Nautical Nathaniel's Innovative Marine 30 EXT

nautical_nathaniel · Feb 10, 2020

It has been 6 years since I started reefkeeping, and in that time I have had two AIO aquariums: an 8 Gallon Cube and an Innovative Marine Nuvo 20. However, I have always wanted to have a sump and a refugium, and all of my equipment in one spot underneath the stand. I've seen hundreds of other reef tanks on R2R and to be honest, I was getting pretty jealous of all the non-AIO tanks out there and how clean they looked, and that's how the itch began...

Now I'm going to scratch it.

I already have the Innovative Marine Nuvo EXT 30L on hand, but it is currently on the floor, still in the box (don't worry, I checked for cracks/breaks). It will unfortunately be that way until the custom/DIY stand that I am building is complete ( pictures to follow in a STAND-alone post

).

Here is the equipment I have ordered so far.

The plan is to get the following from my LFS:

150 watt Eheim Jager Tru-Temp Heater
Heater Controller
20 lbs of Carib-Sea Live Sand (will add some sand from my old tank).
Red Sea Salt (Blue Bucket)
Rock (I'm thinking Dry Rock for sure, maybe even TwoLittleFishies Stax rocks)
Bacteria in a Bottle

A lot of the corals in my old tank will be fragged and transferred over when the time is right, I will also be transferring the following livestock:

Peppermint Basslet
Frostbite Ocellaris Clownfish
Blue Neon Goby
Juvenille Mystery Wrasse
Pearly Jawfish

My plans are for this tank to be zoa-heavy, with some select LPS and SPS corals intermingled, but plans change and I have given myself a lot of wiggle-room equipment-wise.

Be sure to follow along, as I will have plenty of updates in the next few weeks as well as loads of pictures! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns as well

Devaji · Feb 10, 2020

going all out on this build. sure you dont want bigger you have the gear for it? such saying...haha

nautical_nathaniel · Feb 10, 2020

Devaji said:
going all out on this build. sure you dont want bigger you have the gear for it? such saying...haha

Unfortunately, I live in a 3rd floor apartment with no elevator, so I have to keep things small for now haha

Devaji · Feb 10, 2020

nautical_nathaniel said:
Unfortunately, I live in a 3rd floor apartment with no elevator, so I have to keep things small for now haha

ah yes that 30L will weigh as much as a standard 75. rimless tanks are HEAVY.

nautical_nathaniel · Feb 17, 2020

Here is my post on the stand, as promised

I built everything myself, based on the tried and true 2x4 stands I've seen many others build.

From this:

To this:

As you can see, I have most of the equipment mounted. I made the light stand out 1/2 thin wall conduit.

I plumbed the tank with regular sch 40 PVC, since I felt like fancy colored PVC wasn't worth the hassle of acquiring.

I have some rocks ready to be glued as well:

It's really a plus that my LFS gets marcosrocks in on the cheap and the owner lets me go out back and play around with the uncleaned rocks until I get the scape I want, I probably had 500 lbs of rocks to play around with and settled on just over 20. I plan on taking some two little fishies stax rocks that I have on hand and making little platforms for these rocks to sit on so my jawfish will have plenty of space to make tunnels without me fearing a collapse.

Now I have it running with freshwater for my 5 day leak test. A heater, bucket of salt, skimmer, and bottle of starter bacteria should be here by the end of the leak test. If all goes well, I'll start the cycle this weekend!

nautical_nathaniel · Mar 3, 2020

As of today the tank has been running for around 2 weeks.

I have added most of my fish to it and most of the corals from my old tank. I also got a Ruby Long Finned Wrasse for aesthetics and a Diamond Goby for sand sifting. I am waiting a little while longer before adding my 3 year old sand sifting starfish and team of nassarius snails from my old tank. So far the goby seems to be more interested in engineering his burrow and some sand canyons around it than sifting the rest of the tank. My Pearly Jawfish moves more sand than this Diamond Goby...

