Nikki's Mini Ocean Part II

Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
After moving and getting settled, I have finally talked my fiancé into starting a new reef tank! I was leaning toward something on the smaller side so water changes wouldn't be huge. This changed when I realized my tank would not be complete without a BSJF! Found an Innovative Marine Micro 30 Nuvo on craigslist and decided it would be perfect. So here I go...

Tank comes with all stock items and:
-LED Skkye blue/white/moonlight dimmable light..... Iv read it won't be enough to support SPS coral which is fine, except I love maxima clams so Ill probably upgrade at some point

-Skimmate mid-size protein skimmer: Thoughts, are these hard to get dialed in?

-Minimax Desktop all-in one media reactor: this is cool as Iv never had a media reactor

-Acclamation drip

-Hydor Koralia 600gph and 240gph pumps

Recent order last night for getting started, most places had free shipping so I shopped around:

-Marco rocks: 3/8"-16 Nylon Thread Rod (24" includes 10 pk nuts, 10 pk washers) and 1
Epo Putty 100g

-Dr Foster and smith- 40lbs special grade reef sand, instant ocean salt, stability water conditioner,

-in tank - purigen, chemi pure elite, phosguard, filter bag

-Bulk reef supply - 25 pds of pukani dry live rock

-amazon - wood chisels and 2mm zip ties

Hoping this will be enough to aquascape, cure rocks, and cycle.


Seeking advice on acid dipping the dry rocks.

Thanks!
 
wscttwolfe

wscttwolfe

Active Member
A blue spot jawfish is a notoriously hard fish to keep alive, mostly because it (1) requires colder water temp than most other reef tank inhabitants, (2) requires a deeper sand bed for burrowing, and sufficient lose gravel to build a den (3) is a jumper. Does the IM novo 30 have a lid? Many hobbyists have lost this fish, unfortunately. I would suggest reading a lot about this fish and about how people have successfully kept it, if you haven't already.

It's an expensive fish to lose...

Cheers -
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Thank you for looking out for these amazing creatures! If you check my prior tank thread, I had two in the past one of which is going on his third year. The tank does have a lid, a big reason why I was interested in it. I will be putting in a deep sand bed and running the tank colder than a typical reef tank, though need to find the sweet spot for the jawfish and still be able to maintain certain corals. My other tank ran at ~75 or so and it seems to work but this tank will be all about the jawfish so I might go toward ~70 or 72 if the corals can take it. Rocks will be anchored to an egg crate and plenty of rubble will be put in for his burrows. Many people seem to build dens for them out of pipes, Im not sure if that'll be necessary if my sand bed is deep enough. Well see how deep 40 pounds of sand is in this tank, might have to order another 20 pounds.

I started using Dr. G's Medicated foods with great success. The first jawfish died after 6 months, after I stupidly added an flame angel without first QTing him first. It was terrible! So after going fish less for months... I QTed everything in cupramine and feed the whole tank the medicated fish food for about two weeks after adding a new fish. Seems to work without side effects. I also became very paranoid of my normal food (unmedicated) and use larrys reef frenzy soaked in selcon and garlic extract. It could be that all this is not necessary but never had substantial bacterial/parasitic problems ever since and the second jawfish was doing great (sadly I had to sell him when I moved). Second BSJF came from divers den with great success, I think the methods of transport and how they are caught can have a lot to do with their health as well.

Additional thoughts on how to make this a BSJF haven is appreciated!
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Hey Debbie! Hope all is well in Charlotte and with your RSM! I am absolutely missing Charlotte, especially now that the cold weather has kicked in here. I will post pictures once this really gets going in the mean time I have so much to catch up on in everyone's builds!

-Nikki

blackbeltmom said:
Just wanted to say "Hello, Nikki". We miss you here in Charlotte.
Post some pix so we can follow.
Click to expand...
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Sounds like your off to a good start. I noticed one thing that i want to make sure of. I am a huge fan of pukani rock but it has to be cleaned really well or you will have P04 problems. I am setting up a new tank and am using Pukani but I am going to acid bath it to make sure P04 is removed. other then that the tank sounds great.
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Yes, planning on following the advice you gave me here:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...ukani-dry-rock-acid-bath-curing-new-tank.html

haha that was me you were helping! Let me know if you do find the thread with the step by step.. but that youtube video does a pretty good job of explaining it.

