Colione's JBJ 28g 90w LED, Now with BRS Dual Reactor Options

[Colione]

COLIONE’S INFINITE TANK OF FISH

Overview Plan:
28g JBJ HQI Nano Cube
30 lbs Live Rock
30 lbs Black Sand
Refugium in the Back (in the works)
18w 50/50 PC 'Fuge Light (In the works)
Clown (months away)
Diamond Goby & Pistol Shrimp (Months Away)
Mandarin Cogy / Dragonet (Year Away)

Permalink to all Blog and Pics:
Colione's Infinite Tank of Fish


DAY 0 - NEW TANK
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008


Hey Everyone!

So this is my blog all about the set up of my new fish tank! I want to document my progress cause I'm kinda like that.

Hopefully this will be fun and entertaining to follow along, one thing I can guarantee, is a lot of
good well-exposed photographs and if you know me ... of course some really cool videos.

After months of begging myself to get a tank, hours and hours of reading books and online, I finally convinced myself to get one. Livining in an apartment in the Valley of Los Angeles the only options really was a nano. After reasearch the best tank for the dollar seemed to be the 28 gallon JBJ Nano Cube with 150w of Metal Halide lights.

The cheapest place I could find one was on eBay. NanoCustoms had auctions going on for a while, which I was watching. I woke up at 7am and bid on the one I wanted. I won it for $380. To save some more I went over to their shop in Newbury Park and picked it up. I also bought a stand there. They were SUPER helpful, and super cool. I would totally recommended buying from them. They gave me the downlow on all of their gear, what waswhat, what I needed from them, and what I needed from someone else. Great service.

Got home, and set up the bad boy! Check it out.




Thinking about things, I went out to Home Depot and bought a bunch of Aquarium goodies.
These are just things I think I need.




3 5 gal buckets. (To bring home RO Water)
Gloves
Underwater Epoxy
Power stripe
basic timer
clear tube

Coming soon .. water!



SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2008


Super excited to get the tank going!

Woke up, did some reading on what I needed to buy today, and headed off to the fish store with 3 5gal buckets and a huge empty Arrowhead bottle!

Purchased some live rock from Aquarium Works on Burbank. Jose was there, and he was mad cool. I got some great rock, and lucky for me, a few pieces that have that lovely purple coraline on them!

Aquarium works didn’t have a all-in-one test kit. Individually all of the tests I needed would of cost me about $80. So after I picked up the live rock, water, mini-powerhead for mixing (waay too mini), hydrometer, and salt (and $208 later) I went down to Ventura to Underwater Depot. I drove very carefully, and at Underwater Depot I picked up 40 lbs of Black Sand (30 for tank, 2.5 for Refugium - more on that later), and a ... freshwater testing kit? Dammit. They sold me the wrong one. And I didn’t realise it until I opened it up.

That’s enough. Here are the pics.

Carrying 250 lbs of water from the parking lot, up flights of stairs ... sucks





Putting my brains to work.





Temp live rock layout.



Success! Almost ...
You know, I always see people’s tanks at this stage, and I’m like ... man their tank looks like crap. The picture sucks, why did they post this. Well ... now I know why.




Another cloudy angle




Tomorrow will bring test kits and numbers, fuge light with my own light-attaching apparatus, and looking for life!


MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2008


I couldn’t sleep too much last night, I was way too amped about the tank. So after going to bed at 2:30 reading about Mandarin Goby’s / Dragonets I woke up at 8am.

A little less cloudy this morning. I read this guide (many times before, but also again last night) and it said I should of rinsed my substrate (sand). Whoops! I guess it was to prevent the cloudiness. The good thing about it though, which I read in another guide, is that when it’s cloudy, you can turn on your pumps/powerheads and you can really see your flow and check for deadspots. Which I did. Though, I don’t really know exactly how to identify a deadspot ... but stuff looked like it was floating around all areas of the tank. So I guess I’m good.

I still haven’t boughten a heater (or a chiller). And I’m happy to report that my tank is naturally staying at 78-82º. Obviously I’m going to get both of these things (I’m very much resenting having to buy a chiller) but it’s cool to know that even if I had both of them the temp would be exactly the same. It’s like I’m inadvertently winning against the need to buy tons of equipment.



