marine and after an hour of cussing was able to replace the pump. They do not make it easy to replace unless you have child size hands.