Nuvo 40. BC, yes, we DO need another

[Tuffyyyyy]

Hi everyone. Took some pictures using the photo tips thread and app, and decided to start a tank thread. Tank has been running since early January. Upgraded from an IM 20. Lost more stuff during the upgrade than I thought I would but I think everything is finally under control. Have 2 clowns, coral banded shrimp and a flame hawk in there. Let me know if you have any questions!

These 2 are sitting the frag rack because, if you'll notice, they fell off of their mount spots due to CUC. Love the greens on the acan, but trying to figure out my next plan of attack to get them mounted.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Update to the tank:

Moved the 'scape around a bit. Attached some pictures and have also uploaded a video to YouTube for those interested


Still the same stocking as before. Went to a frag swap and added a few coral frags, but would really like to add some more fish soon. I think like 3x Chromis and then add a Mandarin around the end of the summer. If the Mandarin doesn't work out then I'm thinking some sort of Goby and perhaps a 6 Line Wrasse to round out my stocking. I'm hoping the 825gph powerhead in the top right of the tank will keep the Chromis from picking each other off.

 

[cloudisback1997]

My nuvo 40 start up, I'm a little concerned that I may be putting too much on my back glass. Hydra 26 and hob 1 skimmer? Don't want it to shatter when I put rock and sand and more water in.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Posted a quick update of my tanks on YouTube:
I could use some advice on keeping my sand clean. It's almost completely brown by the end of the night. I'm feeding half a cube of frozen food every other night. I have also noticed some stringy poop coming from my bigger clown and my chromis. I have ordered some Metroplex & Focus to hopefully remedy that.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Here are some updated shots from tonight. I have cleared out the rubble rock from the sump. Hoping that helps me cut down on nitrates and keep my sand cleaner. I got an anemone in here on Sunday from SCCorals.com after his awesome sale and wanted to make sure it was looking ok. See FTS and anemone pics below.

Anemone when I first put it in.

After acclimation this is where it settled.

I'm also treating for parasites after I noticed some white string poop coming out of the clown and chromis. I'm worried that there may be too much going on.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. The tank is almost 9 months old. I had some clownfish bullying going on so I have put the female in my IM10. I'm not sure what to do going forward. I have had the larger (assuming female) clown for just shy of a year (8/27/16) and they have been living together since 10/2/16. I thought they had been paired for some time now as the smaller clown used to bite me and they would always swim together. I have also seen the larger clown do the submissive twitching thing, which I get is peculiar for the larger clown but I let go since there wasn't any aggression. Fast forward to Sunday and I saw the bigger clown biting the smaller clown and it's swimming in a corner scared to death. The only thing that's changed is that I got an anemone about a month ago that the bigger clown has been doing her best to nestle to death. Oh and I've been treating the IM40 for internal parasites since I lost my Chromis a month ago. I'm absolutely content leaving her in the IM10, but I feel like I need a pair in the IM40. Do I keep the smaller one in the IM40 and try to find an even smaller one? I think I'd like to get either a plain black ocellaris or a black snowflake to pair with a plain orange ocellaris. Also have a 3 or so minute video of the tank. Got a new camera stand that I wanted to try out.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Here's a post-MACNA update for my tanks. I know how much everyone LOVES my YouTube videos (sarcasm), but I've added another one. This one is also close to 10 minutes long, which, according to my YouTube analytics, no one actually sits through, so I need to work on cutting that down. I'll work on taking more pictures and putting them on here...that is what this site is fore, isn't it?

MACNA was a really cool experience. I wish I had done more of a vlog on our weekend there. I've included a link to the pictures I took below. I had previously been a bit down on reef keeping in the lead up to MACNA. I hadn't purchased anything in several months, and nothing had me really excited about my tank and the hobby going forward. Attending MACNA has definitely changed that. I'm anxiously hunting for local frag swaps now and planning on getting to Reef-A-Palooza in Orlando next year.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/tl2ioDEoAaYSfrEO6GPH6fLVGum597Mde3RNiBHHBVM

