Second Try at Reefing with an IM 20 gal Nuvo Fusion

My bank account hates me...

My bank account hates me...

Well, finally got some goodies in a few days ago. The Radion is up and running. I played with the light settings and just set up one of the predefined settings. I'm afraid to ramp it up too quickly and either bleach the coral or have an algae outbreak, so I'm using the acclamation timer to slowly see how the corals react the to the light.

I also got a propagation kit from BRS and mounted some frags. I'll post pictures of the now mounted frags once the lights come on later today. In other news, I unfortunately lost one of my cardinals. Something was picking on him and it looks like it just became too much. But, here are some pictures of the tank now with the Radion

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/32955184352/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="FullSizeRender.jpg"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2795/32955184352_19eb180d1e_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="FullSizeRender.jpg"></a>

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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/32266254854/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9088.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/710/32266254854_d9b6d57af6_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="IMG_9088.JPG"></a>

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Unfortunately nothing exciting to update other than the start of some algae on the sand and rocks and it seems that my cardinal and clown have picked up ich - both have some small white spots on their fins. This is the first I'm seeing it so I'm hoping it's just starting. I haven't added anything to the tank in a few weeks and have just been focusing on keeping water changes regular and mounting my existing corals to the rocks so I'm confused as to where it came from.

I placed an order for NO-ICH Marine hoping that it'll be able to take care of the ich without much trouble. I'm pretty bummed ich peaked its ugly head into my tank. Any suggestions on getting rid of it and keep it away would be greatly appreciated!
 
What made you change lighting to radions? Is nemolight not strong enough? I aquascaped my nuvo 20 into island style with two tall rocks and there is a lot of shadowing from single AI prime LED so I am kinda interested in fixture with LEDs spread out all over. Kinda like T5 fixtures. Both Hydras and Radions are in pucks which probably will cause a lot shadows and dont want to change bulbs every 6 months too.
 
soeminpaing said:
What made you change lighting to radions? Is nemolight not strong enough? I aquascaped my nuvo 20 into island style with two tall rocks and there is a lot of shadowing from single AI prime LED so I am kinda interested in fixture with LEDs spread out all over. Kinda like T5 fixtures. Both Hydras and Radions are in pucks which probably will cause a lot shadows and dont want to change bulbs every 6 months too.
Click to expand...

I'm loving the Nuvo 20 so far. However, I'm already itching to upgrade to a bigger tank haha. I like the idea of an island style aquascape. I actually just rearranged my rocks to have more of an island look. The Radion XR15 is a single puck, but the XR30 has two sets of LEDs. I switched to the Radion from the Nemolight for a few reasons.

First, automation. With the Nemolight you're not able to get individual LEDs to turn on and off without playing with the button on top of the fixture. The Nemolight has a 12hr feature that I, regrettably, never used. To the best of my knowable, you had to press the 12hr button on top of the light every day to get it to continuously turn off after 12 hours. With the Radion I'm able to set it and forget it. My schedule doesn't allow me to turn the light off and on as I would like it to. I know a timer could've solved that problem, but that was just another part I didn't want to get into.

Second, the color spectrum. The Nemolight had wonderful coverage across the tank; very little to almost no shadowing throughout the tank. However, the color spectrum wasn't what I liked. It had a bit more of a yellow tint to it than I would've liked. The Radion gives me a beautiful color spectrum and great coverage. I'm still in the acclamation period so I don't have the lights up to the 40% I'd like yet but everything in the tank seems to love it. Further, the new HEI optics seems to give a really nice spread and cover of the light.

Finally, all my corals seems to be expanding more then when I had the Nemolight - the Stylophora I have towards the top has had great polyp extension since I put the Radion on. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the switch. However, I don't think I gave the Nemolight a fair chance to really determine the efficacy of the Nemolight. I didn't have any complaints other than the ones I mentioned above. I think it would be a great light to use to get great coverage over a tank and will be able to easily keep almost all LPS. I think you could even grow SPS if you place it high enough in the tank.

Hope that helps!
 
Just a small little update now that I've finally glued all my corals down. Unfortunately Ich tore through my tank like wild fire. I lost both my Goby and Benggai Cardinal by the time the Ich treatment arrived. Thankfully NO-Ich seems to have gotten rid of all the parasites from my Clownfish. I'm sure the parasites are still floating around in the tank, so I'm going to continue treating for a bit just to be on the safe side. In the mean time I got back to my water change schedule and everything in the tank seems to be much happier now.

Also, I noticed green hair algae ("GHA") today on the bottom of some of my rocks and a more reddish type of hair algae on the sandbed. I thought weekly water changes would help keep the algae at bay, but seeings as I've only gotten back to regular water changes the past three weeks maybe it will go away in a few weeks. Part of it might also be that fact that I tend to feed heavy no matter how hard I try not to. Especially since I started feeding the Clownfish twice a day to help get his strength back now that the Ich has left his body.

