JBJ 28 Gallon Nano Owners Club

[WmTasker]

There is a running thread on the use of lasers for pest control. As for the laser itself, it is illegal to purchase a fully assembled laser in the US; so I bought the parts from separate vendors and solder the parts myself.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2101768&highlight=laser

Thanks.

Time to get back on track and get some input on my 28g build. Im trying to figure out how to get my refugium and skimmer on the back of the NanoCube. Below is a pic of what Im thinking about. I want to try and put it in the return side of the refugium.

Questions:

1. Has anyone else tried this?
2. Can anyone tell me where the water level is usual kept on the JBJ skimmer when it is running?
3. Does anyone have pics of their HOB refugium or JBJ skimmer?

Thanks everyone

 

[WmTasker]

I've been doing some reading around reefcentral. I have discovered that not many people are happy with the JBJ's LED selection in their hoods. Does anyone still have there hoods with the normal LEDs or has everyone modified theirs?

 

[ange062]

Aiptasia X also works great, only costs $10, and is totally safe (but will kill anything you squirt it onto, including your corals). It helped me knock out several mojano's in a matter of minutes and haven't seen one since. Pretty interesting to watch them "swallow" the paste then disintegrate.

 

[geezers11]

I've been doing some reading around reefcentral. I have discovered that not many people are happy with the JBJ's LED selection in their hoods. Does anyone still have there hoods with the normal LEDs or has everyone modified theirs?

I still do and yes, not wild about them. The whites overpower the blues, casting a yellowish tint. Thinking of removing hood and looking at more adjustable lights.

 

[WmTasker]

I still do and yes, not wild about them. The whites overpower the blues, casting a yellowish tint. Thinking of removing hood and looking at more adjustable lights.

I have thought about disconnecting one of the 14k strips of LEDs the middle and adding some royal blue LEDs to replace them.

 

[pleuralplexus]

I have thought about disconnecting one of the 14k strips of LEDs the middle and adding some royal blue LEDs to replace them.

Well one of my white LED strips in the stock hood randomly went out on its own. I added a blue LED strip to improve color and increase the amout of photosynthetic light, but there's still way too much white and everything is still bleached.

 

[WmTasker]

You can unplug one of the other strips if you think it is to much light.

 

[Slystone]

I am just getting a JBJ 28g Nano Cube up and running that I bought used. It doesn't have the transformer that runs the NightVue Lights on the CF-quad canopy.

Can someone post a pic of the label on the transform or let me know the output wattage and mAmps?

Thanks

I ordered mine straight from jbj. I think it was $12 ish.

 

[cracker642]

Hello all I have nan 28 and I. Have been looking for answer on here but didnt find it I have been adding more and more corals laltly before I add to much more is the sponge it came with and a ball of cheto and 5 gal weekely water change enogh everything seens to do great mostly zoos a war coral and acan 2 clowns

 

[Gagonzalez]

So I just wanted to post an update (and vent) on my tank situation with JBJ.

A little while back, I had an issue where the side of the tank was bubbling up from a leak behind the side black covering. I contacted JBJ about it and they were nice enough to send me another tank. Unfortunately, it was broken by UPS during shipping so it was discarded per JBJ. A 2nd tank was sent and I proceeded to do the transfer of rock, water, fish, corals and bought new sand. About a week after the transfer, the new tank also started to bubble on the opposite side. In addition, the 3 center chambers had a leak so the water level dropped to the point that water wouldn't flow over to the end chambers. Needless to say, not good! I contacted JBJ again and they sent a 3rd tank. This tank arrived with a small crack across the top back of the tank and possibly another on the side. Just for giggles, I decided to put water in the center 3 chambers and low and behold, it leaked down into the end chambers. I contacted JBJ yet again and was told that there is nothing that they could do but send out another bare tank. I explained that sending another bare tank may be why problems are happening since the foam in the box seems to support the entire unit with the light hood and not just the bare tank. They said sorry and that they could only send out a bare tank since there is nothing wrong with the light hood.

