IM 20 NUVO Fusion Peninsula

[Fishineer]

After spending some time out of the hobby I figured no better time than the present then to jump back into the hobby and buy a IM 20 Peninsula tank. I started with a CAD Lights 8 gallon nano reef and did ok, but have had some time to think about all of my mistakes. In this build I want to focus on a few DIY projects starting with an ATO so stay tuned for updates on that. I re-started the CAD Lights 8 gallon just to realize I should go a little bigger this go around. I am not sure what I am going to do for live stock yet but really want to start with clowns and a nem once the tank is stable. I am also running the Seneye and am hoping to hack it a little for some home brew control system.



The gear to start:

• IM 20 Nuvo Fusion Peninsula
• MightyJet DC Return Pump 326 GPH
• ViaAqua Titanium Heater 100 watt
• Seneye Sensor
• Hawaiian Black Sand 15 lb
• 15 lb dry rock
• Hydor Koralia Nano Circulation Pump/Powerhead 425gph (recycled from the old 8 gallon build)
• Marine Pure Gems – qty 2
• Light – TBD

For cycling I am using the Brightwell MicroBacter QuickCycle and Start XLM which is a bit of a trip. I’m trying to monitor the parameters with the Seneye to understand my cycle and bio load. I think for this system to work you need to feed the system Nh3 and it recommends adding a hardy fish. Has anyone actually done this?

 

[Fishineer]

So after doing some research in the university of YouTubes I landed on this must watch video on cycling which made me change my path a little on the cycling process for my tank:


After watching a few videos on this I set up another heater in my tank and set the heaters to 82.0*F and lowered the salinity slightly to see if I can’t jump start the cycle a little. One pro tip for cycling you tank it to just not buy a light, so you are not tempted to turn it on during the cycling process. Although I am not using Dr. Tims I am using a similar product. It mentioned to add a hardy fish, so I am debating adding a few Mollies or a pair of small Clowns. I might go with the Mollies to I can play with lowering the salinity and slowly raise it as the bacteria fully seeds and swap the Mollies out for a pair of Clowns later.

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, nice looking peninsula.

 

[Fishineer]

Welcome to R2R, nice looking peninsula.

Thank you. IM really makes some good looking products.

 

[BYU]

i have the same setup
i started it like 5 months ago
i love the tank
i also switched to the mighty jet which is tons better than the stock
i also used the seneye in the beginning
it was supposed to be a torch tank but now mixed with anemones
currently have 2 clowns ,and pipefishes
i made the screen top
i would def get the media basket instead of the filter sock
there are tons of hacks for this tank
let me know if i can help
good luck

 

[Chrisfish]

Thank you. IM really makes some good looking products.

I purchased that tank almost 2 years ago and really liked it my only problem was I couldn’t get enough flow / movement to the opposite end of the tank I decided I wanted a bigger tank but limited space so I now have the IM 25 gal. Lagoon and really like it too.

 

[Fishineer]

Well in the last few day I ended up lowering the salinity and increasing the temperature and adding a few Mollies to the tank. After watching some YouTube videos on the best methods of acclimating the Mollies to salt water it was fairly east to actually do. I think the first step occurs in your LFS and only pick Mollies that seem healthy and there are no dead fish in the system or signs of disease. I think this goes without saying but if you pick fish that are not healthy and stress them out it will not go well. I ended up having to go to a few different places to find the fish. I ended up surprisingly getting the fish at a Petco. Since they have a ton of different tanks and Mollies are community fish they were spread out which made it easy to pick the heathiest ones. I ended up adding 9 Mollies to the tank over a period of two days. 6 of the Mollies were tiny and 3 where larger added on the second day. I ended up lowering the salinity to 1.015 and raised the temp to 80.0 - 78.0*F. I also added Friz No. 9 which after a few hours dropped my ammonia down to .004 on the Seneye. Its funny reading all of the forums about Mollies cause it seems like it was popular back in the day and lost its popularity due to fishless cycling or the shrimp method. I think starting with a low salinity and higher temp will help kick start this tank as well as keep me busy for the next week slowly starting to get things to a higher salinity and normal temp. I think also having a slightly higher bio load than just two clowns will allow me to replace the Mollies with other fish through the next few months to fully stock the tank.

 

[Fishineer]

i have the same setup
i started it like 5 months ago
i love the tank
i also switched to the mighty jet which is tons better than the stock
i also used the seneye in the beginning
it was supposed to be a torch tank but now mixed with anemones
currently have 2 clowns ,and pipefishes
i made the screen top
i would def get the media basket instead of the filter sock
there are tons of hacks for this tank
let me know if i can help
good luck

Dang. That Nem is huge. When did you end up adding it? IM now includes the Mighty Jet pump stock which is probably more than half the reason I went with this tank.

 

[Fishineer]

Alright a bit of an update. After reading a bunch and watching you YouTube, cause what else are you supposed to do while you wait for your tank to cycle? I decided to set up a quarantine tank for my first inhabitants besides the Mollies who are doing well. I'm running a 10 gallon tank with a hang on the back filter with Bio Balls. I'm dosing Formalin until I get a full batch of fish for the tank. Keep in mind whatever I quarantine now will be replacing the bio load of the Mollies 14-30 days down the road.

