beigemore's JBJ 28g Nano Cube Intermediate LED

[blazemore]

I still won't be setting this tank up for another month, but I'm getting so antsy about it I decided to go ahead and start my thread!

First, the tank story...

I've been out of the salt water hobby for about 6 years now. I was out of town last month in Dallas, TX and just randomly decided to check out some of their LFS for some reason. I really have no idea why I decided to do this as it had been years since I stepped foot inside of one. The first store was really crappy, but the second one, Exotic Aquariums, really wasn't too bad. They had a JBJ 28g Nano Cube setup at the front of their store. It piqued my interest, but I said "no, just keep walking" and continued looking around their store. About 30 minutes and several questions later, I was the newest owner of a JBJ 28g Nano Cube. They had their display running with the advanced light, but said it was actually bleaching a lot of their sps/lps, and they recommended I go with the intermediate model for lighting (kind of weird). So I did. I didn't buy the stand, which would've been about $80 more, and I'm now kicking myself because of that.

Fast forward about three weeks, and here I am. I've loaded up on equipment to get this thing going, but unfortunately I will be moving in a month or two, so I decided against setting the tank up for now. I'd hate to tear it down so quickly, so instead of jumping straight into my new tank, I decided to just gear up for the big day.

I still had some old rock from my previous tank that'd been sitting in my backyard for several years, so I rinsed that rock off, put 20 pounds of live sand (fiji pink) in a 10 gallon aquarium, filled it with salt water, and threw my rock in. I dumped some frozen mysis in there to start the cycling process, so that little tank has now been running for around two and a half weeks. I'm finally starting to get some red algae going on the walls. Hopefully this will allow my main tank to cycle quickly once I get everything moved over to there. I bought an extra 10 pound back of fiji pink live sand which I'll be adding to the 20 pounds I've already got once I get started.

Anyhow, here's a list of what I've got so far:

JBJ 28g Nano-Cube Intermediate LED
JBJ 28g Nano-Cube stand
JBJ NanoZapp UV sterilizer
JBJ NanoGlo LED light

AquaMaxx HOB-1 skimmmer
Elos Osmocontroller ATO system
2LF PhosBan Reactor 150
InTank Nano Cube 28 media basket
Eheim TrueTemp 100w heater
Hydor TheoHeater 50w heater
Hydor Koralia Nano 240
MaxiJet 400
Kent Nano Reef Part A/B
TDS Meter
Marine Depot Refractometer
SeaChemi Purigen
Chemi-Pure
2LF PhosBan media
Chemi-Pure Elite
MagFloat small size
API Saltwater Master Test kit
Giant piece of egg create
various plumbing pieces, vinyl tubing, and filter floss

I purchased my JBJ stand separately and had to pay way more than I should have. As others state, the stand shouldn't command the price that it does, though it does match the tank perfectly. I felt that I'd end up looking around for a stand forever and probably would've ended up with the same one anyway. Mine had a few small scuffs on it, like most other people report, as well. I ended up adding some braces to the inside to try and make it a bit more secure, as well as replacing the handle with a much nicer one. I saw someone else do that in another thread, but I forgot which one it was.

I plan on purchasing a JBJ chiller at some point. My plan for the tank is to start very slowly with a few inverts and some mushrooms and ricordea, and then go from there.

Anyhow, here are some pics of what I've got so far:

This is the rock I've got cycling in the 10 gallon tank. I've got it covered with some bubble wrap to keep the water from evaporating, but I've also got an air pump with air stone running to keep the water oxygenated. The Eheim heater and the Maxijet 400 are currently in this tank:

 

[ange062]

Chemipure and Purigen are redundant since you are running GFO and a big skimmer, just my 2c. Looks like a solid equipment list otherwise!

Welcome to the NC28 club, yet another Houstonian in the house!! Let me know if you need recs on good LFS' around town.

 

[blazemore]

Yeah, I feel that going both routes is a bit over kill. I'm just really paranoid about phosphates getting out of hand as that's what took over my last tank and I got tired of fighting that battle.

 

[blazemore]

I ordered one of those refurbished RODI units that SpectraPure has on sale this month. I ordered it Thursday last week and it arrived today. It almost looks brand new. I have an older RO unit from them I purchased back around 2003, and the build quality is similar, but now I've got DI capabilities plus a pressure gauge. Can't wait to start running this.

The only thing "not new" about this is a small ding on part of the plastic on the left side. Well worth the discounted price!

 

[blazemore]

Finally an update! About two weeks ago I got tired of the rock and sand sitting in that 10 gallon tank, so I moved it all to two five gallon buckets (minus most of the water) and sealed them up.

I finally got to a point where I am able to set my real tank up, so I began filling it with a lot of RODI water from my filter, mixed in a bunch of salt, then I added the sand, rocks, and water from the previous cycle attempt. The rocks started showing some black stuff on them, but I'm guessing is some kind of die off due to the water not being aerated while in the 5 gallon buckets. No big deal, it'll help finish the cycle with this tank, if anything. The salinity was a little high initially, so I let the water run overnight to see if it changed and to allow it time to clear up. I haven't done any aquascaping at all just yet, I just threw in my rocks for now.

The next day, the salinity was still too high (1.3), so I began the process of replacing some of the salt water with fresh water until it stopped around 1.23 or so. At this point, the water was still kind of cloudy, but I decided to go ahead and work on the rest of the "plumbing", which is really pretty basic stuff. I got the hoses and pump connected to the phosban reactor and ran that for a few minutes to test, but there's a minor leak on the intake just before the valve. I'm going to have to get something to properly seal it as zip ties aren't able to cope with the pressure (just using a MaxiJet 400 to run it). The media flows great in the reactor, but I don't plan on actually running the reactor until a while after I get some livestock and a bioload going, so for now, it's not a big deal.

The protein skimmer was setup as expected. I previously cut the pipes on both the in and out sections to make it fit better. It's not pictured, but I removed the big black sponges that come with the JBJ tank and cut a few pieces off of them to help absorb the sound of the water output. The skimmer was pretty loud at first, both from the water coming out and from the air intake, but after about 12 hours, it became very quiet.

The black hose wrapping around the skimmer is the output from the phosban reactor.

Last night I just got the Elos Osmocontroller ATO setup. I was worried that this was going to be more difficult to setup than with other brands, such as the Tunze or JBJ ATO's, but it was really pretty easy. The hardest part was getting the return tubing connected to the pump's output. I believe Elos recommends 3/8" silicon tubing. I had some 3/8" vinyl and some 1/2" vinyl, and they were either too small or too large. The opening for the pump is the same diameter as the 3/8" tubing itself. I didn't want to buy even more tubing, as I have a lot of this stuff, so I stuck something inside the tube to help stretch it (I used scissors), then I heated the tube with a lighter. This worked pretty well.

It's hard to see the sensor in relation to the water level due to how this tank is made, so I was trying to take various pictures of it to make sure if it was working properly, and while I was taking pictures, the ATO turned on, topped off, and turned back off. That's good enough for me!

So now I'm just sitting here waiting to see if there's going to be another cycle. I just ordered some Dr. Tim's One and Only to quickly establish the bacteria, and that should be here later this week. Once that finishes doing its thing, I should hopefully be ready to add something living to the tank within a week or two.

 

[blazemore]

**********************************************************

 

[Multiham]

Looking good! I've got the same tank which I set up last July. Just starting to add some additional equipment. Got my Spectrapure RO/DI this week, my Aquamaxx HOB skimmer will be delivered on Monday and I have a TLF Reactor waiting to be installed. Looking forward to your continued build!

 

[ange062]

You have some serious patience!! That MJ400 is pretty loud, I switched mine recently for an Eheim Compact 600 (same price) and the thing is absolutely silent but pushes more water. Best $25 I have spent on the tank in a long time!! For whatever reason, the MJ impeller design doesn't like any kind of pressure, so if you are using one with a flow restrictor it just makes this annoying buzzing noise...

Anyway, really look forward to you getting this thing stocked. The Dallas LFS wasn't lying about things bleaching under LED, it's common, but if you want to stock high-light stuff like SPS/clams that intermediate isn't going to cut it so be looking forward to a light upgrade.

 

[Jacsubi]

Looking like a great project so far! We seem to have very similar setups. What kind of fish do you plan to keep? I've been having great luck with Lps and softies so far, frogspawn has grown several small heads since I added it two weeks ago.

 

[krkosiba]

You have come out of the gates very strong with all your equipment. I am dying to see how the tank unfolds. Good luck I hope everything goes well with your build.

 

[blazemore]

Ok, so I believe my tank has finished its cycle, or is very near the end. I got that Dr. Tim's One and Only on Monday (the 23rd), I added it plus a maroon clown and six pounds of live rock on Tuesday (the 24th). I can see a very, very small patch of cyano on part of one rock. Here is how my poorly thrown together testing looks:

        | 23rd | 25th | 26th | 27th |
--------+------+------+------+------|
PH      |  8.2 |  8.2 |  8.2 |  8.2 |
--------+------+------+------+------|
Ammonia |  0   | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.25 |
--------+------+------+------+------|
Nitrite |  0   |  0   |  0   |  0   |
--------+------+------+------+------|
Nitrate |  0   |  5   |  5   |  0   |
------------------------------------'

I'm going to wait a few more days before I add anything else to the tank. When I added the Dr. Tim's, I turned off my skimmer (it's still off) and only ran carbon. I've been doing daily changes of the filter floss in the media basket, as well. And for what it's worth, I haven't turned on the UV light at all since I put the tank together. I don't want to use that until I'm pretty comfortable with the tank being more established.

After all is said and done, I don't know how well Dr. Tim's would've worked if I started 100% with dead rock (remember, my rock had been cycling/curing in a 10 gallon for a couple months). Some people love the stuff, some people hate it. It seems to be working for me, I think. I'll be checking the water parameters over the next few days to see if anything spikes.

 

[ange062]

Glad to hear your cycle is done and you are starting to stock it!! Just FYI, a maroon in a nano is going to be a bit of a struggle. Not only do they get on the large size for a nano, but also they are so aggressive (especially as first fish added) that it may cause problems with any other fish you add later especially if they are less aggressive (which almost any fish will be ).

 

[blazemore]

Yeah I'm aware of how maroons can get. I went with that for the first fish because I needed to get something living the tank to further establish it but can be easily removed later on when I need to. I didn't want to have to deal with attempting to remove something like a damsel down the road. I've done that before and it's a HUGE pain! I'll eventually replace the maroon with something else.

 

[ange062]

Yeah I'm aware of how maroons can get. I went with that for the first fish because I needed to get something living the tank to further establish it but can be easily removed later on when I need to. I didn't want to have to deal with attempting to remove something like a damsel down the road. I've done that before and it's a HUGE pain! I'll eventually replace the maroon with something else.

Gotcha, clowns are definitely one of the easier ones to catch! You can almost grab them with your hand when they are asleep, lol.

 

[WmTasker]

What ever happened to you Nano Cube?

 

[kupadupapupa]

I think it ended up crashing and he took it down because he didn't know how to do saltwater.