# jmhk's IM Nuvo 16/Aquatop Nano Sky 7/1 Gallon Vase



## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

Original thread title: *Starting over after a 21 year hiatus - jmhk's IM Nuvo 16*

Many moons ago, starting in high school, I had a community tank with various gouramis, tetras, angels, kuhli and horseface loaches, etc.. The only plants we could get back then were, I believe, some type of hornwort and simple stems. I moved that tank from my house to a college apartment, then to my first apartment after college and then to my first house. When we moved to the next house, it went into storage and is still sitting in the junk room gathering dust.

A few months ago, my daughter asked for a betta tank for her 12th birthday and lo an behold, helping her get that little 5 gallon tank up and running for Mr. Aquamarine and his 4 ghost shrimp buddies gave me the push to think about restarting the old tank. However, after taking a good look at that poor old hard-water encrusted black plastic rimmed 20 gallon tank shoved in the corner of the room, filled with old air pumps, tubing, bright blue gravel and HOB parts, my enthusiasm was a bit dimmed. 

Not giving up completely, I started to browse the web to see what people were doing with tanks some 21 years after I had last been in the hobby. Luckily I stumbled across this site. The beautiful layouts that I saw and the way everyone was willing to share their knowledge made me decide to splurge and get a brand-new setup going. 

The vision was to start out a new tank with some cooler water fish, then work up to neo shimp and maybe eventually feel I've learned enough to try adding some tiger shrimp. At first I thought about just a small 8-10 gallon nano, but after deciding that zebra danios would be my starter fish, that just was too small for them. Given that, and since I'm no longer on a high school budget, I decided to splurge on a beautiful 16 gallon all in one tank setup that I saw from Innovative Marine. I loved the curved glass corners, rimless design and hidden filter column.

And so, the journey begins again.....


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Step 1: Gather up the pieces to begin from scratch*

Saw those "Utah Dragon Stones" from DaveFish on his youtube video and just fell in love with the look. So my first purchase....










The rough layout concept:










A few days later the tank arrives for its unboxing!


















Followed by the leak test....










20 lbs of Eco-complete and some volcanic mountains complete the hardscape....










Flooded and all cleared up.....


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Step 2: Here's your new home*

The tank cycled quickly since I added some MTS and a bunch of sponges and scrubbies I had been floating in my daughter's betta tank (thanks for the free bacteria!). So, since I decided to start with zebras, it was off to Petsmart (can't quite see paying shipping for $0.85 fish :icon_wink). Hopefully that will be my only fauna purchase from Petsmart. I hope to get any shrimp or other fish from the great members of TPT! The store was a zoo. I asked the associate for my zebras, and in her haste, she apparently didn't pay too much attention to the contents of the bag. I now have my school of zebras danios and a single accidental oto! If he seems to be lonely, maybe I will have to go back and get him some more oto friends.










The danios seemed a bit stunned by the lights, but I didn't have any plants ordered yet. Time to improvise. I'm sure they will melt, but regardless, I run out to the dock and grab a few handfuls of unidentified stems out of the lake. The zebras and oto seem to love them and settle down nicely.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Step 3: Interior decorating*

To put it mildly, the types of freshwater plants available today were unimaginable back when I had my 20 gallon tank in the late 80's and early 90's. The IM Nuvo 16 gallon is mostly known for marine/reef use, but they recently added some 10K lights to their Skkye LED lineup that they are marketing for freshwater planted applications. IM shows PAR values for those lights that seem to be suitable for medium lighting in the center bottom of the tank and high lighting near the surface. I'm not ready to go high-tech with injected C02, but at least I shouldn't be limited to just anubias and java ferns! I buy some Flourish, Flourish Excel and Flourish tabs in preparation. 

Thanks to a purchase from the For Sale forum, I get quite the grab bag to start out. Let's see how many I can keep from murdering..... I yank out the unidentified lake weed (thanks for your sacrifice for the cause) and bin it. A few hours later, I have done my best to figure out which plant is which and find a somewhat appropriate place for each. Getting some of them to stay where I wanted it wasn't easy - do you get better at it with time? I thought the tongs I bought would make it a breeze but I still got frustrated. Push it in, smooth the substrate, step back and admire, watch it float to the surface :icon_mad:. Repeat..... Finally finished up late last night.