Needless to say, I am VERY dissapointed in JBJ and will not EVER purchase their products in the future because of the customer support experience and lack of quality control in their products. I am currently looking at upgrading my tank to a 50g Cadd Lights Artisan II, Stand, Skimmer and Sump as soon as I can afford it. I hope that no one who owns a JBJ product ever need any kind of support because based on what I have experienced, it will be hell. Thanks to everyone who has helped me in this thread, I really appreciate all your support.

George

 

[mrabolli]

I have had my HQI up for a while but just started adding life to it.

Rock was bleached and acid soaked so it started as white dead dry rock.

I added a small half oyster shell with Coralline algae to seed the rock. It unfortunately came with some algae that spread a bit. Most is gone but a small tuft of GH algea remains where that frag rock once was. I threw it away after my tank got infected with its algae.

It was interesting to watch the algae hang on with no fuel other than light. There was nothing alive in the tank.

Anyway its run with an Apex and 2 mp-10's. Battery backups and a Red Sea skimmer is the only filtration. Chaeto may be added down the road if needed. Rubble is useless or as useful as bio balls whichever way you want to look at it. I do have some sponges located in the back sump for mechanical filtration. Polyfilter occasionaly and I have a small carbon/gfo media basket in the skimmer.

Main lights 10am-8pm except they go off for 2 hours between 1pm-3pm.

3 snails
15 crabs
1 hatian anem
1 frogspawn
2 clowns

will be adding sand sifters and shrimp.

I vacuum the SSB when doing 10% WC each week.

Coralline algea just finally starting to make a small showing after 6-7 months.
Kalkawasser drip for ATO at about 7 seconds/drip but need to add some RO during the day manually. At night it seems to fill up a bit and during the day it gets too low.

During these cooler winter months in S. Florida I can get the PH, Temp where it needs to be by having the windows opened in the house. Sits right at 78 degrees and 8.2-8.3. When the house is closed up and AC running the tank will climb from 78 to 80. I have a 2 hour break from the mainlight for this purpose. It climbs back to 80 before going off for the evening. When the house is closed up the PH sits at around 8.0 -8.1. Fan kicks on and seems to keep things on the level. The fan is inefficient and an Azoo might be better but Im not sure I can mount it. I assume the two fan vs the four fan model is the only choice. My skimmer takes up more than half the space avail back there to hang anything.

I need an actinic upgrade!! what are the options nowadays since nanocustoms is out of business?

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/f12KRBfh-E4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Chromakey]

Good Day:

I just upgraded my stock to return pumps to the Eheim Compact 1000 pumps. They do fit and I had to use the boiling water trick to fit the 1/2" tube over the 5/8" outlet on the pump.

I am using them a full flow with the JBJ Ocean Pulse Duo Wavemaker. The problem I am having is that there is a large thud every time the pump starts. I switched the timing to every 6 minutes but it is still noticeably and I am worried about the wear on the pump. I think it is the impeller "knocking" when it starts up. I put some foam around the pump and made sure that the outside of the pump was hitting the tank. It isn't.

I was wondering if anyone ran across this issue and if there is a workaround.

Thanks for your help,

Michael

 

[MrIcky]

Been a while, so I thought I'd post up a couple pics

Been a while, so I thought I'd post up a couple pics

 

[28gtortuga]

This is just a comment on my latest upgrade. I recently purchased a 1/10th jbj chiller along with a aquac remora with a 1200. Since then I noticed my factory pumps working with less pressure so I now upgraded the factory 2 powerheads to two maxijet 1200's and also added a maxijet 1200 with the suregrip inside the bottom rear of the tank and in my opinion it is almost perfect flow, by the way I also took out the wavemaker so all the pumps run constantly and my tank looks so much cleaner in just one week and the corals have started to open up more even.

i just set up my JBJ Nano. i noticed the flow is very low with the stock pumps and a lot of specks floating in the water constantly. i ordered the 1200 Pumps to replace the stock pumps. will the overflow handle the two 1200 pumps running constantly? i also am installing hydor flo rotating heads. any opinions on whether these pumps with hydors will be adequate flow?

 

[kaskiles]

If you add enough saltwater to the system, the overflow will handle them. I think those pumps with hydor rotators will be good flow. I would take the 1200 w/ rotators off the wavemaker.

It's always nice to have a powerhead or two down in the tank though... Maybe get some hydor PHs for the wavemaker.

