Vandy's Budget Nuvo 100 EXT Build Thread

[Gumbies R Us]

Love the start to the aquascape!

 

[code4]

Looking great. I can appreciate all the work you are doing. We have built our cabin and garage. Addition and my husband welds. Great job. What is the outside length of the tank? I thought read 48", but thought their site said less than that.

Shelley

 

[vandy]

Looking great. I can appreciate all the work you are doing. We have built our cabin and garage. Addition and my husband welds. Great job. What is the outside length of the tank? I thought read 48", but thought their site said less than that.

Shelley

You’re right! It’s a tad shorter than 48” at about 47 1/2”, leaving me a small overhang on both sides, which I will be using to overlap the boards I’m skinning with. Won’t be able to notice! I wanted it to sit flush but the sticker on the tank lied to me.. should have measured.

 

[vandy]

All the rock work is done, and it’s about time for me to start the PVC. Waiting on a few more Amazon shipments then it’ll be full steam ahead.

 

[vandy]

Also started on the reefpi controller. I plan on having 4 float switches controlling my skimmer, ato, and some other auxiliary containers, temperature controller, 1 ph and 1 salinity probe and a power strip controller.

 

[vandy]

Finished the manifold giving me two auxiliary lines (thinking media reactors).

The T to the right will go to one return, and the left one will go through the UV sterilizer, then to the return. I don’t have any flow meters, so I will have to calculate the flow through the UV the old fashion way

Also added a ball valve at the end of the line. Right after, I added a threaded fitting that will allow me to connect 3/4” tubing to the jebao pump

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Also started on the reefpi controller. I plan on having 4 float switches controlling my skimmer, ato, and some other auxiliary containers, temperature controller, 1 ph and 1 salinity probe and a power strip controller.

Have fun with the Reefpi! I have been curious about doing one before but have never taken the plunge.

 

[vandy]

Have fun with the Reefpi! I have been curious about doing one before but have never taken the plunge.

I’m looking forward to it too. I left plenty of room for expansion and I’ve always hated buying off the shelf, so the DIY aspect was very appealing

 

[vandy]

More progress on the plumbing.. didn’t realize how painstaking this was (all my tanks in the past were soft tubing, or small 1/2” pvc with no manifolds etc).

One set back I had was I ordered a gate valve off of China that said it would fit 1” PVC.. well it turned out to be a metric fitting and was barely too small. So I had to bite the bullet and get the more expensive ones off BRS.

finished up the UV plumbing as well. After some failed gluings. Tough to see in the pic but there is an extra 90 where there shouldn’t have been.

 

[vandy]

Plumbing is complete!! Debating whether or not to pull it all out and give it a few coats of paint or not. After all, it’ll be hidden behind the doors.

 

[vandy]

behind the tank

 

[vandy]

Happy Father’s Day everyone!! Thought I would give some updates.

With the plumbing finished, I set my eyes on the equipment cabinet. I needed to get everything situated so I could hang the lights and get this baby filled!!

The insides

I still need to zip tie everything and clean it up. What’s not shown is the reefpi that is still a work in progress.

And the final shot next to the tank!!

 

[vandy]

I also made some brackets that are going to be acrylic welded into the sump.

First one is a John guest bulkhead baffle for all dosing lines

And then I made a float valve bracket that will eventually send signals back to my reefpi to control my ATO

 

[vandy]

Next step was hanging the lights.. turns out my light hanging kit was much longer than I anticipated because of my low ceilings. Anyone think this will be okay? It’s about 8” from the lid.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Next step was hanging the lights.. turns out my light hanging kit was much longer than I anticipated because of my low ceilings. Anyone think this will be okay? It’s about 8” from the lid.

The lights look fine! Maybe someone else can chime in as well

 

[vandy]

We have sand!!! I found a good deal on 400lbs of reef rock locally, and it came with 60lbs of Ocean Direct sand. Sold the rock on marketplace and it paid for the sand 3x over.

 

[vandy]

And finally the moment I’ve been waiting for over a year since I found the tank. Filling it up!!

With it fully filled, found some fitting that were leaking going to try to fix them with pvc glue, but if I can’t, gonna have to cut them out and replace them with new fittings. Peep the box fan that was needed after I forgot to fully secure my UV bulkheads ‍

 

[vandy]

Haven't updated this thread since the tank has been growing, but the tank is coming around nicely. I originally started with using 2 part, but have switched over to kalkwasser with magnesium supplementation with the hopes of supplementing with my DIY calcium reactor in the future.

Currently dosing 3400ml of full saturation kalk over the course of 24 hours. PH keeps between 8.35 at night, to around 8.5 during the day. Tank has been up for about 6 months now, with about 4.5 months with coral. I've gotten okay growth (some more than others), but I know they will continue to grow faster as they get bigger.

Current coral stocking list looks like this:

SPS
JF Lemongrass
BC Therman's Rainbow
Miyagi tort
Merlin's Staff
PC Superman
Bubblegum Milli
ARC Master Yoda
Daydream tabling
RRC Goldenrod Anacro
TGC Orange creamsicle
Ice Enchinata
WWC Striptease
RRC Tropicana
Garf Bonsai
Leng's Grafted Samoan acro
German blue digi
Green Slimer
Purple Slimer
Blue Slimer
Grafted green digi
ORA birds of paradise
lots of flavors of monti cap

LPS
Torches - Holy Grail, New York Knicks, Purple Aussie
Chalices - Golden eye, rainbow, spring stunner, pink eye
Various acans
Mint & radioactive candy canes
Encrusting & Branching hydnophora
Various hammers

Fish
2x tomato clowns
Yellow coris wrasse
Yellow tang
Kole Tang
Scopas Tang
Naso Tang
watchman goby
pistol shrimp

Here is how the tank is currently sitting:

 

[vandy]

Here are some growth pictures as well:

BC Therman's Rainbow
August 2024

Today

JF Lemongrass
August 2024

Today

Mint candy canes
August 2024

Today

Hoping things take off exponentially going into the new year!

 

[Huskereef]

This is a great build, the process is drawn out but rewarding when it all comes together. How do you dose your kalk? I am looking at switching from bionic 2 part. All these kalkwasser systems seem to have incredible SPS growth! Great work.