Hopefully it will fill in nicely in the next months. Some of the Rotalas are currently hidden behind the taller stones, but they should peek out in a few weeks. 










The floaters are corraled for now - the fish are enjoying them but I will have to see if they shade the other plants too much.










Left end view:









Left Front view:









Center Front view:









Right Front view:









Right End view:


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

nice beginnings. i recall back in the 80s where the only plants available were amazon swords, dwarf sag, lilies and banana plants.... i still went for live stuff and only saw successes with the amazon swords.

your stems ought to straighten up a bit with some fertilizer. I like how the tank has two directional return spouts. sort of eliminates the need to add powerhead, which i sort of have to. The choice in hardscape is very nice. i can almost see patches of some moss here and there to really give it some dimension and make it seem mountain-esque...

Good luck and keep us posted


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback. I put my first dose of Flourish and Excel in today - I've never used ferts before so I'm a bit worried about overdoing it. I bought root tabs but am not sure which of these plants, if any, need it or if I should wait a bit since the eco-complete is brand new. I have some Notocyphus Lutescens moss tucked into each side "mountain", not sure how long that takes to start filling in - these plants are all new to me. I hope to get some growth on the "mountains" but still keep a good amount bare to showcase that great texture.


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## Clemsons2k (May 31, 2009)

Heck of a re-entry my friend 

You've obviously done a ton of research and I really like the way your tank is looking so far. The root tabs will only help plants that are planted in the substrate (sorry if thats super obvious, just wanted to cover the basics haha). Eco complete is a decent substrate for nutrients but the tabs can't hurt. And as long as you follow the instructions on the Flourish bottles you should be fine.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

Ok, root tabs are in. Hope they will bring down the pH just a bit - was surprised when it tested at 8.2. Here's the list of the plants I am starting with:

Rotala 'Gia Lai' aka 'H'ra'
Rotala Bangladesh
Rotala Mini Butterfly
Hygrophila 'Brown' / Hygrophila 'Thai'
Micranthemum Umbrosum (Giant baby tear)
Rotala Mexicana 'Goias'
Heteranthera Zosterifolia (Stargrass)
Nymphoides sp. 'Taiwan' (Taiwan Lilly)
Marsilea Minuta
Notocyphus Lutescens moss
Hygroryza Aristata
Mixed floaters (Salvinia minima water spangles, Amazon frogbit, dwarf water lettuce, duckweed)

The floaters have already sent out lots of new roots in the last 24 hours, but should I really believe that the Nitrates are at 0 or do I have a bad test :icon_eek:?


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## xiaoxiy (Dec 18, 2012)

That's a beautiful tank!

Man. So many IM 16Gs popping up. Now I'm tempted to get one myself!


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## EngineChauffer (Apr 3, 2013)

Very nice tank, loving the rock, its amazing!


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## Jahn (Apr 26, 2013)

Yep don't worry that your nitrates shot down to almost unreadable, at least when it comes to cycling. Some if your plants are real nitrate hogs. My nitrates went from 20 to 5 after adding floaters and wisteria.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

I do believe the danios are liking their home although I had to add some screen to the water level intakes since a few kept checking out the filter area. I lowered the temperature of the tank to around 71F and they now seem to be swimming peacefully vs. spastically. They have completely stopped schooling and the males are getting quite gold. The males also have each staked out one of the many caves around the rocks as his own. Seems a bit strange since I read that they are egg scatterers, but it almost seems like they are grooming a nest site - they seem to invite the females in for a look, but chase away any males that visit. 

The oto also seems content - he is munching away on the lettuce kebob I put in for him. Since I'm not seeing much algae yet, I didn't want him to starve. I know they say to have at least 3 otos in a tank - how could I tell if he is being stressed by his singledom?

