Jim's Nuvo Mini 38

Everything now in place.

Received my UPS yesterday, and after an overnight charge, installed it this AM. Did another adjustment of the ATO - think this may be the last.

Calibrated my pH probe yesterday. Hard to say what pH is right with the lights off all the time.

Temp is stable at 78.2 to 78.4 - It's been rather cool here this past week. House is typically 68 to 70.

Haven't seen any spikes on the ammonia alert - guess I'll do some testing when the sun comes up and it's bright enough to see.

 

Finally rec'd response from Innovative Marine

I guess there is someone over at Innovative Marine. Although the only name they gave was "Customer Care". I was beginning to think no one was home. They must be really busy, it took three weeks and two days to respond to my request.

 

And away we go

Seventeen days since tank brought on line and everything is looking great.

Tested water params last week, and all were perfect. Added a mated pair of Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion percula). Monday the seventh. Both are doing well. No spikes in ammonia resulting from their addition. Tested water parameters this AM:

• Water temp - 78.4F
• pH - 8.0
• Salinity - 1.025
• Calcium (Ca2+) - 380
• Alk (KH) - dkH 8 [ppm KH 143.2]
• Phosphate (PO[SUB]4[/SUB]3-) - 0
• Nitrate (NO[SUB]3[/SUB]-) - 0
• Ammonia (NH[SUB]3[/SUB]) - < 0.02ppm (looks like 0 to me)

I brought the lights on with the addition of the fish and have brought up a one hour per day. Now at eight hours - will hold here for a while. Absolutely no algae anywhere. I will be seeding with coralline algae this afternoon. Ordered my cleanup crew on the eleventh, should be here on the fifteenth. The clownfish seem to be lonely in the tank (probably me projecting how I would feel).

Biggest issue so far has been keeping the temp up. With the glass lid in place, it is a constant 78.4. I remove the glass top during the day for better light penetration and to improve oxygen exchange. When I do, temp drops from 78.4 to 78.2 and the heater is on all the time. Room temp is 68 (window open to get fresh air into the house). Perhaps when I add the Protein Skimmer it will raise the temp a little. I'm still not sure whether I will need an additional power head for additional flow. That would add an additional 6-8 watts of heat to the tank.

 

Thanks for the update.

I see you have no phosphates, but a bit of ammonia. Did you test for nitrite?

Unless the temp swing is more than a degree, I wouldn't worry about it. I have a swing within a few .1s of a degree too and that's normal in our reef tanks. If it was a larger swing, I might be worried.

 

Mini Skimmer 115 mod

Received my AquaticLife Mini Skimmer 115 today. After reading all the information on the air flow inlet being too low in some installations - some worked fine/some needed modification to work properly, I decided to mod mine up front as I don't want to take it out more than I have to.

For those interested, here is the mod I made:

• Opened plastic housing (easy).

• Took air tube off black plastic adapter in housing.

• Removed black plastic from housing. If you are lucky enough to remove it with a pull and wiggle with pliers, great. I had to drill mine out.

• Fed new air tubing through hole in housing left it about 6 inches long.

• Shoved the new airline tube down into the existing black air tube about 1/4 of an inch.

• Carefully placed top back on with air tube towards the side so it isn't crushed.

• Once unit is installed, hang/rest air tube so it is out of the water!

Also seeded the tank with coralline.

 

Unable to use AquaticLife Mini Skimmer 115

They still have not properly stated the dimensions. I received my unit today and discovered when trying to install that the new dimensions they posted (http://www.aquaticlife.com/sites/default/files/specsheets/510114.pdf) are not as stated! Even the box it came in states 3.0" x 3.0".

With the clips in place (necessary to hold the unit together and mount it) it's actually 3.5" x 3.25". Which means that it won't fit into the chamber I had measured at 3.1" x 4.0". Most unhappy about this. Aquatic Life should not make such a blunder!!

 

On the plus side

Got a phone call from Innovative Marine today and ordered my spare return pump.

 

hi ,later I will show you some picture of my tank.

 

Cleaning Crew arrived/Mod to skimmer

Cleanup crew arrived this AM. All but the pods acclimated and in the tank. I'll add the pods after lights out. Suppliers must be selling a lot. These were very small snails.

Well - since I had already done the air vent mod, I will be unable to return the Aquatic Life Mini Skimmer 115 that doesn't fit. Sooo I decided to do my on mod to make it fit in the tank. The glue is drying now (want to give it an overnight cure). If it fits and runs properly, I'll post the mod - pics and all tomorrow.

 

Awesome.