Mr_Knightley's junk pool (IM Nuvo lagoon 24g)

[Mr_Knightley]

Hi yall! so, I've decided to start a build thread for my first ever(ish) tank, an Innovative Marine Nuvo series 24 gallon lagoon. I'm prepping to do some cool stuff with it soon, so I thought why not? (it also gets me another entry in a Noopsyche contest, shhhhhh)

So, the story behind this tank:
I started it some time in 2016, after starting the hobby with a Bio Bubble, literally an acrylic dome with an accordion rim for water changes.

One of these bad boys.

So after the Bio Bubble failed, I decided to try my hand at something better. At the time, there was an amazing fish store near me called Creation Reef, it was a beautiful store with a shark pond and amazing coral displays, as well as some good freshwater stock. I decided to go there for the new tank, only because my favorite LFS only carried tanks over 50 gallons(and I had no clue about the benefits of dilution). This specific tank was set up as a beautiful BTA clown harem tank, barebottom and chocked full of nems. The store offered to sell it to me, I agreed and the emptied it and packed it in my car along with an awesome stand. I went to my favorite LFS to get everything else, water rocks etc.

So I got home, and I got to work setting it up. I still had the Bio Bubble going, so day one I transferred my corals over to the new tank. The tank was set up in my basement, where it has stayed since.

Fast forward 6 months, and the tank was going great! I had 2 clownfish, a baby Tomini tank and an awesome Midas blenny, as well as a sweet array of corals. Sadly, I couldn't find any pictures from this period and before, but I have some from later on.
The tank was doing good, and me and my family went on vacation for a week to florida. We had a family friend and former pastor take care of the tank, he ran a FOWLR himself so I trusted him to take care of the tank. Long story short, I got back and found the tank in absolute ruin (and bear in mind I bough frags while in FL), nothing but the fish and a few heads of Caulastrea survived. I was really mad, I was still pretty young at that point though so I let it go, not wanting to seem like a brat. It turns out, the guy had his mother in law come over one day and take care of everything for us, and she had ended up pouring 1/3 cup of food pellets into the tank the night before.

Fast forward a year, and the tank was back up and running. I had lost the Midas from a jump, I tried another one and it jumped too. So to compensate I bought a really chunky male target mandarin, which worked with the tank flawlessly. I tried to do a harem of clowns, but it ended up just narrowing back down to a pair. Little did I know, 24 gallons of space was not enough for that many ;Facepalm Looking back, I was really naive while caring for it back then

So go onwards another year, I had a few setbacks but the tank was really doing pretty well. I had a garden of Xenia and a wall of rock. Then cyano.

needless to say, I was pretty discouraged. Parameters went wacky and I sadly let the tank fall to neglect and killed everything.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,i put wow because i did not know what to put,rough road ,how and where are you at currently?

 

[Mr_Knightley]

So go forward to late 2018, after my first try at the 210g failed, I needed to store some of my livestock. So, I decided to try and set up the 24g again, after months of sitting in a hallway. I set it up fresh, and introduced the shrooms and sexy shrimp

:

I also decided to go ahead and get some fish for it, so I got a pair of occs and an eightline wrasse. I also bought some new corals and an RFA.
(My internet is being slow and won't let me upload the rest of the images ;Dead)

 

[Mr_Knightley]

And now to current day:
It had been taken down and set back up, now hopefully permanently. I decided to go with more of a natural lagoon with this, so I started it with black sand and it has now become this.

So yeah, from here on out I'll update the thread whenever something exiting happens.
Good day and God bless!

 

[sfin52]

And now to current day:
It had been taken down and set back up, now hopefully permanently. I decided to go with more of a natural lagoon with this, so I started it with black sand and it has now become this.

So yeah, from here on out I'll update the thread whenever something exiting happens.
Good day and God bless!

@najer look another who uses macro in dt.
Loving it

 

[fishguy242]

do you have any fish in there? i would suggest a wrasse to knock back the red flatties,corals and macro are beautiful

 

[Mr_Knightley]

do you have any fish in there? i would suggest a wrasse to knock back the red flatties,corals and macro are beautiful

O don't have any fish yet, I originally had the intent of keeping a frogfish in there, then I thought about a pygmy scorpion of some sort, but as of now I think I want to keep it to inverts only. My current idea for removing the red flats, if they become a problem, is to try keeping a velvet nudibranch, which eats flats in the wild. I'm not sure if it eats this exact species, but they're one of the few variable diet nudis in the hobby, so I'mm not really worried. Plus, it'll fulfill my dream I've had ever since the Bio Bubble to keep nudibranchs, so that's a plus as well.
Thank you, I'm glad you like it! I forgot to mention,the macro is Caulerpa prolifera, which I got from GulfSpecimen.org. Super cool site that seels some weird stuff that might not be legal lol

 

[najer]

Looking good, blue velvet nudis are very cool but need to be re homed once they have cleaned up.