Some of the floaters have grown roots over 3" long in 48 hours! I am also seeing what I believe to be some new growth on the stargrass, taiwan lily and the rotala butterfly. Later today I will do a water change and prune off any melted leaves. The Marsilea Minuta and Notoscyphus Lutescens are the only ones that seem to have not at least stabilized so far. Some of the Hygrophila 'Brown' continues to escape the substrate - there are lots of roots high on the plants, but not much lower. Maybe I should just leave the stems that escape alone until they grow something to hold on to the substrate?


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*(not so) Aquatic Chipmunks*

Patience, wait for the chipmunks....

I have only had my plants in the tank for about a week and the floaters were already exploding. I came back to the tank after about 4 days away and they were starting to escape their corral. 










I decided to keep just the frogbit since it seemed a bit more manageable, so I segregated out the water lettuce and water spangles.










I scooped out the exiles and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with the water from the weekly change and some lake water to feed them until I figured out if anyone would want a RAOK. The remaining frogbit was a much better amount and I think the other plants will enjoy seeing some more light.










The 5 gallon bucket goes out in the sunlight on the back deck - at the rate they are growing, I should have lots to give away. 

Enter chipmunks, stage right...

Sure they are cute, but they aren't exactly my favorite animal in the yard. Between my cat bringing them into the house (still alive) as play toys and having just replanted the cucumbers for the third time this year after they decided they were oh so yummy, I don't have a great deal of love for them unless they keep their distance.

My sister comes over in the afternoon and asks me why I have a dead chipmunk in a bucket on the back porch. :eek5: Oops, so much for that RAOK plan.... he must have fallen in and couldn't get back out. Curious critters, I think. Anyway, I scoop out the victim and return him to the wild for burial. (No, for those of you with a morbid streak, I didn't take pictures.:icon_roll). I just leave the bucket on the porch for now. 

Sunday comes along with several thunderstorms, so I go to remove some water from the bucket before it overflows. I don't want the water lettuce or water spangles to accidently get washed into the lake or marsh. You aren't going to believe this, but there is ANOTHER CHIPMUNK belly up in the bucket! Two down in about 24 hours just doesn't seem like coincidence.

Have the chipmunks found these new plants to be irresistible or do I just have some really dumb chipmunks? I've never found one floating before and it is not uncommon at all for us to have a 5 gallon bucket around half filled with water. At this point, I have to find out - so the bucket has been moved down to the garden (next to their favorite cucumbers). I may have found the proverbial better mouse(chipmunk) trap roud:


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

Bit of a mishap today. I had added some screen to the surface overflows to keep the curious zebras out of the filter area. My husband went to clean the screens out and accidently dropped one to the bottom of the tank. By the time I got home and dug the screen back out to cover the overflow, 4 zebras were missing. I found the remains of 2 and the other 2 are MIA. They have been stressed before when they ended up in the filter area, but we had never had any problem getting them out safely. Guess I'm going to have to figure out a way to also add a sponge to the actual intake of the pump itself to protect against this type of loss happening again.


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## Gavin288 (May 10, 2013)

subscribed! I really like this tank and the direction it's going.


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## hedge_fund (Jan 1, 2006)

Looking great. Keep up the work!


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback!

Went out yesterday to replace the lost ones. We now have a pod of 4 otos and a small school of 7 danios. Hopefully there are no more adventurous fools that take the least opportunity to swim the rapids.

After the tank settles for about 2 more weeks, I am going to start looking for some rili shrimp to add in (if I'm not a lucky winner of one of the fabulous RAOKs going on this week!).


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## Gavin288 (May 10, 2013)

Can't wait to see the tank with the plants/shrimp you won.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Shrimp on the way!!*

Wow! I just won BHTJ's RCS shrimp and plant giveaway! Time to go get the red carpet rolled out to welcome the new arrivals. roud:. 

....Fresh spinach is growing in the garden - perhaps a nosh before bedtime? Got to sweep out the lava rock caves and turn down the covers. Maybe some nice mulberry leaves for breakfast. So much to do.....

Thanks Black Hills Tj Mike!!!!


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## Black Hills Tj (Jul 19, 2008)

jmhk said:


> Wow! I just won BHTJ's RCS shrimp and plant giveaway! Time to go get the red carpet rolled out to welcome the new arrivals. roud:.
> 
> ....Fresh spinach is growing in the garden - perhaps a nosh before bedtime? Got to sweep out the lava rock caves and turn down the covers. Maybe some nice mulberry leaves for breakfast. So much to do.....
> 
> Thanks Black Hills Tj Mike!!!!


 
Good build. Looking forward to watching it develop


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## Gavin288 (May 10, 2013)

Any updates? Would love to see the rcs/plants BHTJ gave you


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

I'm still anticipating the the RCS - BHTJ had some power outage problems and needed to delay shipping 'til things settled down.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Shrimp!*

35+ new citizens added yesterday! I ordered some rili peewees and malawa shrimp from Bryce. The post office messed up and delayed delivery by 30 hrs (surprise, surprise :icon_roll), but they all arrived in top notch form due to Bryce's packaging expertise. After a 6 hour drip, I put them in the tank in a breeder mesh box and they all look to be doing great. I tossed in some of my algae ridden moss and they are picking through it with gusto. If all looks well after a few days, I will start releasing the larger ones into the general tank and hopefully the danios will ignore them. I'm down to three otos and just three danios now since most of the newest fish from the lfs didn't last a week and I had some jumpers (took the lid off due to heat). The remaining fish are fat and sassy.

Hope to have pictures posted soon.


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## thebuddha (Jul 16, 2012)

fun thread to read through - i like your writing style/humor.

good luck with the tank! how is your marsilea minuta doing? i had a real tough time keeping it planted back when I used eco complete, it would just float right up.....


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

My marsilea minuta is sloooowly growing. No problems with it uprooting, but I fought some hair algae for a few weeks that didn't help it any with growth. The biggest one I have have had a problem keeping down in the eco-complete is the hygrophila brown/Thai. By the time I get it in the substrate, I usually break it into multiple pieces.:icon_sad: 

I think that most of my plants from Han were probably from a high tech setup, so they are just now bouncing back from the transition to low tech. A few, Nymphoides Taiwan, stargrass and rotala Butterfly settled in quite well. The floaters went crazy so I thinned them heavily to get more light down to the rest of the tank. The rest are finally showing new growth, but they will need to grow a bit to overcome the melting. My moss is barely hanging on after the algae attack. Luckily, the shrimp munched up most of the algea and I shortened my photoperiod, so maybe it will stand a chance of bouncing back now.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Shrimp Pics!*

Dripping the rili and malawa.......



















Still working on getting my macro settings understood on my camera:




























But with a little cropping, I got this....










Here they are in the tank, in their temporary safety net.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*New Plants added - growth progression pic....*

After fighting with some algae and watching some of my plants melt away while others have great growth, I decided it was time to add a few more. Received some beatiful additions from Silenced...

Lobelia Cardinalis Dwarf
Rotala Sp Colorata
Limnophilia Aromatica
Rotala Macrandra Red
more Heteranthera Zosterifolia (star grass)
Bacopa Australis
nodes of Staurogyne sp Porto Velho
Cryptocoryne wendtii brown

The Rili and Malawa shrimp are growing quickly, but lost much their color against the white breeder mesh. They did a great job of cleaning the algea out of the moss. Maybe it will have another chance to grow again. I hope to move the shrimp into the main tank soon and expect they will color up against the darker hardscape. I added a fan to keep things cool after I got tired of fighting the 90+ degree weather with ice packs in the filter box. 

Here are some new tank shots as well as a progression group to show how things have changed over two months:

Full tank shot









Left end:










Right end:










Progression from May 23 to July 18:


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*New shrimplets and time for a trim*

Last week I started seeing the babies - let's see if the pictures show anything but little dots! They are about 2 weeks old.

Here are some of the mommas on 9/15, one heavy with berries and two others freshly re-saddled.










Two weeks later on 9/28, some babies are vying for a space on the algae wafer.









The stargrass and Taiwan lily have been going strong, so I did a trim to support starting up a new tank at work to prepare for more forays with shrimping - joined the BBRR club. 

Here's a shot post trim.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Office tank - Aquatop Nano Sky 7 Gallon*

I've been cycling a new tank for about 2 months at work to start to focus on improving my rili shrimp stock. New tank is a nice bookshelf size so it doesn't take up too much space on my desk. Finally added 3 otos and 18 shrimp this week. Picked out the best blue bodied red rilis that I saw (along with a couple of juvies that joined them in the netting) including 3 berried mamas. Depending on how the juvies turn out they will either stay there or go back to the main tank.










Aquatop Nano Sky 7 gallon, high clarity glass, with LED light, HOB filter.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*BBRR tank update*

Population in the Aquatop Nano Sky 7 BBRR tank is up to 50+ not counting hatchlings. I've been netting out any that are more cherry than rili and have about 10 young adults and juvies culled to a 1 gallon filtered vase that I started during the holidays with extra plants from the IM Nuvo 16.










Here are some shots of the BBRR Aquatop tank.


















































The IM Nuvo 16 has turned into a jungle and probably has well over 125 rili and malawa. I regularly scoop out masses of frogbit and Hygroryza aristata and I'm overdue to do a RAOK to get rid of them. The remaining two danios are always fat so they must eat their fill of babies, but it seems like the shrimp are managing and still increasing in number. I never see the danios take any interest in the shrimp, but I don't feed them enough to account for their size! I'll try to get some updated pics of that tank up this weekend.


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## parrottbay (May 14, 2012)

Are you using Co2?


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

These tanks are low/med tech. They have medium light (LEDs) and I use Excel for CO2, but not enough to make it pearl. The Aquatop and vase get Excel 5x a week, the IM Nuvo gets it 1 to 2x a week.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*BBRR Tank update*

Fuzzy :icon_redf phone pic of the right end view of the 7 Gallon Aquatop tank - plants and oak leaf reflecting in the back wall of the tank make it seem wider than 6 inches. Rotala macrandra has settled in and is holding its color surprisingly well. I'd love to get more red/pink/purple plants but it is a challenge with a low-med light, low tech tank. The Rotala sp colorata and Limnophilia aromatica at the other end of the tank are all green with no pink at all. Star grass HZ and bacopa are growing like weeds. Silver Cabomba is still holding on, but is rather leggy - I just cut off the top and replanted it. I think I will need to trim the HZ back to get some more light to the cabomba. I scoop out the floaters twice a week, but without them the spirogyra algae has a feast from too much light at the top of the tank.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*Slashing down the jungle*

The Nuvo 16 was waaaayyyyy overdue for a trim. Cue monkey shrieks and the timbre of drums....



















I hacked out enough stargrass and scooped up wads of frogbit and Hygroryza aristata to fill a 5 gallon bucket. I have enough floaters saved up from this winter to get a good start when I dump them into the new pond. Looks like a plant refugee zone with all the buckets and bins I have sitting in the windows.

Here it is looking a tad more civilized, but still nice and wild overall.

















The citizens all joined in the celebratory feast.


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*New Tiger Shrimp*

Dripping in some new Tiger Shrimp to add to the Nano Sky 7. Eight Juvies and three Peewees. They will joining 4 ottos and many BBRR shrimp.


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## greenteam (Feb 8, 2012)

tank looks good


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## jmhk (May 3, 2013)

*More tigers*

I received another batch of 11 tiger shrimp from a second source to make sure I have a good mix of bloodlines to start with. I was amazed to open the package and find they were almost all adult size! They make my fully grown rilis look rather unimposing now, sizewise. They seemed to travel well despite the recent heat wave. Pale in the picture from travelling, but after a nice long 3 hour drip I put them in the Nano Sky 7 gallon and they seem to be coloring up great. I can already see one with a mix of black and white stripes - the head and tail are getting yellow also.


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## shift (Jan 7, 2013)

How are you liking this tank? i have been debating getting one to replace/consolidate a couple 10g shrimp tanks.


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