Here's a list of everything I picked up at MACNA, and the other things I've added since then:
2x Green BTAs
1x Rose BTA
Green Lantern Zoa
Dragon Eyes Zoa
Eagle Eyes Zoa
??? Zoa #1
??? Zoa #2
Pink Short-Armed Gonipora
2x Orange frags. Not sure what their names are
2x Acro frags. One of them is already bleached, and I accidentally left the other one at MACNA (DOH!)
Fromia Star (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Pincushion Urchin
Exquisite Firefish
Bicolor Blenny

I had been trying to find the starfish for some time. One vendor at MACNA had them. I was pretty worried about it making it home, but he's been great in my tank. I absolutely love the little thing. Such beautiful color. As you can see from my list, there has been a whole lot of activity in my tanks the past month or so. I've had really poor luck with the past 3 or 4 fish I've tried to add. I had a Chromis for at least a month or two before realizing it had internal parasites. I was treating for it, but wasn't quick enough. Everyone else seems fine. Okay I need to stop rambling.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Nice job man and thanks for sharing!

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Hey @cloudisback1997 , why haven't you started a build thread for me to follow yet?

Thanks for the compliment, Rev.

Few things I forgot to mention:

1) I finally got rid of the cyano algae in my tank. I used Chemiclean and did it a week after getting back from MACNA, after Bryan from BRS convinced me to, and my sand looked SO GOOD. It's starting to settle back into it's usual gross self, but the super white sand was nice while it lasted. I was worried about it impacting the inverts and corals I had just spent a ton of money on, but it worked flawlessly. Can't recommend it enough.

2) My wife went bananas at the Aquarimate booth, so I had to sign up for that. I do like the app so far. It has taken some getting used to, but it's nice to have the (annoying but helpful) reminder on my phone to do something instead of trying to remember to update my excel file on my own. I also like that I can add individual picture documentation of everything in my tank to monitor coral growth and whatnot.

3) Going to the APEX breakfast at MACNA really sold me on getting one. My biggest concern is that I'm not one of the people that can drop $5000 on all of the probes and stuff at once. I can get one thing every 6 months (for bday and xmas), so I feel like I'm going to be asking for new APEX upgrades every holiday, and then I'll inevitably be one of the mutineers that went crazy about the Trident not working with their old APEX. I'm still scarred from buying a 1st gen iPad and having it not be compatible with anything less than a year later. I'm also one of the few people on this forum with a nitrate problem so I wish that Neptune had added testing for that as well.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Not a great time for a picture since everything is closed up before bedtime but I wanted to show off my newest project. Last week I was rewatching the Jake Adams video where he walked through the incredibly colorful softy tank the guy from Elite Reef had. I thought I noticed that he was using egg crate to mount his hammers and thought it was genius. I ordered some and spent all week dreaming about how good it would look. Egg crate finally showed up on Friday and then the fun started. I took out the front euphyllia rock, moved the anemone rock forward and placed the hammers high up. It really doesn't look great right now but after I pick up a few more heads (hopefully including a couple aussie gold ones) and everything has time to grow out this is going to look amazing. I've been frustrated since I set up the tank with not utilizing enough of the height. I think this will eventually solve that. I've been pleasantly surprised with how well the hammers adapted to going from low-mid level of the tank to so high up.

Current problems are trying to figure out what to do with that power head. I absolutely need the flow, but right now it's blowing sand all over the tank. Also need to work on ways to hide the egg crate better. I had hoped the anemones and the rock they're on would hide the entire base but I may need something else.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Here's a shot today of the puppy admiring the tank.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Lots of updates. I’m going through this super fun time of being a zoanthid collector that also has zoa eating nudibranchs. Lots of other things too, but my tank looked good to me today so I wanted to upload my pics. My new blue hammer is absolutely my favorite coral.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Also have a video of the tank which goes over my recent updates:

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Haven’t put any pictures on here in 8 months so thought it was time. Got my first “signature”corals in today from Cornbred so I wanted to put some pics here. Corals got in today are:
1) CB Space Invader Pectinia
2) CB Toxic Sinulara
3) JF Jack-O-Lantern
4) 24k Lepto

Also shifted around my hammer tower to the bottom of the tank because the 1k ice cap was giving it whiplash, even at 10%.

Currently in the process of taking sand out so I can switch to black sand.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Also wanted to upload my AI Prime HD settings. Really liking how much pops and using the red also helps my clownfish and flame hawk show out.