Refugium:

I definitely want to start a refugium. I just think the idea is so cool. Obviously I like the idea of having macro algae in the water to help keep things clean, but the coolness factor that it’s a little breeding grounds for ‘pods is just fascinating. I went back and fourth on the decision between a Hang on the Back (HOB) Refugium and one i the empty middle chamber of the 28g Tank.

After getting the tank, and seeing how much space is back there, I decided to go with that. I can always add a HOB (Which I still might do, with a cool mod to overflow back into the tank).

Here’s the plan.




The Lights.
Plan is to get an 18W 50/50 PC fixture and hang it on the back with some sort of apparatus I find at home depot. The initial thought was to get velcro tape and stick it right on there, but I hear these lamps get a bit warm, so I’d like to get some airflow in there. I’d also like to see in there even though the back of the tank is about 5 inches from the wall.


Got the test kit. And here is the word.

Temp: 81º F
Specific Gravity: 1.019*
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0.1 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm


This is what I understand. Stuff lives on your rock. When you take it from where you got it, some of that stuff dies. When you put it in your tank that dead stuff is decomposed by bacteria also from the rock producing Ammonia. More bacteria take the Ammonia and convert it into Nitrite. And even more Bacteria convert that into Nitrate.

So this is a bit odd to have Nitrate without any of the other two. But this is what I figure. The Ammonia is from my tank, it is just starting to produce as the cycle starts, and the Nitrate is from the rock that I brought in. The rock’s tank nitrogen cycle was in full swing, which means there was probably a good presence of Nitrate. So lucky me, I got some Nitrate Hitchhikers!

I ordered a titanium heater and testing kits as well as calcium (Kwalassesnnsess?) from Marine Depot. I also ordered the 18w 50/50 PC light that I’m going to hook up into a fuge light. I’m excited about that!

Cloudyness Be Gone.



I am thinking of changing the aquascaping. I love the high cliffs feel, but the huge plate rock at the top is going to serve no purpose. It’s too high to place corals, and shades too much. Let’s switch the rock at 12 o’clock with the rock at 10 o’clock.

Tomorrow will bring ... new aquascaping pics? Probably nothing cool is going to happen until I get the fuge light.



* The Coralife Deep 6 Hydrometer ... sucks. I always read online ‘buy a refractometer’, and I was like ‘why? This thing works fine!’. Until you get air bubbles stuck on the little level and it shows your specific gravity is through the roof. But then you begin to wonder ... well, there’s two little bubbles on the level, is that making a difference? Is it really lower? How much lower? Needless to say, I’m buying a refractometer on eBay as soon as I am done typing this.

This post has been edited by Colione: Feb 13 2010, 03:45 AM

[Colione]

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008


So I realised that my plate Live Rock at the top really didn’t serve a purpose.

So I took that out, and the other big piece out. Smashed the big rock in half, and rescaped.





I also threw the LR rubble into the back center chamber to make a Refugium.




Looks like it settled and I can fit some more. Gotta save room for cheato tho!

Unfortunately ... I had plans in the future to get the Tunze Nano Skimmer. But upon more research I’ve realized that it has to fit in the middle chamber. Soooo ... since the LR is already in there, I guess I ain’t getting one! ... ... unless ... I get a Hang on the Back Aquafuge, AND the Tunze Nano Skimmer.

I really need to stop spending.

Because I think I’ve decided to get the Neptune Aquacontroller Jr. as well as some sort of chiller.
Since my current fan set up isn’t quite working out.




Since the Aquacontroller has Seasonal light phases ... I’ll have to get some more lights! I want some lights (perhaps Actinc? Though I know nothing of what they do ... just read about them a lot) to simulate dawn and dusk ... and also I need dimmable LEDs for the moon phases. The JBJ Nano comes with Moon LEDs, but I have no idea if they are dimmable or not. I guess we’ll have to wait until the Aquacontroller Jr comes to see!

I tested the numbers, though I don’t have them with me, then went like this:

Specific Gravity was at like 1.018 (I’m still trying to figure out how much salt to put in)
pH was 8.3
Ammonia was .5ppm
Nitrite was 0 ppm
Nitrate was 10 ppm

I really don’t think my tank has cycled, though the numbers kind of appear that way. This is my thought ... The ammonia is mine, created from the die off of the LR. And the Nitrate is also from the LR ... coming from the store, either in the water, or attached to some of the algae maybe? Because it came fully cured, there was probably some nitrate in the water, my guess is that it got transfered. Cause there’s no way after 3 days for me to have any Nitrate.

