Beginning my first Nano Cube, piece by piecr

[Nick Shades]

I have decided on the JBJ MT 602 28 gallon cube. I do not need to buy it first, and am going to buy everything else that i need before i buy the tank and stand, first.

First on the agenda is protein skimmer.

The aquamaxx hob1,
The tunze 9002
The coralife nano skimmer.

Listed from most expensive to least, why should i choose one over the other?

I will start with algae/maintenance stocking first.the coralife mostly gets noise complaints, and failure after about a year as the stone needs to be replaced. What ia maintrnance longevity on the tunze and the aquamaxx? Are they truly silent by comparison?

I dont mind a little noise, but i would prefer silence. I do not plan on starting with a sump, so this will be hang on back, initially, and possibly might never include a sump. If i get to that point, ill add one in later, or by that time might expand to a much larger setup and keep this one without a sump.

Protein skimmer would definitely stay in the back at this point.

Again, this is also my first venture into this, and i plan on buying the skimmer first. I want to minimize water changes in the long term and will built an auto top off with timer system for long term RO maintainence.

Besides the skimmer, i was considering the purchase of dead live rock now, or making it myself (with crushes coral, aragonite and portland cement) and curing it for a couple weeks.

I will get some of the more expensive purple live rock to seed the tank once everything has been pieced together, but i like the idea of building the rock myself, as i work with construction mud for a living.

So, first things first. Which skimmer to buy first? Then, is it still OK to make one's own live rock?

 

[Nick Shades]

For some reason i can't edit the OP, so I'll ammend here.

I was mistaken by the skimmer that i listed 3rd. It is the JBJ nano skimmer, not the coralife which i was referencing.

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[bmitchell138]

I have the Tunze 9004 in my 29g which is the big brother to the 9002. I have been very pleased with its output and it is very quiet. Good luck with your build!

 

[Pmj]

I have the 9002 on my 34g. It's ok but hadn't had much experience with others until I recently upsized to a different tank. It's annoying in that you have to clean a small elbow of salt/calcium/etc every few months as it slowly stops working as well, and it's not fun to clean (I usually use a safety pin). Does it's job ok though.

I'm not sure why you are buying the skimmer first but I wouldn't. If you want to do things slowly, I'd start with tank, water, rocks and a pump and let the rocks cycle correctly over a long period of time. You won't need a skimmer, lights, etc. during this period and you could continue planning out what you want to do. Some don't even run skimmers on small tanks.

 

[Nick Shades]

I'm not sure why you are buying the skimmer first but I wouldn't. If you want to do things slowly, I'd start with tank, water, rocks and a pump and let the rocks cycle correctly over a long period of time. You won't need a skimmer, lights, etc. during this period and you could continue planning out what you want to do. Some don't even run skimmers on small tanks.

Simple answer, I want to have absolutely everything, hardware wise, before I even get the live rock or sand.

SW is still completely new to me, and I am really excited about finally diving in head first on this.

You are absolutely right, I could start on everything without the protein skimmer, but I really want to know how every component works thst I am not familiar with coming from fw, only, and the protein skimmer, while understanding much about its purpose, is still something I do not quite understand.

Yes, I could probably get away without one, but I want to have everything in addition to a nano refugium with macro algae.

This is new to me. I want to have all the options in front of me to learn from.

Thanks for the input, btw.

 

[Nick Shades]

Okay! Everything has been ordered! I chose the aquac remora nano, and will just use a baffle mod to quiet it down.

40 pounds live rock, 40 pounds live sand, 150w jager heater and the jbj 28g intermediate. If i am lucky, it might all come in by the first weekend of june.

I am super excited.

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