Moose's JBJ 28G Nano Cube

[scottpw25]

Hello All!

 

I am starting what will hopefully be a fun and fulfilling journey into the nano - reef aquarium world. My purpose for this thread is to not only document my endeavors as the saltwater aquarium world's newest

"noob", but to provide yet another source of learning for myself and anyone else who might have the same setup that I do along with the same questions.

 

As stated, I am new to the hobby and hope that many people will visit this thread to provide comments, suggestions, do's and don't s, etc. I have already asked an encyclopedia's worth of questions on this site and appreciate the wealth of information that I have gained so far from people willing to take the time to answer my questions.

 

So here goes nothing.

 

My setup thus far:

 

Last Friday I received my brand new JBJ 28 gallon NC w/150w HQI in the mail complete with the new free stand. Here is the spot where I my new aquarium went, that's my little helper on the right.

 

I can't complain about the condition of the aquarium upon arrival as it was flawless except for the lip on the media basket where you hang it on the side was broken off and missing. That's not enough for me to worry about anything. Anyways, by Sunday night it had been filled with fresh water, leak/equipment tested, and had the Instant Ocean sea salt mixed in. On Monday the SG tested good at 1.023, the PH was 8.0 ( a little low but the LFS store said that the LR will raise the PH), and a high temp of 83 after 8 hours of the HQI light on (hopefully the fan will prevent me from having to buy a chiller). Since Monday I have kept my windows cracked along with the small lid on the canopy and the temps have held between 74 - 77 degrees.

 

Equipment: Right now everything is stock. I have added a 100w heater, an azoo double-fan that I clipped on the back, and a mag float device. I currently have a few other goodies on the way including a refractometer, grounding probe (titanium), and a digital thermometer. Eventually I would like to have a RK2K, ATO, and a Fuge in the middle chamber. As of right now I am taking everything slow to learn and get things right the first time to prevent more pain in the future. I have read three books in the last month: The New Marine Aquarium, Natural Reef Aquariums, and The Nano-Reef Handbook. These books have really helped to build a base knowledge and foundation to start from but these forums provide much more info and it's nice to be able to fire away with any question you might have and have it answered in a matter of minutes.

 

Moving On:

On Monday morning I visited a few LFS's with almost zero luck. Nobody really had any liverock in stock and the ones that did were charging around $9.99 a lb! I did the math on shipping and decided online was the way to go. I was comfortable ordering from premium aquatics as I have heard so much about their LR from this site and from their on site reviews. I did purchase a single rock from the LFS because it was a really nice piece encrusted with purple coralline algae and some feather dusters (tiny). From online I ordered 12 pounds of Kaelini Tonga and 12 pounds of Timora - all cured. I also bought 5 pounds of aqua-cultured live sand and a 20 pound bag of ultra fine arag-alive; they all arrived on Wednesday.

The liverock was really pretty that I received though a few pieces were really big, in my opinion, for a nano aquarium. I did make sure to note to those guys when I ordered that it was for a NC so maybe it's just the "noob" side of me. They are nice pieces though. In to the aquarium they went, before the sand.

 

Now I have heard that many people change their aquascape several times before settling on one. I would love to receive as many comments/suggestions as possible on mine because I can't tell if I love it or hate it. I have to creative imagination and I didn't want to keep the rock out of the water that long so I probably just settle on the current formation. On the plus side there are many open crevices and places for critters to swim, hide, and perch. I also tried to image live corals in the future. There are 6 rocks in the tank total, one of them is over 10 lbs.

There seemed to be considerate die off from the shipment and so far I have not seen any hitchhikers (on the mail order) except for something that I can't I.D. yet (I think it's dead anyway).

 

Can you I.D this? (Yes I posted this question in the beginner's forum also)

 

If I am not inserting these images correctly then I will just re-post with all the images.

 

The sand really did not clear up until tonight so I will post some day pictures tomorrow...again...feel free to comment on the aquascape because I am thinking this one sucks.

 

For now, here are some images of this sucker at night under the four LED's. (These pictures certainly don't do the tank justice)

 

 

 

 

As for now, I have tested the ammonia today and it was about .50, the Nitrite was at 1.0. So I am just waiting on the tank to cycle, get a little algae growth, and think about ordering a cleanup crew. If anyone has perfected the number/type of CUC for the 28G, feel free to give a shout out!

