Second Try at Reefing with an IM 20 gal Nuvo Fusion

[stayjejune]

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! A few years ago I got into saltwater tanks and on a whim purchased a tank and everything else I needed without much thinking. After some help from my local fish store (LFS) and some of the blogs on Reef Central, I got the tank up and running. There were a lot of ups and down as I was not completely committed and to be quite frank, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. After being out of the hobby for a few years I decided to get back into it, but do so properly, and post the adventure on Reef Central.

I'll be posting updates, and pictures, as the tank gets started. I purchased everything last week and it is starting to come in this week. I should have the tank up and cycling by the end of the week and I'll post pictures once I get everything in. In the mean time, here's the equipment list:

• Innovative Marine 20 gallon Nuvo Fusion;
• Vortec MP10wQD;
• Aquamaxx Nemolight (36 watt);
• Lifeguard Aquatics Little Time or Temp;
• Cobalt Aquatics 100 W Heater; and
• NYOS - Nitrate Reefer Test Kit

I'll most likely purchase an auto top off (ATO), but for the time being it looks like I'll be manually replenishing the water. Further, I'll be adding on a skimmer but I won't be starting the tank with it. Still doing some research on exactly which one I'd like to go with. Finally, I'll eventually be adding some sort of reactor (most likely carbon to clear up the water and help with light penetration).

In terms of fish for the tank I wanted to keep it simple with:

• One or two clownfish;
• A six line wrasse; and
• a shrimp/goby pair

In terms of the corals, I wanted to be mainly an LPS tank. However, I'll potentially add in some SPS down the road once I'm able to purchased an LED light that will be able to sustain healthy growth of the SPS corals.

I apologize for the long post but I thought I would just get it all out at once. I'll try and update the thread as often as possible as well as add as many pictures as I can. I'm excited to get back into the hobby and hear your thoughts on the progress of the tank!

[Kolkri]

Good luck.

[jmcdaniel0]

Sweet! Looking forward to seeing your tank develop

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Kolkri

Good luck.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by jmcdaniel0

Sweet! Looking forward to seeing your tank develop

Thank you! I can't wait to get this thing going

[ryanvan]

I am comming back to reefing after 8 years away with nuvo 20 as well. I am just piecing it together now hopefully hAve it running in a month or so. I am using a tunze 6040, tunze 3152 auto top off and a radion 30 pro gen three. I plane on getting a apex just not sure if I am going with the junior or classic yet.

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by ryanvan

I am comming back to reefing after 8 years away with nuvo 20 as well. I am just piecing it together now hopefully hAve it running in a month or so. I am using a tunze 6040, tunze 3152 auto top off and a radion 30 pro gen three. I plane on getting a apex just not sure if I am going with the junior or classic yet.

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to seeing your Nuvo come together. I'll probably end up going with the Tunze ATO as well and I'd like to eventually upgrade my lights to the Radion. That thing is a beaut

[ryanvan]

I picked my gen 3 used. Could not justify the cost for the new gen 4 1100 canadian. To much for me.

[Fish4life28]

Have you looked into the smart ato micro? That's what I am running on my rsm. The sensor is very compact. Also, just a suggestion, if you plan on keeping spa why not wait and save up for a light? That way you only buy it once. Or look into a cheaper one to start with. Jmtc.

[raythepilot]

I guess I’m just low tech. I draw a line on the side of each of my three tanks (2 x 10 gal and 1 x 20 gal) and add RODI when the level goes down.
You really need more light power; however. You should be able to find one of those 165 watt dimmable Chinese black box light for under $100. I have four and they are super.

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Fish4life28

Have you looked into the smart ato micro? That's what I am running on my rsm. The sensor is very compact. Also, just a suggestion, if you plan on keeping spa why not wait and save up for a light? That way you only buy it once. Or look into a cheaper one to start with. Jmtc.

I have not. I'm definitely going to check that out. I appreciate the suggestion. Is that ATO an optical sensor or a float? I'm honestly not planning on keeping SPS for quite a while, if any. I've definitely been more interested in LPS and figured this light wasn't a bad way to start things off until I can save up enough for a better light.

Originally Posted by raythepilot

I guess I’m just low tech. I draw a line on the side of each of my three tanks (2 x 10 gal and 1 x 20 gal) and add RODI when the level goes down.
You really need more light power; however. You should be able to find one of those 165 watt dimmable Chinese black box light for under $100. I have four and they are super.

On my first tank I did exactly that. I like the idea of an ATO just so that it's one less thing I have to manually do. Automation is sweet I'll have to look into those black boxes. That's a pretty sweet price for that kind of power output

[Ruthieee19]

Thank you for sharing! Good luck with your tank. I am looking forward to seeing some pictures and seeing how it progresses!

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Ruthieee19

Thank you for sharing! Good luck with your tank. I am looking forward to seeing some pictures and seeing how it progresses!

Thank you, Ruthieee! I'm excited to get the tank going and be able to post some pictures!

[stayjejune]

Hi Everyone,

So the tank is up and cycling! I'm not sure how I feel about the rock placement, so I may rework in the next couple days. But, here are a few shots of the tank and stand (needs some cleaning )

[Benar]

I really like that rockwork! It seems to flow. I personally wouldn't change it, as every time you do after the initial set up you can never get it quite right anyway.
All the best and look forward to seeing this develop.