So 5 min soak too much or too little?

Thanks!



sirrealism said:
Sounds like your off to a good start. I noticed one thing that i want to make sure of. I am a huge fan of pukani rock but it has to be cleaned really well or you will have P04 problems. I am setting up a new tank and am using Pukani but I am going to acid bath it to make sure P04 is removed. other then that the tank sounds great.
Click to expand...
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Billerbong said:
I started using Dr. G's Medicated foods with great success.
Click to expand...

I also started to use Dr. G's medicated food and have had success getting rid of internal parasites. I actually used it in a sps dominate tank, ran carbon, did weekly h2o changes and haven't had issue w/corals. I did drain the liquid and only added the caviar to the tank (no liquid entered the tank) and made sure to add a little at a time so that no medicated caviar ended up on corals or sand (all was eaten mid-water). I used it from Labor Day weekend (end of Sept) to end of Nov (feed once daily). I also feed the fish a variety of other food after the medicated food was consumed per feeding.

Worked very well, which was a nice surprise.
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Alright tank, sand, rock work in place... just need to add water!

I received WAY to much BRS pukani dry rock but finally finished aquascaping. This was much easier than scaping it in the water with live rock.

I cut out some cardboard to the dimensions of the tank and began stacking on the cardboard. Did quite a bit of chiseling (again, actually quite easy). Once I was happy with it I zip tied it together which actually didn't help for my next step.




From here I did part of the recommended chemical treatments... Most people do a 24 hr chlorox soak followed by a quick muriatic (dilute HCl) bath. I didn't end up bleaching but I did do ~10 minute muriatic bath (zip ties broke). We will see if the bath helps in reducing phosphates once I start curing/cycling. It actually made the rocks look dirtier, a lot of green/brown appeared after. Not too concerned as I plan on letting this cycle for quite awhile.

From here I let them dry and began putting them together. I drilled holes through the bases of everything and put in acrylic rods (depth of sand bed). This way the rocks are not actually sitting on the sand bed but "hovering" should be more stable and allows for cleanup and greater flow. I thought this would be much more difficult than it was, it didn't actually take much time.


While everything was drying I rinsed my sand... man there is a lot of silt! I probably didn't get it all but hopefully made a dent. Im really gearing this tank towards a BSJF so my sanded is ~5-6 inches.

Finally everything went in the tank!





I bought the tank off craiglist and the previous owner made the stand himself and I love it! It is white beat board and matches my house perfectly, always a bonus. The only downfall is the cabinet section is quite narrow. We added a couple of shelves, the bottom one I will remove once I add an auto top off. A bit worried about the container that will fit underneath for top off water, Ill see how much evap I get.


Ill be waiting to add water until after the holidays if there are any suggestions about the set up, that would be greatly appreciated! BSJF habitat ideas welcome! Rocks are firmly stable, deep sand bed in place, room on all sides to clean... think I did it right this time but if I forgot anything let me know!

Forgot the most brilliant idea a reefer on youtube had.... I put sliders under the tank so I can easily move it to access the back chambers!
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Yes that stuff is great! Internal parasites, ich? Curious, so you saw signs of the parasite and had a complete turn around within a few months of treatment?

Oxylebius said:
I also started to use Dr. G's medicated food and have had success getting rid of internal parasites. I actually used it in a sps dominate tank, ran carbon, did weekly h2o changes and haven't had issue w/corals. I did drain the liquid and only added the caviar to the tank (no liquid entered the tank) and made sure to add a little at a time so that no medicated caviar ended up on corals or sand (all was eaten mid-water). I used it from Labor Day weekend (end of Sept) to end of Nov (feed once daily). I also feed the fish a variety of other food after the medicated food was consumed per feeding.

