sammy33 Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 I decided to upgrade my 7G minibow system to one of the new 28G Nano Cube HQI tanks. This tank looks very promising with 150w HQI lighting, 2 return pumps on a wave timer, built-in skimmer, moon lights, central overflow with filter basket, 4 cooling fans and matching stand. After exploring some upgrade options in another thread I have decided to run this tank pretty much stock. I plan to add some things including: JBJ ATO Top-off system Tunze Calcium Dispenser kalk doser Aqua Medic SP3000 dosing pump ReefKeeper2 aquarium controller The ATO unit from JBJ is great. I have two other ATO's on other aquariums I own so this will be the third one I have purchased. The ATO should work well with the Tunze kalk doser and the peristaltic pump from Aqua Medic. The ReefKeeper2 will serve as the "brains" controlling the lighting, wave action, pH control for the ATO/kalk doser and probably some other things I have not thought of yet. Right now I only have the tank and stand so I will be collecting the other parts I need over the next several weeks. I do have about 30 lbs of cured live rock and sand ready to go in. So now it is just the slow, frustrating process of filling the tank with RO/DI water and then mixing salt. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted September 21, 2007 Author Share Posted September 21, 2007 Finished filling the tank with RO water today. I added about 26.5 gallons worth of salt by the way to get the SG to 1.025. I also added 20lbs of arag-alive sand. Will add the live rock in a few days after this clears a bit and I get the chemistry stable. The lighting is very bright! The tank is much more quiet than my old setup. You can see my old 7G nano off to the right. Link to comment
Nano_Reefer_92 Posted September 21, 2007 Share Posted September 21, 2007 Finished filling the tank with RO water today. I added about 26.5 gallons worth of salt by the way to get the SG to 1.025. I also added 20lbs of arag-alive sand. Will add the live rock in a few days after this clears a bit and I get the chemistry stable. The lighting is very bright! The tank is much quiter than my old setup. You can see my old 7G nano off to the right. will you be selling the other setup? interested in it, I am from the ARC and i waz wondering if i can have dibs on it if you were pm me with the info. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted September 22, 2007 Author Share Posted September 22, 2007 will you be selling the other setup? interested in it, I am from the ARC and i waz wondering if i can have dibs on it if you were pm me with the info. I will let you know if I decide to sell. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted September 24, 2007 Author Share Posted September 24, 2007 After 2 days with nothing but live sand in the tank the skimmer is starting to foam. I think it still needs some more break-in time. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted September 24, 2007 Author Share Posted September 24, 2007 Initial PAR tests on the lighting for this tank shows excellent results. Definitely SPS/clam ready! Top - 1210 PAR Middle - 560 PAR Bottom - 140 PAR The interesting thing about this is the even distribution of the light when you get about half way down. The spread of the light is great. This sort of light spread is what you would expect from a lumenarc or lumenmax style reflector. The bottom is 140 PAR from front to back and side to side. You can tell how even the light is in the picture above. Way to go JBJ! Link to comment
S.I.C. Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Looks good. I have seen much darker skimmate with that skimmer. It will build up for sure as you increase you bio-load. Have you thought about the atinics upgrade from NanoTuners? Have you added the LR? Link to comment
sammy33 Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 Looks good. I have seen much darker skimmate with that skimmer. It will build up for sure as you increase you bio-load. Have you thought about the atinics upgrade from NanoTuners? Have you added the LR? Thanks for the compliment on the tank. I have thought about the upgrade PC lights but I really want to run the tank stock for a while. I think a Ushio 20K lamp will probably be the only thing I change about the ligthing. I plan to add live rock tomorrow. The live rock is way beyond cured as I have had it for several years so things should progress quickly. I would think the skimmer will really kick in when I add the LR. Link to comment
land_lubber Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 Very nice. I'm wanting this tank more and more now. Are you going to get a chiller? Link to comment
sammy33 Posted September 29, 2007 Author Share Posted September 29, 2007 Very nice. I'm wanting this tank more and more now. Are you going to get a chiller? I tested the heat on this tank with the lights running for a full day (8 hours) and the temp got to about 80.6 and stabilized. I run the AC at about 75 all day. I think running a small cooling fan would drop the temp a degree or so. This evaporation will also help keep the top-off/kalkwasser rate. I can control the cooling fan and kalk reactor with the reefkeeper2. The cooling fan can be programmed to turn off/on at certain temps along with the heater. This will keep the temp fairly stable. So a chiller will probably not be needed. Link to comment
land_lubber Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 Oh right do you know the dimensions of the back chambers? could you fit a tunze nano skimmer in there? I see that the standard skimmers have wooden airstones in them. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 This is how I plan on setting things up. The RK2 really makes a lot of things possible. Link to comment
showtime305 Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Looking good Sam! I'm tagging along on this thread. Link to comment
