btmedic's nuvo 20 build thread

[btmedic04]

Hello and thanks for stopping by. After a few years out of the hobby, this is going to be the build thread to my triumphant (hopefully) return! Anyway, on to my equipment choices and pictures!

Equipment on hand:

IM Nuvo 20
IM Nuvo 20 APS Stand
Sicce 1.0 return pump
Cobalt Neotherm 75w heater
Eshopps nano skimmer
IM minimax desktop reactor
12lbs reef saver rock
20lbs bimini pink sand
Hand pump primed siphon

Equipment still to be ordered:

Ecotech Radion XR15 G4 Pro
Ecotech RMS XR15 mount
Ecotech MP10QD
Trigger systems 5 gallon ATO reservoir
Autoaqua Smart ATO Micro 120p
Flipper nano magnetic cleaner
InTank media basket x 2
Marinepure Spheres

Ancillary equipment still needing to be ordered:

new sediment filter, carbon block, ro membrane and di resin for my ro/di. during its last year in operation, it was on well water and has sat dry for the better part of 3 years.
Red Sea Coral Pro salt
Refractometer calibration fluid
Dr Tims one and only
Dr Tims ammonium chloride

Future upgrades:
Apex Jr

Plan: Mixed reef with a lower requirement maintenance schedule.

 

[btmedic04]

I left space for a piece of live rock to seed the dead rock and I may grab another piece to put on top of the left island. Thoughts? Also some shots from leak and level testing. I think its close enough to level for government work but the perfectionist in me wants to perfect the level. What about you folks?

 

[murphreef]

Looks like a cool little set up!

Good luck!

What kind of corals and fish are you planning on keeping?

 

[btmedic04]

Looks like a cool little set up!

Good luck!

What kind of corals and fish are you planning on keeping?

Thanks! Im planning on a pair of designer clowns and a yasha goby with a pistol shrimp for sure and either a tailspot blenny or royal gramma. Cuc will consist of 4-6 nassarius snails, 4-6 trochus snails, and 4-6 hermits. As for corals, I want to try my hand at SPS and LPS this time around, though I will have some zoas, ricordias and maybe a couple of mushrooms. Im fortunate to live within 20 minutes of 2 LFS that cater to saltwater only so there is quite a bit to choose from

 

[murphreef]

Thanks! Im planning on a pair of designer clowns and a yasha goby with a pistol shrimp for sure and either a tailspot blenny or royal gramma. Cuc will consist of 4-6 nassarius snails, 4-6 trochus snails, and 4-6 hermits. As for corals, I want to try my hand at SPS and LPS this time around, though I will have some zoas, ricordias and maybe a couple of mushrooms. Im fortunate to live within 20 minutes of 2 LFS that cater to saltwater only so there is quite a bit to choose from

That's awesome good luck sounds like a nice choice for live stock.

Have you played around with SPS before? I have had some other large tanks with SPS and a few nanos with SPS nothing like having some colorful sticks added to other cool zoas, lps and shrooms.

 

[btmedic04]

That's awesome good luck sounds like a nice choice for live stock.

Have you played around with SPS before? I have had some other large tanks with SPS and a few nanos with SPS nothing like having some colorful sticks added to other cool zoas, lps and shrooms.

This will be my first time having SPS and LPS. For SPS, Im looking at pocillopora, seriatopora, stylophora, leptosiris, and chalice corals. I may consider a montipora or acropora if my parameters are stable and appropriate. As far as LPS goes, I really like all euphyllia, acans, candy canes, and blastos. I'll still have zoas and ricordias depending on what I find. Do you have any advice for my choices?

my last time in saltwater consisted of purely softies. I had a toadstool leather, zoas, a large purple mushroom, a ricordia and xenia.

Here's a picture from my first tank

 

[murphreef]

This will be my first time having SPS and LPS. For SPS, Im looking at pocillopora, seriatopora, stylophora, leptosiris, and chalice corals. I may consider a montipora or acropora if my parameters are stable and appropriate. As far as LPS goes, I really like all euphyllia, acans, candy canes, and blastos. I'll still have zoas and ricordias depending on what I find. Do you have any advice for my choices?

my last time in saltwater consisted of purely softies. I had a toadstool leather, zoas, a large purple mushroom, a ricordia and xenia.

Here's a picture from my first tank

To be honest in all my years I have found a few things that really help.

