Atomic081 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Atomic's 28 Gallon JBJ Nanocube After almost 4 years in this hobby Im back to where I started. Im setting up a 28g JBJ Nanocube HQI with all the bells and whistles. Im going all out for this tank. Im not going to make the mistake of doing something wrong the first time and upgrading. I will be updating this thread throughout my journey with my Nanocube. I hope everyone on here will enjoy the ride as much as I do. A little history about myself: I got into Saltwater aquariums on Sept 21, 2007. I bought my first 24 gallon Aquapod and have been obsessed from that day forward. I was a complete noob and made many mistakes but have learned a few valuable lessons along the way. I started the tank wanting only softies and a few LPS. It was so much fun! I got my first few fish and coral but like everyone i had the itch for bigger and better. After 9 months with the Aquapod (June 2008). I upgraded to my first big boy tank. A 90g RR with all the bells and whistles, or so i thought at the time. It came with metal halides, calcium reactors, skimmers, tons of coral and fish. Big fish, like tangs!!! It didn't take me long to realize that there is a big difference between the cheap and expensive equipment. I ended up replacing everything on the 90g except for the tank itself. I replaced the lights, ballasts, sump, skimmer, stand, canopy, and calcium reactor. It cost me a small fortune but i got good reliable equipment. I loved this tank. I had all types of SPS, Clams, A blue carpet anemone, big tangs, and I saw incredible growth at times. I had this tank up and running for almost 3 years until a few weeks back when a Ice storm hit our area. The power went out while I was on vacation. I came home to the worst smell ever and everything was dead. So now I decided to go back to a simple tank that I can fix with most things with a few simple water changes. A tank that I can add a 10 dollar frag too and have it not get lost in 175lbs of live rock. Im going to stay with the smaller tanks and let them be what they are. A small limited piece of the ocean that I can call my own!! Equipment list: 28g JBJ Nanocube w/ 150w HQI JBJ Stand AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer Finnex Titanium Heater Nano-Glo LED Refugium Light 2x Maxi-jet 1200s to replace return pumps Hydor Flor Deflectors Ocean Pulse DUO wavemaker Kydor Koralia Nano 425 InTank Media Basket Reefkeeper Lite Controller w/ SL1 Module Reefkeeper ATO JBJ Mini-Arctica Chiller w/ Digital Controller 1/15hp My plan is to upgrade from the HQI to the Nanocustoms 4.6 LED Retrofit Kit once the tank gets cycled. Until then the HQIs and Chiller will work. Stocking List: Rose Bubble Tip Aneome 2 Snowflake Clowns Flame Angelfish Bluespot Jawfish Cleaner Shrimp Corals: I plan on mixing things up, mainly SPS and LPS. Maybe a few Softies, and brightly colored zoas. Im not going to put any coral in this tank that I think is just average. only bright colors. Ive always thought that Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red corals really make a tank pop. So I try to concentrate on these color of corals. There are so many Purple and green corals that i can fill in when needed. Im going to go with a 2" Tahitian Moon Sand bed. I think the Black really makes corals pop. Im going to try to update this first page at the beginning of every month to show my progress. Here is the first photo of my aquascaping. Its not done yet and I have a about 2 weeks before I will be adding water. So until then im going to mess with it until I get something I really like. 4/1/2011 3/1/2011 My Cycle has started 2/21/2011 Link to comment
urbaneks Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Welcome to NR.com. Best of luck with the new setup. Link to comment
Cheapreef27 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Just wondering, why go bare bottom? Also, Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 Im not going bare bottom. The tank is empty right now. Im moving to a new house next week so will start up the tank with black sand once I get settled in. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 I went to Premium Aquatics yesterday and got all the bare essentials to start cycling this tank. I installed the Hydor Flor Deflectors and replaced the old pumps with maxijet 1200s. I also got 40 lbs of Tahitian Moon Sand. Im heading over to my new house after dinner and ill be setting it up!!! Wish me luck. Ill post picture tomorrow Link to comment
snookman03 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Looking good, I love the scape. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Looking good, I love the scape. Thanks so much!! Here is a picture of the tank now that it is in its final resting place. I still need another 5 or 10 gallons of water to finish filling it. For now I have just a heater and korilla running. I still dont have any live rock in the tank to help seed the rock. I should be getting rubble and cheato this weekend. I ordered a few things from InTank today also. Some of the stuff was just so i could get the free shipping after i spent 140 dollars. B-Ionic Buffer System 32oz JBJ Nano-Glo Led Fuge Light 10 Hose Clamp, Plastic Snapper 1/2" Nano Cube 28 Media Basket NanoMag Magnetic Cleaner Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 Day 1 of cycling I mixed up another 10 gallons of SW today and filled the tank completely up. The MaxiJet 1200s with the Hydor flor deflectors are awesome!! Im letting the skimmer run for the night to help build up some gunk on the inside. As of a hour ago it wasnt producing many bubbles. Link to comment
dhraakoxr Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Sweet setup! I love the rock on the right that's flat and semi submerged in the sand. That'd be a great place for zoa's or something of the like! Good luck! Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Sweet setup! I love the rock on the right that's flat and semi submerged in the sand. That'd be a great place for zoa's or something of the like! Good luck! Thanks Draakoxr! I plan on having a Zoa rock on one of the 2 protruding rockings (or maybe both.) I like the ability to take the rocks out to cut off a frag if they really start to grow. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 I got my Shipment in from InTank. Everything was great!!! Link to comment