 

Oh yeah, I did take the ceramic rings out of the media basket and move the sponge to the bottom level (cutting about 1/4th off of it). I bought some basic filter floss for the top chamber, and still have the carbon in the middle.

 

All in all, I am really happy with everything so far but am undecided on the aquascape. Day pictures to follow tomorrow.

 

Thanks!

 

OK so after previewing the post it looks like I don't know how to link images so I will just have to add them as attachments.

[scottpw25]

Day 3 of Cycling:

 

Temp this morning: 72 ! That Azoo fan really brought the temps down..it looks like I will need to keep it on a time so it doesn't run at night. My temp thermometer says that the safe zone is between 72 and 78..so hopefully nothing has died in the liverock.

Ammonia: It looks like it is between .25 and .50

 

Nitrite: The nitrite has come down from .50 to .25

Nitrate: 5.0

 

P.H. - 8.0 this morning..hopefully the live rock will raise it..should I get some kind of additive to raise it?

 

The S.G was reading 1.020 still ..I am hoping that the evaporation will raise it. I should have my refractometer in the mail soon to get a better reading.

 

In the mean time, here are some day pics..feel free to add suggestions on aquascapes..I might just add an extra rock on the left side.

 

 

 

 

 

If that sponge-like character in the picture on the previous post is dead..should I take him out? ( I am pretty sure he is dead)

[Lalani]

Looks like a great start! Cute kid, too.

[FillyGT]

Congrats on staring your tank thread! I'm sooo jealous of your computer. I get the hand me downs from brother's old gaming computers.

 

I'm glad you have a refractometer coming. When you are ready to do your first water change just make sure the salinity of the new water is higher than the salinity of your old water. Don't worry about correcting it all at once. Smaller slower adjustments are better for the stability of your tank. If you plan to keep corals I would try and get it up to the 1.024 to 1.026 range. Mine hangs out around 1.025.

 

I think your rock work looks nice. If you are set on having a lot of corals you could always include more rock so that you have more surface area to attach them. I like the intense coralline algae on the seeded rock you got! It's better quality than what I've seen at my local stores.

 

Good luck and keep us updated!

[scottpw25]

I definitely want to have a lot of corals so I will probably add one more rock on the left hand side.

 

For now I guess I just wait and get the parameters right as the tank cycles..from there i will wait for an algae bloom to get a CUC.

 

Can anyone tell if that one sponge/coral-like hitch hiker is dead..it hasn't moved and is all white...it's probably just a skeleton. My concern is whether or not I should remove it incase it is outputting ammonia and nitrite (though I don't think so as those levels have gone slightly down).

[scottpw25]

So it seems that I lost about 1/2 a gallon of water today. I replaced it with some that had a S.G of 1.025 to raise it..which seemed to bring it up to 1.023. I'm pleased that none of the algae has died off of the cultured rock that I got at the LFS store.

 

I got a couple of additions to the tank today; my digital thermometer and one more piece of Fiji live rock weighing in at 1.9 lbs. I really like the extra piece of rock in the tank because it seems like it completes the aquascape for me. It might not be the best scape in the in world but it has plenty of open area and tons of crevices for future critters to hide. I hope that most of the coral I will be buying will come on a little piece of rock to place where I want because the LFS had drilled through a piece of live coral to strap it to a rock so that it would latch. Isn't is called a "frag" when it comes with a little piece of rock?

 

Anyways, the temp thermometer that I had seems to have been about a degree high, which means that this morning my tank was actually 71 degrees and not 72...that fan really helped..I just need to leave it off at night.

 

Now I will just wait for the cycle to end and some algae to come in so that I can order a CUC.

 

Here are a couple more pics of the new additions:

[colinadam]

Looks like your off to a good start and are at the same stage as me.

I have the same tank cycling and also have Premium Aquatics Kalieni rock.

