10 Gallon Nuvo Nps work Tank

[Saxman7]

I've been on this fourm for awhile and finaly decided to join.
Wanted to Show y'all my tank I run at the store I work at in florida. I'd say we have alittle bit different but very developed ways to reef keeping that we've found to work well. We get pretty creative over here, to the point where a co-worker and I had we're but in competition to make rock structures. the winner would get to run a 10-gallon nuvo at the store (as we sold the previous one we wanted a new one to display). DISCLAIMER unfortunately my original rock structure had fallen to an acid bath due to an accidental use of the wrong paint type when we painted the rocks originally. So. I had to slop this one together in a night but regardless I carried on and the tank became the 10 gallon nuvo nps tank!

 

[Saxman7]

I apologize for camera quality as the android stands no match to my girlfriends iphone (which we were able to make a *decent* photo of the tubastreas as you can see).

Specs for the tank:
10 Gallon Nuvo
Ai Prime LED- (after seeing Aquabac's thread with his awesome mystery purple par 38 lights I went majority red and uv on the tank and boy do those sea apples and tubastreas POP)
I upgraded the pump in the back to double the original turnover rate and put a spinstream on the return nozzle to give alittle variation in the flow which the gorgs have loved.
feeding wise we make slurrie that consist of:
-Ocean nutrition foodshytofeast,oyster feast and roti feast (really a bulk form of Dr.g's Sps maxx)
-frozen cyclops
-fuel
-coral vibrance
This is the main mix we use to feed corals in all the systems in the store. We mix it up in a solo cup and use it for a day or two at a time. for my tank I will use a pippette to put a few drops in the return every couple hours. along with the addition of sps maxx, Ocean nutrition artic pods.
The tank is fed usually 2 or 3 times a day when I'm off but on my I days I try to get in 5-6 feedings in.
NOW, saying all this-
water changes have been 50% at a time about once a week for a couple months now that everything had dialed in and parameters are always funny. it's been a confirmed thinking among us here that Nitrates... really don't bother most things like nps lps and softies even in extreme amounts. it's actucally more of an issue where we have to ADD nitrates to several of the systems in the store to keep them slightly elevated to have these types of corals do well (ideally around 5-15 ppm, 15ppm being were most tanks in the store get their water changes). Quite frankly This little tank I've seen get up to 80ppm in Nitratesand phos get up over .5 and most things in the tank could care less (gorgs will retract alittle at most but the sea apples don't stress out either). the tank runs well and everything is growing well (even the little blue berry gorg frag that has been in there for about 5 months). there is no reactor (filter sock, bag of chemi pure blue, rowa phos, good judgement, test parameters weekly and that's it)but I honestly feel if I did one of these nuvo 10's at home that would be one of the main things I add. even though auto water changer and auto feeder with a dosing pump would really stream line this system, it just goes to show that manually it can be done.

Critter wise the tank is really packed. but most fish are under an inch, TINY- the "biggest" fish isn't even 2 inches but that's because I can swap fish out as they out grow but when the majority of fish are an half an inch to an inch. their impact on the bioload is about as much as a shrimp...
but currently:
fish:
2x Juvenile purple firefish
1x red head goby
1x transparent cave goby
1x Flamming prawn(honestly SO TINY I really can't tell if he's still in there)
1x TINY yellow coris wrasse (does a phenomenal job at pest control)
1x Tailspot blenny
1x Flame cardinal- (lamest fish ever. period. even hides 24/7 in a dim light nps tank)

Invrts:
1xSmall basket star
1xYellow cuke
1x staghorn hermit- (Got the idea from Mark with his 12gallon Mr.aqua on here. They really do well in the high nutrient systems. his shell has awesome PE, if that's what we call it on this guy)
x2 Sea apples- (honestly given the right conditions these things are rocks,
and are so misunderstood)
several flame scallops, they love this tank
coco worm and a few purple and yellow feather dusters.
I'd love to get a crinoid in this tank as unfortunately the last ones we ordered were reds ( y'all know what that means) and the one in here was a small one that aggressively but was sold to a serious inquire very quick. Hopefully we can get in different type of crinoids like the black one I have at home that are much more practical to keep.
And just a couple of each of these guys cleaner crew wise
-BL Hermits
-Scarlet reef hermits
-Trochus snails
-Nassarius Snails

