New IM Nuvo 30L Build

oohnoo · Dec 3, 2016

Finally decided to upgrade my office tank which was a 15 with home made refigium...see pic below. Upgrading to a Innovative Marine Nuvo 30L. Ordered it from MarineDepot and part of the order arrived yesterday. Only the tank arrive along with the AI Hydra28HD light kit I ordered but not the stand for some reason. Excitedly opened the box for the tank only to discover the whole front of the tank was shattered

I"ll have to call MD on Monday and hopefully they're ship out a new one ASAP. Went online later to check status of the stand and it looks like UPS flagged it as damaged in transit. Animals.

With that I also did some more research on the lighting. My plan was to use the new Hydra28HD along with the Hydra28 on had on my 15gal for a total of 2 Hydra28's. But then my wife threw me a bonner where I can bring home the 15gal and put it in our den. Sweet. Thinking I would keep the Hydra28 that's on there now and return the new Hydra28-HD and get two AI Prime-HD's. Seems easier and cheaper actually then getting a new light for the 15gal.

Anywho need to order the following and more now as I have to get new equipment since I can bring the old 15gal home. Was thinking of transferring the rock that's in the 15gal now but it's starting to get a bunch of Antispia in there and besides I can keep that in there now as I'm going to set that tank up at home now.
Rock - 30lbs of BRS dry rock
30lb bag of Tropic Eden MiniFlakes
Sicce Syncra 2.0 Pump,
Protein Skimmer - I have Trunze now and it works well. Thoughts on HOB skimmers?
Tunze Auto-top off
In-Tank Media Baskets
Heater - Neo-Therm Heater, 100 watt
Dozing -Jebao Programmable Auto Dosing Pump DP-4 / Something I never done in the past and definitely need to as I see poor results on my 15gal. Some do great others wither away.

Looking forward to setting this tank up. R@R has and will be a valuable resourch. Been reading up for the past week and I'm getting brain dead.

Oh and best way to cycle the tank since I'm not adding rock from my old tank? I will be added water from that tank as I'll do a 5 gal water change and use that water in the new one. 2 weeks later reapeat.

Got to figure out how to add Dropbox images

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lume7bj2ibx1t6u/2016-11-22 12.24.32.jpg?dl=0"

juanrmattos · Dec 3, 2016

Sorry to hear about the damages, but good luck...

I'm on day 50th of my Nuvo Fusion 30L and have enjoyed it a lot!!!

oohnoo · Dec 3, 2016

Yes your buildup was one of my inspirations to go with the 30L, read your thread many a times. Can you tell me more on how you cycled it? I see you put the rock in and then covered it all up CURING? and then the Zeolite?

juanrmattos said:
Sorry to hear about the damages, but good luck...

I'm on day 50th of my Nuvo Fusion 30L and have enjoyed it a lot!!!

juanrmattos · Dec 4, 2016

oohnoo said:
Yes your buildup was one of my inspirations to go with the 30L, read your thread many a times. Can you tell me more on how you cycled it? I see you put the rock in and then covered it all up CURING? and then the Zeolite?

Thanks!!!

I used Nano Reef Rock project 2, even though is dry rock and pest free, I always like to do something I call a pre-cycle filtration cure (Considering correctly curing rock may take several months), and so, it is basically done inside the tank and in absolute darkness, no bacteria, no other additional additives; the main purpose is allowing the rock to be freed form any and all contaminants while fully absorbing water, it also helps to remove fabrication traces from the aquarium and starts a proper environment for the cycle (I did this for 25 days).

As far as the cycle goes, I followed the ZeoVit cycle guide to the best of my ability and was able to complete successfully in 15 days.

Keeping an eye on your build, wish you the best of luck.

oohnoo · Dec 4, 2016

Right now I'm thinking of ditching the idea of bringing the 15gal home and just swapping everything over as I got enough projects at home. So my idea is to setup the 30L next to the 15gal as I got the room.
Add 30lb bag of Tropic Eden MiniFlakes. Add some BRS dry rock or the WS rock as my 15 gal doesn't have all that much. Do a 5 gal water change on the 15gal and use that water to partially fill the 30L and fill rest up with RO water and run the pumps and untill everything is nice and clear. Then move the live rock over to the new tank. Question is can I also move all the coral and other inhabitants over? (Clown, Fire Shrimp, assorted crabs and snails. Might start a new thread on this questions depending if anyone chimes in.

juanrmattos · Dec 5, 2016

Best advice I can give you is to start your 30L from scratch (New water), and let it do a complete cycle before transfering anything... Then again, I'm overly patient when it comes to reefing (Day 50 and there are only a single coral and two fish so far), is excruciating, but worth it in the long run.