 

I have the Azoo on my NC24 that has exposed rear chambers. I use a Reefkeeper 2 to control it (As well as my lights, pumps, heater, etc..). The unit turns on the fan when the temp probe reads 80.5 and cools it down to 79.5 on my tank and it can be programmed for any desired range. An awesome toy to consider getting, has saved my tank from disaster once (Automatic halide shutoff when the temp gets to a set degree) and makes life so much easier.

 

You will need a timer, running the fan all the time causes major evaporation (And does a heck of a job dropping the temp like you saw). I would see if there is a cheaper alternative, maybe a digital timer that turns on every hour for 10 minutes while the halides are running might do the trick.

 

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out, a link to my build thread is in my signature if you want to see my setup (so far).

[scottpw25]

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering why I had suddenly lost a lot of water to evaporation..though I needed it to raise the S.G. I will have to checkout the "RK2", as they call it..sounds like it is a life and time saver.

 

I am glad that I bought one more piece of rock for the "scape"..I actually like the look of it now.

 

I'll definitely check out your thread..thanks again for the info.

[scottpw25]

Got a nice diatom algae bloom underway.

 

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - about 2.5

PH 8.2

Temp- Range of 76-78

SG - 1.022 (still slowly raising it)

 

Is it too early for a light CUC?

 

Here are some pics of various algae starting to grow:

 

I think I am color blind, is this 0 or 5?

 

Bubble Algae has started:

 

What type of algae is this? Good or bad?

 

Is this a bristleworm?

 

Hair Algae?

 

No Clue...

 

General Tank Condition:

 

I think I might order a few CUC critters this week...

 

No new additions this week..still waiting on my refractometer.

I find that having the azoo fan on depletes the side -rear chambers of the tank at a rate of about 5 inches per 10 hours of having it on...I just fill the top off water once a day in the rear chambers..it seems like I get a lot of bubbles in the tank if I don't top off every day.

 

Until next time!

[sl-atl]

Nice setup! I really like your rock-scaping. I think that if your ammonia cycle is over (and it looks like it is) that it's fine to start building your CUC with hardy critters like snails and a moderate number of hermit crabs. Some people do without the hermits, since they tend to bulldoze their way back and forth accross the tank, but they do provide an entertainment factor that the snails just can't. Instead of many of one type of snail, I used 5 species of snails (all Atlantic) under the theory that they may feed on different types of algae, but it's just a theory. It does make the tank look a little more natural though.

 

Have you tried plugging the fan into the same timer outlet as your MH light? If not, that may reduce the evaporation somewhat without your having to buy another piece of equipment (the controller) right now. Also, I was also getting a lot of the bubble action when I first set our tank up, and found that if I filled it up enough that the water level in the back pump chambers was close to the top of the divider that it gave me some extra time in that regard, especially since the soft corals really seemed to hate the bubbles!

 

Good luck!

 

-Stuart

[scottpw25]

Hey there,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I will have to fill up the rear chambers a bit higher to see how that handles the bubbles. As for the fan, I only use the simple Lowe's timers right now..I plan on getting a RK2 and a better timer in the future..i'm just going to slowly add to the aquarium over time.

 

How long did you wait from the time your tank cycled until you brought in fish/corals?

[lakshwadeep]

How long did you wait from the time your tank cycled until you brought in fish/corals?

 

Your parameters are the main indicator for when the cycle is done (ammonia and nitrite 0 with low nitrate). The order you should pick when adding livestock is 1. CUC (even before any noticeable algal bloom as a prevention) 2. herbivorous then carnivorous Fish (crustaceans like shrimp are somewhat finicky about acclimation) and 3. Corals and other sessile invertebrates. However, keep in mind that livestock requiring an "established" tank do not go until a few months after the cycle has ended. As long as you go slow with stocking, you'll save yourself and your tank from stress and headaches of disease, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes, and nuisance algae/cyanobacteria growth.

[scottpw25]

Your parameters are the main indicator for when the cycle is done (ammonia and nitrite 0 with low nitrate). The order you should pick when adding livestock is 1. CUC (even before any noticeable algal bloom as a prevention) 2. herbivorous then carnivorous Fish (crustaceans like shrimp are somewhat finicky about acclimation) and 3. Corals and other sessile invertebrates. However, keep in mind that livestock requiring an "established" tank do not go until a few months after the cycle has ended. As long as you go slow with stocking, you'll save yourself and your tank from stress and headaches of disease, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes, and nuisance algae/cyanobacteria growth.

