Nuvo 8 SPS Dominate

[Narzyzz12]

Tank:
Innovative Marine Nuvo 8 gallon

Lights:
AI Prime

Pumps:
Rio 180 return pump
Jeboa PP-4

Heater:
100 watt Hydor Heater

ATO:Me

Filtration:
Filter Floss,Perigean,Chemipure Elite inside a Intank media basket
Biocube Protein Skimmer
10Lbs or so of liverock and 10lbs live sand

Stocking Fish:
Gold dot Marron Clowfish
Yellow Watchman Goby

Inverts:
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
2 Red Hermit Crabs

Corals:
Green Bali Slimer
Sunset Montipora
Superman Montipora
Jedi Mind Trick Montipora
Mystic Sunset Montipora
Orange Montipora
Green Montipora
Purple Montipora
Birds Nest
Torch Coral
Tricolor Acro.s
Cali Tort Acro
Pink Palythao
Green Pocillopora
Pink Pocillopora
Green Star Polyps
War Coral
Flaming Cloves
And some frags of various Acropora.Sp

Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78-80 fahrenheit
pH: Never Tested
Calcium: 460-470
Alkalinity: 8.0-8.5 dKh
Magnesium: 1500 since I'm currently trying to kill some nasty bryopsis
Nitrate: 0 undetectable using Salifert and API
Phosphate: 0 Undetectable using Salifert and API

Additives:
Currently manually dosing Red Sea Foundation in the morning and evening.I have been using NOPOX for a couple of months now and the results have been decreased algea fuel.

Maintenance:
Changing the Filter Floss Twice a week,Chemipure and Purigen ever 3-4 months.One gallon water changes are done every week using Reef Crystals.

Feeding:
By my estimates the recommend dosing of Acropower for this system is around 1mL,but I'm doing about half of that in the morning and after noon before feeding the corals a mixture of Cyclopeeze,ReefRoids,Phytofeast,and Oysterfeast.The fish get feed a couple of pellets of New Life Spectrum and a mixture of Brime,Mysis, and Plankton soaked in Kent Marine Garlic,Boyd Enterprise's VitaChem,and Selcon.

History:
This is my second marine system ever and my first sps dominate.At its birth in the fall of 2015 this was meant to be a simple Zoa garden but after going on various forums I've I got a taste for the better things in life and have become somewhat addicted to SPS corals(the bug is no joke).

Future:
Someday when I'm all done with school and have my life on track(like that's ever gonna happen) I hope to be the proud owner of a TOTM caliber stick forest.In the meantime I'm gonna try to learn as much as possible with what's on hand and with the help of this community(all advice is welcomed).

[Narzyzz12]

Some of the Acros in the nano.

[Narzyzz12]

More Corals please excuse my photography skills or lack of

[Narzyzz12]

More coral shots and a Tiger pod

[Narzyzz12]

C.Eymann this is for you dude

[C.Eymann]

1. Are you sure your lights are correctly adjusted? I have 0 LED experience so I wont be much help there, were you able to use a borrowed PAR meter to ensure they are getting appropriate numbers and not getting completely blasted?

2 How much purigen do you have in the system?

3. You need to get your nitrate and phosphate up just a tad NO3~.05-2ppm
and PO4 around .03-.05



4. Stop soaking foods in garlic, not only is it pointless it can actually be unhealthy for fish in the long run. Soak in a vitamin supplement like selcon instead, soaking the pellets works best.

5. Salinity/ top off- first off how are you measuring? if using a refractometer- is it calibrated correctly? How often are you topping off and how much at a time? Salinity swings are no good, and can make alk creep up then, rapidly drop when topping off, this is a big no-no.

-This is a nano reef and one on the small side at that, you being fairly new to SPS and this being such a small tank can make it very tricky, providing the correct flow for Acropora esp, can also be a challenge in such a small tank in addition of such a small system to being prone to instability. The main coral that really jumped out at me as being unhappy was the lokani, others looked in a bit more better shape, but appear a bit starved.

