Nautical Nathaniel's IM Nuvo 20

nautical_nathaniel · Nov 20, 2017

Tahoe61 said:
Tank looks awesome.

The Wrasse sounds like the perfect addition.

Interesting about the Acropower. Maybe I need to try it again.

How often do you leave the lid on? Been thinking about getting a third fish but all the ones I want are jumpers!

Thanks!

The lid only comes off for pictures, it's a little ugly from my cat pushing a side out and me fixing it with some super glue

happyhourhero · Nov 29, 2017

You have a great looking tank!

Those WWC auctions are kind of addicting so watch out lol.

nautical_nathaniel · Nov 29, 2017

happyhourhero said:
You have a great looking tank!

Those WWC auctions are kind of addicting so watch out lol.

Yea, I quickly figured out that they were an easy way to spend a lot of money all at once! ;Hilarious

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 6, 2017

Quick Update for Everyone:

Life has been super busy, I'm 5 days out from finishing all of the educational requirements for my Masters degree, I graduate on the 16th, and just the general chaos of the holidays has been taking some toll on my aquarium duties. The tank isn't super happy but things for the most part are okay:

My Ultra Blasto is still not healing all the way from a nutrient spike I had a couple of months ago and now I am battling Alkalinity issues which isn't helping the healing process.
I got a Hanna Checker for Alk, it has been helpful in figuring out how much my Alk drops over the course of a day (which seems to vary as well). I may be investing in a dosing setup soon to help mitigate this issue, for now I will be adding some Fusion part 2 and a powerhead to my ATO resevoir.
I am probably going to switch from Kent Marine Salt to Fritz RPM since I've noticed some inconsistencies with the Kent's salt. My last batch had an Alk of 8.1 dkh and my current batch has an Alk of 7.4 dkh
My clownfish are in jail right now (breeder box), I am considering rehoming at least one of them since the two together create a hostile environment for the whole tank but I may just rehome them both.
I got a small staghorn damsel to help add some color to the tank and more movement since all of my other fish and critters sit pretty still for the most part. Current fish list: Staghorn Damsel, Pink Streak Wrasse, Longnose Hawkfish, 2x Ocellaris Clownfish, Flame Shrimp, Pistol Shrimp.
All of my corals are upset with the recent lack of water changes but I hope to fix that tomorrow evening after my Capstone Project Presentation (sort of like a Thesis Defense).

That's about all I have for now, I hope to have more regular updates and pictures as soon as I am done with school

jazzmik · Dec 6, 2017

Congrats on the Masters @nautical_nathaniel

Man, my longnose hawkfish (only fish so far) ate the cleaner shrimp I added. Expensive meal! Yours hasn't bothered your shrimp at all?

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 6, 2017

jazzmik said:
Congrats on the Masters @nautical_nathaniel

Man, my longnose hawkfish (only fish so far) ate the cleaner shrimp I added. Expensive meal! Yours hasn't bothered your shrimp at all?

Thanks! Being done with school has been long overdue for me haha

Nope, Snooter (the longnose hawkfish) doesn't bother the flame shrimp at all. However, my flame shrimp is nearly two times bigger than him, so that may be a factor in the behavior. He picked at a peppermint shrimp when I first put it in, but that only lasted a couple of hours and then Snooter pretty much ignored the shrimp. I figure one day Snooter will be big enough to actually start causing some issues, but for right now he is a model citizen. I hope to have a bigger tank for him this summer but he could probably stay in the Nuvo for at least another 8-12 months, he's only like 1.5 inches long right now and hasn't grown but 1/4 of an inch since July.

He did sort of rush at the damsel when I introduced it, but I believe that was out of excitement or thinking that I was feeding the tank. The only thing Snooter is aggressive towards right now is mysis ;Hilarious

happyhourhero · Dec 6, 2017

Congrats!

Watch the Fritz...my batch is over 1600 mg at 35 ppt

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 6, 2017

happyhourhero said:
Congrats!

