# Nuvo 16 from The Coral Reef Shop



## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

As a lot of you have seen I had a custom made 4 gallon Pico. I really love the look of it and everything was working great with it BUT it was a pain in the ass to put my hand in and do anything. I had to drain half the water first and take the tank off the stand yada yada yada.

So I have been looking for a replacement for a while and I got talking to Shawn at the Coral Reed Shop. He had said they were bringing in these Nuvo Tanks and that I should check them out.

After doing a lot of research I pulled the trigger and got one of these tanks. I have had it running for a few days now and I am pretty excited with the possibilities.

I was planning on keeping it a stock system but then as I thought about what I wanted to put in it I realized it wouldn't do as such. I subbed out the lights for two par 38 bulbs, upgraded the return pump, used the original pump to run a reactor and added two Koralia nano 425s hooked up to the wave maker controller.

Anyways thats enough talking for now...


































































I will post some photos of the filled tank in a couple days.


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## andco (Aug 15, 2011)

Nice start!! 

Will those LED's produce enough light to grow corals?? and if so, I see you paid $68..where did you pick them up?


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Hey Andco,

They are more than enough light to grow sps. I am getting about 320 par on the sand bed and about 700 at the top of the water line. They have 2 - blue, 4 - royal blue, 2 - UV & 4 - 14k white. The light is pretty white overall but the uv really makes the corals pop. My last pico had the same mix of lights just no UV. 

I got mine from The Coral Reef Shop in Burlington.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Very nice Tristan.

I'll be following your thread before making the jump for it 

A few questions. 

Did they have the white 16gal in stock? 
Will the stock lights be good enough to grow soft corals?
Did you get the Marine Spin Stream nozzles?
What did you do with the stock led?


Thanks


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

They don't have the white one in stock currently they do have the 8 though. The stock Leds will grow mushrooms and any sort of soft coral fairly well. I have one spin stream and it was from my other pico. It seems to work well but the more flow that goes through it the louder it gets and faster it rotates. 

Shawn at the Coral Reef Shop is willing to swap out the stock led for the par 38 lamps as they are the same cost. I am not sure if he will sell a tank with no lighting though.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Tristan said:


> They don't have the white one in stock currently they do have the 8 though. The stock Leds will grow mushrooms and any sort of soft coral fairly well. I have one spin stream and it was from my other pico. It seems to work well but the more flow that goes through it the louder it gets and faster it rotates.
> 
> Shawn at the Coral Reef Shop is willing to swap out the stock led for the par 38 lamps as they are the same cost. I am not sure if he will sell a tank with no lighting though.


Awesome thanks for the info.

Will wait for the white one. I like the look of the stock led but obviously it isn't as good as the par 38.

I have a couple of powerheads which I can used for the tank.

What type of skimmer did you use on it?

BTW, how much did it cost total?

Thanks


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

I don't run a skimmer. On a tank this small its not really needed. Frequent water changes and running biopellets will help keep nutrients low. The tank will probably run you around 500 with rock and power heads.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Awesome

Thanks


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## smcx (Mar 31, 2012)

I have that same par38 from the coral reef shop. If anyone is buying them, check the threads first as a large number are damaged. 

I took the lid off my biocube 14 and hung the par38 over it. My bubble tip seems to like it. The colour is nice. Way cooler than the stock fluorescent bulbs. Algae growth has almost completely stopped.

My zoas and ric however do not seem to like it.


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## andco (Aug 15, 2011)

Tristan said:


> Hey Andco,
> 
> They are more than enough light to grow sps. I am getting about 320 par on the sand bed and about 700 at the top of the water line. They have 2 - blue, 4 - royal blue, 2 - UV & 4 - 14k white. The light is pretty white overall but the uv really makes the corals pop. My last pico had the same mix of lights just no UV.
> 
> I got mine from The Coral Reef Shop in Burlington.


Thanks very much .. I will have to pay them a visit


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

smcx said:


> I have that same par38 from the coral reef shop. If anyone is buying them, check the threads first as a large number are damaged.
> 
> I took the lid off my biocube 14 and hung the par38 over it. My bubble tip seems to like it. The colour is nice. Way cooler than the stock fluorescent bulbs. Algae growth has almost completely stopped.
> 
> My zoas and ric however do not seem to like it.


I had talked to Shawn about this and he has only had 2 come back with bad threads so far. At 65 a bulb I would expect more to be brought back if there were multiple issues.


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Well I guess I should post some photos of the corals in this tank so far. Its a bit of a disaster currently but I am slowly cleaning it up and arranging things. Don't want to go to crazy on the glue in such a small tank! I need to work on my camera skills. Still trying to figure out the LED thing.

