Bredler's JBJ 6gal Nano Cube

[bredler]

Here's my 6 gal in my dorm room. I just condensed everything down from my 10gal setup on saturday. I took off the top and threw on a 70w Viper HQI lamp. I also modded the back into a fuge/inverse photoperiod chamber with chaeto. I have two coral banded shrimp and a green clown goby. They're all doing well except the GCG is shy and still adjusting.

 

Livestock:

Rhodactus (hairy mushroom)

Ricordea (green, teal)

Pulsing xenia

White trumpets

Purple trumpets

Red Aussie acan lord

Some generic-ish blue spotted mushrooms

Blue favite brain

Three kinds of generic palys I got on the same frag for $6

Stylo (new addition, just trying my hand at SPS)

GSP

Dragon eye zoas

Eagle eye zoas

Fire and ice zoas

Some kinda orange-ish zoas.

Two yellow coral banded shrimp

Green Clown Goby

Chaeto in fuge

 

Hardware:

JBJ 6gal Nano Cube

Viper K2 70w HQI w/14000k lamp

Modular Surface Skimmer

50w adjustable temp heater (forget brand, but it's a good one)

DIY fuge light with 10w cf meant for Eclipse systems

Upgrading the pump to a MiniJet 606 this week

 

Water:

Ammonia: not detectable

Nitrates: not detectable

Nitrites: not detectable

pH: 8.0-8.3

Specific Gravity: 1.025-1.026

Water Temp: 78.9 at night, maxes out at 81.1 right before the lights go out

Light Cycle: On for 9 hours with a 20min break in the middle of the day to cool the light and keep algae at bay, off for 15 hours. Fuge light on for 15 hrs when display light is off.

 

 

Tank with flash so you can see the livestock, albeit with poor lighting

 

 

 

Tank with no flash so you get an idea of the lighting. This is overexposed, the light appears much more balanced than this, but it gives you an idea.

 

 

 

The Tank on my desk. Pretty classy-looking I think.

 

 

 

Detail shot of some livestock.

 

 

 

 

 

...more

[davidr2340]

Damn nice set up!

[bredler]

Damn nice set up!

 

 

Thanks man .

 

 

I'll have to post some update pics when my GCG comes out. For whatever reason, they're not super pricey, are known to be fairly easy to keep...but nobody has them

[BBMorgan100]

Hi There,

 

I like your tank and I'm about to buy the JBJ 6gal myself. I used to own a 48gal with 29gal refugium, alternate lighting, nice skimmer, all of that. I worked at a lfs in Boulder for a while and saw one of these 6gals do real great without any mods.

 

My questions: How did you set up the fuge with alternate lighting, can you add some pictures of that? Would you recommend this product as is? Is there any skimming, air stone of any kind in the kit? Do you skim this tank?

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Brian

[bredler]

Hi There,

 

I like your tank and I'm about to buy the JBJ 6gal myself. I used to own a 48gal with 29gal refugium, alternate lighting, nice skimmer, all of that. I worked at a lfs in Boulder for a while and saw one of these 6gals do real great without any mods.

 

My questions: How did you set up the fuge with alternate lighting, can you add some pictures of that? Would you recommend this product as is? Is there any skimming, air stone of any kind in the kit? Do you skim this tank?

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Brian

 

 

Sorry I didn't see your post until now.

 

No skimming. Just the JBJ modular surface skimmer (MSS) which is really just a set of teeth so that the water level can be set and has to fall a little so it stirs up the top. I'll post in the next reply with detail pics of the back refugium light.

 

If I were to set the tank up as-is, I think you could be very successful keeping LPS and softies no problem. I could have, but like the HQI look and growth potential. The filter does come stuffed with bio-balls, ceramic cylinders, and carbon...ditch everything but the carbon. The 18w of light in there is plenty for LPS and softies, or you could get a nanocustoms kit for $100 and upgrade to 36w and keep the hood.

 

I don't dose except to make very small corrections to alk/calc and a water change weekly.

 

-Brendan

[bredler]

Some details on the fuge light. I just have it on a separate plug-in light timer from the main light with inverse photoperiods.

 

 

This light cost me about $3 to build, but if you bought everything it would be:

 

PVC pipe: $8 for a whole section

Plywood scrap: free if you just grab from the scrap bin at Home Depot

Plug-in Socket: $3 at Home Depot

CF bulb: $9

Black paint: $8 or so

Light Timer: $5

 

So something to the tune of $20 depending on what you already have or if you don't care about paint.

 

I just cut the PVC pipe to size, halved it, cut the base out of some scrap plywood I had, and the top is a piece of plastic I had laying around (not sure what it was from...I save EVERYTHING). I just use an extension cord for the power cord...if you wanted to though, you could hardwire a socket to an AC power cord.

 

PICS!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Very little light leak, also almost no heating.

 

Here's the top-down into the 2nd chamber...plenty of light.

 

 

 

 

Here's the ATO that I just put on. Cut the end of the tubing off of the rabbit watering container with the help of a friend with the right tools (thanks graham).

 

 

...Where it enters the tank.

 

 

The view from the front. All you see is the flexible tubing.

[knoxvegas]

Does the ATO work off of surface tension and water level?

[bredler]

Does the ATO work off of surface tension and water level?

 

Sort of. The containter that holds the top-off water is air-tight. When you invert the container, water starts to flow out because of the pull of gravity. Because there is no direct inlet for air, a vacuum is created behind the remaining water. When the outlet tubing is above the water line, the vacuum is broken by the force of the water pouring out and pulls air in as the water flows out. Once the outlet is submerged, the vacuum is restored. At sea level in earth's atmosphere, a vacuum can support a 32ft column of water. So as long as the container is strong enough to hold the vacuum, the water will not flow out until the water level drops and the vacuum is broken again.