urbaneks Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Looking very good. IMO I would lose the live rock rubble in the media basket. You have plenty of rock in your display tank. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Looking very good. IMO I would lose the live rock rubble in the media basket. You have plenty of rock in your display tank. Thanks Urbaneks, The rock in the Media Baskets are to help seed the rock in the display. All the rock is from my 90g that crashed. I cooked all the rock so i could get rid of any nastyness that might have been left behind. Im having a little trouble with micro bubbles. Im not sure what is causing it. Im thinking the maxijet 1200s or maybe the Skimmer. I originally thought it was the Hydor Flor Deflectors, but i took them off and they still are producing bubbles. Also, ive not got the aquaC remora skimmer to start producing enough bubbles to get over the cup. I think its because i have nothing in the tank and the fact that there is no buildup of gunk in the skimmer. I will turn the skimmer off for a while until I get some livestock. Link to comment
jgoldwood Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Hey, man. Great looking setup. From my experience, the tank is very sensitive when it comes to microbubbles in the display. Make sure your water levels in the back chambers are high enough. I think the bubbles are caused by the water falling over the barriers between the back chambers. With a higher water level, there should be less bubbles. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Hey, man. Great looking setup. From my experience, the tank is very sensitive when it comes to microbubbles in the display. Make sure your water levels in the back chambers are high enough. I think the bubbles are caused by the water falling over the barriers between the back chambers. With a higher water level, there should be less bubbles. Im getting a ATO this weekend when I head to Chicago. Im hoping it can keep the water level high and keep it consistent. Now ive just got to find a place to put it, all my chambers are pretty full. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Im still debating on getting the ReefKeeper Lite. Anyone have any input. Link to comment
mkbtank Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Tagging along. Setting up this same tank next month. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Im starting to think about a CUC. im looking on ReefCleaners.org. They seem to have some good stuff for a reasonable price. Im thinking about going with all snails and no crabs. Whats the opinion on this? Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 Day 14: My tank has started its algae bloom!!!! Nitrates and Nitrites are almost 0!! I ordered a 29g quickcrew from Reefcleaners.org. Its a all snails cuc. I have always had a mixture of hermit crabs and snails so this will be new for me. It will ship on monday!!! I added Cheato algae to the order also. Im going to put it in the third chamber with the JBJ LED light to complete my refugium. The quick crew looks like this: 26 Dwarf Ceriths - small cleaners that get to the nooks and crannies. Feed on diatoms, cyano, algal detritus, and film algae. Nocturnal cleaners that leave the sandbed at night to search for food. 12 Nassarius - scavengers that will eat leftover food and some fish waste. They will stir sand, but can also be kept in bare bottom tanks. 11 Florida Ceriths - small cleaners that get to the nooks and crannies. Feed on fine hair algae, diatoms, cyano, algal detritus, and film algae. Nocturnal cleaners that leave the sandbed at night to search for food. 6 Large & 5 Small to Medium Nerites - We are currently offering the longer lived and quite hardy Antillean Nerite. (Nerita fulgurans). It grows to a nice size,and consumes a good deal of diatoms, cyano, algal detritus, and film algae. It will also consume some fine hair algae. A nocturnal herbivore that will feed more often at night, they tend to need some time to adjust to the limitations of the aquarium during their first week. http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?page=sho...t&Itemid=34 On Sat i got talked into heading up to Premium Aquatics to help a buddy out. As usual, i spent alot more money that i expected there. I end up buying the ReefKeeper Lite with the SL1 module. So far I really like it! I decided to put all my pumps and skimmer on a single powerstrip. I figure that its not worth an extra 70 dollars for another powerstip module just to have each pump on a separate timer. I also decided to let my ATO be controlled by the reefkeeper. It just keeps the tank less cluttered. Link to comment
nortac Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 looking good. the RKL should help a lot. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 I finished selling almost all of the equipment from my 90g, so im going to order the Nanotuners 4.6 led upgrade for my tank in the morning. This should complete all the equipment that I have wanted for this tank. (other than maybe replacing the korilla with a mp10). Im going to keep my chiller for a bit just incase i have heat problems. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 I got my LEDs ordered from Nanocustoms yesterday. I got the 4.6 upgrade. it includes 4 x Edison Opto 6x3w Modules for 24 total LEDs. It has about the same output as the stock nanocube LEDs but its much more customizable! I opted to go with 2 blue strips and 2 50/50 white and blue strips. I think it will give me the 20k look that im going for. The great thing about LEDs are that im getting a 20k look but with the performance of a 10k par level. (not the exact picture, but its as close as i could find.) Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Good decision or bad decision? I just Emailed Premium Aquatics about holding a pair of Snowflake clowns for me...... Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 This weekend I went to Chicago to see my fiancée. I had a little time to spare so i decided to hit up a few of the LFS. On my second stop I found a deal that I couldn't pass up. The Ark Pet Shop in Merrillville In, Had a nice Anemone tank set up. As I was looking around i saw a tiny little Snowflake Clownfish. Almost all the other clownfish had "not for sale" all over the tank but i couldnt find one for this guy. So I asked a nice lady who worked there how much he might be. Her response was "ohh he is well over 100 dollars." but I had her go ask the owner just to make sure. She came back to give me the price of 53 dollars!!!! I couldnt pass up this little guy. He is such a good specimen. Luckily for me I had planned on quarantining all my fish in a 2.5g that i bought last week. Right now he is floating in the QT. I already put a few life spectrum small fish pellets in with him and he already ate them right up. Ill post pictures as soon as he is in the tank. Link to comment
Atomic081 Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 Ive talked to a Local reefer about breeding clowns and its something that im going to look into. I think it would be fun someday. Anyway, here are the pictures. Not the best quality cause they are from my phone. Link to comment
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