IM Nuvo 20

[oldsoul3]

Hi all - I've had my IM Nuvo 20 up for about 6 months now but I'm trying to get a sense on where I need to upgrade or what I should be doing differently.

Back left chamber has a filter sock and bag of carbon.
Next chamber holds an ahem 75w heater (although my tank for some reason is always at 80 degrees so the heater is never on)
Center chamber holds the standard Mightjet pump:
Next chamber is has a bag of marine pure gems.
Far Right chamber has a media stand with filter floss, chemi-pure elite, & more carbon in descending order.

What are everyone's thoughts?

My two biggest issues are 1) smell - even with two bags of carbon the water has a bad smell.
2) I put the dual nozzles (so four return nozzles now) on my return pump and really feel like there's not enough flow anymore - should I upgrade the mighty jet in the back or look at getting an in-tank powerhead? I'm concerned with the powerhead since I do want an anenome one day.

Thanks!

 

[Queen City Corals]

A few questions first, how often are you doing water changes, what are your water parameters, where are you getting your water from, what do you have in the tank now, and what do you want to have in the tank?

These questions are going to determine what would be the best upgrade, however, one that I have done on my personal tank and really like is I've converted the chamber to the right of the return pump into a refugium by scraping part of the black background off and adding an innovative marine refugium light onto the back glass.

 

[afrokobe]

the water really shouldn't smell unless something is fouling. what kind of smells are you smelling?

 

[oldsoul3]

A few questions first, how often are you doing water changes, what are your water parameters, where are you getting your water from, what do you have in the tank now, and what do you want to have in the tank?

These questions are going to determine what would be the best upgrade, however, one that I have done on my personal tank and really like is I've converted the chamber to the right of the return pump into a refugium by scraping part of the black background off and adding an innovative marine refugium light onto the back glass.

This week was Salinity 1.025, Nitrates 6.3 and Phosphate .07. I had my alkalinity/PH etc. all tested at my LFS two weeks back and all was good.

20% change every 2 weeks. Using RODI water from Publix typically and adding reef crystals to bring it up to 1.025.

I have two small clowns, a false yellow watchman goby, and a small lawnmower blenny (temporary). CUC is a turbo snail, a few nassarius, tiger conch, & a Scarlett cleaner shrimp.

Lots of small coral frags, zoas, acans, trumpet, Duncan, montiporas, mushrooms, GSP.

Goal is just to fill up the aquarium with corals, not planning on adding any more fish (in fact, will remove the blenny in a couple months).

 

[oldsoul3]

the water really shouldn't smell unless something is fouling. what kind of smells are you smelling?

It just smells - fishy? Could it just be perhaps an unclean filter sock or filter floss?

 

[afrokobe]

It just smells - fishy? Could it just be perhaps an unclean filter sock or filter floss?

thats odd, is it a sea water/ocean smell? that's what mine smells like, but I have to get pretty close to the water. something must be fouling if its a noticeable call. when my chaeto crashed, that smelled terrible