Chris's IM Nuvo Fusion 15

[chaples55]

This is going to serve as a permanent coral quarantine/frag system and will aid in my transition from my 45g reef tank to the new 200g Nuvo EXT. It's up and running and is already cycled with some rock I had curing in a bucket with Fritz Zyme 9 for several months.



I have plans to make this pretty in the future, but for now I have some egg crate so I can pack corals in tight, and some sandbed for my rock flowers and plate corals.

A few days ago I dropped in a couple Springer's damsels from my main display. They will hopefully help catch any pests that make it through dipping. Once I'm done dipping and quarantining all my corals, I'll put the damsels back in my display tank so that this is a fallow coral QT.

I am extremely impressed with the quality of this tank so far, especially for the low low price of $129 shipped! However, the included return pump is tiny. I didn't even bother trying it. I used a Syncra 1.5 I had laying around.

 

[chaples55]

Been having fun designing and printing parts for this tank. I did buy the acrylic media caddy from IM, but everything else is 3D printed.

Cover for the overflow area:



Return area cover, refugium basket, and light holder insert:



The fuge is still empty except for a filter sponge over the drainage holes at the bottom (an attempt to stop the microbubbles from this Bubble Magus MiniQ skimmer...). I'm currently working on making a 100% clean sample of macroalgae to seed it with. The light is a 10w warm white led spotlight from Amazon for $7. It's actually really nice. It's waterproof and has a glass lens and aluminum housing. Insanely bright for it's size but it runs HOT. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

[chaples55]

The jebao EP-2000 pump for this tank arrived today. It's a perfect fit! It is a newer design from AliExpress for just $45. Seems really nice so far. Dead silent. Flow can be controlled in 1% increments from 30-100 and it has several wave modes. Max flow is similar to the Syncra 1.5, maybe a little bit more. Seems good for running 2 1/2in turbulent flow eductors. Will need to see corals in the tank to properly assess the flow though. Hoping to not need any power heads.

Note: the noise in the video is from unrelated equipment nearby

 

[meash20]

This is amazing.. I have the IM 15. and I've been considering at skimmer and the filter drop in.. how's this all performing for you and how are you managing water changes?

I just upgraded to the SICCE Micra pump which is much better than the stock pump, but I was looking at possibly going bigger to the 1.0 or 1.5 .. I wasn't sure how'd they'd fit in the space available..

 

[chaples55]

This is amazing.. I have the IM 15. and I've been considering at skimmer and the filter drop in.. how's this all performing for you and how are you managing water changes?

I just upgraded to the SICCE Micra pump which is much better than the stock pump, but I was looking at possibly going bigger to the 1.0 or 1.5 .. I wasn't sure how'd they'd fit in the space available..

Thanks!

The BM MiniQ skimmer is supposed to be really good but 2 weeks in I'm still waiting for it to stop making microbubbles and actually start skimming. I think the tank was still too clean for it to do anything. I'm hoping it will break in faster now that there's actually some bioload in there. Will update my thoughts on the skimmer later. The price and build quality are excellent though. Really thick plastic and clever design. Got mine on AliExpress for $40.

I'm just doing manual top offs and water changes at the moment. Will run an ATO directly from the RO reservoir in the garage soon. I left an extra slot in the cover for the return area to accommodate this. Plan is to use water from the EXT 200 for water changes once that's all set up.

The Syncra 1.5 fit perfectly with just a tiny bit of wiggle room. It's probably the biggest pump that'll fit. It was a nice amount of flow and quiet. I'm partial to DC pumps though. The jebao is almost identical in width to the Syncra 1.5 so you can reference my photo above.

 

[Tanster2]

Awesome little tank man! I never knew they did a 15 gallon. I had their 10 gallon for a few years and the quality was amazing.

 

[chaples55]

Thanks! I think it's a relatively new size they offer.

Got a batch of corals dipped and moved over last night. Most are looking happy already! Also rinsed and moved over 12 of my 15 rock flower anemones. The last 3 are wedged too deep into rockwork to remove right now...

 

[fabbss]

Can you send me your print specs for the fuge you printed? That's super freaking cool!

 

[chaples55]

I posted the refugium on thingiverse for anyone interested. Also has a link to the spotlight in the description.

IM Nuvo Fusion 15 Refugium by chaples55

This is a refugium insert for the Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 15 reef aquarium. It's a snug fit in the rear compartment. It is meant to sit in the return area, pressed up against the glass divider. This forces the water to flow into the fuge through the grille on the left side. The water then...

www.thingiverse.com

I'll post the other parts soon

 

[fabbss]

Thank you!

 

[chaples55]

Finally finished cleaning and quarantining a portion of my red macroalgae. It eventually stopped tumbling, but still I think this is going to work really well:

 

[fabbss]

What is the name of that light you got from Amazon? You mentioned it ran hot, not too hot to melt the fuge or light tray?

 

[chaples55]

MIWAT 10W LED Flood Light

Amazon.com

No problems so far. The edges of the light that touch the plastic don't seem to get hot enough. Definitely don't want to touch the back of the heatsink after it has been running for a while though.

With that said, it would probably be best to use ABS for the light tray, or put some kind of insulation around the edges of the light (silicone / kapton tape / weather stripping?). I'm just gonna run it as is until there's actually a problem

Update: it's been a couple months now and I've had no issues with the light tray. So, temperature isn't a problem I guess. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right ?

 

[terrapin2]

This looks awesome. I need to get a 3D printer!

 

[chaples55]

Thanks! I highly recommend it. I've designed and printed countless parts over the last few years. If you learn basic cad, even something as simple as a drag and drop shape editor like tinkercad, the possibilities are endless. And even if you don't there's tons of free models on sites like thingiverse and printables.

I'm still using the ender 3 pro I bought back in college. If I were to do it again, I'd get a nicer printer. Something that "just works". I saved money up front on the ender 3 but the amount of replacement parts, upgrades, and troubleshooting time I've thrown at it definitely erased all the savings lol. Been eyeing the Bambu Lab P1P. Crazy fast and reliable printer. If my ender 3 ever craps out again I'll probably buy one

 

[wolfadelphia]

@chaples55 I'm currently printing out your fuge and covers (awesome work! thank you). Just wanted to know how it's working out for you and what you chose to put in your fuge?

 

[chaples55]

@chaples55 I'm currently printing out your fuge and covers (awesome work! thank you). Just wanted to know how it's working out for you and what you chose to put in your fuge?

Hi sorry I never got back to you on this! My nutrients were actually too lol so I stopped using the refugium for now. I used the same red gracilaria hayi (I think that's what it is anyway) as in my bigger tanks.