 

[JustDewwit]

Up early this morning reading your post and now it explains why I can barely leave the house for a day and all I'm think about is the tank. I like the resilience considering the issues which have come throughout reefing. Tank is looking great. It's nothing like a good come-back.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

New update!
So today I took down the 210g. The front right corner seam had started to seep water and thusly I had to empty it before anything got damaged. I now have all livestock from the 210 living in the junk pool for now, until I either reseal the 210 or take a hobby break. I'll get pictures of both tomorrow and do a full report then as well in the 210's thread.
Have a nice night y'all!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Update! Sadly I have no pictures as my computer refuses to accept my camera card. Oh well.

So the Junk Pool is fixing for another haul of livestock in the coming weeks. This Sunday, I will have all of the stock from the 210 to the new 125, freeing up space for new animals. I plan to get either a painted or striated frogfish as the feature fish for the Junk Pool, and I'll be getting an order of sponges for the tank next month most likely.
I have an update for the 125 coming, I want to get pictures first though.
See you & God bless!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Hey! New update time.
I finally found how to access my MSD from the PC and thus have a brand new batch of pics for you guys! The 125 will also be getting a new round of pics, all taken about an hour ago by your truly.
So, on to the update!
The Junk Pool is now officially empty of coral minus a few shrooms that were attached to the rocks. The tank is clean and ready for whatever comes next. On that note, here's what I'm doing with the tank next! In September, I ordered a batch of filter feeding inverts from the gulf. Two sponges, one tunicate and about a dozen brittlestars (I also have something for the 125 in the order, but I'll share that when it comes). If you couldn't tell, I'm trying my hand at NPS! I don't plan to do any corals or anything, just the weirdos. Another thing to know is that I have a frogfish in shipping headed for the Pool! I ordered it two days ago from LA (not DD) and it should be shipping today! I just got the "assorted angler" because one, I don't care really what species it is as I can easily find it a home if it gets too big, and two, I wanted a bland color (though I may get a bright one) so I could try yo transition it to match one of the sponges coming next week.
If y'all didn't know, I have had a frogfish in the past. It was a white warty, about 1.5" long, and it was probably the coolest little thing ever! I was, sadly, an inexperienced reefer at the time and lost him due to negligence to check parameters. He was ultimately taken out by untestably high Nitrates That is why I'm so pumped to be getting another! I hope I can raise this one properly.
Well, until next time! See you guys later and God bless.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

My account has been charged for the frogfish officially! It should ship out tomorrow or Monday. I am indescribably excited.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Update!

If you follow my 125g thread you'll know that I just got a shipment of stuff in this morning. In total, I received:
-Two colonies of Red Beard Sponge (I got the second one free) both about 3-4" across
-One stalk of Orange Devil's Finger Sponge, about 6" long with two big branches
A dozen filter feeding brittlestars (Some of which are less than 1/18" across)
-One free chunk of unidentified yellow sponge that came in the bag with the stars
One Red Oxheart Tunicate, about 3.5" long
And finally, one Hogchoker Sole (pics will be shared to the 125 thread), about 4" long snout to tail.

The orange sponge is so vibrant, you can barely see it in the pics but it is traffic cone orange! The reds are more subdued in color but it is still very bright.
I have successfully gotten all of them to eat as well! I powdered some fish flakes and mixed it with water, let it settle and fed them the soupy suspension. I'll most likely be feeding a couple times per week.

Before pics, quick update on the frogfish order. As you can tell, it has not shipped as of yet. I got a notification yesterday saying the order may be delayed for another week or so, I sure as heck hope it ships soon though because I need to know if I can work this week. If I have a new frogfish though, I'd need to stay home to keep an eye on it in case it gets stuch or something, y'know?

Alright, forgive my rabble lol On with the pics!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Guess who arrived this morning??
The frogfish! He's tiny (about one and one third inches) and started luring right off the bat lol I don't have a clue what species he is, definitely not any Antennarius I know of though. Definitely an Antennatus, most likely dorehensis. The bag said it was from south Asia so that helps narrow down the ID.
The illicium is very short and just about impractical to use, I think it may be a new one regrowing? Or maybe this species just has a tiny lure lol I don't know. Let's just hope it likes the sponges I bought for it lol
Well, I'll update when it eats next. Until then, God bless!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Well, I've got an update! No pics.
The fish has now transitioned from the tan color in the picture to yellow with an orange head! I assume he will only get brighter.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Woah, it's been a long time since I've touched my build threads haha. The junk pool is doing as well as it ever has, but is a bit overrun with pests at the moment. In the past three years, the frogfish passed away (totally normal lifespan for a pygmy frog), Aiptasia somehow got into the tank, and I've pretty much abandoned it when it comes to maintenance besides topping of and occasional dosing. No water changes in the past 3 years!!

I've been running Heavy blue lighting for a while because, admittedly, my prime is pretty much defunct now haha. I can barely access it from the app, it will turn off at random points through the day, and several diodes have burned out. It's been good to me for a 7 year old fixture, but it is definitely time to replace.
My current plan is to get some berghias, dose Flux to eliminate the bubble algae, and begin restocking it with macros like how I started. I bought some dragon's breath for it but it was eaten in my other tank lol. I still plan to keep it fishless, or possibly keep one fish like a medium scorp or other species. I like the ease of maintaining it with only inverts though.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Glad to see the tank is still going!