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28 gal. Intermediate LED nanocube


saltt

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Hi guys! Somebody asked me if I had a thread on my tank, and I haven't done one yet so here it goes!

My tank is the JBJ Intermediate LED nanocube, 28 gallons. It's my first real reef tank, before this one i had an 8 gallon Nuvo tank with some zoanthids, and then I had a 46 gallon FOWLR tank that used to be my cichlid tank :P I started this tank on May 8, 2012 so it's roughly 5 months old at this point. At first I went crazy stocking my tank with a bunch of corals so I'm kinda taking a little break before buying some more corals (except Reefapalooza is a week and a half away, I'll definitely update after that!)
I'm not running a protein skimmer or a fuge at the moment, just feeding sparingly and doing my weekly 4 gallon water changes. So far everything is working out great. I'll update this when I get new things or randomly to see how things have grown out, so follow along if you'd like :) Also questions or comments are appreciated! Enjoy :happydance:

Equipment:
-Aqueon 100W pro heater
-Aqueon 500 circulation pump
-Stock return pumps
-JBJ Arctica Titanium 1/15 hp chiller (powered by Maxi Jet 1200)
-JBJ Auto Top Off
-Stock Lighting (LEDs)
-In the center chamber i have Purigen, filter floss, Phosguard, and a sponge. That's it for filtration!

Corals:
-Lots of types of zoanthids, such as Darth Mauls, Lakers, Purple Hornets, Radioactive, Orange Bam Bam, Spiderman, Tubs Blues, Red People Eaters, Lunar Eclipse, Candy Apple Reds, Captain America Death Palys, Magician Palys, and a few others that I have no clue what they're called :happy:
-1 Alveopora
-1 Red Goniopora with blue mouths
-2 Aussie Duncans with several heads each
-1 Aussie Green Scolymia
-5 different variations of Aussie Acan Lordhowensis
-1 Purple/Orange/Green Acan echinata.
-Blue Waving Hand Polyps (taking over!!!)
-5 Montiporas
-2 chalices
-1 Mycedium
-1 Gold Torch
-1 Purple and Green Wall Hammer
-Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
-Blue and Green Mushrooms
-1 tiny frogspawn
-Favias
-1 Acro my boyfriend gave me just to test out. Hasn't bleached yet but i'm not too optimistic..haha
-1 headed Dendro

Fish:
-2 True Perculas
-1 Mystery Wrasse
-1 Yellow candy hogfish
-1 Geometric Hawkfish
-1 Yasha goby that lives in my DIY Jawfish house

Inverts:
-A million nassarius snails
-Turbo, astrea, banded trochus, and margarita snails
-1 cleaner shrimp

-1 fighting conch


Here's my tank the day I set it up, I used the rock and water from my 46 gallon that was set up before this one, so the cycle wasn't too terrible. My boyfriend did the rock structure for me, it's like a cave with an overhang, I like it. I had to evict my flame angel because he/she was picking at my chalices, i miss that fish! They're one of my favorites.
tank_zps3243da08.jpg


Heres what it looked like a week or so later:
IMG_1895_zps80efacb1.jpg

And here's what it looks like today!
IMG_4777_zpsafa4e2f1.jpg
IMG_4792_zps17bdb067.jpg


My clowns host in the gold torch, not sure if it's cool or a bad thing. I've read mixed opinions.
IMG_4778_zps5d0ff4aa.jpg
IMG_4793_zps9bb5a747.jpg


Heres some of my zoanthids.
IMG_4779_zps29786bb1.jpg

IMG_4789_zpsd91254b0.jpg


4 of my Lord Acans:
IMG_4780_zps420d5ba3.jpg

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My mushrooms and Meteor Shower Cyphastrea, i just tried to cut off a corner of it, that's why it looks funky in the middle. I want the new growth to turn blue already! It's taking forrrever....
IMG_4784_zpsb965459d.jpg

Flowerpot! This has grown so much. It was teeeny tiny when I got it.
IMG_4785_zps3ad3c3f5.jpg

Some pink zoanthids next to my snail.
IMG_4786_zpsa6125267.jpg

Side view:
IMG_4787_zps45ef5bd2.jpg

The other side view:
IMG_4794_zps04e54d66.jpg

The 2 Duncans-
IMG_4788_zpsb82950fa.jpg

Stop irritating my polyps!!! :angry:
IMG_4791_zpsb8391c9c.jpg

Goby in his Jawfish house! It's literally a mansion for him.
IMG_4795_zps59a0c546.jpg

The purple and green hammer:
IMG_4796_zps66359e5b.jpg

The mandarin, you can see him right next to the riddler's mycedium-
IMG_4797_zps5d242988.jpg

IMG_4798_zps614a188c.jpg

I hope that isn't too many pics, I just wanted to be thorough ;) Follow along if you want, i'll be updating frequently!!