 

Good to know..thanks a bunch.

[scottpw25]

Hello again,

 

It looks like it has been almost two weeks since my last posting. Lets see how the tank has changed.

 

By now the LR cycle is long since over with, I think that getting fully cured rock pretty much reduced the cycle to a few days only. I did wait until I saw diatoms, bubble algae, and a little hair algae to get a CUC. I ended up ordering about 5 hermits total (three scarlet reef, two mexican red legs) along with some Naus, cerith, and a couple of other types of snails. Overall, I believe I have about 10 snails and 6 hermits..which seem to be doing the job nicely! Also, with the CUC, came a skunk shrimp that has been my entertainment thus far in a coral/fish devoid aquarium.

Being on a budget, and "trying" to be in no hurry to stock the tank, I am waiting a bit longer to stock it with anything other than the CUC at this point. To make sure that they are not starving to death, I have been supplementing their diets with NORI (dried seaweed and a bit of frozen Mysis shrimp((for the skunk)) every other day..this system seems to be working out good thus far. The one type of snail (i have 4 of them) just bury themselves in the LS with that little tentacle probe sticking out..and when the food enters the tank they pop out as if I had rang a bell.

As of this point I am unsure whether to add coral or a fish first. I will try to find a nice docile, nano-compatible fish to stock the tank with first.

I have also been trying to get a system down for keep the temperature fluctuation as low as possible. I have the azoo fan coming on the the HQI at 10am everyday and shutting off about an hour after the HQI shuts off at night, which is about 6pm. Until I get the actinic light mod for the canopy, my light cycle has been natural light (the room is well lit by natural light) until 10am, HQI off at 6pm, natural light until sun goes down, night LEDs on at 8 pm. As for how this lighting is faring with my tank:

There is some form of macro algae that is growing and spreading pretty quick, pictured here:

The CUC does not seem to be eating this and I might have to think about removing it. I have heard that too much marco in the tank might mess with the phosphate level?

I did have what appeared to be Bryopsis algae forming on the glass and rear of tank, which had to have come from one of the live rock. Yesterday, I did a 20% water change, scraped it all off the glass, and am now upping my magnesium level to try and choke them out. Here is a pic of the tank with this bryopsis all over the glass:

 

The CUC really mowed down the bubble algae and the hair algae that was on the rock, check out before and after pics:

 

Same Rock (After):

 

For Maintenance, I have had to add freshwater everyday due to the azoo fan causing rapid evaportaion..but it has shaved about 4 degrees of my temperature and I have been able to maintain between 75-78 degrees at all times. We will see if I can keep this up as summer progresses.

The stock skimmer seems "ok", like most reviews say about it..it doesn't collect a whole lot just yet.

I wonder if adding a better one will take the particles out of the water that the hermits kick up.

My tank parameters have been great as expected being that I have almost no bioload in the tank. The LR and LS seem to be doing their part nicely..as I have thousands of copepods of all sizes. On the LR, I have feather dusters and tubeworms of various sizes, all hitchhikers. I have been able to keep the nitrates at less than 5 thus far and have been changing out the filter fiber at a rate of about once per week.

 

I will post more pics after I get a reply..seems I am at my limit.

 

 

My goal for this tank is to make it as automated as possible. I am going to compile a list of all the items I will need for this and slowly begin to acquire them.

 

I will need an ATO system, maybe an auto feeder of some kind, temp control system, ph probe (RK2 setup maybe), etc..if anyone has good suggestions for this setup please let me know.

 

Also, it seems I might have to move the aquarium to another part of the house in the near future due to a turn of events that will make the current room it is in into a nursery.

[scottpw25]

More pics of the tank:

 

Skunk Shrimp:

 

Left side, before algae on glass and rear were removed.

 

[scottpw25]

More pics:

 

[scottpw25]

Water Parameters:

Temp: 78

SG: 1.023

Amm: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

PH: 8.2

 

I think the weekly 20% water changes are doing a good job at keeping parameters in check (that and almost no bioload).