Lots of great stuff coming! Refractometer is in the mail TDS Meter in the mail. I got my ‘fuge light that needs to be hooked up. I ordered an array of 6 2500 rpm fans to blow accross the back to get hooked up. Going to order the controller on Monday.

I probably will be modding the hood to hook up some actinics. I need some advice on what lights are best to create a nice dawn and dusk ... as well as some dimmable LEDs that would work with the Moon Phases of the AC Jr. (Looking for options because I don’t know if the LEDs in the JBJ are dimmable, and I don’t have the gear to test it)










I found life!
Wednesday September 17, 2008


Isn’t this exciting?

I came home from Djing the other night, and it was like 3am. This polyp was standing up TALL, I looked in the tank and was like.... “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”

At first I was like ... “How in the world did I miss that?”

I turned on the MH lights to get a better look ... did something for a sec while the lights warmed up, came back and it was gone!

I looked closer and it just shrunk down.

It’s hard to tell how well it’s doing. The parameters are kind of all over the place, so hopefully he’ll survive.

Anyone able to identify this guy??






This post has been edited by Colione: Sep 19 2008, 11:43 PM

[adicus]

Really like your detailed time line of events. Looks like your off to a great start.

I do have one question as I also have the same tank. I found the need for a great deal of mechanical (filter floss and Chemi-Pure) in the three stage hang on for the chamber where you plan on putting the Chaeto. Do you have any plans for mechanical filtering? My water was squeaky-clean after the cloudiness dissipated and for several weeks after, but when the algae started and the CUC went to work, I found that I have to change the filter floss twice a week otherwise, I have a lot of debris in the water.

Almost all of us who purchased this tank found that we needed a chiller. I believe the one's that don't ended up going topless with an alternate light solution.

[Colione]

PART TIME CLEAN UP CREW, FAN MOD AND CHEATO


My tank has been cycling for a bit. Technically it may be a bit early for a clean up crew, but my parameters have been pretty much zero since day one. I had a mini ammonia spike (0.25 to 0.5 back down to 0.25). I never registered any Nitrites, and Nitrates was 10 pretty quick, and then has been hovering at around 5.

So I’m not too sure what this means. There’s so many articles on cycling a tank, but all of them are based on using uncured rock, or live rock with tons of die off. I purchased my live rock from a Local Fish Store which is about 10 minutes away. I purposefully took it slow and tried to leave the rock out as long as I could as I filled the tank with RO water, mixed the salt and designed the aquascaping outside of the tank, but all in all it might of only been out for 2 hours.

Anywhoo ... lots of algae is growing, params have been zero for days, so I figured, what the heck, let’s get a couple of hermits and snails to start munching on this stuff.

I picked up 3 Turbo Snails, and 6 Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crabs. Here they are acclimating:





CU on CUC



Here they are happy in the tank!





Living in the San Fernando Valley, a big question is heat. I still haven’t purchased a chiller yet, but in the meantime I bought a sweet fan from Aquatek in California and designed a custom fan mount with the help of a trophy shelf from Home Depot.








Most of the air runs into the back of the tank, but some blows over the top wisking away some of the hot air from the Metal Halide light under the canopy. I get really good cooling. One downside is the evaporation from all of the air flow, so I made a DIY auto top of float switch, made from a sharpie and a post-it.


Clearly I need to add some water.

It’s not quite as advanced as say a JBJ Auto Top Off, but it does the trick! At least for now.

Adding to the refugium is ... cheato!




Aww ... look at my cute auto-top off post-it in the background.

So I haven’t had any copepods or amphipods show up yet, which is ok. I am thinking about seeding some into the refugium, and then watching the main tank to see any make it through the impeller of the pump alive. Cause once there’s ‘pods in the front, there’s no way of telling if they are just there growing, or the refugium is actually doing half its job.

Tonight ... setting up the 18w PC 50/50 Light!

[adicus]

Colione:

Before you add a skimmer, you might want to read this:
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=330606

It is how to build an inexpensive Turf Scrubber.

[Colione]

Hey Adicus,

that's a really cool link!

Have you tried it? Or has anyone else?

I don't really have the space for it, but if there's good feedback I could be into it.


I don't really get how you a) get an overflow to flow out of the JBJ Nano Cube, or how you match a pump, pumping to the sump, and pumping back into the aquarium. Won't they have to match exactly or else the sump water level will charge? Of course an overflow would fix that ... but how do I get it to overflow OUT of the aquarium?