Worked very well, which was a nice surprise.
Click to expand...
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Ok things are moving!

12/29: Filled tank (dry sand and dry BRS Pukani after muriatic bath)
12/31: Added some live rock from PSU4ME (Thanks Bryan!!!!) and 1/2 deli shrimp
1/1/15: NH3=2-4ppm PO4=.25ppm (curious if acid bathing pukani helped)

Starter rock rubble (for the BSJF) from broken up pukani is cycling with everything else in the sponge holder.

I'v been adding seachem stability and just added prodibio startup (http://www.prodibio.com/start-quickly-cycle-tank-aquarium-water-bacteria-biological-filtration) which includes BioDigest and StopAmmo (probably should have held out on the StopAmmo until adding fish but too late!)

Ill add the next round of prodibio (BIO DIGEST and BIOPTIM) in two weeks and use those until the kit runs out and probably not buy more after that... figured it might help introduce more bacteria and speed things along with the cycle.

I stuck with the minimalist aquascape as I like the look and think it might be preferred for the BSJF. I figure some more live rock will be introduced over time as I buy larger corals but I am going to try to leave my sand bed pretty open. Scape inspiration: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...-c-l-g-o-o-n-nexodos-red-sea-max-250l-10.html

Lights are off, temp is set to 80, and I put some carbon in the reactor to help with the smell. Now I wait!!



 
StirCrayzy

StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
Looks good, !
NH3 reading seems really high for only 2 days of running. There must be a lot of crap in those rocks.
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Thanks guys!! Agreed that does seem high for such a short period, Im using the API test kit that I inherited with the tank from craigslist. Might go out and get a new one just in case.

Interesting nano, so you think adding both bottled bacterias would skew the numbers? How so, I would think they would temporarily bring them down and I would have a spike a few days later?
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Checked NH3 again today and its looking more like 2ppm, hard to distinguish between very similar shades of green! So thats probably where it was last night as well. Hopefully thats not terribly abnormal.
 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
Hey Nikki,
If you have the shrimp in there I would just let things go for a week.....don't bother with testing in the beginning. I really like the salifert ammonia test as it is not as "ish" as the API ones. I am with nano in that the dosing could be playing with the numbers......

On the other hand, you're not in a rush to put the fish in so I would just let it get stinky and test about 2 weeks in.......if you only see nitrates and the shrimp is gone, do a 50% WC......come get some sand and be on your way!
 
pgrtgunner

pgrtgunner

Member
Good for you!!

I've got an 80 gal Nuvo and didn't get all of those extras. I'm thinking the lfs helped themselves to my add ons.
They took the reflectors from my lights, and looks like they took the rest. I've got a good repore with IM. I will give them a call
about this.

I like my Nuvo except for the evaporation. I have to top off my tank with over a gal. of water daily :(:dunno:
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
yeah salifert might be the way to go, Im not a huge fan of the API one. Thinking you may be on to something, much easier to just let it brew for two weeks and check back later!

I taught 8th grade science for the past two years and thought what better way to teach the nitrogen cycle and the hydrological cycle than with a saltwater fish tank. So someone donated a used nuvo 16g with all established live rock and sand and I tried so hard to get it to cycle so my students could measure and graph out the cycle. I could not get more than minor spikes... now that I just want this to be over and add fish this is going to be a long process that would have been perfect for my 8th graders!

pgrtgunner, I actually think those extras were purchased separately by the original tank owner. There are package deals that include the tank with lights, skimmer, reactor, etc. but I don't think its standard though I could definitely be wrong. However, theres no way the lights would come with out reflectors, that might be due to your LFS, I would definitely call about that! The 80 gallon is a good looking tank, I would love to have that one day!!! Ill have to follow your thread and see how its treating you. I wish I could have gone that route, a nano was the compromise for my fiancé. Our last tank wasn't huge by any means (65g) but this round he wanted one tiny tank.

Interesting about the evap, wonder if that goes for all of the nuvos, that is a lot of top off water. I will absolutely be buying an auto top off if that is the case here. Does your have LEDs?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top