Parameters have been holding very steadily since I added some Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter START XLM 15x when I first added the rock, sand, and saltwater. I cycled for a few days with just my clownfish and blue neon goby in the tank, and then gradually added some hardier corals to serve as a visual aid as to whether or not there was something off with the tank. There have been some very small spots of diatoms popping up around some of the rocks from my old tank (which has always had intermittent diatom blooms due to flow issues. Little specks of coralline algae are beginning to appear. I might try to find a cheap frag of something with lots of coralline on the plug to try and seed the tank with more pink/purple/red coralline algae since brown is all that I'm getting at the moment.

A few days ago I got my refugium started. Right now I have a Par 38 bulb serving as my Chaeto light on an Office Depot desk lamp fixture holding the bulb. I do have an AI Fuge Led on the way though, and I hope to have it installed and set up within a week. That will significantly help with some decluttering under the stand. At some point I will need to reroute many of the cords under the tank as I get a feel for how the aquarium needs to be organized.

Anyways, here are a few pictures

Shortly after I added the sand, rocks, saltwater, and bacteria:

My branching hammer that I moved over from my old tank:

Some rock flowers I got this past weekend:

The resident excavator, my Pearly Jawfish "Pearl". Also some green star polyps I got to cover the isolated rock they are on.

Pbh-reef · Mar 3, 2020

Pics won’t load for me. I’m excited about your new w!

nautical_nathaniel · Mar 6, 2020

Pbh-reef said:
Pics won’t load for me. I’m excited about your new w!

I think I fixed it haha

Thanks! I'm excited too

Pbh-reef · Mar 6, 2020

Tahoe61 · Mar 28, 2020

The tank looks so big. Very nice.

Looking forward to a FTS in the future.

Obsessed Reefer · Jul 3, 2020

Looking forward to seeing this develop. How much room are you left with in the stand after adding the sump?

nautical_nathaniel · Jul 14, 2020

Obsessed Reefer said:
Looking forward to seeing this develop. How much room are you left with in the stand after adding the sump?

Sorry for the late reply, but I actually just put together an Innovative Marine APS stand for this build.

My DIY stand was pretty good and by all extents is fine as is, but aesthetically it's not that great. Any saltwater splashes tend to turn white, which I then have to dab with water to make go away (I now understand why the most popular Red Sea Aquarium stands are white). I think overtime I going to introduce mold/mildew to the untreated sections of the stand, which isn't great either.

By my measurements, the new stand will fit my current sump just right, with around an inch or so width-wise and I believe just under a foot or so length-wise.

I'm currently working out how to attach my light stand, and also how to build some sort of box/container for all of my cords and power strips.

nautical_nathaniel · Sep 3, 2020

It's been awhile, but here is an update:

COVID has granted me the opportunity to work from home, so I've had some time to put together and outfit the APS stand I ordered. Note to anyone trying to find the 30 EXT APS stand: they're discontinued.

I ordered a Nuvo 30L stand instead which is perfect since both tanks have the same physical footprint. The only thing I think it might be missing is additional floor slats to support the foam core poly sheet that serves as the bottom of the stand. To get around this and support my sump and ATO reservoir completely, I placed thick workout/yoga mat under where ever there wasn't an aluminum support.

I built a box out of wood to contain my power strip, cords, and power boxes. It's not perfect since I had to build it with hand tools lest I upset all of my condominium neighbors, but it serves it's purposes well. I gave it a snazzy paint job and attached my pump control boxes and Jaybird to the front for east control. I zip tied all of the cords in a way that makes it easy to open and close the door and also keeps the cords out of view for the most part.

I also switched to a 2.5 gallon water jug for my ATO reservoir. My tunze osmolator has enough length on the return line and power cable so that I can put it out of the stand and easily fill it.

The last thing I did was install some strip LEDs to the upper perimeter of the inside of the stand so I can easily see everything inside during maintenance.

I think I truly should have done this the first time around instead of trying to build a custom wood stand with limited tools and space, but live and learn right?

Here are some pictures: