Our First Build: IM Nuvo 38g

[Agatheron]

Well, over the weekend, my family pulled the trigger on getting our first Marine tank. After taking things easy in getting the stand set up and the tank in place, last night my daughter and put the sand in and filled the tank. Here's a few pictures. They aren't the greatest, as they're taken with my iPhone, but it's the first pics in this build.

First shot is my daughter helping put the live sand in. She was trying to emphasise how heavy each of the small bags were... She's a bit of a ham:

The second pic is a picture of the filled tank. You can see the reflection of my wife in the tank, sitting in a chair just to the right of the picture.

Not surprisingly the tank is rather cloudy from filling it. Despite putting a plate on the sand, my aim wasn't great.

I don't have another picture, but the sand settled nicely overnight.

Anyway the equipment I have set up so far is the Innovative Marine 38g Nuvo Mini tank and stand, I have a heater in the back. I replaced the water return nozzles with a pair of spinstream nozzles to give a wave rhythm. The light is the Skyye LED Tablet 92w, and is probably the most expensive part of what's in the picture. I have no other filter media set up yet. The light has three different plugs coming out the back, all of which are on timers. The Moonlight and Dawn/dusk lights are on an alternating 12 hour cycles while the full daylight is currently set for an 8 hour cycle that overlaps with the dawn/dusk LEDs.

Anyway, I need to get the salinity levels up a bit and stable before adding in the live rock and getting the tank to cycle... But we have out start!

 

[carey]

Nice tank, I have seen those before. Looks like a great start!

Good luck!

 

[Grizz]

Tagging alone

 

[Agatheron]

A small update. The tank cleared up nicely this morning. You can see the plate that I was supposed to hit while filling it...

As I mentioned, the salinity levels were a bit low this morning, but I had run out of salt in the filling process. After acquiring a year's supply of salt and mixing it in, I slowly added in a bit more. A few minutes ago, it was reading at 1.024... which is what I was going for.

My plan is to let things run for a few days. Hopefully Saturday will be Live Rock day...

 

[redsea]

Hello! Congrats on your new aquarium, I will be following along.

I am here to help if you need it.

 

[qb6fire]

That tank is awsome i did the plate thing with a tall cup and siphoned in the water to the cup and it just over flowed

Ready for the aquascape!

 

[Agatheron]

This evening I was looking at the tank and was realizing that there were a lot of microbubbles in it. The pump was also making some odd sounds followed by a rush of microbubbles shooting out of the returns. I realize part of it may be with a new tank... I also haven't put the filter media in yet... but I also realized that maybe there was still not enough water in the filter section in the back... So I added some more water to it. I even think that being in this dry climate, evaporation is going to a real challenge. So I did add some more water, which borked my salinity levels a bit. I added a titch more salt, and I will check it before heading to bed tonight. I need it stable for at least a full day before I go off and get the live rock

However, since Saturday is "Live Rock Day" I think we're okay for the moment.

 

[qb6fire]

My tank did the same thing with low levels in the back also the filter media will help clear up the water.

How do you plan to cycle the tank?

 

[Agatheron]

Assuming the salinity is stable, I plan on adding the live rock on Saturday... If it is uncured, it may well start the cycle on its own. My LFS also provided a 3-step water prep set which may also help, but I need to read the fine print. If not, my local grocery store has raw shrimp.

 

[qb6fire]

Sounds good! I got fully cured live rock completely covered in purple coraline then a bacterial thing and my tank cycled in 2 weeks! Way faster than i expected

 

[Agatheron]

I decided to put in the filter media today... about half of it is in so far. I did the matrix first... I just didn't expect the rocks to float.

 

[qb6fire]

Haha i need a media rack for my nano cube

 

[Agatheron]

I think adding in the matrix without rinsing it borked my salt levels again. When I tested the water today, the salinity had spiked up around 1.027-8. I removed some water, added in some fresh to see if I could bring it down. It tested at 1.022 immediately after testing, but I will let things mix a bit more before deciding to add any more salt.

Any advice on getting the salinity levels to stabilize? There aren't any fish or live rock in the tank, so we are otherwise ok at the moment to play with it.

 

[Agatheron]

A few more pictures to share. We picked up the live rock today and put it in the tank, siphoning out some water to make room for it. Right now it's just in a pile at the bottom. We'll do some arranging maybe later today or tomorrow afternoon.

As soon as we put the rock in, I saw a tiny little brittle star floating about in the water, and then it settled on the rock somewhere lower down. I have my doubts as to whether or not it will survive the inevitable ammonia spike, but one never knows.

Anyway, some pics of the pile... I'll take some more once we do some aquascaping:

 

[qb6fire]

Looking good ready for the aquascape!
Fun times

 

[Agatheron]

No new pictures just yet, we'll be doing some aquascaping this afternoon. I've now been testing levels. I'm doing it each day just to get used to it. So far yesterday's test and today's test were exactly the same: pH: 8.0; Ammonia: 0.25; Nitrites: 0; Nitrates: 0. Salinity 1.023.

So while there's Ammonia in the tank, no spike yet... But I didn't expect anything just yet. Should I keep testing daily in these early stages?

 

[Agatheron]

Well, we've done some aquascaping today. So I have a picture to share:

On closer inspection it looks like we have a few more hitchhikers, some welcome, at least one not. There are at least four tiny Brittle Stars in there, but at least one Aiptasia (I think). It's tentacles weren't extended, but it did move slowly when we rearranged the live rock.

Any suggestions?

 

[qb6fire]

I like that scape i hope the rock on top right is stable enough

 

[Agatheron]

I pushed down and rocked it to make sure it was stable, so we are good on that count.

 

[qb6fire]

Perfect looks good and the fish will love it