and coral wise:
Several photo gorgs are in here that do surprisingly well with lower light but high nutrients.
Non photo gorg wise there are red and orange fingers that do great ( I have menella and swiftia at home that are taking off so i'll soon bring frags in if we can't get any in the mean time).
there is a frag blue berry that's still doing alright, but fish milt based foods seem to help alot with it's survival.
Tubastreas: faulkneri and coccinea(?) Recently added micrantha
Blano: bairdiana(?)( can't find an accurate source to properly identify this guy so please let me know if can confirm! I'll post a pic)
Good Ol fathead Dendros. (no Gracilis please haha...)
Spider sponge (does really well actually)
Can't think of any others that are in there currently. since it is a tank in a store we will occasionally sell out of it so some things come and go from time to time.

Hope y'all enjoy. questions and suggestions are certainly welcome!

 

[Treed]

Very nice aquarium! How long have you had your basket star?

 

[Saxman7]

Thanks Treed! The basket star in this tank has only been in there about 2 months- he came in on a gorg we ordered but he's almost a reddish color and not picky at all.

 

[mark54321]

Great tank, I love it. My staghorn crab is still going strong, i am glad you got one too.

 

[Saxman7]

Thanks Mark! I Saw it in your build thread and I thought they were cool, next thing you know we got some from the whole saler the next week. We originally had them in the invert system. we then moved them to a mainly sps dominant tank (that was going very low nutrient at the time) and a day or two later I noticed they were all hiding under a chalice...while there shells were on the other side of the tank..?? it seems they were periodically leaving them.I thought about the aspect of how keeping the shell alive was I figured you had placed one in your tank. I placed one and my tank and never seen him abandon his shell again. Mark does your SH hermit's shell consistently look "fuzzy" from the "polyp extentsion" as they call it?

 

[Saxman7]

Also, it was an agreed conciseness between one of my boss's and I that we should experiment with dosing a carbon source. So the dosing has begun this week. will see how that turns out! currently very excited as we had crinoids arrive tonight (that ARE NOT the red ones *fist pump*) with some hitch hiker squat lobsters and even a crinoid pistol shrimp. the plan is to pick up two more for my current home tank... which I need to make a thread on aswell.

 

[mark54321]

Thanks Mark! I Saw it in your build thread and I thought they were cool, next thing you know we got some from the whole saler the next week. We originally had them in the invert system. we then moved them to a mainly sps dominant tank (that was going very low nutrient at the time) and a day or two later I noticed they were all hiding under a chalice...while there shells were on the other side of the tank..?? it seems they were periodically leaving them.I thought about the aspect of how keeping the shell alive was I figured you had placed one in your tank. I placed one and my tank and never seen him abandon his shell again. Mark does your SH hermit's shell consistently look "fuzzy" from the "polyp extentsion" as they call it?

So far my Staghorn crab looks happy , never abandoned his shell either. And the staghorn looks fuzzy most of the time.

 

[mark54321]

Also, it was an agreed conciseness between one of my boss's and I that we should experiment with dosing a carbon source. So the dosing has begun this week. will see how that turns out! currently very excited as we had crinoids arrive tonight (that ARE NOT the red ones *fist pump*) with some hitch hiker squat lobsters and even a crinoid pistol shrimp. the plan is to pick up two more for my current home tank... which I need to make a thread on aswell.

I did carbon dosing on my bigger NPS tank that I had to take down for moving, and it did help with nutrients. I also believe the etxtra amount of bacteria in water column is a great food source for some of the NPS corals.

 

[Saxman7]

I did carbon dosing on my bigger NPS tank that I had to take down for moving, and it did help with nutrients. I also believe the etxtra amount of bacteria in water column is a great food source for some of the NPS corals.

Yes Agreed! I'm putting about 1 ml a day to start. We test all the systems usually twice a week so i'll try to gauge it's effectiveness over the next couple weeks. One thing I've always noticed is people who dose or run bio pellets always have ridiculous sponge growth and scallops tend to do considerably better.

Took sometime to really inspect the blueberry today.... still going strong with the oyster feast.