[berv]

Cole! I really like the idea of using the middle back as a refugium will be following your thread closely, if you haven't you might want to check pudge1515, damn good tank in my opinion! Dude, for somebody who never kept any fish(freshwater or otherwise, you rock!) I will also be looking at adicus's suggestion, SantaMonica has a very good concept, and it's some kind of an all in one, though, I prefer your approach and add a canister filter for mechanical filtration. The thing about this hobby is nothing is an exact science. Anyways, I know I will get flamed for putting hermits in a tank that has been set-up in less than a week although NH3=0, NO2=0, NO3=5ppm. Anyways, will be monitoring your progress!


P.S. Never thought I would be needing a chiller.... Hope the cold weather comes earlier this year so I could buy the aquacontroller or reefkeeper and forgo the chiller till next summer.

P.P.S. Damn wicked rockwork and I LIKE THE SAND!

[Colione]

Hey Brev!

Thanks! I just hooked up the lights for the 'fuge area. I'll prolly post about it in a sec.

Thanks for the compliments! I've never kept fish before, but I've been reading like hell. It worked out well, cause I actually bought my first book about 10 months ago when I was teetering on whether to get a tank. But the time I decided I wanted one, I had already been researching for about a year! So I just went out and bought one.

I know it was too early to put in hermits. But my mom was visiting from Canada, and she was so excited, I couldn't resist! They are doing great so far. All my close friends have come in to name them. So far they are Meow, Shelly, Hermie, Dodee and Mordechai.

Chiller Vs. Aquacontroller ... my thoughts exactly. So much so I asked people in SoCal about it here.

Thanks for the compliments on the rockwork! That's one thing I did tons of research on, what I liked, what I didn't like. And it was always black sand from the get go.

Yeah, I just read Pudges thread ... he's got a great tank!!

[Colione]

A Growing Fuge


I hooked up my fuge light to help the cheato grow.


I tried to use these 3M sticker hanger things, but the light got so hot they just melted away the the light tumbled to the floor.


So I figured I need to double up the support.


3 3M velcro tape thingies. Then 2 L Brackets with more 3M tape. The L brackets shouldn’t get too hot, they’ll provide the main support, and the velcro should hold it in place. I put gummy door stoppers on the L brackets as well, so right now its just resting on there.


Main View




L Brackets Close Up (Screw Screwing. Tape is the way to go!)



Overhead shot





And FYI The Tigger pods, which I didn’t take a pic of, and the ‘Fuge light.







I shut the main lights off because the algae was getting out of hand. I also added some Trochus snails which are AWESOME! My turbos, are kinda lagging, and very un-turbo. Trochus are all over the place cleaning all of the rock.


Also, I seeded the refugium with Tigger Pods. I figure, I should do this early so they have extra time to grow. I also had a big concern that the return pump would chop up all the copepods and amphipods from the ‘fuge. Since I know there are none in the main tank, I thought this would be the best (and only way) to test to see if they can make it through alive! Boy they sure can! .... infact too much so. I don’t know how much were in there (bottle said 2000-4000) but the main tank was swarming with pods right from the get go. I keep checking the fuge to make sure there’s some back there. Let’s see what happens ... maybe they’ll just all die and there’ll be an ammonia spike. Sure hope not!


Tomorrow ... more snails! I am thinking a mix of Ceriths and hopefully a few more Trochus. I want to get some Nasseriths (sp?) But prolly not until I get some fishies.

[Colione]

I'M GETTING A LITTLE CRAZY

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008

It’s all too much.

This is a brand new hobby for me. I’ve never kept any fish, I’ve never really had any pets of my own.

I’m not too sure why I’m drawn to this hobby ... it just seems cool to have a piece of the ocean in your living room, or in my case my bedroom. Which is all good and fine, but here is the problem.

I am ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED with creating the best environment I can for this tank. I’ve boughten so much crap (albiet good crap, cause I’ve convinced myself I need it) it astonishes me. I’ve spent probably close to $2000 ... and I have like 15 snails and 6 mini hermit crabs in there! Not only that ... I’m going to put in $20 fish.

