new 28 gallon jbj nano cube!

[forrestcook]

Just brought my baby home today... here's a link to the stats in case you're interested: JBJ 28 gallon LED nano cube

I got to meet with the JBJ rep over at SEA today, took it home a few hours later. I know Mike ordered several more of these to have on hand, they're pretty impressive little setups. It comes with 25 1W "white" LEDs that run at 14k. There are also 4 .5W "blue" LEDs that run at 456nm. The white and blues are on different plugs, so I can throw a timer on each (or I can just leave the blues on all night). Another cool feature it has is two pumps with a controller that will alternate the flow.

My plans for the tank? My wife has wanted sea horses for a couple years now, so I'm going to try those as well as a few pipe fish. The hippocampus erectus sea horses seem to be the popular choice for beginners... bonus points for being able to find captive bred seahorses that will readily accept frozen foods. Looking here for ideas on pipe fish.

In addition to those critters, I'm considering a shrimp/goby pair. Mike over at SEA suggested that a randall's pistol shrimp would stay small enough to not be a threat to the slower moving tank mates. The goby I'm considering currently would be a yashia or dracula goby. Was thinking about a flaming prawn goby, but I've been reading mixed reports about them actually forming a shrimp/goby relationship or not.

I'm planning on doing mixed LPS and Macro Algae for the tank... the LEDs should be more than enough to take care of what I plan on stocking in there. For corals I'm thinking a few different leathers, some zoas or palys and some ricordias. I would love to try a cool gorgonian and I'm sure the horses would like it, but I'm not sure about their needs yet. I need to learn a lot about macro algae still, but I know there are a few local folks that can school me on those.

I'm excited for this project! Having the tank in hand will motivate me to get the rest of my stuff together so I can start it. I still need to build my stand... it's going to be painted not stained, so that part should go a little quicker and be more forgiving. I also still need to decide on aragonite vs. sugar sand... I've got aragonite in my reef tank currently but have never used the sugar sand. I'm going to be very picky with my rock for this tank... That's one of my biggest regrets with my current reef tank is picking up rock just because it was cheap. Now I have corals encrusting all over crappy rock.

 

[aquaph8]

Sounds cool Forest, can't wait to see it.

 

[savageAJC]

Nice! I've always wanted to do a seahorse/pipefish tank can't wait to see the progress

 

[sillygoose]

Congrats!

 

[forrestcook]

So the frame is built. I've got some birch ply that I'm going to skin it with. I still need to frame out the door and build the door. Then I need to find some molding to cover the seams, stain and seal the whole thing. Next weekend is my hopeful finish date... Then I can lug this (already heavy) stand upstairs and start cycling the new tank.

 

[Tanque Verde]

Nice. What tool do you use to hollow out those screw holes?

 

[forrestcook]

It's called a kreg jig... It makes pocket joints very quick and easy. I bought it halfway through the project or my corner supports would have all had these instead of a screw straight through them. There are pros and cons to pocket joints, but for a piece that won't be moving much at all it'll work great.

I left the tank filled all day, took a nap and had nightmares of broken tanks. Everything worked out just fine... Stand seems to be pretty solid and is level. Pretty stocked for my first construction project ever!

 

[vwcarter]

one thing i have wondered about the led hoods if all it has is 25 1W leds and the 4 .5 watt blues at peak isnt that just 27 watts? thats less than 1 watt per gallon.
sea horses would be awesome in a cube

 

[forrestcook]

The amount of light put out by a 1 watt led is supposedly greater than T5 or halide... I've been told I could do most anything in this, though they do make a 3 watt led version.

 

[Tanque Verde]

My understanding is that LEDs have outmoded the watt/gallon rule. For very few watts/gallon they offer a great deal of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), which is what causes many corals to thrive.

 

[Tanque Verde]

Thanks for the tip on the jig.

 

[forrestcook]

Tanque Verde - it's $30 at the home depot. find it next to the little dowels and other woodworking tools.

 

[Mr. Right]

Nice tank. I’ve read mixed reviews on the flaming prawn goby. From what I read there haven’t been any reports of them pairing up with a pistol in the wild. I’d go with a yasha personally. Either way good luck.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Nice tank. I'd go with a yasha personally.

Yasha's are really cool, I have one in my nano.

 

[forrestcook]

Okay - finished the stand! Here's the good stuff:

I just finished my aquarium stand and got it moved upstairs tonight! I've been building this thing for a while now... almost a month, I think? I've never really built anything before, so this was a lot of new territory for me. I've helped my dad and brother on things in the past, so I wasn't clueless but I'm by no means experienced at this sort of thing. I'm just going to give a quick run down on what I did here... criticisms welcome, I need to learn somehow!

I wanted an aquarium stand for a JBJ nano cube (28 gallons). I figure with the water, sand and rock I would be seeing a load of just under 300lbs. I decided to build the stand out of stud 2x4 that had been kiln dried since I figured that would be the most durable way to do it... I didn't want to use plywood as a load bearing wall and I didn't want to build it out of 1x3's like most major manufacturers seem to. I also wanted it taller than most commercial stands that are available.

The pictures detail pretty much everything about the frame of the stand... it's built completely out of 2x4's. Most of the joints are from a kreg jig, which I have read isn't the preferred joint for furniture that gets moved... this isn't going to move except maybe two or three times over it's lifetime. I have a very limited selection of tools which also pushed the kreg joints to the front of my list of ways to make wood stick to other wood...

The shelf is 3/4" plywood as is the top surface. The stand is designed such that the edges of the tank will be pressing down directly over the studs but I figured a nice thick slab of plywood couldn't hurt the sturdiness and would help to distribute the weight on the front corners since the tank has both front corners rounded off.

The "skin" is 1/8" birch ply that my neighbor was planning on throwing out since it was the left over scraps from his much more impressive DIY project. (hooray for free!) The door is 1/2" ply and all of the decorative molding is just the stuff you buy in the molding aisle at home depot...

I initially planned on staining and sealing the stand with a polyurethane. The molding (pine) turned out great... I couldn't have been more enthusiastic about how the molding turned out. The birch ply, however, was significantly less attractive. Turns out that birch is a tough wood to stain without a conditioner. I didn't condition the wood and I likely left the stain on for too long... I had spot where the grain stood up and got saturated... ruined the consistency of the color. Then, since it was rough in patches I sanded it down again... which ruined it even more. I tried staining again after sanding again and the same thing happened.

After a few weeks of staring at my bad stain job and hoping it would fix itself, I decided to just paint the stand. I let my wife pick out the color And finished it in short order. All of the molding was cut on a little yellow $8 mitre box with a hand saw from Home Depot. All of the 2x4 cuts were done with a power Mitre Saw and the skin was cut with a jigsaw (hence the reason I had to cover the uneven corners with molding).

 

[ynnhoj86]

looks great! that stand is a solid piece of crafting! if you want some sugar sand, my buddy Logan has a bin full and im gonna be going over there wednesday and can get you some if you want. LMK

 

[forrestcook]

Johnny, I've already got a bag of aragonite ready to be rinsed... thanks though!

 

[aquaph8]

Looks great Forest now get some water in that bad boy.

 

[forrestcook]

Well, it's been a while without an update so here are some pics of the setup as it sits right now.

full tank shot

Some candy canes with a sneaky people eater along for the ride

One of the red macros

Another red macro

Some of my zoos with the final red macro... definitely the smallest of my three cultures

left side of the tank

I've got my controller installed, just need to get my chiller up and running on this beast and I can start thinking about putting some seahorses and/or pipe fish in there. I'm thinking about a catalina goby too, since I'll have cold water.