The progression from a Nuvo 16 to a 30 Cube

[DragKnee]

10/14/13 - The cube will be taken down soon as it will be "merged" with my fathers JBJ 28 stuff to go into his new 60G RR Cube in the next couple of weeks. I have an 80g RR 48x24x16 Tank awaiting setup once my cube is gone. In the meantime, this is my story...

With everything I've ever done, if I start small or old or used, it doesn't take long before I decide to upgrade. I should've learned my lesson before I got into Marine Aquariums

But, I didn't

, so here we go...

Since I was probably a baby, my family has had saltwater tanks. My father had a 90g FOWLR, and then ~10 years ago, my uncle had a 65g SPS dominant reef tank.

Fish tanks were always nice - but I never really got into them. One day, my co-worker was talking about wanting to have a little bowl tank at his desk at work, and something just snapped in my head.

Came home that day and bought a 29g tank for Cichlids.

Freshwater wasn't good enough for long though; less than a month later, I bought the Nuvo.

Nuvo 16

This is how the tank looked on May 25th, 2013

Basically everything was stock except the addition of the Hydor Koralia Nano Pump. The tank has 20lbs of live sand, and in this picture, 16.5lbs of live rock.

Between then and now, I also started up a 10 gallon salt water using a standard tank. After putting about 16lbs of live rock in the 10 gallon, and liking how it was set, I realized the Nuvo looked very bare with no real caves and no "height" to the rock, so I picked up an extra piece putting a total of about 19lbs of live rock in the Nuvo.

While the stock lighting was decent, I wanted something that was dimmable and controllable, and something that'd allow full support of any coral I wanted without needing to have 3 of the Innovative Marine lights sitting over the tank.

The Maxspect R420r immediately caught my attention, and I just had to have it!

At the time, livestock was:
-> Black Ocellaris Clownfish
-> (2) Peppermint Shrimp
-> Large hermit crab, and 4 small hermit crabs
-> (2) Turbo snails

In June, my future plans were:
- I plan on getting the MiniMax Reactor and run GFO
- I plan on getting inTank Fuge Basket and run Chaeto to try and support copepod growth, as my goal is to successfully house a mandarin in the tank.
- I plan on running mostly LPS corals, though I don't know how much I'd be able to house in the small tank without causing an all-out coral war

(I was a noob)

I then got some more corals:

and also picked up a ~1 year old B&W Ocellaris for my small male:

...But, that tank didn't last long....

 

[DragKnee]

While the Nuvo was going on, I also had a 10g standard tank in my room that was ran with (2) AquaClear 70's. While there are no good pictures, that too didn't last long.

I got a 30g cube for a great deal ($70 with stand) so I decided I was going to merge the Nuvo and the 10g into the cube.

Here it was during the change over (You can see the 10g though it's blurry)

This is how the cube originally looked. I never planned a sump, I was again using the AquaClear 70's. Terrible rockscape, terrible overall setup.

Back in the beginning of July, this was the idea..

Livestock
I plan on adding one more fish, though I really haven't decided what yet. 4 fish will definitely be plenty for the 30g.

As far as corals are concerned, it's going to be mostly Zoa's/Palys, maybe a couple LPS. I've got a frag of about 5 polyps of Hawaiian Paly's I'm getting this week, so I'm hoping they thrive in the tank.

So far, there is a 2 headed duncan, radioactive dragon eye zoa (about 30 polyps), and a small frag of unknown zoa's.

Long term, possibly a RBTA.

Equiptment
1 AquaClear 70 Refugium
1 AquaClear 50 Media
2 Cobalt Neo-Therm 50W Heaters (They each go into the AquaClear's)
1 AquaMaxx HOB-1 Skimmer
1 Hydor Koralia 425gph Powerhead
1 Hydor Koralia 240gph Powerhead
Innovative Marine 20w Dimmable 18" Light Bar

I have everything except the skimmer. Hopefully in a month or so, I'll pick that up.

My 2 Ocellaris clowns were awesome! I literally had them trained so well - they'd eat right from my hand and know when and where feeding time was.

It didn't take long before I realized I wanted to do a sump. AquaClear's weren't cutting it - I wanted something easier to work with. After hemming and hawing, I decided I'd attempt to squeeze a 20g high tank behind the cube between my bed and the wall.

Setting up the sump took me nearly 8 hours. It was constant running back and forth to Lowes/Home Depot as parts just weren't fitting like they were supposed to. I am only using a Mag2 as a return pump, so 250gph isn't much, so I didn't use PVC pipe, rather, just vinyl hose. It was the cheaper, easier alternative and has been working fine.

Here is a picture of the stand behind the cube. I didn't take into account the hang-on-back overflow box would be so big.

So I ended up needing to remove the 20g stand and cut it in half. Here is a picture with everything running:

Initially how the sump looked

I got hit with ich, and lost my fish. I decided it was time for me to be smart and QT my fish. The Nuvo 16 turned into a QT Tank, and I took the opportunity to re-aquascape my cube into something that actually looked nice (and not just look like rock thrown in there). Since the Nuvo was becoming a QT Tank, I took the Maxspect over the Nuvo, and put it over the Cube.

I also got my ATO hooked up and hung wires in the stand

I also got an RBTA from Milliman

Since I was going with this bigger tank, and since at the time I was already planning an even larger build, I took the plunge and bought myself a BRS Stage 5 RODI System, which is now running in my basement.

Again, planning a larger build, and after seeing Tony A's tank, I knew I had to get rid of those Hydors, and get myself a sleek looking MP10...

Here is a rough updated picture of my fuge from just last week. As you can see, in just a couple months, coralline algae has grown all over these rocks that initially were just bare rock rubble.

And the fuge has helped build a very good size pod population for this guy... (Picture taken from the Nuvo 16)

I was nervous keeping a Mandarin in a small QT for 4 weeks, but, I got him to eat pellets and he would pound pellets. He's actually fatter now than when I first got him.

All the livestock from my QT is now back into the 30g Cube after the 8 weeks fallow. I hope I don't see ich again! The livestock is now:

-> Bonded pair B&W Ocellaris Clowns
-> Splendid Dottyback
-> Green spotted Mandarin

I will get NEW pictures up soon! I have a lot more corals in the tank now that are all waiting for whats to come next

.... I'm already planning/working on a Deep Blue 80g Rimless Reef Ready Build.

 

[ShippD]

A great never ending story can't wait for the new build to get going on..

 

[Flameback Pair]

I too was shuffling a lot of tanks and equipment, mostly nanos, until I went with the biggest my pocketbook would let me have and still have all the bells and whistles I wanted.