My JBJ 28gal Nano Build Thread

[ange062]

What does PBITAWA mean anyway?

ange, love the new blenny!

Pour Bleach In Tank And Walk Away.
Thanks, the blenny is definitely a nice addition! Wish I could catch my coral beauty so the potters angel could go in, it's so awesome looking!

 

[ange062]

Unfortunately the potters angel didn't survive all the stress Maybe I'll try again one day in the future, that is a COOL looking fish!

Otherwise, the tank is looking pretty good! Removal of that yellow and gold damsel has REALLY changed the tank. The royal gramma is constantly at the front of the tank now instead of hiding in the rockwork at the back. I have 5 fish left and they are all constantly out in the open now, it's the most activity I have ever seen in the tank.

FTS with all 5 fish:

Ariel the blenny:

It has also been a while since I posted an SPS shot. The birds and stylo's are still growing great, but the acros have never really taken off.

SPS Stage:

ORA Borealis:

 

[cherubfish pair]

Is the blenny one of those "fanged" venomous ones? I never heard of anyone getting bit but have heard of other tankmates getting bit.

 

[ange062]

Is the blenny one of those "fanged" venomous ones? I never heard of anyone getting bit but have heard of other tankmates getting bit.

It is indeed. She seemed very chill even when brand new and a few of the more established residents took a pass at her. There is literally 0 aggression in the tank right now between fish (first time ever) so hopefully it won't be an issue. I will have to get a video of her swimming though, so cool looking!

 

[ange062]

internet is freakin out, double post

 

[ange062]

Phosphates seem to be getting out of control, despite constant 0 readings on my API kit. Going to try a Salifert kit, and I already have Two Little Fishies reactors on order at the LFS. Plan to run 1 with carbon, and 1 with GFO, with a dedicated Maxijet 400 running them. I'll eliminate the Purigen and Chemipure Elite from the Intank media basket for higher flow potential, and only use floss.

Anyway, I noticed because of excessive glass algae and a GHA outbreak which is bordering on out of control by my standards (granted my standards are very strict).

 

[bwidner]

Prob will just need to step up your water changes a bit, the problem with phosphate is that gha and any algae really leeches it up so fast that there is rarely any in the water. I went through some periods of this over the 6 year life span of my large reed and finally just moved to weekly water changes(where i was only doing 1 a month) until it subsided.

Have you gotten lazy on your water changes? If not you may just need to up the volume of them slightly to account for the higher bioload the tank has. The reactor will make a nice difference as well once you get it.

 

[bwidner]

Prob will just need to step up your water changes a bit, the problem with phosphate is that gha and any algae really leeches it up so fast that there is rarely any in the water. I went through some periods of this over the 6 year life span of my large reed and finally just moved to weekly water changes(where i was only doing 1 a month) until it subsided.

Have you gotten lazy on your water changes? If not you may just need to up the volume of them slightly to account for the higher bioload the tank has. The reactor will make a nice difference as well once you get it.

 

[Than23]

In addition to a couple more frequent water changes (until its under control), maybe try a few new additions to your CUC to help break down food in your tank ?

 

[john miller]

My GHA was finally brought under control with a little less feeding and cutting my lights back to 7 hrs. Main lights on from 2:30 to 9:30 and moonlights for 3 hours each before and after. Tank is in a dark basement.

 

[ange062]

I have cut back my water changes to every other week because it helps keep all my parameters more stable and I hand't seen any adverse affects (until just about a week ago).

Here is my battle plan:
Short term:
- Loaner sea hare from my LFS
- Manual removal using tweezers
Long term:
- Phosban reactor

I am not sure I want to up my water changes again, but I will if the reactor doesn't bring the results I want. I definitely don't want to reduce my photoperiod, so hopefully the other approaches work out.

 

[ange062]

Forktail blenny is missing and presumed eaten. That's 3 fish in the past few months, wish I could find the culprit!!

Fed up with the tank, going to add the dual reactor setup this week and just let it grow for a few months. Hopefully I can get the GHA under control and maybe by the end of the year look at adding some new corals or fish.

 

[SlvrSurfRidr]

Forktail blenny is missing and presumed eaten. That's 3 fish in the past few months, wish I could find the culprit!!

I had a black mithrax crab hitchhike in on a piece of LR, killed 3-4 fish before I got ****ed enough to take every piece of rock out, boil it, and then pull him out. Sorry for the loss

 

[john miller]

Sorry to hear about the blenny.

Could it possibly be a mantis?

As a precaution I would go ahead a set up a leaning glass trap anyway.

 

[bwidner]

Mantis is highly unlikely unless there was a lot of early CUC members missing(could have been a baby and eating crabs and snails and now has grown), went too long before they started missing unless there was new rock added. Look for burrows around the rock work, they typically like to have multiple entrances and exits to their lairs.

Also do not run Phosban other than for a few weeks, its a pain in the *** to constantly change, it is great to start as it will leech the Phosphate faster than algae but the issue is it becomes expired really fast(I learned this previously the hard way). What I would reccommend, run it for 2 weeks, chaning it 3 times in that period, first time 3-4 days after adding, second in a few more then leave it in a week, after that just switch to GFO as it lasts much longer.

 

[ange062]

I had a black mithrax crab hitchhike in on a piece of LR, killed 3-4 fish before I got ****ed enough to take every piece of rock out, boil it, and then pull him out. Sorry for the loss

Yeah, I've been suspecting my brown/black mithrax hitchiker for some time, as well as my emerald, and I often see the CBS act aggressively towards fish. Came SOOOO close to catching the brown last night with a pair of tweezers, will try again today then setup a glass trap if not successful.

Sorry to hear about the blenny.

Could it possibly be a mantis?

As a precaution I would go ahead a set up a leaning glass trap anyway.

I'm confident I would have noticed a mantis either by sight or sound.

Mantis is highly unlikely unless there was a lot of early CUC members missing(could have been a baby and eating crabs and snails and now has grown), went too long before they started missing unless there was new rock added. Look for burrows around the rock work, they typically like to have multiple entrances and exits to their lairs.

Also do not run Phosban other than for a few weeks, its a pain in the *** to constantly change, it is great to start as it will leech the Phosphate faster than algae but the issue is it becomes expired really fast(I learned this previously the hard way). What I would reccommend, run it for 2 weeks, chaning it 3 times in that period, first time 3-4 days after adding, second in a few more then leave it in a week, after that just switch to GFO as it lasts much longer.

Thanks for the heads up on the Phosban! I'll run the bottle that I got and switch out often and hope to curb the algae problem then switch to GFO.

 

[bwidner]

No problem, I ran it before on my old tank cleaned the algae right up, then it started coming back....thats when I found out you need to change it every two weeks or it will leech back into the water.....It is amazing stuff to combat the problem, but GFO is much better for maintenence.

 

[ange062]

No problem, I ran it before on my old tank cleaned the algae right up, then it started coming back....thats when I found out you need to change it every two weeks or it will leech back into the water.....It is amazing stuff to combat the problem, but GFO is much better for maintenence.

Well I have a small jar of Phosban that I hope will help to quickly combat my problem. I also plan on making an order from BRS soon for starter Ca/Alk/Mg kit plus ROX0.8 and high-capacity GFO. Amazing how much cheaper things are from them, I don't know why I have been wasting my money on Kent stuff...

 

[ange062]

Well unfortunately my LFS only got my one reactor even though I asked for two Decided to go ahead and set it up STAT to combat my algae while the other ships in. Picked up the MaxiJet 400, 3' of 1/2" ID black pond tubing, and the Phosban.

I decided to drop the MJ400 into the constant volume sump below my skimmer inlet, and dump back into the right pump chamber at the bottom. This will obviously be modified once my carbon reactor comes in, but works for now. For the record, I removed both Chemipure Elite and Purigen from the media rank and am now only running floss.

I set up the reactor according to the manual, and used a long piece of clear tubing I had around to combine a water change and reactor cleanse into one session. Here is a pic of the setup:

I decided to do a full glass clean since it was covered in algae again. Ended up knocking into a few rocks and tipping things over, and ended up doing a fairly substantial rescape to get things back into place. Here is how it looks now, still a tad cloudy.

 

[ange062]

Found a new LFS thanks to a fellow RC'er that has a ton of high end healthy livestock. Its really got me wanting:
- 2 maxima clams (golden and ultra blue)
- ORA neon dottyback
- acan garden
- war paint scoli

Resisting the urge for now until I get the GHA out of the tank and add a carbon reactor, but good to be excited instead of disappointed again.