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I hope that isn't too many pics...

 

I don't think anyone around here has ever complained about that.

 

Very nice tank, and very impressive photography skills.

 

I'm also glad to see that some of the all-in-one manufacturers are apparently putting lighting on their tanks that will allow you to achieve this kind of growth. I've been disappointed with a lot of the all-in-one attempts at LEDs.

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I don't think anyone around here has ever complained about that.

 

Very nice tank, and very impressive photography skills.

 

I'm also glad to see that some of the all-in-one manufacturers are apparently putting lighting on their tanks that will allow you to achieve this kind of growth. I've been disappointed with a lot of the all-in-one attempts at LEDs.

 

Thank you! I took all these pics with the iPhone 4S camera, it's definitely not too shabby. And yeah especially for being the "intermediate" LEDs I'm surprised that I'm able to grow so many types of corals.

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Thank you! I took all these pics with the iPhone 4S camera, it's definitely not too shabby. And yeah especially for being the "intermediate" LEDs I'm surprised that I'm able to grow so many types of corals.

 

How did you get such excellent pictures with your iphone? I have a par38 on my tank and all the pics come out overly blue and have no color definition on the corals

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How did you get such excellent pictures with your iphone? I have a par38 on my tank and all the pics come out overly blue and have no color definition on the corals

 

I'm actually not sure, your tank possibly has more blue in it than mine does. The LEDs on this tank are supposed to resemble the look of 14K MHs i suppose (without the growing potential), it only has 4 of the 456nm blue LEDs on each corner, and it doesn't add much actinic effect (if any) when the daylights are on. My boyfriend runs 2 AI Sol LEDs on his tank and every picture I take looks WAY too blue, even though it doesn't appear super blue in person. It's weird :/

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I'm actually not sure, your tank possibly has more blue in it than mine does. The LEDs on this tank are supposed to resemble the look of 14K MHs i suppose (without the growing potential), it only has 4 of the 456nm blue LEDs on each corner, and it doesn't add much actinic effect (if any) when the daylights are on. My boyfriend runs 2 AI Sol LEDs on his tank and every picture I take looks WAY too blue, even though it doesn't appear super blue in person. It's weird :/

 

Yes that would make some sense that you only have a few blue led's. I was just seeing if there was something I was missing when it comes to iphone pictures. I will jsut stick to setting white balance on my point and shoot.

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Gorgeous tank. I love all the colors. I think your red goni is my favorite :)

 

I had a meteor shower under LEDs and it stayed brown. After I moved it under T5 lighting, it got the blue. I'm wondering if LEDs are just way too much light for those guys.

 

I'm also in LA and thinking about going to Reefapalooza. Never been there before. Where is it held?

 

Oh...and I LOVE the rockwork too!!!!! :happy:

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Gorgeous tank. I love all the colors. I think your red goni is my favorite :)

 

I had a meteor shower under LEDs and it stayed brown. After I moved it under T5 lighting, it got the blue. I'm wondering if LEDs are just way too much light for those guys.

 

I'm also in LA and thinking about going to Reefapalooza. Never been there before. Where is it held?

 

Oh...and I LOVE the rockwork too!!!!! :happy:

 

 

Thank you!!! :) I really hope it doesn't stay brown, i'd be sad! :( I have it on the side where it's getting shaded and not a lot of light, and i put the tiny frag on top under the light, so i'll see what happens.

Reefapalooza is going to be in Orange County on October 20-21, I think it's in some kind of Convention center, you could google it and i'm sure there's some info on it. I went to Marine Aquarium Expo last April down in OC and there were some fantastic deals! This vendor was selling every frag he had for $10, and he had some rare acans and polyps. I only had my 8 gallon up so I didn't buy anything except one of the Lord Acans I have right now. I wish I had bought more though!