Yellow Efflo









Green Stag









Electric Green Mille









Karls Candlestick Acro









Unknown Monti









Monti









Blue Polyp Danae









Purple Bonsai









Similar to Red Dragon but has yellow polyps and yellow tips. Needs some TLC









Rose Mille









Purple Tip Acro









Side Shot


















The Stag was growing horizontal before so light never hit the middle.. Hoping it colours up soon. 









Fruit Loops, Armour of God









PPE


















Dynamite Chalice


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

a couple more shots





































RR Blue Stag









RR Pink Floyd Acro









Chilli Pepper Monti









RR Rainbow Plate


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## kamal (Apr 21, 2009)

looking awesome!


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Looking good!


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Well i decided I would try and build my own skimmer. Its just a basic airstone driven skimmer.

A short video of it after I turned it on. 


I also hooked up my dosing unit and will have that running in the coming days to make sure I don't have any alk swings as the sps are already encrusting things.



















A few more random shots and new additions. Who knew my phone could shoot macros!


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Oh and for the Tang Police he's 1 3/4" long and will be graduated to a 250 gallon in a few months.


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## RR37 (Nov 6, 2012)

Nice tang. I would just put it in the appropriately sized tank now.

Really nice work ! Tank looks great !


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Yeah I will be in the spring. He is too small to be put in the big tank now. He will probably get the upgrade in the new year though. 

He is really healthy though and is already helping out with my algae "problem".


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## RR37 (Nov 6, 2012)

Figured as much, I was going to ask if he was a temporary fix. I'd be lying if I tried to say I haven't done the same in the past. Mind you it wasn't a 16g 

Just remember everyone who puts a tang in a nano says they are building a giant system in 6 months.


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

No I actually have a 250 running right now. The thread for it is here somewhere.


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## RR37 (Nov 6, 2012)

Tristan said:


> No I actually have a 250 running right now. The thread for it is here somewhere.


Oh, I wasn't calling you out or anything. I remember the thread about the tank you and your dad picked up. "This hobby is getting out of hand" or something like that.

I was just saying that most people buy things not suitable for their tanks and say they are setting up a monster tank. Poorly made statement on my part.

Cheers.


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Yeah I guess I'm on edge too as I am used to a certain regime of a site. My apologies. Now if someone would just buy my extra frags I'll be good to go lol


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## mr.wilson (Dec 29, 2012)

Tristan said:


>


I'm glad you changed the rock work. It looked eerily like the way I set up one of these tanks last week. It's still plagiarism even if you stole my idea two months before I thought of it


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Well here is a slight update for this guy. After a bought of Dinoflage...blah blah...I have fully recovered the system and have restocked. There aren't any fish in there now.. I may add a goby or seahorses but I haven't decided as there are a couple anemones in the tank. I had to take out most of my Zoanthids as there is a decorator crab in the tank. I could take the crab out but he is pretty cool and doesn't bother much.

Possible Red Planet 









Tri Colour Granulosa (frags of this guy are for sale!!)









Flame Bubble Tip









Maxi Minis









Rainbow Plate and Rainbow Acan


















FTS


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## bmc (Jun 3, 2011)

its beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love that bubbletip anenome...the color is awesome.


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## smcx (Mar 31, 2012)

Looks good!

Are you still running the two par38's?


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Yeah I'm still using both and I added a third bulb, but a par 20.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

A few new additions...

Blue Star Leopard Wrasse










Mini Perc










Flame Angel










Possible Plana?


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## MadJellyCorals (Dec 9, 2012)

Very compact and nice tank tristan! The nuvo is my favorite AIO system, would like to set one up just for zoas everywhere! Awesome collection of sticks you got there sir


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Thanks for the compliment my good man. I am looking to add a few specific pieces but will take some time and money to find them. 

I may have a used one if your interested..pm me for details

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

I am planning on removing the hydors for an mp10 this week. Will be adding a few more exotic sticks as well..


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## dllowe (Feb 20, 2013)

Just read in the Coral Reef Shop mailing that you are now full time there. Congrats!

I know when I bought my Nuvo 16 from there, you where quite helpful.


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

Nice tank... So many frags I didn't understand how until I read your sig lol.

I could take some of those spare frags off your hands


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Ryan.Wilton said:


> Nice tank... So many frags I didn't understand how until I read your sig lol.
> 
> I could take some of those spare frags off your hands


Swing on by my place and pick some frags up! I've got lots of stuff for sale.


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## CRJ (Sep 7, 2012)

beautiful tank!


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

CRJ said:


> beautiful tank!


Thanks!!

A few new additions. I pulled the anemones and grabbed 4 of these beauties! Two are for my mother in law but I get to enjoy them first.




























I'll get proper photos later tonight. They chase mysis greedily! Pretty happy we got these in at the shop.


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## sooley19 (Jan 7, 2009)

tank looks amazing man.. i have heard a lot about the store and have yet to make a visit.. i am thinking there is no better time than the present.. maybe check out some of the frags you have for sale as well..


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

Come on down, Ill be here all day lol!


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