 

[calk me Q]

Bump for a thumb!! I really would like to know the three points from your tank build:
1. The destiney of the blueberry
2. The carbon dosing result
3. Any growth identified for the individuals inside the tank

 

[Saxman7]

Bump for a thumb!! I really would like to know the three points from your tank build:
1. The destiney of the blueberry
2. The carbon dosing result
3. Any growth identified for the individuals inside the tank

I appreciate it!
with the blueberry I'm assuming you're curious about it's density? if so I would say it's polyps are fairly evenly distributed. If you meant destiny- it's like we all would like. to have it not only live but thrive!. The main issue right now is it's gotten alot of re-occuring algae developing that my blenny is not taking to interest currently... and now it's losing tissue fast. future is looking grim but the oyster feast does seem to keep him happy so I'm keeping that in my notes for future attempts.

The carbon dosing has been going for alittle over a week. my nitrates have tested much lower than usual (around 20 as opposed to the normal 60 to 80ish range) which is nice but too soon to speak for. Plus, I have done a bit of maintenance to the tank this past week so will continue to dose and see. i'm going to start carbon dosing on my 20 at home and see how my medusas and crinoids take to it.

As far as growth the things I noticed the most were the suns, photo gorgs, a yellow nps gorg, blue berry and the spider sponge.- unfortunately the yellow and the spider were both sold this past weekend but I had both in here for several months. the spider sponge did well as I fragged off tips. it was beginning to "round off" and protrude new edges before it left. the photo gorgs all have about a 1/2 inch or so in extension since they've been in here. All noticeable- just not crazy...like my swiftia at home :lmao:

 

[calk me Q]

I appreciate it!
with the blueberry I'm assuming you're curious about it's density? if so I would say it's polyps are fairly evenly distributed. If you meant destiny- it's like we all would like. to have it not only live but thrive!. The main issue right now is it's gotten alot of re-occuring algae developing that my blenny is not taking to interest currently... and now it's losing tissue fast. future is looking grim but the oyster feast does seem to keep him happy so I'm keeping that in my notes for future attempts.

The carbon dosing has been going for alittle over a week. my nitrates have tested much lower than usual (around 20 as opposed to the normal 60 to 80ish range) which is nice but too soon to speak for. Plus, I have done a bit of maintenance to the tank this past week so will continue to dose and see. i'm going to start carbon dosing on my 20 at home and see how my medusas and crinoids take to it.

As far as growth the things I noticed the most were the suns, photo gorgs, a yellow nps gorg, blue berry and the spider sponge.- unfortunately the yellow and the spider were both sold this past weekend but I had both in here for several months. the spider sponge did well as I fragged off tips. it was beginning to "round off" and protrude new edges before it left. the photo gorgs all have about a 1/2 inch or so in extension since they've been in here. All noticeable- just not crazy...like my swiftia at home :lmao:

Thanks for the reply.
Regarding the blueberry. I have a pure blue variant( i think it is from notrh china sea) that i think was not able to be kept in captivity. I have tried two specimens which both have perished in a length of 40 days. Though they would show some growth of branches but the bottom part always receded at the same time until all the tissue dislodged with nothing.

What do you think the key factors about keeping Spider sponge?
What do you use to fix them? I saw a lot of cases here that the sponge seem to be good while the whole colony are really stressed with all the epizooid polyp retracted into the stolon. Til now i still step away from buy one of it just because i dont think i have got a promising scheme to keep them alive after i gather every information about them on the forum.

 

[Saxman7]

Thanks for the reply.
Regarding the blueberry. I have a pure blue variant( i think it is from notrh china sea) that i think was not able to be kept in captivity. I have tried two specimens which both have perished in a length of 40 days. Though they would show some growth of branches but the bottom part always receded at the same time until all the tissue dislodged with nothing.

What do you think the key factors about keeping Spider sponge?
What do you use to fix them? I saw a lot of cases here that the sponge seem to be good while the whole colony are really stressed with all the epizooid polyp retracted into the stolon. Til now i still step away from buy one of it just because i dont think i have got a promising scheme to keep them alive after i gather every information about them on the forum.

The blue berries are so funny in that way. It sometimes almost makes me wonder if the myth that i've heard from some stating it's an infection so they die out regardless or something similar that could have to do with it. now, that said there's been a few people stating they've had their berries up to two years and what not. if anything, I feel it's alot like keeping Dendronephthya- which means...there just needs to be more research done. It would be cool if a study group was made for blueberries eventually as i've been keeping notes on these along with everything else I keep.