New powerheads, need em, gotta keep the flow up. Chiller .. need it, can’t get too hot. Aquacontroller Jr ... need it, gotta be ontop of the stability, utilize the ability to turn the fans on to SAVE money, so the chiller isn’t always running. TDS meter, need it, don’t forget the calibration fluid ... oh yeah, and the calibration fluid for the pH meter. Test kits are a given ... ‘fuge light? Yep, if I want to keep a mandarin. Need a koralia of course, new air pump cause the stock one is loud as ######, X-10 dimmer for the moonlights, speaking of lights, gotta upgrade and get Actinics if I want to have a Sunrise / Sunset (it would be mean not to!). At one point today I stopped and went “What the F!@# am I doing? I don’t even have any fish yet!!”

I know I’ll be happy with the tank, and it’s going to be really sweet ... but I just caught myself in a moment where I stepped back and said “3 weeks ago, I hadn’t bought a thing ... should it of stayed that way?”

I’m in one of those middle points, where the tank isn’t particularly rewarding yet (despite being scientifically awesome and gageterageous), but never the less it’s onward and upward for me hopeing that all of this research and money spending will pay off. I have a really good feeling it well ... but an equally poo-pee feeling of the money escaping my grasp. I have to hold on to not the cash, but the idea that, money is money, and if I let it go, it will come back to me.

Anywhoo ... enough psychedelic crap ... let’s get to the hardcore gear I bought!!


Good things come in medium sized packages:




Aquacontroller Jr from Aquacave.com. Super deal.




I did a lot of research on whether to get this or the Reefkeeper II. Ultimately this won out due to the pure sweetness ... I mean temperature and light variation. Like I said above I am obsessed with creating the most natural and realistic reef environment for my inhabitants. My approach is ... if it happens in nature, it should happen in my tank. Does the sun rise and set at different times each day? Yep. Does the temperature vary from month to month? Yep. Simple justification of a $275 purchase.

I haven’t really decided where to hang it up. Jason Natal (search him, he’s got a great tank / diary) put his reefkeeper under the ledge, which originally I was going to do. But my desk kind of gets in the way. There’s a cozy spot under the Porsche on my vision board, which is an eye shoot away from my computer screen which is where I do the majority of my work. So it may go there. Right now it’s laying on my desk because I like to pick it up and fondle it.



I tried a few locations out to see where would give me the optimal readings of pH and Temp. Obviously I wanted the temp before the water hits the heater and before wherever the chiller is returning water. The best spot was in the overflow mixed in with the cheato. This seemed fine for the Temp, but I didn’t want the pH there because the cheato releases CO2, which helps raise the pH. Having the pH meter floating around with the cheato didn’t seem like a good idea.

The only way to find out was to test! I floated the pH meter in the middle of the tank through the feeder lid, got a reading and put it in the overflow with the fuge light on. No difference in a reading. I’m guessing I should be good? I’ll retest this, but it seems fine for now. Here is a pic of the two meters in the overflow / fuge.




It’s Ch(m)iller Time!

Early on in my research I thought I could get away with an controller over the winter to help keep my temps down. Considering it was 108° outside my house today and it is October 1st that ain’t happening. So, I opted to get both.

But in the pursuit to lower government, I mean Tank spending I coincidentally coincided with someone selling a barely used 1/15 JBJ Mini-Artica Chiller. $170 used. $349 New. I cleaned it up, looks spanking new to me.




Just for fun here is a FTS (Full Tank Shot ... took me forever to that one out)



Tons of brown algae called Diatoms growing everywhere, which right now I refuse to buy a Mag-Float as I insist that the tank clean up naturally and with the help of my clean up crew.

Unfortunately the Ceriths have no clue a feast awaits them on the glass ... as they only seem to stick to this one rock.




What’s next?

Well, let me tell you.

More Flow! - Research told me that only one pump fits in the back of the JBJ HQI. The Rio 6HF. These pump 350 gph instead of the stock 266 gph. I was going to order these, but I think I can find them around the city for about the same price, so I’ll support the locals on that one.

More Light! - Gotta have a Sunrise and Sunset period ... dawn and dusk do of course occur in nature, so I purchased a 2x18W Actinic Lighting Mod from Nanotuners. Great Company BTW, I bought my tank from them, and they are super cool. Highly recommended.

Even More Flow! - I also ordered a Koralia 2. With the stock 266 gph pumps in there, the water movement seems, kinda puny. 350 will be better, but don’t WAVES happen in nature? I don’t want it to be a storm in there, but gotta have some movement!


