BennyJ's 28G JBJ Nano Cube HQI

[BennyJ]

Hey All,

 

Just ordered and setup a JBJ Nano Cube 28G HQI from DrsFosterSmith.com. This is my second foray into Saltwater and my first with a Reef. In High school (little over 10 years ago), I kept several tanks, mainly a 55 freshwater community and a 55 Chiclid tank. Later I turned a 24g tall eclipse tank into a live rock plus fish tank which worked out alright but I never really got more than an arrow crab and a couple damsel fish to survive for long. When I left for college I gave all my tanks to my high school science teacher and about a year later they all had crashed and I doubt were ever used again.

 

I just got married this summer and decided that I wanted to keep fish again, now that I am (or rather was, stupid economy) employed and have the time (and unemployment $$$) to give a tank enough attention to be viable. So I did some research, came across this place and really got into the idea of a reef tank, so I took the plunge and ordered everything I thought I needed.

 

The tank has been setup for about a week. I ordered live rock from premiumaquatics.com (I'll go into more detail below). I'm going to hang on for probably another 2 weeks and get a CUC, then there is a frag swap here in Chicago on the 25th I may drop by and see what I sees.

 

 

Tank Discription:

 

28G JBJ Nano Cube HQI with a Nanocustoms 2.18 Factory Retro™ 2x18W PC lighting with 50/50 10000K/Actinic Blue bulbs

 

2.1 Nanocustoms Refugium Light Kit - I plan on mounting this on the back in the center chamber, I'm trying to get my hands on some Chaeto now. I definitely think I could have gotten something cheaper that may be more effective

 

substrate is Arag-alive Indo-Pacific Black

Live rock is all from premiumaquatics.com

10lbs Kaelini Ultra Show Fully Cured - very nice stuff, lots of coralline, probably would be mostly what I'd buy if I did it again

 

10lbs NANO Live Rock - I didn't think this was worth it at all, there were some nice shaped rock, but it seemed to be only rock and lots of it was very small, marble sized pieces

 

5lbs Timora Sea Live Rock Uncured - I wanted a little uncured to see if I could get more wildlife. Hard to tell where everything came from, but this seems like a good bet for most of my hitchhikers. I really liked this as well

 

5lbs live rock rubble - they called and said they didn't have much so it'd be a little smaller than normal, but I think I got a couple pounds of sand to fill out the order so I wasn't very please with this purchase.

 

Overall I am please with the live rock purchase, but the nano and rubble wasn't worth it, most if it is scattered around the tank or being used as base rock

 

 

Just got the tank filled with extra powerhead and heater:

 

Now with gravel:

 

Now with with live rock:

 

Hitchhikers

 

this slug/snail - I couldn't tell if it had a shell or not, it was really fast and about 1/4" long. It moved sort of like it was walking (the left side would move up, then the right, and repeat). No good shots through the tank

 

Feather Duster - about 2" wide fully open

 

volunteer coral, the little orange guy (I think?)

 

Aptasia - there are about 10 of them, I plan on getting a few peppermint shrimp once the tank cycles

 

Not pictured:

I've got a tiny snail, not sure what kind yet

3 mussels, today I can only find 2, they have been pretty mobile so far

Two of the rocks have some plants on them, I'll try to get pictures later, still haven't mastered taking pictures of stuff in the tank yet. 4

 

 

What I plan on adding

-A Yellow Jawfish or Watchman Goby+shrimp

-purple firefish (for the wife)

-nemo's (because all the visitors ask where they are already)

-probably a coral or two as well

 

Please leave me any questions or have any comments about what I'm doing and if it makes sense

[HankB]

to N-R and congrats on your first tank. Congrats on the recent marriage and glad to hear SWMBO is helping to choose stuff. Of course that's a double edged sword. Often it is the wife who provides some restraint. On our case, it is the wife's tank so we have no restraint.

 

Since you know about the CMAS swap I guess you know about the CMAS forum at RC. If you're on a budget, look for stuff there since your $$$ will go a lot further and the folks there are really helpful. (The folks here are really helpful too, but CMAS is great because it is a local forum for the Chicago area.)

 

Anyway... I can't add much except to say that slug thing looks like a stomatella and is a good hitchhiker.

 

I like the pictures and that's a strong hint that you'll fit in well here.

 

Good luck with your new tank and keep us posted!

 

-hank

[BennyJ]

Things are going well, getting a diatom bloom started so everything is turning a nice brown color. I'm amazed at the amount of hitchikers I've got, I found another slug or flat work when I walked in after dark yesterday (no pictures).

 

I've had some problems with overheating. My apartment building has turned on the heat, but it's been in the 70's this week in Chicago and apparently our place doesn't get good air flow, so it has been heating up to the 80's. This is causing my tank to heat up even farther, it got up to 86 the other day when I left. I usually turn off the MH at 84 to try to keep it cool and open up the lid.I decided to take action and get a fan to put in it to cool it down till my apt cools down some. I went to Walmart and bought a 3 dollar battery operated fan and stuck it in, and it did a great job keeping the temp below 82 degrees. I didn't want it to eat up batteries so I had an old clock radio I wasn't using anymore and ripped the power adapter + socket out of it. Then i wired it to the motor and mounted the fan in a prescription medicine bottle. It's on the same timer as the main lights, so when the lights turn on, so does the fan. Right now it's mounted in front, but i think I'll relocate it to the back at some point.

 

Here's a picture of the fan in all it's ghetto glory:

 

Here's an up to date picture of the tank:

 

As for my final project of the day, my beloved Illinois Fighting Illini are taking on Minnesota for our homecoming game this weekend and I'll be heading down to Champaign for the game and to tailgate. I'm cooking up some chili for good eats. Would have made more sense if it wasn't going to be 75 degrees tomorrow

 

Deliciousness:

[HankB]

As for my final project of the day, my beloved Illinois Fighting Illini are taking on Minnesota for our homecoming game this weekend and I'll be heading down to Champaign for the game and to tailgate. I'm cooking up some chili for good eats. Would have made more sense if it wasn't going to be 75 degrees tomorrow

 

I-L-L

 

I-N-I

 

 

We graduated two sons from UIUC. #2 was in the drum line in the MI and got to go with them to New Orleans his first year. He also got us tickets to most home games. We always enjoyed the games and the band remained undefeated!

 

Good luck with the game tomorrow.

 

-hank

[Sun777]

Good start on the tank. I live in Aurora, IL and was wandering where the frag swap meet is on the 25th?

 

 

 

Thanks

[HankB]

Good start on the tank. I live in Aurora, IL and was wandering where the frag swap meet is on the 25th?

It's at the VFW in West Chicago - practically walking distance for me. You'll find more info at http://www.cmas.net/ or http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdis...amp;forumid=180

 

-hank

[BennyJ]

Some changes...

 

added the CUC, which I ordered from Blue Zoo, which is way too big and the excess is being given to some friends (Ultimate cleanup crew 25g). I had hair algae growing and was worried about it becoming a problem, but after the addition of the cleanup crew, it has been kept a much more manageable quantity.

 

I found a little nickel sized crab in the live rock, haven't gotten a good look at him, so far he's small and nothing seems to be getting picked on, hoping it's just a tiny emerald crab. I've also found about 3 more stomatella, which is nice, but not really needed with the current size of the cleanup crew.

 

Also with the order from Blue zoo I got my first coral, listed only as assorted zoanthid. It's kind of a green ugly color, though the center glows orange under actinics.

 

I recently aquired several sexy shrimp from my LFS, I had 3, but at late I've only been able to find 2, the third looked sick in the bag, if I could find him, I'd take him back. There is still a chance that he lives hiding somewhere or one hides while the other 2 stay out and rotate.

 

Just this weekend was the CMAS frag swap, so I went and acquired myself some new corals. First off is the branching green hammer you can see in frame with the sexy

 

Also added an acan I found that I liked that was $10 a polyp (grand total of 4 polyps). He's orange with radial green stripes and purple mouths:

[BennyJ]

another pic of the acan:

 

The final purchase was a neon green birdsnest

 

I'm thinking of adding a HOB fuge and adding a tunze 9002 skimmer in the middle chamber

 

Everything in the tank is looking good and the levels have all stayed very low, so it's handling the load well. It's hard when you're at a frag swap to say no to "just one more". I'll probably have a quiet couple of weeks then finally add a purple firefish to keep the wife happy

[hecsrt-4]

Welcome.

 

I would remove the LR full of Aptasia and try to kill all of the aptasia now. While your tank is cycling it is easier now than later. Aptasia is a pain in the rear to deal with and spreads like wildfire.

 

What LFS do you frequent in Chicago.

 

CMAS is a great site for locals on picking up used stuff so is Uberfrags.net

 

Wanted to go to the swap but work pwned.

[BennyJ]

I live a couple blocks from Old Town Aquarium, though I find their prices to be a little high. I think I am going to treat the larger aptasia again and go get some peppermint shrimp to take care of the smaller ones.

[hecsrt-4]

Yea Old Town is a little pricey, but they do have some nice stuff.

 

Try to check out Old Orchard Aquarium in Skokie and Living Sea in Park Ridge.

 

I am probaly going to ReefDepot.net in Villa Park this weekend, they have some cheap prices when it comes to Frags and fish. I picked up a purple firefish for like 20 bucks. Just tell Mark Hector sent you.

 

If I go it will be Saturday, it all depends if my Angler comes in this week.

[BennyJ]

Purple firefish at Old Town earlier this week was $60, think I may have to head out to the burbs

 

Yea Old Town is a little pricey, but they do have some nice stuff.

 

Try to check out Old Orchard Aquarium in Skokie and Living Sea in Park Ridge.

 

I am probaly going to ReefDepot.net in Villa Park this weekend, they have some cheap prices when it comes to Frags and fish. I picked up a purple firefish for like 20 bucks. Just tell Mark Hector sent you.

 

If I go it will be Saturday, it all depends if my Angler comes in this week.

[BennyJ]

not much to update, got some firefish, a few new SPS.. Wish I could have gotten the picture below with better focus

 

it's not as crowed as this picture looks

[premilove]

do you mind taking a pic of the fuge light? i was going to get the same light but i wanted to see how it mounted onto the tank..

[BennyJ]

do you mind taking a pic of the fuge light? i was going to get the same light but i wanted to see how it mounted onto the tank..

This is what I'm currently running, the nanotuners light was a little small, and the cheato grew beyond the light it cast.

 

Current setup Galaxy light from Drs. Foster & Smith

 

Old light from nanotuners, it's very small, should have put something there for scale. I hung it off the back with some hooks made from a torn up hanger (not shown)

[BennyJ]

I bought 3 peppermint shrimp to clean up my aiptasia, to go along with my Aiptasia-X treatments (which don't really kill them, only seems to wound them for a few days), except they seem to have disappeared. I saw them hiding for the first couple days, but haven't seen them since.

 

I know I have a hitchhiker crab I haven't been able to get a good look at, but I know he's smaller than the shrimp, so I wouldn't think he'd take all 3 of them down in a week. I may try setting up a one way bottle trap and see if I can catch anything that would eat them. I have 6 sexy shrimp and they have all been fine, so I'm at a loss as to what is killing the peppermints. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

[BennyJ]

Just got some new Acans, courtesy of Zoanuts and their Bag O Crap! sale last week. They've only been in the tank a few hours and haven't opened up fully yet, but they are looking good already

 

The pictures don't do green and purple of this frag justice, and the heads are huge

 

Looks pretty brown in the picture, but definitely more purple and green, with a bluish pink edge

 

Decent picture, if only I could get it to focus properly, I'll have to get out my wife's camera and take some better shots of the tank

 

He hasn't really opened up much, has his feeder tentacles out, but looks to be very blue and red when he fills up

[dfr1309]

This is what I'm currently running, the nanotuners light was a little small, and the cheato grew beyond the light it cast.

 

Current setup Galaxy light from Drs. Foster & Smith

 

Old light from nanotuners, it's very small, should have put something there for scale. I hung it off the back with some hooks made from a torn up hanger (not shown)

 

BennyJ

I am thinking of modifying my center compartment with LR and Cheoto also. I am concerned on the light attachment and can the lid still be lifted? Can you send me a picture of your center compartment lighting setup? Also the LR, did you put it into a bag so you could pull it out if required?

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Khayman]

BennyJ

 

I am sorry I have not seen this thread earlier. Your tank looks great so far. I hope you have found all the help that you requie when starting out. I know when I started the guys and gals here at NR were great.

[BennyJ]

Actually I need to update, just added a new inhabitant

[BennyJ]

I just created a new thread for my acan that is wasting away, anyone have any ideas how I could save it? Thread

[BennyJ]

Suppose I ought to post my latest acquisitions, I got a new fish, my very own pearly jawfish, now named Duncan. I build him a little home out of PVC and the snails love to uncover it so it's always visible in the tank. I want to find something to line the rim so it doesn't look so artificial.

 

He's sassy and he likes it

 

Got a new shot of one of my acans i like, the polyps on this guy are like 3 inches across when fully inflated

 

I bought some new SPS frags from a guy here in Chicago, they really are some great frags

 

Red Milli

 

Blue Milli and Blue-Green Acro, the picture doesn't do the blues justice

 

 

 

Finally, not quite a FTS, but close

[dahliaheartsyou]

nice jawfish, he is a cutie!!!

 

what size pvc did you use?

[BennyJ]

its 3/4" and seems to be the perfect size for him, as he can swim down to the T-junction and turn around

 

At night he plugs it up, he has build up a decent pile of rocks around his little bolthole from what he ejects from the opening in the morning. While the moonlights are on shortly after the sunset lights go out you can still see him behind his little wall looking out

[Bigben7]

Benny J! Hey, its Benny B. Zobrist said you had a tank, and that he had talked to you about it recently. I don't have one, but I've been studying, and am planning on putting together something in the near future. I was just puddling around, and I saw a comment by BennyJ, and happened to find this thread in your signature, and knew it was you from the ILLINI stuff. I'm subscribing, keep posting....