Did anyone with these cases loose the whole sponge aswell when the polyps recede and melt away? to me it almost seems the sponges go through phases like gorgs do when they shed. the little symbiotic poylps close up and within a week open again. I personally only do a few things for them like watch for algae growth (which is why I tend to shade mine more) or a darkish film growth that I sometimes see too. I just gently brush the body with my fingers and it comes off. the polyps start to usually open in a day or two after that. they seem to sometimes be alittle picky with PO4 levels but the main thing I wonder about is the polyps and food consumption. I make an effort to feed them and they always aggressively eat but to what degree do they is the question. approaching it from the sponge side,a carbon source like bio pellets (and potentially dosing silicates) seems to always make sponges grow like nuts.

 

[calk me Q]

The blue berries are so funny in that way. It sometimes almost makes me wonder if the myth that i've heard from some stating it's an infection so they die out regardless or something similar that could have to do with it. now, that said there's been a few people stating they've had their berries up to two years and what not. if anything, I feel it's alot like keeping Dendronephthya- which means...there just needs to be more research done. It would be cool if a study group was made for blueberries eventually as i've been keeping notes on these along with everything else I keep.

Did anyone with these cases loose the whole sponge aswell when the polyps recede and melt away? to me it almost seems the sponges go through phases like gorgs do when they shed. the little symbiotic poylps close up and within a week open again. I personally only do a few things for them like watch for algae growth (which is why I tend to shade mine more) or a darkish film growth that I sometimes see too. I just gently brush the body with my fingers and it comes off. the polyps start to usually open in a day or two after that. they seem to sometimes be alittle picky with PO4 levels but the main thing I wonder about is the polyps and food consumption. I make an effort to feed them and they always aggressively eat but to what degree do they is the question. approaching it from the sponge side,a carbon source like bio pellets (and potentially dosing silicates) seems to always make sponges grow like nuts.

Today one of my local hobbist stated that he has kept his blue variant gorgonian for over two years, and just survive not thrive. I got a picture,which you may find it in my thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2542043

For the amount of food to best suit your tank and the creatures in your tank i think till now what we can do is to highly input so as to sustain their needs and aggressively output to remove the leftover so as to keep the water quality. Though much has been done on the daily metabolism needs of polyps.

 

[C-Dragon]

Don't you mean Reef Nutrition when talking about Oyster-Feast, Arcti-Pods, Roti-Feast and Phyto-Feast. Ocean Nutrition is a different company with a different product line. I just want people that are reading this to not be confused. I am glad that our feeds are working so well for you. What store are you with? Thanks for supporting what we do!

Chad

 

[Saxman7]

Today one of my local hobbist stated that he has kept his blue variant gorgonian for over two years, and just survive not thrive. I got a picture,which you may find it in my thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2542043

For the amount of food to best suit your tank and the creatures in your tank i think till now what we can do is to highly input so as to sustain their needs and aggressively output to remove the leftover so as to keep the water quality. Though much has been done on the daily metabolism needs of polyps.

Very impressive on his part! I'd love to find out more about his tank and how it runs! I'd also like to state that the gorgs from your area look phenomenal...very different from what we have here. great set up you have going!

 

[Saxman7]

Don't you mean Reef Nutrition when talking about Oyster-Feast, Arcti-Pods, Roti-Feast and Phyto-Feast. Ocean Nutrition is a different company with a different product line. I just want people that are reading this to not be confused. I am glad that our feeds are working so well for you. What store are you with? Thanks for supporting what we do!

Chad

And Yes C-Dragon I apologize, It completely skipped over my head when I was typing it up. The Reef nutrition products work phenomenal and our customers love it too. Honestly I think it's a must have and an absolute stable for keeping Nps. Personally my favorite part is that it can be dosed effectively and my crinoids take to it very aggressively. (feel free to pm me if you have any more questions or you want to get in contact with the store)

For anyone wondering, you can see my tank at Topshelf Aquatics in Orlando Florida. I'm very proud to work here as I feel we always try to push the hobby to the best and most respectable standard possible. Check us out on Facebook and the frag auctions.

 

[C-Dragon]

Hello Saxman7! Thanks for responding in the thread about our feeds. I would like to know more about your crinoids. I really love these animals, and when I am ready, I am going to set up a tank and get a few. Which of our feeds are you using for them? I will be in Orlando April 21 - April 25 for ReefAPalooza: Could I stop by the store to say hi to everyone? What is your name, BTW? I'm Chad Clayton. I am the live feeds supervisor for Reed Mariculture; I grow all of the copepods for the company. I look forward to hearing back from you!

Regards,
Chad

 

[Devaji108]

beautiful!