Watch the Fritz...my batch is over 1600 mg at 35 ppt

1600 mg of what? Mag?

I plan to do a series of water changes with the first batch being 1/4 fritz and 3/4 kents and then steadily upping the amount of fritz until I'm just using it.

I'm gonna do more research on it but I will either be using Fritz RPM (since so many folks on here like it) or going with something similar that I can find locally. Definitely not going back to IO or IO RC, or Red Sea Coral Pro.

happyhourhero · Dec 6, 2017

nautical_nathaniel said:
1600 mg of what? Mag?

I plan to do a series of water changes with the first batch being 1/4 fritz and 3/4 kents and then steadily upping the amount of fritz until I'm just using it.

I'm gonna do more research on it but I will either be using Fritz RPM (since so many folks on here like it) or going with something similar that I can find locally. Definitely not going back to IO or IO RC, or Red Sea Coral Pro.

Yes Mag. I was all excited to use it. I like that it mixes quite fast but the high mg irks me.

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 6, 2017

happyhourhero said:
Yes Mag. I was all excited to use it. I like that it mixes quite fast but the high mg irks me.

I can respect that, I think mine is currently around 1400-1450.

Davin96 · Dec 8, 2017

how did you get the jager 150w to fit? is it in the return chamber? everything ive read of teh 20's and 25's is theres not much room for much more than the jager 75w

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 9, 2017

Davin96 said:
how did you get the jager 150w to fit? is it in the return chamber? everything ive read of teh 20's and 25's is theres not much room for much more than the jager 75w

It goes in the middle chamber and slides under the cavity where the two left Chambers are raised off the floor of the tank. The middle chamber actually looks like an upside down "T" and the heater fits into either wing.

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 10, 2017

So last night I did a water change and I decided to switch salt brands. I was using Kent's Marine Salt Mix which seemed to be doing well in my tank, but as I have added more SPS corals to the tank it seemed that it wasn't able to keep everything happy. I decided I would give Fritz RPM a try and I can already tell my corals like it much better than the Kent's. Hopefully I'll be able to give a long term update in a few months from this point

Justfebreezeit · Dec 10, 2017

Last Tank shot looks good dude, hope the new salt goes well!

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 11, 2017

Justfebreezeit said:
Last Tank shot looks good dude, hope the new salt goes well!

Thanks!

nautical_nathaniel · Dec 15, 2017

Weekly update:

Today I will be rehoming my male ocellaris clownfish in response to some aggression issues I was having in the tank. He will be going to a local hobbyist who is also buy some coral frags off of me today
My female black and white clownfish is still being a little aggressive but it only seems to be towards my staghorn damsel who doesn't seem to mind at all. She only seems to chase after the damsel and doesn't bite me like my male clownfish would. The fish I was worried about her messing with, my pink streaked wrasse, isn't a target anymore which is super nice.
The switch to Fritz RPM seems to have gone well with the first water change. I will be doing the second water change with it tomorrow. I hope to have a long term update one day about any changes in growth from the corals, so far the Acros are okay with it which is a good sign to me.
I may do a major coral overhaul soon, I have some corals that I feel like don't fit with the tank anymore (green nephthea) that either need to be moved or fragged and sold. I also have a large colony of Sunny D zoas taking over a portion of the top of my scape and irritating one of my PC Rainbow pieces. Some other minor issues like shading and such would also be addressed.
Still on the lookout for a cool goby for my pistol shrimp who is once again goby-less. I had gotten another yellow watchman goby for it but I have a sneaking suspicion my serpent star might have gotten him, he was only about two inches or so. I'm hoping to find a Randall's goby soon but it seems that they are very seasonal. A store we used to have here in Pensacola always had at least one in stock but it doesn't seem that the other LFS's have followed suit after they closed down last year.

Life Update:

Tomorrow I graduate with my Masters of Science in Geographic Information Science Administration I'm not going back to school unless I absolutely have to!

Most Recent Full Tank Shot (Day after first Fritz RPM water change):