1. Making sure you use a real high quality RO/DI set up to give you crystal clear water for top off and water changes.

2. Using a good qulaity salt for your water changes and on such a small tank I would suggest 3-5gallons weekly.

3. When messing with SPS the ones you mentioned are good starter ones but they still can give you a head ache.... Main thing to pay attention to is Alk.... Maintaining a consistent Alk level around 8.0-8.5 would be ideal. I found getting the Alk Hannah Meter test kit the best for checking this. I use Bionic 2 part dosing liquid and I dose using a 2 channel doser pump. Right now I am dosing 5ml a day of Alk and CA and dosing Mg as needed to keep my level around 1300ppm.

4. LED lighting is tricky and can really bleach your corals and kill them so learn it well.

You probably have a good understanding of this all but making sure everything is stable is really ideal. From Salinity to Temp to Alk.

 

[btmedic04]

To be honest in all my years I have found a few things that really help.

1. Making sure you use a real high quality RO/DI set up to give you crystal clear water for top off and water changes.

2. Using a good qulaity salt for your water changes and on such a small tank I would suggest 3-5gallons weekly.

3. When messing with SPS the ones you mentioned are good starter ones but they still can give you a head ache.... Main thing to pay attention to is Alk.... Maintaining a consistent Alk level around 8.0-8.5 would be ideal. I found getting the Alk Hannah Meter test kit the best for checking this. I use Bionic 2 part dosing liquid and I dose using a 2 channel doser pump. Right now I am dosing 5ml a day of Alk and CA and dosing Mg as needed to keep my level around 1300ppm.

4. LED lighting is tricky and can really bleach your corals and kill them so learn it well.

You probably have a good understanding of this all but making sure everything is stable is really ideal. From Salinity to Temp to Alk.

Awesome and thank you for the advice! I have a BRS value plus 4 stage ro/di that sat dry for the past 2 years after running a year on well water. Figured it would be safe to just replace all of the filter media, resin and membrane.

As far as salt, I originally was looking at Red Sea Coral Pro, but that alk of ~12 kind of put me off to it. I am now considering HW-Marinemix Reefer. According to BRS its calcium is at 445-450 ppm, alk of 9.0 dKH, and mag at 1380 ppm. I figure slightly elevated levels will give me a little bit of buffer between planned weekly 5 gallon water changes until I get to the point where I need to start daily dosing. Also from what I've read, this salt doesn't leave residue in your mixing containers. Thoughts on it?

Regarding the leds, I was planning on using ecotechs AB+ corallab settings and seeing about borrowing the par meter from my local reef club (that list is fairly long though) Until I can borrow it, would it be a safe plan to start intensity at 20-30% and slowly increase it 5% per week until I see bleaching, then back it off to the last setting?

 

[murphreef]

Awesome and thank you for the advice! I have a BRS value plus 4 stage ro/di that sat dry for the past 2 years after running a year on well water. Figured it would be safe to just replace all of the filter media, resin and membrane.

As far as salt, I originally was looking at Red Sea Coral Pro, but that alk of ~12 kind of put me off to it. I am now considering HW-Marinemix Reefer. According to BRS its calcium is at 445-450 ppm, alk of 9.0 dKH, and mag at 1380 ppm. I figure slightly elevated levels will give me a little bit of buffer between planned weekly 5 gallon water changes until I get to the point where I need to start daily dosing. Also from what I've read, this salt doesn't leave residue in your mixing containers. Thoughts on it?

Regarding the leds, I was planning on using ecotechs AB+ corallab settings and seeing about borrowing the par meter from my local reef club (that list is fairly long though) Until I can borrow it, would it be a safe plan to start intensity at 20-30% and slowly increase it 5% per week until I see bleaching, then back it off to the last setting?

Sounds good as far as your RO/DI goes.... Always keep an eye on your TDS's anytime my tank got weird was either due to the RO/DI water or Alk related.

As for salt I always use Tropic Marin Pro..... Works great and my corals seem to love it!

Yea the AB+ is really good I use that but I modified it slightly.... I dialed down the whites to around 18% from the scheduled 24% I left everything else the same.... On small tanks like ours the whites can get pretty powerful and plus I like the more blue look.... Really shows off the corals. The light has an acclimation period as well which you can set and it will automatically adjust as time passes... A great feature. What light mount are you using? I have my light suspended 16" off my waterline and run it at 100% intensity but if I lower it I would totally bleach corals... I like the light hanging higher as it blends the LEDs more and gets rid of the "disco" affect.

:beer:

 

[murphreef]

This was my 180 back in the day, miss this tank but I am not going to lie the 25G is just as fun and not so stressful!

 

[btmedic04]

oh wow! your 180 was beautiful! I hope to have a tank as beautiful as that one day! I think I'll try out your modification to the AB+ as I prefer a more blue look as well. I live in an apartment and cant drill into the walls so I'll be going with the Ecotech RMS mount. From what I've found, It holds the light about 8 inches above the top of the tank or approximately 9 inches above the surface of the water. If the disco effect is too distracting, I'll pick up the diffuser.

