Chapter 1: IM Nuvo40

And you don’t need to turn back the hands of time lol. If it’s not working out with a fish just sell/trade it and find what flows well with the tank.
 
I think its just a timid variety. If I could turn back the hands of time, I probably would've passed on the purple.
That is all normal behavior for any dartfish, especially smaller ones, not isolated to this specific species. In managing an LFS, I’ve seen this hundreds if not thousands of times. It’s really just the luck of the draw to determine precisely how timid each individual is. But having groups always helps as long as they don’t become aggressive with each other.

Nonetheless, happy that he’s coming out more! Way to go!

If you’re looking at other dartfish and similar species; Zebra Barred Dartfish are cool if you have a bigger tank. And one of my favorites, although less popular for some reason, are the various Tilefish, especially if they’re purple, but the yellow, blue, or green ones are cool too.
 
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Macro algae came. Installed phosban algae reactor in rear chamber and it looks to be running. Waiting for light from eBay.E102E21A-AC77-472C-9790-13FBD08033D8.jpeg88D753D7-C3E6-444A-B416-EA5323B26C4D.jpeg2AB32590-524A-44CF-9628-3AE23B0B0F07.jpeg
 
Am about to pull the trigger on some of their "Clean Chaeto" myself!

I wouldn’t; biggest regret I’ve had in my entire hobby. Their algae is small, unhealthy, and far from clean (mine had cyano, bubble algae, and a couple other pests). Plus, one of my other algae’s arrived completely dead and rotted, and they wouldn’t honor the arrive-alive warranty. It smelled like a dead cat once I opened the package and took nearly a week to get the smell out of my apartment. I asked around, and found many veterans with similar experiences, and it seems only people that are brand-new and just learning the hobby had positive experiences. In retrospect, I would have easily paid them $300 not to have sent me anything. They failed in all 6 items I ordered including algae and pods.

That said, @Rainbloods algae looks much healthier than mine when it arrived... but I would still put money on the algae not being clean, and I’ve yet to find a person that did receive clean algae from them.

On a positive note, they were extremely friendly in all our communications, despite not being able to help fix any of my order. And I also think they market themselves great, and their logo design is very cute/cool/well-designed, and I liked the free stickers that they sent in the box.

but just my $0.02. Obviously, you’re gonna do what you’re gonna do. My recommendation is to get your Chaeto from someone on here. It’ll be free/cheap and I guarantee it will be far more clean and healthy than any of my 6 items ordered from them demonstrate.
 
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Sorry for the crappy experience AA.
Mine looked pretty clean and healthy, although I didn’t look at it under a microscope or anything. It shipped in an insulated box with a heat pack.
But I didn’t get any stickers. I choose them because they were recommended by the guys from BRS.
 
Sorry for the crappy experience AA.
Mine looked pretty clean and healthy, although I didn’t look at it under a microscope or anything. It shipped in an insulated box with a heat pack.
But I didn’t get any stickers. I choose them because they were recommended by the guys from BRS.

No worries brother. Yeah, I did for the same reason: they were recommended by BRS and I assumed ‘clean chaeto’ meant clean of pests. I spent over a year QT-ing and inspecting everything for the new system, so I did look closely, but no microscope, lol. l I didn’t need to; all these pests are large and can be easily visible to the naked eye.

Yours appears better; but I still wouldn’t trust it unless they threw out and sterilized the entire system, or at least dried it out completely. But I doubt they did. It’s a company and their goal is profits and not going out of business. Such cleaning would be expensive from a business perspective.
 
I have ordered from just about everyone online including Algae Barn. In the winter, their shipment arrived just fine and everything was living. During the summer hotter months- they did not use adequate cold packs and everything arrived DOA. They resent multiple times and each time everything was pretty much boiled. So, if you order from Algae Barn, I would recommend not to do it when it is above 85 degrees outside. macro stinks when it has cooked for a while in the heat :(. Folks here on the board have great macro. And I highly recommend washing all macro prior to putting it in your system no matter where you got it from. I have made that newbie mistake several times sadly - from bubble algae to flatworms to briopsis...... But, on a positive note, I learned how to deal with all those fun reef issues. So, yea, education :)
 
The hot-vs-cold thing makes sense, and could explain the varying member experiences. Ironically.... since I have no patience, I was considering running out in a bit to pick up some Heisenberg from my LFS. That's probably a definite now! Thanks!!

--Ron
 
The hot-vs-cold thing makes sense, and could explain the varying member experiences. Ironically.... since I have no patience, I was considering running out in a bit to pick up some Heisenberg from my LFS. That's probably a definite now! Thanks!!

--Ron
Heisenberg has best copopods and phyto hands down if any source I have tried.
 
The hot-vs-cold thing makes sense, and could explain the varying member experiences. Ironically.... since I have no patience, I was considering running out in a bit to pick up some Heisenberg from my LFS. That's probably a definite now! Thanks!!

To update... As previously mentioned, I have zero patience. I really wanted to get pods/photo/chaeto into my tank, as algae is coming on fast.

for some reason my LFS didn’t have Heisenberg, and they said that H. A. Doesn’t sell chaeto any more (at least they aren’t bringing it to the store).

so, because I’m stubborn and I love vendor hype (4 strains of pods vs 2, 4 strains of phyto vs 1, “clean” chaeto), I ordered from AlgaeBarn.

got it today. The chaeto was clean and healthy, and the containers of pods were teeming. Don’t know that I’d risk it in warmer weather, but very happy with the experience at this point.

(sorry to hijack!)

—Ron
 
I ordered some chaeto from them and it died in a week , got some from a member and it did great ...till I killed it , about 6 months . I believe their chaeto is grown with fertilizer vs natural tank waste and it has problems adapting to some systems .
 
I ordered some chaeto from them and it died in a week , got some from a member and it did great ...till I killed it , about 6 months . I believe their chaeto is grown with fertilizer vs natural tank waste and it has problems adapting to some systems .

makes sense :/ Will see....
 
To update... As previously mentioned, I have zero patience. I really wanted to get pods/photo/chaeto into my tank, as algae is coming on fast.

for some reason my LFS didn’t have Heisenberg, and they said that H. A. Doesn’t sell chaeto any more (at least they aren’t bringing it to the store).

so, because I’m stubborn and I love vendor hype (4 strains of pods vs 2, 4 strains of phyto vs 1, “clean” chaeto), I ordered from AlgaeBarn.

got it today. The chaeto was clean and healthy, and the containers of pods were teeming. Don’t know that I’d risk it in warmer weather, but very happy with the experience at this point.

(sorry to hijack!)

—Ron

We are the same. I have zero patience.
What makes things worse is that I sit in my office all day next to the tank which makes it feel a million times older than it actually is.
 
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