Reef man 89 · Dec 6, 2016

Dieing to find out if marine depot sent you a new tank?

oohnoo · Dec 6, 2016

Yep no problem.

Reef man 89 said:
Dieing to find out if marine depot sent you a new tank?

Zoaeasy · Dec 6, 2016

Welcome to the 30 L fraternity! Sorry to hear about the busted tank .
Tagging along. I would advise against HOB skimmer
One of the strong features of the 30 l is the clean look. I use a Hydor Coralia skimmer and it works decent and fits in the second compartment.
Some folks like the Nuvo ghostskimmer as well.
I am now around day 30 of my complete reboot. Running Zeo as well and so far so good.
My rocks were pre cycled with Dr Tim's in a bin for about a month and then when they went into the tank ran the Zeo startup 14 days, which I messed up quite a bit. All's well that ends well right!
Good luck and looking forward to your build.

oohnoo · Dec 7, 2016

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF....ME
Damaged once again. This time it was in a larger box that look like it's been used 5 times before. And you would think that they would put large THIS SIDE UP stickers on it. When the UPS driver pulled up I went out to the truck and saw that the box was up on end, not laying flat. So called MD and they're going to send another one out. If this one comes in damages they said they'll have to refund me my money. Sucks donkey balls as I got Black Friday pricing on it. Crossing fingers AGAIN. But I think they're going to send it Fedx this time hopefully.

Reef man 89 · Dec 7, 2016

That's crazy 2 tanks and waiting on a third well at least you have 2 sets of filter socks and 2 back up pumps I guess that's a bonus but dam what a bummer

Zoaeasy · Dec 7, 2016

Wow man that's a bummer . Do you have any LFS that sells IM? Can't imagine the frustration and this is just plain inexcusable. I have had 2 tanks delivered from California all, the way to Canada with zero damage.

Reef man 89 · Dec 8, 2016

That's sucks if they refund you your money cause then you are out of a tank. But when I got my second tank after the first one showed up broke it was fine no cracks. I swear the Nuvo 30 gets broke all the time because it's so long that's one reason Why I stayed away from it. So idk if you could swap the 30 for the 40 or 25 lagoon it sucks you don't get the length form those two but the depth gives you more room for rocks. Good luck with the third tank

Reef man 89 · Dec 12, 2016

Any luck with the new 30? Did it show up in one piece?

oohnoo · Dec 12, 2016

Waiting on the third. I want to say today as it's in the local UPS storage facility but tracking does not show it out for delivery. ANd here's another good one. The stand was supposed to be delivered last week on Tuesday. No delivery, checked status and it says out for delivery on Wednesday, no delivery. Checked again and out for delivery on Thursday, again no delivery. Checked status again and this time it says "delivery refused" and they're sending it back to the warehouse. Farking dipshits. Called MD and they're straightening it all out.

Reef man 89 · Dec 12, 2016

Holy smokes that's unreal you can't get a tank in one piece and they sent the stand back for no reason. At least marine depot is helping you out

oohnoo · Dec 13, 2016

Yaaaaa, the tank arrived yesterday and it's all intact, well almost....lol. Don't ask me how but the pump was shattered with plastic pieces all inside the tank. Thankfully the bottom glass looks good with no cracks, still have to fill it for the true test. I'll just swap this one with one from the other broken tanks.
Now to call and get the stand delivered..hahaha
Also UPS left a final notice note that they were there to pick up the damaged tanks. Glad they let me know. I just put them outside as my wife was flipping out with them taking up so much room in the dining room with the Holidays coming up.

mta_morrow · Dec 13, 2016

Hang in there man. I have had my IM 30L for a little over a year now. It's really nice to have that 36"! Marine depot is a class act, unfortunately it has to pass thru UPS or FEDEX. Your patience will pay off.

oohnoo · Dec 13, 2016

Well it holds water

Wife is at her company holiday party so I had a chance to test it. Gonna leave it for an hour and then empty it as she'll have a ****-fit as I have it on the kitchen counter...LoL. It's going in my office at work so it's easier to test at home cause once I fill it at work it wouldn't be so easy to empty it.
Oh and UPS came and picked up one of the broken tanks. Swapped out the broken pump with that one as I confirmed with MD which I have to admit have been great through this all.