[Narzyzz12]

1.The AI prime is running around the 14k spectrum the LEDs are as follows UV,V,DB,B at 98%,CW at 70% while G and DR run at 5% for a total of 30w.Do you think I should change the spectrum or intensity?

2.I'm using a perigean bag that is rated for up to a system of 100 gallons.Should this I decrease the amount used?

3.How would it be best to meet this numbers?Increased feeding,shutdown skimmer,decrease filtration media,decrease NOPOX dosage?

4.Really what sort of problems does it cause?Are manufactured foods better than frozen?

5.To measure the salinity I'm using an ATC refractometer which has been calibrated using a Refractometer Calibration Solution by Aqua Craft Products.Right now I'm topping off the tank in the mornings and evenings.My rate of evaporation is around 2oz and my salinity stays at 1.025 but does move up to 1.0255 or less,can't really tell using the ATC refractometer.

6.Later when I'm home I will post a FTS and try to show the flow.If memory serves right that photo was taken minutes after being dipped and added to the tank,since then the PE and color have changed a bit.Which method is best for sps feeding maintaining NO3~.05-2ppm
and PO4 around .03-.05 or actually coral food?

Once again thanks for the feedback Eymann hopefully others will jump on broad and enlighten me.

[Narzyzz12]

The PP-4 is set to W-1(full blast wave no gradual speed up) on the forth speed level and full speed cycles.Don't know if this is helpful.
Red Arrow:
The water along the front gets sucked into the PP-4.
Green Arrow:
The water along the back wall gets sucked.
Yellow Arrow:
The water is pushed into the rock work,without blasting any frag directly.
Blue Arrow:
The water makes its to the back chambers.

And the Lokani seems to be getting a little bit of a yellowish green base color.

[Piper27]

Cool little tank, I hope it does well! If that gap in there I would take it out before it takes over, but that may be a while in such a small tank.
C.Eymann has great advice there. Definatly make sure your using a quality and correct refractometer and always use the 35ppt calibration solution. Small tanks are tough but beautiful when done right

[Narzyzz12]

Thanks for those word of encouragement dude.As for the GSP I want it to cover a part of the back wall and the return nozzle,but yeah I'll keep a watchful eye on it. With the help C.Eymann and others I hope to get this nano stick forest rolling.

[nmotz]

Lots of coral in a tight space so watch that Alk. I have two AI Primes over my tank and at first my corals really started to pale because of the intensity. Just watch your coloration and i you see bleaching then it might be too much light.

If nothing else, you'll get some great experience on aquarium husbandry with this tank. Cool idea, best of luck!

[Narzyzz12]

Piper27 your cube is so awesome really digging the sps mountain idea,later on I plan on getting a cube with similar dimensions.

nmotz I've noticed,just a couple of months ago weekly wc would suffice,but no more small price to pay for there beauty.What are you running your lights at?Thanks for the kinds words.

[nmotz]

Originally Posted by Narzyzz12

Piper27 your cube is so awesome really digging the sps mountain idea,later on I plan on getting a cube with similar dimensions.

nmotz I've noticed,just a couple of months ago weekly wc would suffice,but no more small price to pay for there beauty.What are you running your lights at?Thanks for the kinds words.

My schedule is as follows:

610a-940a: ramp up to 19500K @ 50% intensity
940a - 1210p: ramp up to 15500K @ 60% intensity
1210 - 340p: ramp down to 19500K @ 50% intensity
340p - 710: ramp down to lights out

So, essentially light turns on very blue until mid morning, then becomes slightly more white/increased intensity to mimic solar max, then ramps back down becoming more blue as it does so until lights out.

[Narzyzz12]

Gonna take some algae out,but kinda like seeing the pods crawling around in there.

[Narzyzz12]

continued..

[Narzyzz12]

Everything is doing well,for the time being I'm still manually dosing but I have a GHL doser on the way.Can't wait to hook it up.

[Narzyzz12]

It was a slightly better photo but I had to compress it to upload.

[Narzyzz12]

Here's a topdown shot of a Tenuis with some potential