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It could just be a really sensitive coral and takes forever to adjust to new conditions. I wouldn't give up hope on it turning blue :) Mine just turned blue really fast, once it went under my T5 lighting.

 

I'll google Reefapalooza. Thanks for the info!!!! Sounds like something I wouldn't want to miss!!!!

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lookin' good.

 

Thanks!

 

It could just be a really sensitive coral and takes forever to adjust to new conditions. I wouldn't give up hope on it turning blue :) Mine just turned blue really fast, once it went under my T5 lighting.

 

I'll google Reefapalooza. Thanks for the info!!!! Sounds like something I wouldn't want to miss!!!!

 

Thank you! I really hope it turns blue eventually :) and definitely, I hope you go! Lots of amazing deals! :)

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Nice Tank!

 

How do you keep your calcium up, is it just your water changes?

 

Thank you! :happy: I dose calcium frequently, but it doesnt fluctuate that much surprisingly! I use the seachem reef complete and Brightwell Liquid Reef

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Thanks for starting this thread. I will follow along for sure. I have a JBJ NC 12G right now but want to upgrade to the 28 G LED. I already feel crowded in the 12G.

 

There can never be too many pics, IMO! I love the bright Flower Pot coral. It is a beautiful tank. Congratulations!

 

:welcome:

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wow thats a really nice tank! i really like your hogfish! and that sucks you had to get rid of the flame angel! thats one of my favorite fish!

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Nice scape and amazing colors!!! HaHa, never too many pics, lol.

 

Thanks guys! And yeah I will have to add some more pics then :) haha

I think the gold torch is also my favorite :happy:

 

Does anybody know if its detrimental to the torch if the clowns host in it? It doesn't seem to be bothered at the moment but who knows what will happen eventually! Also my purple cap is bleaching a little bit :( I blame it on being in the very back (I had no where else to put it!) I hope it comes back :/

 

Also here's a video of my tank. I also sometimes do video updates, you can see my earlier vids are from wayy back when my tank just got started :D This video is from a month ago, so you can see how much things have grown from the video if you look at the pics i posted above.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_li4bJ-gFI&feature=g-upl

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so beautiful!

rock work,

color selection and placement, the colors

everything looks great!

really great job :D

 

Wow thank you! That's so nice :) I'm glad you like it!

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Does anybody know if its detrimental to the torch if the clowns host in it? It doesn't seem to be bothered at the moment but who knows what will happen eventually! Also my purple cap is bleaching a little bit :( I blame it on being in the very back (I had no where else to put it!) I hope it comes back :/

 

My clown has been living in my torch coral for 5 years. The torch coral has gone from 2 heads to about 20 in that time, so obviously it isn't bothered by it. I actually think it has been beneficial because the clown will grab food from the water column and then take it to the torch coral to eat it. Every once in a while he loses a piece to the coral, it gets fed.

 

I would just watch the coral and see if it's closing up or agitated by the clown. It should be fine.

 

I like your tank. I was just thinking of downsizing my 40 Breeder into one of these. I was going to get the advanced lighting. Do you think that's worth it?

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My clown has been living in my torch coral for 5 years. The torch coral has gone from 2 heads to about 20 in that time, so obviously it isn't bothered by it. I actually think it has been beneficial because the clown will grab food from the water column and then take it to the torch coral to eat it. Every once in a while he loses a piece to the coral, it gets fed.

 

I would just watch the coral and see if it's closing up or agitated by the clown. It should be fine.

 

I like your tank. I was just thinking of downsizing my 40 Breeder into one of these. I was going to get the advanced lighting. Do you think that's worth it?

 

 

Good to know :) My torch doesn't seem bothered by it. I've had it for 5 months and it's already split into two heads.

 

Thanks! I went with this tank because it was $300 cheaper than the Advanced, and I'm not too experienced with growing Acros. LPS and zoanthids are more appealing to me. I will say that my montipora is growing like a weed, but it is directly under the light at the highest point in my tank, my red/purple/green caps are in the back and one of the purple ones is bleaching a tad on the edge, I just think it's too far back but i didnt have anywhere else to put it. I'd say go for the advanced lighting if you want to spend the extra money, it has some cool features like dawn/dusk effects that mine doesnt :) And I know that it's much better for growing SPS

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