Aprod's IM 20 Gallon Nuvo Fusion Build

[Aprod]

Hi R2R,

This is my first post on R2R as well as my first foray into the reef-keeping hobby! I have been interested in getting a reeftank since graduating university four years ago, but the fear of moving into and out of apartments has always prevented me from pulling the trigger. After researching countless threads and youtube videos on the IM 20 tank I finally decided to take the plunge since I felt a move could be manageable with this size. The AIO aspect to the tank also made it very appealing to me, since I do not want to risk flooding with a poor sump build/ electronic controls. Space was also another limiting factor as I will be planning to keep this in my room.

Anyways, I am planning to have this running thread to document my progress, get feedback from the community, and hopefully provide guidance for future potential hobbyists. Here is phase one of my equipment purchases:

• 20 Gallon Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion AIO Tank
• 20 Gallon Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion APS Cabinet
• Aqua Illumination (AI) Prime HD LED Module w/ Arm Mount
• Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5 Pump
• Cobalt Neo-Therm Heater 100w
• LiquaGen Portable Aquarium-Countertop Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System-DI/RO
  
• Carib Sea Arag-Alive 20 Pound Fiji Pink Sand (x2)
• Marco Reef Saver Rock (20 lbs)
• Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
• Bio-Spira
• Refractometer, Siphon, API Saltwater Test Kit, TDS Meter, Rock Glue, Surge Protector

I plan on building the stand and determining my rockscape (which i will show my favorites and hopefully get feedback on) in the next few days. Once set I will fill the tank up with RO/DI water and begin the cycle without fish. During the cycle I will purchase phase two of my equipment:

• Vortech MP10QD Powerhead (x1)
• Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155 ATO
• Aqua Gadget 5 Gallon ATO reservoir
• InTank Media Basket
• Boyd Enterprises Chemi-Pure
• Seachem Prime or Seachem Purigen (Not sure if this is a good combination with the Chemi-Pure in the media basket?)

Farther down the road I have plans of buying a Skimmer, Media Reactor, and a Battery Back-Up, but going to get my cycle started without them. Still need to do research to determine if dosing equipment and a controller is really worth it on a 20 Gallon.

Thanks for reading through this! Let me know if I am overlooking any critical elements or if you have any advice/ wisdom to share. My motto through this process will be "Patience is a virtue".

 

[SPR1968]

Sounds fantastic so far and thanks for sharing the pictures with us and a great write up.

Welcome to R2R as well by the way, it’s great to have you with us!

PS make sure you post pictures of your aquascape for our approval! Lol

 

[Aprod]

Got around to building the stand and finding a location in my bedroom. Its about 8 inches off both walls. There may be some concern with the window being so close, but in a worst case situation I will just always leave the blinds shut. Here's the set up:

While I was setting this up, I rinsed out two home depot buckets which I will be using to initially fill up the tank with RO/DI water. They have been filled with tap water for the last few hours and just for curiosity sake I measured the TDS. These may not be smart to use long-term, so I am planning to puck up a Brute 10 gallon for RO/DI reserves.

Finally, I took snaps of several workable Aquascapes which I will post individually. Hopefully you all can provide some advice on which would be the best!

 

[Aprod]

So BRS sent me five individual pieces with my order, and one is absolutely massive compared to the other four. Wondering if there will be too much rock if I use all the pieces.
Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Option 6

Option 7

 

[reef-rc]

+following. Looks to be nice build.

Aquascapes - I incline to #6 or #7 as I prefer separate island look. That one rock looks very high..maybe you can cut it down a bit

Q: What's your goal with this tank inhabitants-wise?

 

[Aprod]

I settled on a formation which most closely resembles Option 1. The massive rock took up too much volume in the small tank, so I decided to take a simplistic/ minimalist approach. Bottom of the thread has an image and also more detail in this post:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nuvo-20-aquascape-which-do-you-think-is-best.529323/#post-5509462

Once the dust settles I will post a follow up image and get R2R's feedback on the lay-out.

Livestock I am looking to have in the tank:
- Pair of Ocellaris Clown Fish (non-designer)
- Either YWG & Pistol Shrimp combo OR Royal Gramma OR Firefish
- If the bioload allows it, perhaps a fourth fish down the line
- CUC

 

[Synner Reef]

This is going to be fun to watch. I remember doing all these steps just a month prior! Loving your light. One day ill upgrade my two Skkye lights that came with my package. Enjoy and have fun with it. Remember to go slow. Looking forward to your progress!

