Nick’s 20G Nuvo Fusion

[Nick Steele]

I ruined my Xmas present the other day. My Girlfriend broke down and admitted she bought me the 20G tank I’ve been eyeing for awhile. Although it wIll be a little bit before I get it going I’d like to start this build thread now

First hurdle: Tank came with a few scratches so I’m in the works of contacting BRS to see what I can do.

Equipment list

Tank: 20G Nuvo Fusion
Light: AI 16HD x2
Filtration: Empty overflow on right side, left side had IM caddy with floss. Two other chambers have 3-4 lbs rubble rock.
Return pump: MJ 326 and Sicce 1.5 with random flow generators
UV: Empty for now
Heater: Eheim jager 75W (not running)
ATO: Tunze 3155 ato with a 5 gal bucket
Powerhead: One jebao sow 4

Stocking List
2 black ice clowns
1 hector’s goby
1 cerith snails
2 tuxedo urchins
5 hermit crabs

Now off to the fun part a few pictures!!

sorry about the light, opened tank at her parents before taking it home

Messing around with the light!

This is where the tank will end up sitting on top of a 35” tall homemade stand

Currently full tank shot

 

[Nick Steele]

Tank will be a mixed reef I think but will start of with some softies and lps and then a monti and Birdsnest to try sps.


Stocking list is in the works but this is what I’m thinking of so far.

2 clowns (black ice or snowflakes)
Possum wrasse
*green spot mandarin

the goby will be aquacultured and I will only get it if it’s on frozen and pellet food.

any concerns with my stocking list?

 

[Scotty Amen]

Following!

 

[champtain]

Sounds like a good start, Innovative Marine makes an awesome tank with a lot of aftermarket accessories. I've always wanted a possum wrasse, awesome looking fish, can't wait to see the progress!

 

[Nick Steele]

Following!

Should be a fun ride!

Sounds like a good start, Innovative Marine makes an awesome tank with a lot of aftermarket accessories. I've always wanted a possum wrasse, awesome looking fish, can't wait to see the progress!

Tons of aftermarket things out there! I don’t plan on using much but we’ll see.


Also BRS has since gotten back to me and looks like I’ll be shipping this tank back for a replacement which will hopefully not have scratches and will be here shortly!

 

[Nick Steele]

Tank has been shipped back to BRS tonight and now I’m patiently waiting for the replacement! Rocks/sand and all other equipment arrived at my in-laws house today so more pics to come later this week of rock placement.

 

[Nick Steele]

All the equipment came in today! Got to work planning some rock scape and I think I already found the one! Everything else has to wait till the tank gets here next week. Also I have a good 20+ lbs of rock left over that I don’t know what to do with I’m going to see if a lfs will take it for some store credit maybe.
Was impatient and the wave maker is already out of the bag and I might play with it on my 55G planted tank tonight lol.

Will play around with this some more when the tank is here to make sure I can clean around it all

New rock work on the left side idk about this one

 

[Nick Steele]

Still playing with rocks and like this new scape a little better. It raises the right arch up and replaces the big central island with a much smaller one (might get rid of all together as seen in pic).

front shot of tank

Right arch (those bottom support rocks will be hidden once sand get into tank I believe)

Left arch (hasn’t changed much)

also order the salifert reef test kit from SA and it will be here on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tank will be here Tuesday. Still no ETA on the stand though so I’ll need to wait for that to get water in the tank.

 

[spsaddict4lyfe77]

Still playing with rocks and like this new scape a little better. It raises the right arch up and replaces the big central island with a much smaller one (might get rid of all together as seen in pic).

front shot of tank

Right arch (those bottom support rocks will be hidden once sand get into tank I believe)

Left arch (hasn’t changed much)

also order the salifert reef test kit from SA and it will be here on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tank will be here Tuesday. Still no ETA on the stand though so I’ll need to wait for that to get water in the tank.

Looks good here

 

[Nick Steele]

New tank came in today without any scratches so I got to play a little

First messing around with rock and I believe I found my final rockscape. The far right rock has some nice holes on the side and gives me a few spots to put some frag plugs facing out towards the living room.

Then I filled her up to water test it and of course I had to throw on the AI 16HD.

All in all I’m still pumped to have my first salt tank! Probably another week until I get saltwater in with the rocks and sand!

 

[PR_nano]

Looks great, I really like the rock scape.

 

[Nick Steele]

Looks great, I really like the rock scape.

Thanks!

I hope it doesn’t get to covered when I add in sand. I might have to raise the rock somehow.

 

[Nick Steele]

More stuff came in this week!

Got my test kits and microbacter7 for my cycle and a free sample of TDO fish food.

Stand construction is almost done and the fiancé plans to stain it sometime this week. Then it will be filled next weekend hopefully!

