Second Try at Reefing with an IM 20 gal Nuvo Fusion

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by strummerfan

How did you cycle this tank?

I started the tank with about 18lbs of live rock and 20lbs of live sand. I did the ol' raw shrimp in the tank to get the cycle going as well


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[stayjejune]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick coral update. I got my shipment from World Wide Corals ("WWC") yesterday and everything seems to be settling in nicely. The corals looked exactly like that they had online and I'm very happy with the experience. Highly recommend them. Enough words; here are the corals!

Rainbow Aussie Micromussa Lord




Area 51 Blasto




Neon Splatter Hammer (decided it didn't want to open for a photo op)




Dragoneye Zoanthids




Devil's Armor Zoanthids




Green Frogspawn




Last but not least, a FTS. Corals aren't going to permanently be there. Just letting them sit there before I figure out exactly where I want to stick everything

[Anthony357]

Looks nice! I like the stand you have too lol, i have the exact same thing. I was thinking about upgrading the cheap little powerhead i have inside my IM20 with a mp10, how are you liking it so far? I bought 1 spinstream nozzle for one of the return lines, didnt want to buy 2 just in case i didnt like it. But i might buy a 2nd one, as well as an mp10 and then be done with flow.

[Oeste]

Originally Posted by stayjejune

Anyone have experience with their MP10 making a whining noise as it ramps up speed? It's not a vibration, but rather a whining noise that won't seem to go away. I've tried to reposition the wet side assembly a few times with no reduction in whining noise. I don't think it has been doing this the whole time, or at least I haven't heard it. Is this normal?

My 10qd does the same starting at 60% and gets louder. Its not as loud as one would describe but with a silent tank, it annoys me so much.
I'm also interested and confused if running above 60% creates a winding noise.

[Oeste]

Originally Posted by Anthony357

Looks nice! I like the stand you have too lol, i have the exact same thing. I was thinking about upgrading the cheap little powerhead i have inside my IM20 with a mp10, how are you liking it so far? I bought 1 spinstream nozzle for one of the return lines, didnt want to buy 2 just in case i didnt like it. But i might buy a 2nd one, as well as an mp10 and then be done with flow.

I love the floor corals! That yellow makes the tank BOOM

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Anthony357

Looks nice! I like the stand you have too lol, i have the exact same thing. I was thinking about upgrading the cheap little powerhead i have inside my IM20 with a mp10, how are you liking it so far? I bought 1 spinstream nozzle for one of the return lines, didnt want to buy 2 just in case i didnt like it. But i might buy a 2nd one, as well as an mp10 and then be done with flow.

Haha I like your choice of stand! It's a pretty functional piece for the price. I really like the look of your tank. The bright corals juxtaposed against the dark sand really makes them jump out at you. It looks like you have a piece of SPS on the left side, what light do you have over the tank?

I love the MP10! I bought it because I want to have the extra flow capabilities when I decide to try my hand at some SPS. The different modes as well as programability really make it worth the price. However, I'm still trying to dial it in for the LPS in the tank. Everyone seems to be enjoying a 30-40% lagoon, but they didn't mind the 30-40% reef crest as well. I might just be a little hesitant to crank up the flow and upset the torch, hammer, and frogspawn.

Actually, I just ordered two IM spin stream nozzles! How do you like the one so far?

Originally Posted by Oeste

My 10qd does the same starting at 60% and gets louder. Its not as loud as one would describe but with a silent tank, it annoys me so much.
I'm also interested and confused if running above 60% creates a winding noise.

I noticed the noise when I was running the MP10 at 80% reef crest. I never noticed it before, but when I would ramp down and up to 80% in reef crest mode I could hear it if there was no other noise in the room. I started to get worried that something would go wrong because my mind immediately jumped to IM Nuvos cracking because they had MP10s on them. I tried moving the MP10 around and redoing the placement of the wet and dry side to try and minimize the whining noice to no avail.

But, now that I'm running the MP10 at 30-40% on reef crest and lagoon mode I don't have an issue with the whining noice. I'm no expert but my guess is that it has something to do with the lubrication of the bearings? Who knows, I could be completely wrong

[Anthony357]

I like the spin stream nozzle so far, definitely going to buy a 2nd one. I'm also using an air hydra 26hd for the light. The coral in the bottom left is a acan rock, it's blue and purple mainly with bits of orange, very pretty coral!

[Anthony357]

Here are a couple more pics

[IMG][/IMG]


[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Anthony357

Here are a couple more pics

Those are some wicked corals! How do you like the light you're using now? I'm starting to do research on what to upgrade to, but I don't think I'll pull the trigger any time soon

[Anthony357]

The only led lights i have owned were the ai primes and hydra 26hds, I love them. The user interface is awesome as you can control them on your phone and very easy to use. I had hydras over my 90 but decided to sell some of them and make it a fish only tank (so didn't need that much lighting) but kept 1 of them to put over this 20g and make this my reef tank. I would think 1 ai prime HD would be enough for these tanks but I already had the hydra...maybe buy 2 regular primes that way you could spread the light apart to get full coverage everywhere

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Anthony357

The only led lights i have owned were the ai primes and hydra 26hds, I love them. The user interface is awesome as you can control them on your phone and very easy to use. I had hydras over my 90 but decided to sell some of them and make it a fish only tank (so didn't need that much lighting) but kept 1 of them to put over this 20g and make this my reef tank. I would think 1 ai prime HD would be enough for these tanks but I already had the hydra...maybe buy 2 regular primes that way you could spread the light apart to get full coverage everywhere

The Primes seem like a great choice. I'm glad to hear your experience with the AI Primes was a positive one. I think I've narrowed it down to either two AI Prime HDs, AI Hydra FiftyTwo HD, or the Radion XR30W. Still a mystery which one I'll end up actually going with. They all have a lot of things going for them

[Anthony357]

They all are good, and comparable. The primes, and 26hd for that matter, we're just way more affordable lol. I think 2 primes or 1 HD is plenty of light for anything you would want to have in a 20g

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Anthony357

They all are good, and comparable. The primes, and 26hd for that matter, we're just way more affordable lol. I think 2 primes or 1 HD is plenty of light for anything you would want to have in a 20g

That's what I was thinking. The Radion might be a bit overkill for a 20g and the coral I'm looking to keep. I think the two primes or one HD would be enough for me to keep all the LPS my heart desires and some easier to keep SPS placed higher up on the rock work


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[stayjejune]

Just a small little update. I received two spin streams today and just put them on. Now I see what everyone means by the noise haha. Luckily it's not too bad. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything in the tank reacts to the spin streams. Shortly after putting them on my goby swam straight to the front of the tank. Good sign I guess.

Speaking of the goby; after the initial scare of him carpet surfing and coming back to life, he seems to finally be getting back to himself. I still haven't seen him eat yet which is troubling. However, his stomach doesn't seem to be caved in so he's definitely eating something. Only bummer about the goby is that he still hasn't found his way to the pistol shrimp yet. But, yesterday he started hanging out right outside the little burrow that the pistol made himself.

Oddly enough, I realized today that my pistol shrimp seems to have molted. After putting on the spin streams I noticed shrimp exoskeleton on the sand bed at the back of the tank. Initially I thought the poor guy died already, but after seeing him wildly whip around his antennae I came to the conclusion that he simply molted. Still have my fingers crossed that the Goby and Pistol will become friends sooner rather than later.

Finally, I'm considering a captive bred Benggai Cardinal and captive bred Yellow Assessor as my next two, and final, fish. I'm also considering throwing in a peppermint (noticed one small piece and one large piece of Aiptasia) and/or cleaner shrimp. Thoughts?

[strummerfan]

Do something about the aiptasia now. I've always used joe's and a hypodermic needle

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by strummerfan

Do something about the aiptasia now. I've always used joe's and a hypodermic needle

What is Joe's? You're right, I should order something today to take care of it as soon as possible


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[Anthony357]

yeah ive had the spin streams for about 2 weeks now or so, definitely less noise once they get that 'film' built up on them. My biggest noise maker now is the ghost protein skimmer i got about 2 weeks ago as well, still seems to make lots of noise, ughhh. I could always trade it in for a media basket with all the fixin's (which will make ZERO noise..) haha

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Anthony357

yeah ive had the spin streams for about 2 weeks now or so, definitely less noise once they get that 'film' built up on them. My biggest noise maker now is the ghost protein skimmer i got about 2 weeks ago as well, still seems to make lots of noise, ughhh. I could always trade it in for a media basket with all the fixin's (which will make ZERO noise..) haha

That is great news. Luckily the nose isn't as bad as I thought. Haha the ol' protein skimmer!! I'm pretty disappointed that IM made such a noise maker. I'm trying to go as long as I can without a skimmer. Hopefully 10% weekly water changes will do the trick.

I'm think about throwing in a media basket to run some carbon. Water is pretty clear, but I want it CRYSTAL clear. Are you running carbon or any sort of media on your tank?


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[rockhead51]

Re: your ATO. If it is the AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro, you need the sensor in a chamber that is relatively quiet. My chamber 2 has my rack and so is not suitable. I run it in 3, and it works like a charm.

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[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by rockhead51

Re: your ATO. If it is the AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro, you need the sensor in a chamber that is relatively quiet. My chamber 2 has my rack and so is not suitable. I run it in 3, and it works like a charm.

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By chamber 3 do you mean the middle chamber? I had the optical eye there originally and it filled the rear chamber well past the optical eye. I read somewhere that the optical eye needs to be in a translucent chamber; aka, won't work in the rear compartments


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[rockhead51]

I misread and thought we were running the same tank- my chamber three (in a BioCube 32 LED) is the pump chamber; 2 is the media basket. Mine works just fine there. Not translucent, but not in total darkness either. Bigger issue, from what I've read is splashing.

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[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by rockhead51

I misread and thought we were running the same tank- my chamber three (in a BioCube 32 LED) is the pump chamber; 2 is the media basket. Mine works just fine there. Not translucent, but not in total darkness either. Bigger issue, from what I've read is splashing.

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Ah, my chamber 3 is also my return pump. I'm sorry for confusing thing but are you running the optical eye in the pump chamber or the media basket chamber? I was running my optical eye in the pump chamber when it almost caused the tank to overflow.

Maybe I just don't know how to place it, but I haven't been able to find a level to place the optical eye so that it keeps the tank at a consistent level.


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[rockhead51]

Yes. My pump chamber. I just filled my tank to normal depth, and then set the magnet and sensor. You are running it so that the wire goes up, right?

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[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by rockhead51

Yes. My pump chamber. I just filled my tank to normal depth, and then set the magnet and sensor. You are running it so that the wire goes up, right?

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Correct! This may be a crazy question, but at what point does you ATO pump turn on? As in, where is your water level on the optical eye when the pump turns on?

I can't figure out if it is at the bottom of the triangular extrusion or when the water dips below half way past the triangular extrusion


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[rockhead51]

I THINK it is at the bottom. To test, just slide the magnet up until it kicks on... Remember, there will be a slight delay between when the light starts to flash and when the water gets there.

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