 

[Aprod]

This is going to be fun to watch. I remember doing all these steps just a month prior! Loving your light. One day ill upgrade my two Skkye lights that came with my package. Enjoy and have fun with it. Remember to go slow. Looking forward to your progress!

Thanks, Synner Reef! I have been following your posts very closely for the last month and in fact you were one of the reasons why I finally pulled the trigger! Keep up the good work on your posts. Interested to see how our tanks progress in the coming months.

 

[Aprod]

The sand has finally settled in the tank revealing the aquascape. I was surprised by how much of the rock formation was covered by the sand and frankly a bit disappointed by the final lay-out since some of the features I enjoyed when laying on the glass eventually became covered. Here is a side-by-side shot to show you what I mean.

I still like the minimalist approach to the aquascape, but I may consider adding a piece of liverock from my local LFS to the back corner of the tank.

In other news, I officially kicked off the cycle. I took my first set of parameter readings and everything landed just where I had expected.

After testing, I added a bottle of Bio-Spira

Then took a piece of shrimp from the grocery store and placed it into the right hand side filter sock. The shrimp I purchased was pre-cooked, whereas many of the online sources say to use raw shrimp. I figured it will decay and produce Ammonia nonetheless, so we will see how that goes when I check params again tonight.

FTS below (FYI: I keep the lights off anytime I am not working on tank)

 

[Jberg]

Tank looks great. I'm glad you chose that rock configuration, some of the others looked to be to close to the glass. You need room for cleaning.

 

[Gonebad395]

That looks great and welcome to R2R. I really like your aqua scape will be following this build I love nano tanks a little more work then large tanks but just as rewarding.

 

[Aprod]

Day Two of the Cycle:
Extremely surprised by the effectiveness of the Bio-Spira. I left the Shrimp in the filter sock for close to 24 hours, and there appears to be significant increases in Nitrite and Nitrate and rather low increases in Ammonia. I have taken the Shrimp out and will wait for the Ammonia & Nitrite to reduce back down to 0 ppm. After both params hit zero, I will add another Shrimp and see how quickly the Ammonia breaks down once again.

In other news, I purchased the following equipment to be received after the new year:
- Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155 ATO
- IM Aqua Gadget 5 Gallon ATO Reservoir
- Vortech MP10QD Powerhead
- Biofileter Media 1.5" Spheres, 2 QT Box

Also spent some time on cable management:

 

[Aprod]

Over the Holiday weekend a placed another cooked shrimp into the filter sock of my Nuvo 20. Here were my parameters on 12.30.2018 prior to placing the shrimp:

A little over 24 hours later, the readings on 12/31 (NYE!) were as follows:

Slight increases to Ammonia and significant increases to Nitrite's and Nitrates. I removed the shrimp just after taking these readings and waited another 24 hours.

The readings on 1/1/2019 (New Years Day) were as follows:

All ammonia is nearly gone, Nitrites are back down to zero, and Nitrate's are flat/ reducing. Thinking about introducing some livestock this weekend now that the cycle finishes within 24 hours.

In other news, I will be setting up my Vortech Powerhead & Tunze Osmolator ATO tonight. Here is a FTS from 1/1/2019 without any livestock:

 

[Aprod]

Pretty busy night setting up all the new tech which came in! Enjoying the way my tank is coming together and feel like I have a strong foundation for a stable environment.

I installed the Vortech MP10QD to the left side of the tank. The process was incredibly simple and the final product is elegant, sleek, and compact. Will need to do more research on the exact flow patterns which are most ideal for soft coral growth.

I also received the "Auqa Gadget 5 Gallon Hydrofill ATO Reservoir" which I have placed on the left side of the tank on the floor. I was thinking about concealing the ATO reservoir in the stand, but it looks and feels great so I decided to put it on display.

After finding a home for the reservoir, I installed the Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155 ATO. I followed the installation video on BRS and the whole process took no more than 20 minutes. Considering the ease of installation, modularity of features, and redundant safety features, I can see why this is the most recommended ATO on the market and glad I purchased this system! I have also added the Bio-Balls to my refugium to add additional surface area for nitrifying bacteria growth. Refugium shots showing bio-balls & ATO:

Here you can see where I installed the control panels for the ATO & Vortech Powerhead:

Finally, I took another set of parameter readings and nearly everything is back to zero aside from Nitrates, which are still very low. I have added a third (and hopefully final) shrimp to the filter sock to perform one last "Cycle". Assuming all goes well, I will add a few inverts or potentially a fish over the weekend.

Full tank shot:

 

[JBKReef]

Well on your way! I set up a Nuvo 25 in my office about 4 months ago and have been slowly transitioning some fish and corals into the tank.

Taking a look at your rear chamber, how high is the waterline? With the photo it looks like you have the tunze set up very high, does water flow over the final baffle into the return chamber or is the water lign so high it just is flat across the back? hard to explain what I mean.

 

[reef-rc]

Looking good. I have 2 fusion 20 of my own with similar equipment. One has been running close to 2 years and the other I just started cycling 1.5 months ago.

what's your plan with the tank in terms of corals / fish?

 

[Aprod]

Looking good. I have 2 fusion 20 of my own with similar equipment. One has been running close to 2 years and the other I just started cycling 1.5 months ago.

what's your plan with the tank in terms of corals / fish?

Appreciate the feedback! I just went through your 20 gallon build and am impressed. So you were not a fan of the Goby/ Pistol Shrimp combo? Also, do you feel dosing equipment is necessary for the corals I have listed below? Finally, what are your thoughts on the APEX controller for the 20G?

Soft Corals: Zoa Garden, GSP Island, Pulsing Zenia, Toadstool Leathers / Mushrooms, Ricordia,
LPS Corals: Hammers/ Torches/ Frogspawns, Brain Coral, Acans, Chalice's
SPS Corals: Montipora

Livestock: 2 ocellaris clownfish for certain. After these two i was thinking Goby/ Pistol OR Tail Spotted Blenny OR Royal Gramma OR Firefish. I was leaning towards the Goby/ Pistol shrimp combo for the personality, but now I am not sold after reading your comments haha.

Well on your way! I set up a Nuvo 25 in my office about 4 months ago and have been slowly transitioning some fish and corals into the tank.

Taking a look at your rear chamber, how high is the waterline? With the photo it looks like you have the tunze set up very high, does water flow over the final baffle into the return chamber or is the water lign so high it just is flat across the back? hard to explain what I mean.

Glad you brought that up because I am actually very uncertain on how high the water level should be! I would say it is about an inch below the right most baffle. Here is the diagram, and once I get back home I will take a picture.

 

[reef-rc]

Appreciate the feedback! I just went through your 20 gallon build and am impressed. So you were not a fan of the Goby/ Pistol Shrimp combo? Also, do you feel dosing equipment is necessary for the corals I have listed below? Finally, what are your thoughts on the APEX controller for the 20G?

Soft Corals: Zoa Garden, GSP Island, Pulsing Zenia, Toadstool Leathers / Mushrooms, Ricordia,
LPS Corals: Hammers/ Torches/ Frogspawns, Brain Coral, Acans, Chalice's
SPS Corals: Montipora

Livestock: 2 ocellaris clownfish for certain. After these two i was thinking Goby/ Pistol OR Tail Spotted Blenny OR Royal Gramma OR Firefish. I was leaning towards the Goby/ Pistol shrimp combo for the personality, but now I am not sold after reading your comments haha.

Thanks for the compliment on my Fusion 20. I am much happier now things are settling down and growth are starting to take off. To answer your questions:

• Goby/ Pistol Shrimp combo? - personally i like the combo myself but in my 13G where real-estate is hard to come by and coral frags are all over, having someone constantly moving things around and throwing sand everywhere was a real pain. That's the only consideration I would keep in mind. As of about 2 months ago, I had started the transition to bare-bottom on both my tanks. Don't know if u can see it in last update on those threads.
  
• Dosing equipment - I don't think you'll need it soon unless your corals are consuming things like ALK, CAL and Mag or other things faster than you like. Initially I had it going with just ALK when the lights are off to help with PH level. The first 6-12 months I had lower PH than I liked. Currently I do 20%-25% weekly water change on the fusion 20 and sometime sooner as required and dose only ALK manually regularly to maintain 8-9 dKH . I am about to put that on the dosing pump now that algae issue is almost gone. Depending how much LPS and SPS corals you have will determine when you may need the dosing pump is the best answer I can give you. Currently I have mostly blasto and acans corals in the Fusion and they do not seem to consume that much CAL that water change can't fix. I also have many, many rock anemones (i am guessing 50-75 rock anemones...gave up counting after 30 something) and they don't seem to care about CAL or ALK.
• APEX controller - I would recommend it but it's not necessary. For me it's more about controllability and visibility of the tank parameters from anywhere. I have one in every tank. It's a pricey investment for sure but it's worth it imo. For example, I feed my corals a few hours before the lights go out and will shut off the main pump and skimmer before feeding. I will only turn it on right before I go to bed from the comfort of my bed through the app or website. Another minor benefit, you can also use the controller to extend the life of your heater and more precisely control your temperature for example. In this scenario I have the heater default to 78 degrees while on the controller I maintain it at 77.0 - 77.4 degrees.

I hope that helps. The setup you have is a solid start.

 

[Aprod]

Been a few weeks since my last post and wanted to provide a brief update.

After getting consistently zero readings on the ammonia levels I decided to add some livestock to the tank. I was pretty nervous scouting the LFS for my first fish. I have done countless hours worth of research on saltwater tanks and yet I still couldn't shake the fear of the unknown. Thankfully the lady at the LFS was incredibly helpful and helped quell a lot of my nerves. I entered with intentions of walking away with a Royal Gramma, but she suggested I work with a more hardy fish for my first experience in saltwater - so she scooped up two tiny oscellaris clownfish. They were the two fish i had on my "Must Add List", so it worked out well. I wonder if there will be aggression issues as I add another fish to the tank, but not quite stressing about that yet. Here are Max & Crackers:

I would say they are thriving in my tank after two weeks! I love it when I come home from work and they are both begging for food in the corner of my tank where I feed them. I also added two Trochus Snails and a Green Star Poly frag

Soon after I began experiencing an ugly diatom bloom, but at the same time was excited that my tank was maturing as expected. Here is an ugly FTS:

Last week I added 3 tiny blue legged hermit crabs, 2 cerith snails, a wall hammer coral, and green zoa frag. I am going to stick with this stock list for a few weeks and then consider adding my next fish. Diatoms are starting to come down yesterday and I expect them to be gone sometime next week.

I saw in another build thread someone using a whiteboard to record parameters and other info about their tank and adopted the idea. I have been consistently changing 4 gallons of water each week and testing all parameters right before the change (to collect worst case conditions). Seems pretty useful so far.

Some fun bonus shots:

Wall Hammer Coral

Green Star Poly - On Island

Green Zoa's

 

[Aprod]

Two weeks since my last update:

I have been performing weekly ~20% water changes on Tuesdays since being fully cycled in early January. My nutrients have been consistently ultra low. I have heard that having a "Dirty Tank" is better for LPS and Soft Coral growth, so I intend to keep a close eye on these values.
- Salinity: 1.025
- PH: 8.0
- Ammonia: 0
- Nitrite: 0
- Nitrate: <5 (although difficult to discern)
- Phosphate: 0 (although difficult to discern)
- Calcium: 480
- Carbonate Hardness: 8

Not seeing much algae growth other than light accumulation on the rocks, so I doubt algae is consuming these nutrients. Aside from natural filtration (rocks / Marinepure Bio-Balls) and Mechanical Filtration (Filter Floss) the only item I am running is 5.5 oz chemi-pure blue. Perhaps this is stripping the water of all nutrients. In any case, I am not planning to mess around with my set up unless I get poor results on coral growth in the coming months.

Speaking of coral growth, I have settled on a program for my AI Prime HD LED light. The settings are essentially the AB+ preset which BRS converted in their video. I currently have it set up to do a 3 month acclimation period. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, I am all ears since my research led me down dozens of different possibilities. Is this too powerful a schedule?

Lastly, I added a third friend to the tank - a yellow watchman goby. I was planning to purchase a pair with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp; however, they did not have any in stock. Planning to swing by there this weekend since they are receiving more today. The YWG has been very reclusive and managed to tunnel out sand underneath my largest rock structure. Unfortunately, no decent pictures since he has been so camera shy. He did not eat with the Clownfish last night, so i am going to try and target feed some frozen food tonight. Wish me luck!

Coral purchases: