Rp.McMurphy
Community Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2018
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 58
- Location
- Portland
- What state or country do you live in
- Oregon
August 2019
Alright, it's been almost a year and a half and most of the things I've put in my Nuvo 20 are still alive and kicking. I guess it's safe to make a build thread now.
Background
I kept cichlid tanks as a teenager. They managed to look pretty dang good even though all I thought I was supposed to do was to add some water every once in a while to keep the filter quiet. Life finds a way I guess.
Now that I'm middle-aged I thought it was a good time to relive my youth so I set up a freshwater tank with some rams in it. This time I did it right. It was a nice looking tank but too boring for my sons and girlfriend. They wanted the "real thing". I resisted for a while because I kinda liked not having a money sucking box of stress water to look after. But now you're reading this post so we know how that story ended.
Current set up
Tank: IM Nuvo 20
Return pump: Sicce 1.0 (I think it's the 1.0, I'm not going to pull it out to check)
Light: AI Prime. Bought it used. Pretty nice to be able to control it with my phone. Kinda clunky software but it's gotten better over time I think.
ATO: Semi-DIY with parts and pump bought from autotopoff.com. The guy who runs that site is very responsive and patient with my stupid newbie questions. Been rock solid for me.
Filtration: One IM caddy and one inTank caddy with filter floss in both. To be honest I can't tell the difference between the two as far as effectiveness. The inTank one is pretty though.
Heater: Cobalt Neo-therm. Think it's either 50 or 75 watts.
Powerhead: A single Koralia 425. An expensive programmable one would be nice someday.
Dosing: I put in 4-5 ml of Brightwell Alkalin 8.3 every other day. I can't keep my alk over 6. Probably going to need to fix that eventually.
Sand: Caribsea special grade "live" sand. Do yourself a favor and rinse this stuff really well before you put it in your tank. BRS has a video where they talk about how there's nothing really in there that will end up helping with the long term sustainability of your tank, and it's just not worth having a dust storm anytime you look at it wrong.
Rock: Reef saver from BRS. Pretty fun to work with.
Stand: A pretty sharp looking IKEA Brimnes cabinet skin over a solid pine skeleton. Here's the link detailing how I determined that an IKEA Brimnes cabinet needs a solid pine skeleton to hold up a fish tank. It was a pretty shaky start to my saltwater adventure.
Maintenance- Weekly 4 gallon water changes. Clean the glass and blow off the rocks every day or two. I should probably change the filter floss more often.
Livestock
2 Ocellaris clowns- been with me from the start, those poor little devils. They're nice, they don't bite me or try to jump out of the tank.
1 lawnmower blenny- got him after my longtime resident starry blenny passed away from parasites. Caught it too late. My fault.
A few hermits, a few nassarius snails, a couple trochus snails who love to spawn, and a whole bunch of micro brittle stars that scare me when ever I pull a rock out of the water.
Coral
Acans- they do pretty well, I think they like my dirty water
Zoas- nothing too fancy but a couple of them are special enough to have been given names by those who decide those things
Duncan- started with 3 heads, now has many more. Pretty resilient dude. My longest surviving coral.
Pocillopora and Stylophora- can't remember which is which. My first foray into SPS and they're still alive.
Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris- My girlfriend wanted it. Found a bleached one at the LFS for ten bucks. It's happy now. Quick grower.
Casualties
Diamond goby- bad advice from LFS. Probably not the best fish for a newly cycled, super clean tank. I tried hard though. Buried mysis in the sand for him and everything.
Cleaner shrimp- not sure if they died of old age or from not rinsing Bayer dipped corals enough. One was a punk, the other not so much.
Starry blenny- poor guy. Lot's of personality but he bit me. Punk. I screwed up though, waited too long to treat for internal parasites. He died 2 days after I started the API general cure/focus treatment.
Chromis- lost of couple of those guys. Think the clowns didn't really want them around.
ORA Coral Beauty- Horrible advice from a reputable LFS. 80 bucks. I should've done my homework. Was an impulse buy but up until then I had really trusted these guys. My fault. Kind of.
Corals- lost a few, especially frogspawns and a nice torch. Wasn't keeping my alk up I think. Been good at taking it slow though, still haven't spent more than $50 on any single coral, usually go for the $20-30 ones. Hard to believe I used to scoff at paying more than ten bucks for a fresh water fish.
Coming in future posts- trials and tribulations, including fights with bryopsis, cyano, and nudis. Stay tuned!