 

So yes to the water level, no to the surface tension.

 

If you want to illustrate this for yourself, do the following:

-Fill a large container with water

-fill a glass bottle with water

-cap the bottle with your finger and invert it

-place the opening under the water and remove your finger

-the water stays in!

-raise the bottle above the surface and water will start to come out

-submerge it again and the flow will stop.

 

 

same concept, just with a tube.

 

 

Equipment update:

 

I installed a Mini-Jet 606 today. The flow is markedly better, and the back chamber depth dropped by almost an inch !

 

I forgot to take pics of me installing it, but you guys have all seen a Mini-Jet 606 and the tank looks the same .

[Nanobuds]

i love your tank this makes me want to set up a nano cube 6 good job

[bredler]

i love your tank this makes me want to set up a nano cube 6 good job

 

 

Thanks!

[npkelly]

nice cube. like the DIY's. really creative. never would of thought of using a rodent water bottle as an ATO. now that's usin the old noggin. any issues with that though? just curious. keep it up. curious to see what you come up with next.

[pismo_reefer]

nice setup so far! i love the diy ato!

[bredler]

nice cube. like the DIY's. really creative. never would of thought of using a rodent water bottle as an ATO. now that's usin the old noggin. any issues with that though? just curious. keep it up. curious to see what you come up with next.

 

Not quite my idea. I saw it on someone's 12gal, but they had it just propped on the back of the tank. I didn't like the thought of it sitting in view, so I just hid it remotely. I had plans to do one of the same design with a larger container on the shelf, but it was difficult to find a way to keep the seal tight enough to hold a vacuum.

 

I've only had the ATO on since sunday, but it seems like it's chugging along fine. I accidentally lowered my SG a little in the initial stages when I was tinkering with it because I was adding distilled H20 without any evaporating, but it only went down to 1.024 so I brought it back up to snuff and now it's cool.

 

The rate of evap I have looks like about 32oz ever two days +/- a little.

 

 

 

Also, the green clown goby is eating and getting over his shock of being trapped in the overflow box. I actually see him now!

[bredler]

...Just kidding?

 

I checked the SG just a minute ago and it was down to 1.021-1.022. I added some salt water to correct up to 1.025-1.026. I checked the SG i the top-off water and that was 0 so salt wasn't diffusing into the container. The problem might be in adding the tubing. The tubing continues to dribble water until it is REALLY shut-off by the water level, so the top-off might be slightly more than was lost in evap...I'll check the SG tomorrow in the morning and a few time during the day, if it changes, I'll start doing some troubleshooting.

 

It gets me thinking though, shouldn't it be adding the same amount of water every time if the only thing changing is the water level up and down? So maybe it just diluted too much at first, then stayed at that lower level?

 

Thoughts anyone?

[bredler]

Here's some pic updates.

 

FTS, notice the GCG chillin out instead of hiding away!

 

 

New Favia Brain, about baseball-sized

 

 

Favite Brain with best color and polyp extension yet

 

 

My white trumpet coral with the head finally splitting and all the polyps growing together finally.

 

Also, I traded the green (not so green for me) stylo for some blue digi. The digi is already coloring up and I hope it will really color up with the 20,000k lamp. And I have three mouths of christmas favia that are looking great already and have already taken a misis shrimp per head.

 

 

Solved the problem with the ATO. Initially, the SG drops a little when I add new water, I think it has to do with the full vacuum being created and more water coming out than is the norm. I just add a little salt and it's good to go until I refill the bottle.

 

I'm also going to change out to a 20,000k bulb to get more color out of everything.

[danktank]

i got a nice chunk of Favia today as well!

VERY similar coloration as well

[Nanobuds]

I like the clown goby

[cheefunk]

I like what you've done with this. I have a JBJ 6 as well, I'll probably copy you're fuge idea. What did you use to get the black coating off of the back of the tank?

[bredler]

I like what you've done with this. I have a JBJ 6 as well, I'll probably copy you're fuge idea. What did you use to get the black coating off of the back of the tank?

 

 

A glass scraping razor. Pick one up at Home Depot for $3 or so.

 

You just score around the area you want to remove, and use the razor flat on the glass to remove the coating.

[BBMorgan100]

Hey bredler,

 

I got my 6gal nanocube all set up and cycled for 6weeks. 9lbs live rock and just bought my first zoas. Can you think of some other lighting ideas for that middle section to make a fuge. I really don't want to drill holes in the thing but if there was some way to fit lights in over top... Do you know if someone sells white light LEDs that could support caulerpa? (tiny is the key)

 

Thanks, your tank looks great! I'll show you my tank when I take a picture real soon.

[Paleoreef103]

Really nice cube!

[BBMorgan100]

Here's my 6 gal in my dorm room. I just condensed everything down from my 10gal setup on saturday. I took off the top and threw on a 70w Viper HQI lamp. I also modded the back into a fuge/inverse photoperiod chamber with chaeto. I have two coral banded shrimp and a green clown goby. They're all doing well except the GCG is shy and still adjusting.

 

How about an update. I'm interested to know how it is turning out. I just started a post. Check it out.

[tennis20]

Updates?!?

[bredler]

The update would have been that I moved out of that dorm years ago and the tank isn't set up anymore. But...I have a new reef that I'm setting up in my lab at work!