 

[btmedic04]

Swung by my LFS to pick up refractometer calibration fluid, RO water and salt and ended up leaving with that plus an MP10WQD, and a 1lb piece of live rock to help seed. Also my Dr Tims one and only and ammonium chloride showed up today as well. So I'll begin my cycle tonight as I'm currently mixing saltwater and I'll pick up my ATO and light next week

 

[btmedic04]

Little update. I'm day 3 into my cycle and am getting very faint nitrite and nitrate readings. Ammonia is still around 2ppm after dosing dr Tim's ammonium chloride and dr Tim's one and only. I started my skimmer yesterday to break it in and I'm glad I did that now as my display is full of microbubbles. My icecap ato and marinepure gems arrive Monday so im pretty excited about that. My intank floss holders and floss has arrived today so I'll be cutting those into 3x3 squares. I'll have to figure out what to do with the 20x2 and 10x1 strips left over. Maybe I'll stitch them together with some fishing line. Waste not, want not right? Lol

 

[btmedic04]

Day 6 into my cycle. My ph his hovering around 8.0 to 8.2. Ammonia is around 0.5ppm, nitrite around 1ppm and nitrates are 10-20ppm. My marinepure gems and icecap ato arrived today. I'm not going to lie, when I saw the tiny box the gems came in, my first thought was "is that it?" Lol. Still though, 135 m2 is a huge amount of surface area when you think about it. Also, how did I run a reef tank without an ato before? By far the best investment one can make into this hobby. I also installed my IM minimax reactor. I'm currently not running any media in it, but figured I'd break that in while I cycle. My skimmer is still putting microbubbles into the display, but it's a lot less than what it was before. I also scored an ecotech reeflink from a local reefer for $50 and set up my mp10 on a schedule. All I have to do now is order my radion xr15, the rms mount and wait for my cycle to complete. Anyone want to start kicking around ideas on what kinds of corals and livestock I should add?

 

[murphreef]

colorful zoas, shrooms, LPS and some colorful easier montis are good to go with IMO

my tanks doing great with these kinds of things and to be honest i dont miss the stress of having high end 1/2" sps frags dying lol.... not to say i might not dable in some again but for a small tank IMO keeping it super colorful but not so high stress is a good idea because things can get sideways fast on a small tank.

Keep it up!

 

[btmedic04]

Thanks Murph! I'll definitely look into those corals. I do want to try my hand at sps but like you said, things get sideways fast in a small tank. I'm really looking forward to the brs black Friday sale. That's when I'm going to pick up my radion xr15

 

[murphreef]

Thanks Murph! I'll definitely look into those corals. I do want to try my hand at sps but like you said, things get sideways fast in a small tank. I'm really looking forward to the brs black Friday sale. That's when I'm going to pick up my radion xr15

I love my XR15

Let me know when you get it and if you need help setting up the light I can give you some input.

Fun times!! :bounce2:

 

[btmedic04]

I love my XR15

Let me know when you get it and if you need help setting up the light I can give you some input.

Fun times!! :bounce2:

Thanks brother! I'll definitely be asking you for advice on setting it up. I'm currently waiting on BRS's black Friday sale before I pick it up

 

[btmedic04]

I got my ecotech radion xr15 pro and rms mount today. Holy smokes its powerful at full tilt. I should probably let my neighbors know I'm growing coral and not something else! :spin2: I also tested my cycle today. Currently at:

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 1.0
Nitrate: 30

The xr15 is going back off until nitrite hits 0 as theres no point growing algae in the meantime lol

 

[btmedic04]

Just wanted to post an update. My tank can now completely process 2ppm of ammonia in a 24 hour period with zero readings for ammonia and nitrite. I have also started getting diatoms beginning to show on my rockwork and film algae on the glass so tomorrow I'll be picking up a pair of trochus snails and picking up fish later on in the week. Should I get my clowns first or the royal gramma? I was going to wait until tomorrow to do my water change, but decided to do it tonight since I had the motivation (funny how diatoms in a new tank can do that lol.) I ended up doing a 10 gallon change out of the 14 gallon total volume since my nitrates were ~40 ppm. I found hitchhikers on the glass that are either hydroids or baby aiptasia on the glass, so they were vacuumed out. Ill be keeping a close eye out to see if they return and if so, will take appropriate measures (wait out the hydroids or get a peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia)

Current test readings
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10 (guess the color with API kits is always fun)

Also this coming Monday, my red sea reef foundation test kit and algae control test kit arrives so I'll have more accurate numbers going forward.

hitchhiker shots if you want to give me your opinions on them