eric99 Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Sam, I'm also using the Reefkeeper 2 controller on the same tank. I dont know if you have yours setup yet, but, when you press "standby" the skimmer airpump keeps running. I have it programmed as a "skimmer/pump", which should turn it off. Have you tried yours yet? I noticed the 2 metal prongs of the plug on the airpump have no holes in them. If you try to hook up anything else to it for testing purposes that has the small pinholes in the plug portion it will turn that item off. I hope that makes sense. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 Oh right do you know the dimensions of the back chambers? could you fit a tunze nano skimmer in there? I see that the standard skimmers have wooden airstones in them. Dimensions of the 28g chambers: Skimmer section - 2 3/8 x 2 3/4 Center section - 2 3/8 x 4 5/8 Pump Section - 2 3/8 x 3 1/2 Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 Sam, I'm also using the Reefkeeper 2 controller on the same tank. I dont know if you have yours setup yet, but, when you press "standby" the skimmer airpump keeps running. I have it programmed as a "skimmer/pump", which should turn it off. Have you tried yours yet? I noticed the 2 metal prongs of the plug on the airpump have no holes in them. If you try to hook up anything else to it for testing purposes that has the small pinholes in the plug portion it will turn that item off. I hope that makes sense. I have not hooked mine up yet. Have you tried the pump on another RK2 channel that you confirmed does turn off during standby? Does another device with a standard plug work on that channel during standby? Hmm? Link to comment
eric99 Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I have not hooked mine up yet. Have you tried the pump on another RK2 channel that you confirmed does turn off during standby? Does another device with a standard plug work on that channel during standby? Hmm? Yes, I tried another channel that does turn off during standby, and it still does the same thing. Except for channels 4 & 8 (relay channels). But I'd rather use my higher current devices on those per instructions. I have the ballast for the halide light on one and my JBJ Arctica chiller on the other. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 This is about 14lbs or so of Pukani and Fiji live rock. This rock is a couple years old so I should avoid any ammonia spikes. I have several more pieces to add in the next couple days so the aquascape will change a bit. I am working on getting the other parts to this system ordered so I can complete the equipment portion of the setup and then start moving my livestock from the old tank. I have to say my patience is wearing thin. I am so ready to move my corals. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 6, 2007 Author Share Posted October 6, 2007 I moved all of my zoa's and ricordea from my 7g nano today. Everything seems to be doing well. I am really happy with this new tank. Link to comment
baj Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Looks great! Sorry if you've mentioned this before but did you change out the stock bulb with the 20k? Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 6, 2007 Author Share Posted October 6, 2007 Looks great! Sorry if you've mentioned this before but did you change out the stock bulb with the 20k? Yes, I swapped the stock lamp out for an XM 20K. The XM is not my first choice but I had an extra that I will use until my Ushio comes in. I may also try a Radium 20K. Note that the PAR with the XM 20K maxes around 960 at the top of the tank. This is still plenty of PAR for SPS, clams, etc. Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 The skimmer is showing a stronger performance now that the bioload is higher. I came in to a loaded skimmer cup this morning but it seemed light tea colored still. Maybe I am running this skimmer too wet? I added some marks to the knob on the air pump using a Sharpie marker. This went a long way in establishing a simple reference point for adjusting the skimmer input. I have mine set at about the 1 o'clock position. This is just past about 50% mark of the capacity of the pump. I have some other air woods from Tropic Marin on order that I will try. I think it will be worth fine tuning this skimmer for the heat savings! The air driven design adds virtually no heat compared to a skimmer that uses a pump. Speaking of heat my temps are still below 80F. I am only running the lights about 4 hours a day now in an effort to acclimate the corals to the new light. The temp is around 79 and will probably run higher as I increase the photoperiod. I have a cooling fan on order that should keep my temps down. Link to comment
barrman Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 how do you like the 20k xm? how is it compared to the bulb that came with the tank? did it come with a 14k? i just ordered a 150w 20k xm for my 12g nano which is in the process of being upgraded i wanted something with a nice blue hue to it... heard the xm bulbs were great! Link to comment
sammy33 Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 how do you like the 20k xm? how is it compared to the bulb that came with the tank? did it come with a 14k? i just ordered a 150w 20k xm for my 12g nano which is in the process of being upgraded i wanted something with a nice blue hue to it... heard the xm bulbs were great! The XM lamp has a good color to it. It is really blue on an electronic ballast but with the HQI ballast that comes with the nano cube 28g it looks great. The color is more balanced than I expected. I originally wanted a ushio lamp but I think I will stick with the XM for now. The JBJ 14K bulb included with the tank is still a nice color but was not blue enough for me. I do like the XM much better. I am not planning to add any actinics so the 20K lamp works out nicely. Link to comment
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