Once I get all this stuff and hook it all up I will probably post my programming for the Aquacontroller Jr. That is one thing I wanted to read about when doing research was how people were programming their lights, waves, etc in their tanks. I think the way I’ve devised is halfway decent / though out, so I’ll share it in detail in the future.
Cerith Snails Snailing Around

This post has been edited by Colione: Oct 2 2008, 12:36 AM

[Colione]

Sunday October 5, 2008
DIYGDS



Doing It Yourself ... or Doing It Your God Damn Self, whichever you prefer.

DIYs are usually pretty cool, except for in two instances.

1.You have no idea what the hell you are doing.
2.You have ZERO tools and have to buy every single one you need.








I had a drill, but the charger had been lost. How much is a charger? $69.99.
How much was this drill that was newer and more powerful? $49.99

Anywhoo, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I’ve always had a sort of knack for this kind of stuff. So off we go!

Here is what comes in the 2x 18w Nanocustoms kit. 2 lights, ballast, power cord and a baggie of little goodies.




The ballast goes right in the hood with double sided tape. No screws? I can do that!



You have to drill holes in the reflector and cut notches out so the cables can run through it, kinda scary, but manageable.



Here’s the lights installed, all’s left is to hook up the power cable.



Drilling the 1/2” hole on the outside of the lid was the hardest part. 1/2” drill is freaking huge! Dremelling out the hole wasn’t the easiest either, but it makes for a real clean installation. It looks pretty professional!



Screw everything back in place and I was all set!



Let there be (Actinic) Light!



My fuge light is on a timer to come on at 3am and stay on until 3pm. Help balances the pH (which I can now confirm due to my Aquacontroller Jr). The problem with the ‘fuge light is that it completely lit up the wall behind the tank. Not so good when your tank is in your bedroom.

So I used my filmmaking knowledge and built some barn doors for the mini 18w 50/50 PC Light.
I used Foam Board and double sided foam tape.



Looking at this shot, you can’t really tell how far the barn doors extend. It’s like 2”



Since I had the new lights, and I finally bought a Mag-Float I was staring aimlessly into my tank for a while. I saw something unusual and said to myself “What the hell? Are those legs?!?”

I noticed a HUGE crab hiding in a crevasse. I mean this sucker was BIG. He is at least 1.5 times the size of my trochus snails. He looks red, or a deep purple. It’s hard to tell as he hasn’t fully come out yet. I’ll be watching for him. I’ll put up a pic as soon as I get a good one, so I can tell if he’s good news, or bad news. (My assumption with true crabs is that they are all going to be bad news for a Reef tank)

I also found a pretty big aptasia anemone. Not terribly excited about that, but I’m going to crack open the Kalkwasser and give this guy a good dose soon.

Thinking about getting fish in the next few weeks. Two True Percula Clown Fish, or a Diamond Goby first? Any suggestions? I read somewhere that Clowns can be territorial, and should be added last. Any thoughts on this?[size="3"][/size]

[adicus]

I would add the goby first as it will contribute to the CUC function.

[jervismun]

I'm amazed by the amount of work put into such a small tank... keep it up

[Colione]

Hey Adicus,

Yeah, I was thinking that.

But my other thought is ... everything I have is on the ground ... I kinda want something that will actually swim around! ahaha.

Jervismun ... If I'm gonna do it ... I'm gonna go all the way.

[adicus]

Hey Adicus,

Yeah, I was thinking that.

But my other thought is ... everything I have is on the ground ... I kinda want something that will actually swim around! ahaha.

Jervismun ... If I'm gonna do it ... I'm gonna go all the way.

You will find that the Goby will have more personality than the clowns - especially after it calls your tank home.

[Colione]

Wednesday October 15, 2008
Chiller and First Corals!


So my tank is finally set up. This post comes a little late, as I installed the chiller about two weeks ago. I had been planning on doing a detailed report on installing the chiller, but when I got all of the materials, I was way too excited and just hooked it all up and forgot to take pics. Anywhoo, here is some of the stuff I got on October 1st.

Heater for water changes, Hydor internal / external pump. Maxi-Jet 1200 as a new return.



I also recieved the JBJ Chiller Instal Kit.



This thing comes with two hard plastic tubes to hang on the back, and tubing to go to the chiller. You could just run tubes into the back of your overflow / sump, but this makes things a tad easier, and cleaner / more organized. Justifiably worth $20, but you don’t need it.


