Category Archives: Pets

Lots more corals for the Nuvo! :)

Morning on the reef!

The Nuvo 16 is cycled and I’m currently dealing with the uglies (algae issues) but it’s getting cleaner by the day and I’ve somehow managed to get 3 of the most aggressive little fish that I’ve always wanted to live together in the one tank! Now for more corals!

My new Six Line Wrasse. Not named him yet!

Full Tank Shot.

I got a Six Line Wrasse for the Nuvo 16 the other day, he’s awesome!

I’ve always been curious about owning one, so I made the call to look for one and when I dropped in to Aquaristic (my fave local fish store) the guys had a new fish delivery and were just floating bags in their tanks. I asked Dave if there was anything awesome in the batch and he mentioned that he had an awesome Six Line Wrasse! What a coincidence! It was meant to be, right?!

Turns out this wrasse is more colourful than what the guys at the shop are used to. He’s got a really bright top fin, which you only see when he displays (or yawns lol!).

He’s awesome and has settled into the Nuvo 16 nicely. My rockwork has a LOT of caves and he’s constantly swimming through the holes, super cool to watch (he’s also demolishing all the pods on the glass!).

Hey little guy!

I’ve finally pulled the trigger on a Redline Cleaner Shrimp! These guys are VERY expensive for us in Australia (cheap for everyone in the US). I’ve wanted one for years, but back then they were hard to come by and fetched crazy prices. Even now I’ve seen them for sale at $160, $150 most of the time. Adam, the guy I buy my natural sea water off (he delivers!) put one up on his facebook page for $100 and now he’s mine!

I had a few really awesome options in regards to what light to run on my frag tank. The best performing light would have been a Nano Box Duo from the US, but I’m a fussy guy and I really wasn’t so sure I wanted that look. Ultrabright, the guys (also in the US) who make my current custom LED unit on the Fluval Edge 2 tank offered to send me out a new upgraded light they’re working on but I had to wait a while to even see the design of the light. And then there’s the Kessil which I really like the look of (I have a thing for spotlights!).

The Age of Aquariums (an online retailer) had 15% store wide so I made the purchase, only to find out they’re out of stock and it would be 2-3 weeks before the light gets to me. I dropped in the Aquaristic today and they had one in stock but had no goosenecks (the clamp I need to attach it to the tank!) in stock! Grrr! The guys were super helpful but and they’ve lent me one of their own gooseneck clamps to use in the meantime until they come back in stock! Legends!

I’ve installed the light and the shimmer is SO intense it’s bouncing off the walls and ceiling too… I’m not sure I’m going to be able to handle it! I’ve only got it on 50% power too! LOVE the ability to just turn the big metal knobs to adjust colour and intensity. They feel like good quality and have a nice solid movement to them. Very happy! Sitting here on the couch and seeing all 3 tanks from the one spot I think the Kessil wins for a certain quality and depth to how it lights up the water.

I saw this advertisement for a complete Nuvo 16 aquarium setup on Facebook about 3 weeks ago and low balled the guy $500. He didn’t reply for some time, but eventually he did and said no, which was fine as I really don’t think I need another tank!!!

He then reduced the price to $650 for the lot about a week or so ago, bargain! I messaged him again to say my offer at $500 still stands. Another week went by and yesterday he got in touch with me and said I could have it for $500 so I dropped everything on the spot and picked it up (with help from Krysti! Cheers big ears!).

I put the tank downstairs in my man cave, but then I thought back to a time when I had a 4ft tank in my man cave and honestly… I really didn’t look at it much whilst I was working down there, and changing water would be annoying as I’d have to go up and down the stairs, so I thought I’d set this tank up in the lounge room.

Tank in situ.

The deal came with lights, heater, ghost skimmer, spin stream nozzles and this sexy little reactor.

Also upgraded media baskets on both sides.

And a brand new bag of live sand. Nice!

Sand and natural sea water went in last night, this morning this is how she looked (bag instructions said not to rinse!). I had floss in the media chambers but damn this stuff is dusty!!!

Yeahhhhhh I bought ANOTHER tank! Fuck! I’d actually been eyeing a Nuvo 16 on eBay for some time. They’re an older version now, so there’s a local warehouse selling the tank only for $180 on clearance, then this deal came along and I couldn’t refuse!

I definitely don’t do things by halves, huh?!

The loose plan for this tank was a rockpool intertidal zone biotope. IE: Everything that goes in it has to be collected from local rock pools around my area. How it’s going to be scaped I have no idea. The seller did give me a big bucket of live rock and I have a lot of dead rock left over too but I’ll hold off on using the rock for now.

PS: I’ve caught 2 of the larger ghost shrimp from the display tank (by hand too those cheeky buggers aren’t afraid of me at all!) and threw them into this Nuvo 16 this morning, both doing fine!

Alain and I had a fragging sesh!

Zoanthid corals contain one of the deadliest naturally occurring toxins called palytoxin. So… safety comes first, cafe racer styles LOL!

Fragment fragment fragment.

I’m not even sure if the tank has cycled yet but I’ve thrown the frags in and grabbed a few shitty clip on lights I had lying around (still waiting for my Kessil light to arrive!).

Then later that afternoon a coral delivery came.

Acclimatising the new corals in the frag tank as it’s easier access than the Fluval Edge.

I got these 5 zoa frags from Zeason, an individual on Facebook. I’ve put them into the Fluval Edge as I didn’t want to risk losing these in the frag tank just yet.

Full tank shot of the Edge.

Both tanks in situ.

Made in Germany (check the optical sensor on the right!). I had this brand new Tunze Osmolator automatic top off unit lying around and I’m putting it to use on the frag tank to handle water evaporation.

Controllers mounted.

The Accela pump I found on eBay came in the mail today. Turns out it’s EXACTLY the same model as the one I had to replace due to the voltage being incorrect for Australia (I bought this tank from the US).

Front view.

Side view.

The Fluval Edge and the JBJ 20 Frag Tank sits behind it.

IKEA kitchen trolley fits perfectly to the mm! Nice to have a bit of good luck after some bad luck (read below).

Super sad news but I lost one of my DaVinci clownfishes last night. I woke up to find only one clownfish. I failed to find it in the tank so I lifted the filter out and found it all dried up at the very bottom of the back of the tank (in the black plastic channel that runs down the back of the tank). So sad! The gap for the little fish to jump through was tiny! Such bad luck (especially considering this fish was almost DOA and it also damaged a fin, and was slow to start eating too).

I bought a standard ocellaris clownfish today. She’s bigger than my other little guy so I’m quite sure she will stay a she. The 2 got along right away and for the past few hours have been hanging out together nicely!