Because of that, I'm thinking it's time to pull the trigger on a skimmer. Any ideas on whether I should continue with the rigorous weekly water changes and if things don't improve with the GHA, only then buy a skimmer?

Anyway, here are some quick pictures I snapped with the ol' iPhone. I'm thinking about buying a starter DSLR so I could take some proper pictures to post. So, camera and macro lens recommendations are appreciated :D :lolspin:

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33293984812/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9326.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/572/33293984812_9f623b27b9_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="IMG_9326.JPG"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33409227776/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9325.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3701/33409227776_b880972ec5_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="IMG_9325.JPG"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33293984352/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9324.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2822/33293984352_f9eca91ec5_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="IMG_9324.JPG"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/32606596414/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9317.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/592/32606596414_7155245d1a_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="IMG_9317.JPG"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33293983212/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9318.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3804/33293983212_8b0b6c010a_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="IMG_9318.JPG"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/32606596614/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="IMG_9319.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3719/32606596614_8a46401e14_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="IMG_9319.JPG"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33294092972/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_9327.JPG"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5786/33294092972_9ee46977f0_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="IMG_9327.JPG"></a>

I took this with my phone and put on a yellow filter through Photoshop - I thought it looked pretty cool

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33409241256/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="Acan"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2808/33409241256_cf15f77810_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="Acan"></a>
 
So I tried my hand at taking a decent picture and editing it. Thanks to the video d2mini has on his editing I think I can finally put up a decent picture of the coral in my tank. However, I took the picture with my phone so not the solid base photo you'd have to play with if taken with a real camera. Let me know what you guys think! And thank you d2mini for the awesome tutorial you put up!

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/33463229256/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="Hammer-Coral-WM"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3890/33463229256_57d0735131_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="Hammer-Coral-WM"></a>

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146546525@N06/32690034213/in/album-72157678827396505/" title="Frogspawn-Torch-WM"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3891/32690034213_703a1312d2_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="Frogspawn-Torch-WM"></a>
 
malady said:
Tank looks good.

Keep in mind that your tank still has Ich present unless you run it fallow for 6-8 weeks
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up! I was hoping to get the clown into a five gallon tank this weekend to fun the tank fallow, but just didn't have the time. Hopefully some time this week I will be able to get him into another tank to get rid of the Ich.
 
Anyone have experience with the Aquamaxx HOB-1? I'm thinking about putting in an order for the HOB-1 to remove organic matter from the water column to try and get this hair algae under control -- the weekly water changes aren't having an impact on the HA.
 
Well, I pulled the trigger and bought the Aquamaxx HOB-1. I'm also going to get rid of the filter socks and see if I can improve water quality with the caddies. I'm planning on putting Seachem Purigen and Boyd's Chemi-Pure Blue into the caddies. Hopefully I see some improvements with this ridiculous hair algae.
 
i took out one of the filter socks and put the media basket in...double layer of filter floss, rowa phosphate remover, and carbon. Ive been happy with it so far! granted its only been like 2 weeks, but i think was good investment
 
Anthony357 said:
i took out one of the filter socks and put the media basket in...double layer of filter floss, rowa phosphate remover, and carbon. Ive been happy with it so far! granted its only been like 2 weeks, but i think was good investment
Click to expand...

That's great news! Do you plan on taking out the second filter sock? I'm worried that the filter sockets are just nutrient sinks, whereas the filter floss can be thrown out every couple days. I'm considering replacing both filter socks because of it.
 
im not too sure yet lol, im still in the 'lets see how this works phase' before changing again. I cut a bunch of like 3x3 inch pieces of the filter floss giant roll i bought and i put a piece on top/inside the 1 sock im still running, figured it would help it. But i agree with you about the buildup within the socks, where as the floss you throw away like 1/2/3 times a week depending how often you want to change. I might just keep the way i have it for now, otherwise id have to buy another 25 dollar media basket and some of the media bags (atleast i already have the phosphate remover and carbon so that isnt a concern) Although i bought 4 of the socks so i just feel like they were a waste of money if im already ditching using them all together.
 
Anthony357 said:
im not too sure yet lol, im still in the 'lets see how this works phase' before changing again. I cut a bunch of like 3x3 inch pieces of the filter floss giant roll i bought and i put a piece on top/inside the 1 sock im still running, figured it would help it. But i agree with you about the buildup within the socks, where as the floss you throw away like 1/2/3 times a week depending how often you want to change. I might just keep the way i have it for now, otherwise id have to buy another 25 dollar media basket and some of the media bags (atleast i already have the phosphate remover and carbon so that isnt a concern) Although i bought 4 of the socks so i just feel like they were a waste of money if im already ditching using them all together.
Click to expand...

Hahaha I'm right there with you because I bought quite a few of the socks thinking I would periodically swap them out. In all honesty, I'm not even sure how to properly clean those socks. I think I might order another one of the media basket. I like the idea of throwing out filter floss every few days rather than let a sock get full of stuff without being able to clean it until I do a water change.

And with the additional media basket I could potentially grow some chaeto down the road. But, not plans to start doing that currently.
 
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