Here is the first U-Tube that I hung on the back. Basically, you hang it on the back, and stick one of the 1/2” tubes that comes with the JBJ kit.



Then that goes into the chiller. Like so ... (Black tube is warm tank water, Clear tube is chilled water)



From there I went to the pump. I thought about where I wanted to place the pump long and hard. And I figured that the water should go through the chiller on the slower side. This would let the water get a bit colder, and ultimately making the chiller work more effectively.

So with that I opted to put the return pump AFTER the chiller. Theoretically the pump should be blasting the water out of it, and moderately sucking it in through its intake.

So here is the pump, sucking in the chilled water, then blasting it at 300 gph back into the tank.



Where to put the return was also a question. Ideally I wanted to put it where the return pump was on the left side, but when the water dropped, it made a ton of air bubbles. So I lodged it in the skimmer chamber. It work pretty well there. It kind of has the potential to fall out, but I’ll hope for the best until I figure out how to fasten it.

Switching out the stock return pump for a Maxi-Jet 1200 was the best thing ever. These pumps rule, and at $19.99 from MarineDepot you can’t go wrong. I needed a pump to help with water changes, so instead of buying a crappy pump for that, I bought a good one, and swapped out my crappy one. I think I’m going to swap out the other stock one as well. Big fan of the Maxi-Jet. They are quite a bit more powerful over the stock pumps.

So after that ... my tank is set up! No more gear really, no more toys, nothing else needed. The chiller was the last thing I needed to make everything stable. Things stayed stable for about two weeks, and since last weekend was Reef-A-Palooza ... I figured it would be a great time to add my first corals!

Reef-A-Palooza was really cool for me. I’m still very much learning, so it was awesome to see such a huge selection and variety of corals. I walked around the entire convention three times before even thinking about committing to what kind of corals to get. Originally I wanted to get 2 maybe 3. Definitely some Zoa’s / Polyps, and I really liked hammer corals or torch corals so I was excited to find some of those. I started looking around, and the freaking SPS corals were soooo cool! I ended up picking up 5 pieces. Here they are!

A SPS with BRIGHT Green Polyps. $15 This thing is sweet, and was instantly happy when I dropped him in the tank. (BTW - No FW Dip, or acclimating or Lugols (... I don’t even know what that is)



I should of acclimated, but I didn’t. Next time I will.

Birds Nest - $30



Hammer Coral - $10



Pointy Birds Nest - $15



Goochsters Polyps - $30 from Scrapz at SCNRS.com Booth




So now since I have some important livestock in there I’m testing like crazy.



Things are looking good! I was in my local fish shop today and I put in an order for my first fish! A Diamond Goby. I want things to grow into the tank, so I asked them to get a small one. I also asked for a small cleaner shrimp. They should get them tomorrow, so I’m hoping for the best!

[adicus]

Colione: I don't know if you did, but I found that adding an extra 3 inches of tubing to the "S" tubes on the aquarium side for the chiller installation added an additional level of security for the chiller operation. Water is taken and returned from a deeper level with less chance of the "S" tube falling off the back.

[adicus]

Colione:

Did you have to do any mods to swap in the MaxiJet 1200?

[Colione]

Adicus,

That's a good plan, adding the tubing. I keep looking at the S tube thinking ... "that thing could fall right off and just empty my tank onto the ground..."

As far as the Maxi-Jet goes there wasn't any mods at all. The only tricky thing about it is that you have to attach the suction cups while the pump is in the chamber. Not all the way down, but at least past the lip ... it was actually quite annoying to do.

Otherwise, it works like a charm, slightly louder, but WAY more powerful, I'm pretty sure I'm going to swap the other one out as well.

[adicus]

Adicus,

That's a good plan, adding the tubing. I keep looking at the S tube thinking ... "that thing could fall right off and just empty my tank onto the ground..."

As far as the Maxi-Jet goes there wasn't any mods at all. The only tricky thing about it is that you have to attach the suction cups while the pump is in the chamber. Not all the way down, but at least past the lip ... it was actually quite annoying to do.

Otherwise, it works like a charm, slightly louder, but WAY more powerful, I'm pretty sure I'm going to swap the other one out as well.

Colione - Thanks for the feedback. I'll be ordering a couple of them to replace the existing when they start slowing down.