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[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Benar

I really like that rockwork! It seems to flow. I personally wouldn't change it, as every time you do after the initial set up you can never get it quite right anyway.
All the best and look forward to seeing this develop.


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Thanks, Benar! I really appreciate that! The more I look at it the more I'm okay with leaving it as is. So I may not end up moving anything around


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[Patrick.S]

It's looking great! I have the nemolight on my 10 gallon nuvo and so far I really like it. I don't know much about sps, but marine depot has some growth photos of sps in their tank lit by a nemolight. I would give it a go before spending a fortune on a new light.

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Patrick.S

It's looking great! I have the nemolight on my 10 gallon nuvo and so far I really like it. I don't know much about sps, but marine depot has some growth photos of sps in their tank lit by a nemolight. I would give it a go before spending a fortune on a new light.

Thanks, Patrick! I'll have to check that out; I don't remember seeing that. So far I really like the nemo light. I hope it won't have a problem sustaining LPS growth. Also, it has an awesome shimmer on the sand bed that I wasn't expecting. I'll try and take a video of it and post it


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[Patrick.S]

I tried to find those pics and realized they are on another, let's say smaller, reef forum. If you Google aquamaxx nemolight it's on the first page.

[stayjejune]

Originally Posted by Patrick.S

I tried to find those pics and realized they are on another, let's say smaller, reef forum. If you Google aquamaxx nemolight it's on the first page.

Just read the article and it's pretty interesting. I read a few other reviews on the Nemo light and things look promising. I'm looking forward to seeing how well the light does with most LPS and low light SPS


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[stayjejune]

Hi all,

Just a quick update. Tank is cycling well. A few days ago I put a piece of raw shrimp in the tank for 24 hours to test the biological filtration and watched the ammonia level rise as the shrimp decayed. Took the shrimp out after the 24 hours were up and the following morning my ammonia levels fell back to normal. I'm going today to the LFS to have them look at the tank parameters to double check the tests that I've been doing.

In other news, yesterday I received my BRS RO/DI unit. I assumed that I'd be able to easily hook up the RO/DI unit to my faucet without checking. However, it hasn't been as easy as I thought . If I can't get it to work in the next few days, I'm going to have to figure out some other way to attached the RO/DI unit to the water in my apartment.

Finally, today I ordered salt in preparation for my first water change, the Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro Test Kit, and Smart ATO Micro 120P. Definitely looking forward to not spilling water everywhere as I top off the tank.

That's all for now, but hopefully the cycle will be over soon and I'll be able to put some fish in there!

[stayjejune]

Well, looks like I have my first tank inhabitants!! After getting my water checked out by the LFC they gave me the green light to throw a clean up crew (CUC) into the tank. I got everything acclimated a few hours ago and they're all in the tank. I'm sorry for the shoddy editing - I'm still getting used to this whole editing in Lightroom thing. But, here are some pictures!

[stayjejune]

Hi everyone!

Sorry in advanced for the long post, but figured I would update everyone on quite a few things. The past few weeks have been full of both good and bad news. The bad news is that I had two clowns die within four days of putting them in the tank. One of them seemed to have difficulty breathing from the moment I put him in the tank. The other seemed to be doing well and eating normally. Two days after the first one died, I found him in the overflow grill. Very very disappointed. I checked parameters and everything was fine. It was the first time I had shopped at that particular LFS so I might have just chosen poor quality fish. Overall, I'm a little disappointed with the overall fish and coral offerings of the LFS. Never ordered anything online, but I think I'm going to give it a shot and see how it goes.

However, not all the news is bad news. I put a torch coral in the tank and it seems to be loving life. Found a good place for it in the tank and I'm happy as can be. Further, I put in an orange spotted goby and a pistol shrimp. They've yet to meet each other, but I'm hoping they pair up sooner than later. Oddly enough, I had a scare with the goby right before posting this. I got back home to find the goby carpet surfing. I checked to see if he was in fact dead, but moved as soon as I touched him. I put the goby back in the tank and seems to be doing okay. Hopefully he makes it through the night. I'll be more than disappointed if he doesn't. In hindsight, I should've kept the cover over the tank. I took it off and all day today I kept thinking about how they're prone to be jumpers and that I need to put the cover back on. Hopefully I wasn't too late.

Continuing with the good news I placed an order today for six corals from World Wide Corals ("WWC"). Very excited to get them in. I'll attach pictures to the end of the post from WWC's website. I also rearranged the rock work. I figured the new layout will give me more surface area to glue and place corals on.

I'm also a little disappointed with the Micro ATO. I haven't been able to figure out a good spot to keep the optical eye so that it keeps enough water in the back chambers. I often find that the middle chamber empties out of water before the ATO kicks in. Further, the eye does not work when it is placed in the back chamber because of it being all black. For those of you with IM Nuvos, how high do you keep the water level in the middle chamber? Maybe I just don't have enough water in the tank.

Here are some pictures as a reward for reading my entire post!

[stayjejune]

And the following are pictures of coral I ordered (taken from WWC's website):

[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?

[strummerfan]

How did you cycle this tank?