Going to pick up salt mix and my mixing buckets today as well.

 

[Nick Steele]

Stand is here just needs to be stained and tank will be filled in next few days!! There will be a door added to the front next weekend.

Played with my rocks and decided to go ahead and weld them together. I like this scape! Purple putty throws me off a little bit hopefully coralline will grow on my rocks soon enough and it will blend in.

 

[arturoo1977]

Very nice tank project! Following

 

[Bleigh]

Looks Awesome! Won’t be long and you’ll be working on your upgrade. ;Hilarious

 

[Nick Steele]

Looks Awesome! Won’t be long and you’ll be working on your upgrade. ;Hilarious

no upgrade within the near future this tank is suppose to sustain me till we find our house and I’m able to plan a 100-180 then but that’s years down the road.

Added water and realized I forgot to rinse the rock and now there’s piles of rubble everywhere and water is cloudy. Going to let it run for a day before I add in salt.

 

[Pbh-reef]

Tank will be a mixed reef I think but will start of with some softies and lps and then a monti and Birdsnest to try sps.


Stocking list is in the works but this is what I’m thinking of so far.

2 clowns (black ice or snowflakes)
Possum wrasse
Clown goby
*green spot mandarin

the goby will be aquacultured and I will only get it if it’s on frozen and pellet food.

any concerns with my stocking list?

excited to see your tank happen! My advice for fish-
Clowns - they can be aggressive in nanos,
You may find they make life hard for the wrasse especially as they age, and the female can at times badger the male too much in a nano. I am (full disclosure) a little biased against clowns)

possum wrasse - awesome choice, as would be a pink streaked wrasse (equally peaceful and small).

clown goby - can nip at sps, so you may have to choose between sps and the goby.

mandarin - I don’t recommend even a captive bred one in a nano because even if they eat frozen or pellets they need to eat so much it’s hard to control nutrients and keep the fish from starving to death.

Other fish to consider-
Pygmy geometric perchlet (awesome fish), tail spot blenny (can sometimes nip at corals but usually safe and eats algae ), firefish, shrimp gobies (I especially like the hifin because it is inexpensive and swims more than most other species- the yasha is similar in behavior, you will need to take a lot of precautions with gobies or fire fish to make sure they don’t jump or wind up in the back compartment of the tank), captive bred rainford goby (can help with algae), smiths blenny, swales or rubre basslet, yellow assessor. Other options include eviota, trimma and greenbanded gobies, cleaner gobies, the more peaceful damsels like the azure, springers or Talbots.

 

[Nick Steele]

excited to see your tank happen! My advice for fish-
Clowns - they can be aggressive in nanos,
You may find they make life hard for the wrasse especially as they age, and the female can at times badger the male too much in a nano. I am (full disclosure) a little biased against clowns)

possum wrasse - awesome choice, as would be a pink streaked wrasse (equally peaceful and small).

clown goby - can nip at sps, so you may have to choose between sps and the goby.

mandarin - I don’t recommend even a captive bred one in a nano because even if they eat frozen or pellets they need to eat so much it’s hard to control nutrients and keep the fish from starving to death.

Other fish to consider-
Pygmy geometric perchlet (awesome fish), tail spot blenny (can sometimes nip at corals but usually safe and eats algae ), firefish, shrimp gobies (I especially like the hifin because it is inexpensive and swims more than most other species- the yasha is similar in behavior, you will need to take a lot of precautions with gobies or fire fish to make sure they don’t jump or wind up in the back compartment of the tank), captive bred rainford goby (can help with algae), smiths blenny, swales or rubre basslet, yellow assessor. Other options include eviota, trimma and greenbanded gobies, cleaner gobies, the more peaceful damsels like the azure, springers or Talbots.

The clowns are definitely happening that’s one of the reasons I got the tank. My girl wants two of the smallest clowns I can obtain. I know they can get aggressive but hopefully them starting at a small size will give them time to be friends with everyone in the tank including each other!

Clown goby has been crossed off the list.

With the mandarin I just can’t help it I want to try them. If worse comes to worse my buddy with a 160G will take him off my hands.

I have put some thought into a neon goby and yellow assessor but I’m just not sure yet.

Also I’ve been told a small group of azure damsels would look nice but wouldn’t they need a bigger tank as well?

Should I be running my powerhead while the tank is cloudy from the dry rock or leave it off for it to settle?

 

[Bleigh]

Run it. Let it find a place to naturally settle with the fans going. Otherwise it will just kick it back up when you do turn them on. It will be cloudy again from the sand until it settles. Unless you pull a lot of the water out. I put a plate on the bottom of my sand and pour the water on that so it kicks up less sand when I add water. That normally clears up in less than an hour. When I’ve added sand to water, it’s taken overnight to clear up.