I recommend watching this video if you want to learn about how some of the pros in the industry are doing it:

 

[Fishineer]

Update for my tank. I finally installed lights and went with 2 AI Prime 16 HDs on a hanging light kit. The two lights are kind of tricky to hang and I would eventually like to make a bar in the middle that collects the two fixtures and hides the cables a little better. I am using the Andrew Orozco's schedule off of the AI Prime website since his tank seems similar to mine and I like the schedule goes later into the evening since I am a bit of a night owl.

​

AI Prime light schedule:

Andrew Orozco - AquaIllumination

www.aquaillumination.com

 

[Fishineer]

Another close up with the new rockwork.

 

[BaysEndReef]

Looks great! Following!

 

[Fishineer]

So today I started dosing copper in my QT tank.

I also found this little reminder for a QT Schedule based off of Humble Fish's recommendation. Although I am using Curpramine and not Copper Power, even though I bought both... Is it just me or are other people watching too many fish disease and qt videos cause of the COVID stuff and boredom?

I dropped on of the Mollies into the QT tank as well, so we will see how the next few weeks goes. I have lost 3 Mollies out of the 9 that I have started with so I just replaced them with larger black mollies in the DT.

(https://fishotel.com/quarantine-help/)

 

[Fishineer]

I guess it should be noted that for the Cupramine it should be dosed to .5 ppm or 5 mg/L. I got a little confused on the conversion. Luckily I did nothing that can't be undone. I also recommend if you are new to dosing copper and using the Hanna checker buy extra reagents. Especially since you will need to maintain the copper levels during frequent water changes. And buy the Curprisorb to get rid of the copper when you are done.

​

 

[Fishineer]

Today I added the works for a DIY HOB refugium today. I had to order a light and starter kit for the chaeto. There are a few quarks to be worked out in this set up, but you can follow the build here (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-refugium.789115/). The good news is this add about .5 gallons for filtration to the 2.7 gallon back chambers. Right now I am just running the filter sock with a bag of carbon, and bio cubes. This will allow me to move the bio cubes the the fuge and add a DIY protein skimmer and maybe IMs media reactor that I had from a previous build. More TBD.

 

[Fishineer]

So for the tank I am going to do a nem and clown fish tank. Since I will need to have to feed the tank heavily to prevent aggression between the clowns I added a protein skimmer. I removed the refug to work on it. Its currently getting more paint on the outside since the light leaked with just one coat. I am also waiting on the macro algae from Algae Barn. All of the fish are out of QT and have been added to the DT. For a note on the skimmer I am running the AquaMaxx NF-1 Nano Protein Skimmer. It barely fits in the 2nd chamber. I am also breaking the skimmer in currently and it hasn't really produced much skimmate. I am hoping this improves. The second chamber isn't really deep enough for the skimmer to be at the right water level. I will update if the skimmer actually breaks in or not. I might swap to a different skimmer.

​

 

[Fishineer]

So this is one of the last photos I could find on my phone of the Tank, so I thought I would add an quick update for some Lessons Learned for this type of tank.

1) If you are going to keep nems you need to keep on top of your water changes and feeding. I had the best success with dosing live brine shrimp multiple times a day. This also keeps down on the food aggression if you are keeping more than 3 clown fish.

2) For the Darwin Clowns if the grow up fully black or with orange mouths sometimes the clowns would pick on them at different times based off of how they would mature. Be ok with giving some clowns away or putting them into seperate tanks if needed. I ended up having two other tanks that I was able to split a pair off into and a single clown. Out of the 7 in this tank I only lost 2 after l slacked on the brine shrimp feeding

3) Clown fish are butt holes. have a plan for splitting up fish or at least have a breeder box / acclimation box on hand. The fish are hardy so even if the fish looks KO-ed its worth it to split them up since likely they will recover.

4) Re-arranging the aquascape re-sets the clock for a bit. I ended up setting up another tank and there was a bit of a honey moon period until about 3 of the clowns turned out the be ok with each other. 2 are being bullied and I will be looking to re-home the other two since I am recovering from my MTS.

 

[Fishineer]

Looking to sell this set up!!!


Approximately 20 Gallons
Outside DIMS: Length 11.8” Width: 30” Height: 13”
Display DIMS: Length 11.18” Width: 27.03” Height: 13”
Tank Package Weight: 52 lbs.
Low Iron Glass Beveled and Polished Edges
Glass Thickness: 8mm
Pre-Assembled SafeScreen Mesh Screen Lid
Pre-Installed Rubber Leveling Mat

Filtration:

Built-in Acrylic Overflow Wall


(1) - Desktop CustomCaddy Media Basket
(1) - Desktop MightyJet 15W/24V 326 GPH DC Return Pump w/ Controller
Includes: Flexible hose, Return Elbow and Directional Flow Nozzle

Includes some cycled rock and some dry rock that is now cooking in the tank. Start your reef tank right away with an established set up. $400 obo.

Also for sale AI Prime (Older wifi model) $100
Skimmer NF-1 Nano Protein Skimmer - In-Sump - Aquamaxx $40

20 NUVO Fusion Peninsula w/ Stand - general for sale - by owner

Aquarium: Approximately 20 Gallons Outside DIMS: Length 11.8” Width: 30” Height: 13” Display DIMS: Length 11.18” Width: 27.03” Height: 13” Tank Package Weight: 52 lbs. Low Iron Glass Beveled and...

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