 

[Gagonzalez]

I have Hydor Rotator heads and I used 2 Maxijet 1200's with an In-Tank basket and I had to change my pad (In-Tank poly pad) every 8hrs. Not good. I have since dropped back down to the original Accella pumps and have adjusted the output on 1 side down a little and I am now getting 24hrs before needing to change pads. I do however have cheato growing in the bottom chamber with a JBJ nano glo light so I am sure this has an effect. I also use 2 Koralia Nano 425's in the tank itself for flow.

If I remember correctly, Ange uses 2 TLF150 reactor's and no cheato with Eheim 1000 pumps, In tank basket, and in tank poly pad and has the pumps turned down a little also but gets about 48 hours before pad replacement.

Personally, I think the Maxijet 1200's are too much. I would stick with the accella's and turn to in tank powerheads for flow instead such as a few Koralia Nano's or even better would be a Vortech MP10.

Good Luck.

 

[ange062]

Here is a FTS of my JBJ 28. I started it in March 2012, and moved once in November. Currently have 4 fish:2 Percula Clowns, tailspot blenny and a yasha goby with pistol shrimp.

Your tank has really come along well bud, glad to see it!!

If you add enough saltwater to the system, the overflow will handle them. I think those pumps with hydor rotators will be good flow. I would take the 1200 w/ rotators off the wavemaker.

It's always nice to have a powerhead or two down in the tank though... Maybe get some hydor PHs for the wavemaker.

While this is true to some extent, too much flow may cause you to have to change your floss one or more times daily before it gets too clogged to handle the flow without spilling over the basket. And this is assuming that you are using the much larger InTank basket and not the stock one. I prefer the Eheim Compact 1000 pumps as they have flow adjusters to let me dial in flow to where I need it. They are also much quieter than the MaxiJet offerings and only a couple bucks more.

I have Hydor Rotator heads and I used 2 Maxijet 1200's with an In-Tank basket and I had to change my pad (In-Tank poly pad) every 8hrs. Not good. I have since dropped back down to the original Accella pumps and have adjusted the output on 1 side down a little and I am now getting 24hrs before needing to change pads. I do however have cheato growing in the bottom chamber with a JBJ nano glo light so I am sure this has an effect. I also use 2 Koralia Nano 425's in the tank itself for flow.

If I remember correctly, Ange uses 2 TLF150 reactor's and no cheato with Eheim 1000 pumps, In tank basket, and in tank poly pad and has the pumps turned down a little also but gets about 48 hours before pad replacement.

Personally, I think the Maxijet 1200's are too much. I would stick with the accella's and turn to in tank powerheads for flow instead such as a few Koralia Nano's or even better would be a Vortech MP10.

Good Luck.

Agree completely, you only need so much turnover for the filtration system. Display tank circulation is a different story all together and requires a good powerhead (or two) for long term tank health IMO. Can't go wrong with an MP10 of course, but I'm sure some cheaper powerheads on the stock wavemaker would work well on a budget. Don't confuse filtration turnover and display tank powerhead turnover is my point, the latter is more important than the former and really should be dealt with separately.

 

[Krazie4Acans]

Has anyone done and DIY mods to their Stock LED hood?

For me the Stock hood is way too white and over bright. I have added 12 - 3watt Royal blue and 2 - 3watt UV LEDs to mine on a dimmable driver. I think I am also going to either unplug or replace one strip of the stock whites with some other colors (I.E. Green, Red, Cyan, Salmon, natural white) to bring in less intensity but more color definition. Has anyone else done anything like this?

Does anyone have a good design for a dimming control for the LM317's used in the stock hood?

 

[Pastey]

The closer my 200 gets to being ready to go wet, the closer this tank gets to being torn down and repurposed but, here is a recent FTS:

 

[mrabolli]

Huge problem with 28 nanocube hood. I popped it off to replace stock MH light. Everything looked good except some light rust on some of the screws holding the plastic cover and rubber seals. Popped it off again 2 weeks later to again change the bulb to a 20k and all the screw grommets werw cracked and broken. I didnt over tighten the screws the first time. I did add a little white grease to each screw to prevent the rusting. Now all the attachment points of the clear plastic shield are broken. Isthis a common problem with the nanocube hood?

Now I have to find a replacment source.