April 2018
July 2018
December 2018
April 2019
Alright, it's been almost a year and a half and most of the things I've put in my Nuvo 20 are still alive and kicking. I guess it's safe to make a build thread now.
Background
I kept cichlid tanks as a teenager. They managed to look pretty dang good even though all I thought I was supposed to do was to add some water every once in a while to keep the filter quiet. Life finds a way I guess.
Now that I'm middle-aged I thought it was a good time to relive my youth so I set up a freshwater tank with some rams in it. This time I did it right. It was a nice looking tank but too boring for my sons and girlfriend. They wanted the "real thing". I resisted for a while because I kinda liked not having a money sucking box of stress water to look after. But now you're reading this post so we know how that story ended.
Current set up
Tank: IM Nuvo 20
Return pump: Sicce 1.0 (I think it's the 1.0, I'm not going to pull it out to check)
Light: AI Prime. Bought it used. Pretty nice to be able to control it with my phone. Kinda clunky software but it's gotten better over time I think.
ATO: Semi-DIY with parts and pump bought from autotopoff.com. The guy who runs that site is very responsive and patient with my stupid newbie questions. Been rock solid for me.
Filtration: One IM caddy and one inTank caddy with filter floss in both. To be honest I can't tell the difference between the two as far as effectiveness. The inTank one is pretty though.
Heater: Cobalt Neo-therm. Think it's either 50 or 75 watts.
Powerhead: A single Koralia 425. An expensive programmable one would be nice someday.
Dosing: I put in 4-5 ml of Brightwell Alkalin 8.3 every other day. I can't keep my alk over 6. Probably going to need to fix that eventually.
Sand: Caribsea special grade "live" sand. Do yourself a favor and rinse this stuff really well before you put it in your tank. BRS has a video where they talk about how there's nothing really in there that will end up helping with the long term sustainability of your tank, and it's just not worth having a dust storm anytime you look at it wrong.
Rock: Reef saver from BRS. Pretty fun to work with.
Stand: A pretty sharp looking IKEA Brimnes cabinet skin over a solid pine skeleton. Here's the link detailing how I determined that an IKEA Brimnes cabinet needs a solid pine skeleton to hold up a fish tank. It was a pretty shaky start to my saltwater adventure.
Maintenance- Weekly 4 gallon water changes. Clean the glass and blow off the rocks every day or two. I should probably change the filter floss more often.
Livestock
2 Ocellaris clowns- been with me from the start, those poor little devils. They're nice, they don't bite me or try to jump out of the tank.
1 lawnmower blenny- got him after my longtime resident starry blenny passed away from parasites. Caught it too late. My fault.
A few hermits, a few nassarius snails, a couple trochus snails who love to spawn, and a whole bunch of micro brittle stars that scare me when ever I pull a rock out of the water.
Coral
Acans- they do pretty well, I think they like my dirty water
Zoas- nothing too fancy but a couple of them are special enough to have been given names by those who decide those things
Duncan- started with 3 heads, now has many more. Pretty resilient dude. My longest surviving coral.
Pocillopora and Stylophora- can't remember which is which. My first foray into SPS and they're still alive.
Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris- My girlfriend wanted it. Found a bleached one at the LFS for ten bucks. It's happy now. Quick grower.
Casualties
Diamond goby- bad advice from LFS. Probably not the best fish for a newly cycled, super clean tank. I tried hard though. Buried mysis in the sand for him and everything.
Cleaner shrimp- not sure if they died of old age or from not rinsing Bayer dipped corals enough. One was a punk, the other not so much.
Starry blenny- poor guy. Lot's of personality but he bit me. Punk. I screwed up though, waited too long to treat for internal parasites. He died 2 days after I started the API general cure/focus treatment.
Chromis- lost of couple of those guys. Think the clowns didn't really want them around.
ORA Coral Beauty- Horrible advice from a reputable LFS. 80 bucks. I should've done my homework. Was an impulse buy but up until then I had really trusted these guys. My fault. Kind of.
Corals- lost a few, especially frogspawns and a nice torch. Wasn't keeping my alk up I think. Been good at taking it slow though, still haven't spent more than $50 on any single coral, usually go for the $20-30 ones. Hard to believe I used to scoff at paying more than ten bucks for a fresh water fish.
Coming in future posts- trials and tribulations, including fights with bryopsis, cyano, and nudis. Stay tuned!
April 2018
July 2018
December 2018
April 2019
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