IM Nuvo Fusion 40 Build

[Agustin Martinez III]

Just re-started this tank after 6 months of leaving it fallow. I think I had an ich or velvet outbreak that killed my two clown fish. I definitely made some rookie mistakes and rushed a few things. I was pretty frustrated since I thought I had vetted a good fish store where they quarantined their fish. I'm adding a QT after learning the hard way.....anyone new to the hobby like me I STRONGLY recommend a QT, please learn from my mistakes. I've read several of @Humblefish posts on QT and treating fish. I'm completely incorporating Humblefish's methods this time around. Still waiting on a few pieces of equipment and additives to set up the QT. I'm not a great aquascaper.....It took many hours across several days to come up with current layout. Please critique away, I am open to any and all feedback.

IM Nuvo Fusion 40 All In One
Ecotech Radion XR15W G4
Finnex HMA-S 150W Heater
2-Sicce Voyager Nano Powerheads
5 gal ATO Resevoir
Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 ATO

 

[Tahoe61]

Congrats on the reboot.

I would take one of the rocks and break into two pieces.

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

Congrats on the reboot.

I would take one of the rocks and break into two pieces.

I've got a smaller piece I can replace the large one with. I was trying to create a cave for the fish to hide in.

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

I started building the QT. I'm using a 10gal tank with a Marineland penguin hob, an eheim heater, and originally bought a topfin powerhead (in pic), but switched it out with one of the sicce's I had in the 40gal DT.

I ran into some saltwater mix problems once I started filling up the QT. It was super silty. I did two complete water changes (after letting it run for 30ish hours) and nothing improved. So I ran out and bought a new bucket of salt (instant ocean). The other salt I've had for about 10months. It was from my original attempt with the 40gal DT.

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

I finished the QT and set the salinity at the same level as the pet store tanks. I double checked when I bought the fish. They used a refractive yet to measure SG. Surprisingly this was at a Petco store. The local aquarium store I was going to purchase from made me a little weary. They don’t measure the SG or keep an eye on temps in their tanks. At least that’s what the representative said. Same rep told me “saltwater tanks aren’t really my thing”........so I went to Petco haha. The person who helped me in the fish area was very knowledgeable and took an interest in my tank setup. Since I’m doing a quarantine protocol myself I figured it’s safe to buy from them.

My plan is raise SG to 1.026 over the next two days. Then begin raising copper levels to a therapeutic level.

Please share any thoughts or cautions.

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

The clownfish seems to be doing well. Eating just fine. Kinda stays in a corner along the bottom of the tank. Every once in a while he'll swim across the whole tank and then back to a spot along the bottom.

I raised the salinity from 1.024 to 1.025 as of last night.

Since I went with cupramine instead of copper power. I dosed according to the cupramine instructions (19 drops for 10gals) and it raised the copper to .59 as of this morning (6:30am HST). Is this bad?

I'm using a Hanna HI702 Copper Checker.

I've read it's ideal to raise it to .5 over a 4-5 day period and this is up to .59 in less than 24hours. I'm going to do a small water change. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

I checked the copper levels again this evening and it jumped up to .79ppm. Did some digging on the forums and a few people mentioned cupramine takes time to build up in the system. That would explain the increase after I did a small water change. I did another, larger water change, about 1-1.5 gals. Hopefully that'll bring the levels down.

Does anyone have any experience accidentally dosing too much cupramine? Just worried I may kill the fish because of the .79ppm in about 36hours.

Should I drop it down to .2ish and let it sit for a few days or just down to .5?

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

Quick update: I'm back from a work conference and the fish doing well. My wife took great of it while I was away. The copper dropped some in the tank (as of yesterday), but I since there's a .05 variance on the Hannah meter I'm going to wait and see what is today to determine if I need to restart the 30 day clock. I also started soaking the pellets in Selcon, VitaChem, and garlic guard. He seems to enjoy to mix more than the plain pellets.

@Tahoe61 I'm reworking the aquascape. Pictures to follow once I settle on a decent arrangement. It's a giant pain in the rear reworking the aquascape in a full tank......

 

[Tahoe61]

Funny because I am going to change up my scape as well.
Good luck, better to change it now. Looking forward to progress.

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

My QT continues to be a source of frustration. The copper levels dropped, so I added a few drops of Cupramine. Waited 24 hours tested again and the copper dropped again. I know the Hannah checker has a +/- .05 variance, but it's still pretty difficult to dial in the copper level to the therapeutic range. I'm thinking about switching to copper power.

My plan is to put the fish in one of my 5 gal buckets with a heater and powerhead. Then do a 100% water change in the QT, then run carbon in the hang on filter for a week. Good idea bad idea?

Going to mull this over for a bit and probably post in the QT forum

 

[Agustin Martinez III]

Finished re-aquascaping the tank. First pic is of the side view from living room. Second is the front of the tank.

Just ordered some epoxy to use with super glue to bond the pieces together.

@Tahoe61 thoughts?