thirdchild's JBJ 24G

[thirdchild]

10/10/2009 to 07/26/12

 

Topless JBJ 24gallon dx with...AI Sol Nano LEDs, Mp10, Rio 6HF, Heater, Current 1/15 chiller, 24lb of Live rock, 30lbs sand. Purigen & Chemipure Elite. Chaeto

 

Livestock: Pompom crab, Randall's Goby, Randall's Pistol Shrimp, False Percula Clown, Mini Carpet Anemones.

 

Coral: red mushroom, green star polyps, zoa, duncans, acans, chalices, dendro, feather dusters, crocea clam, assorted sps, space invader pectinia, cyphastrea decadia

[thirdchild]

Day 0 - No fish, rocks or water yet. Just the bare tank.

 

After suggestions, the return pump goes to the chiller and the chiller goes to the hydor flor in the tank. No chaeto yet, but this is the plan.

 

I think I'm going to go the lazyman's route and buy my saltwater from the LFS for now for $0.75/G. They said they use Red Sea salt mix. I do have a container of Oceanic salt mix though.

[thirdchild]

Day 1 - Rocks, sand and water are in.

 

Bought 12lbs of some very good live rock at a LFS in SoCal. You really can feel the difference between the porous and less porous rock when you're holding it. I have no idea what kind of rock I bought though, since it was all in two big bins. 20lb of AragAlive were also added and a pvc jwfish house. I hope 3/4" pipe is ok.

 

Ended up making water with distilled water from Walmart and Oceanic. So now I know my tank holds exactly 18 gallons of water when full.

 

Nothing but murky water though.

[bluefunelement]

I use filter floss ontop of carbon and liverock in chamber 1, chaeto in chamber 2, and my heater in the 3rd chamber but it's titanium and can be dry. Works well as I can get to everything ind and quickly

 

Found the K1 to be too much flow and use a KNano pointing from the left to the right to create laminar and turbulent flow - also get a modular surface skimmer - works wonders.

[thirdchild]

Day 2 - Stuck some filter floss in and added the surface skimmer that came with the tank. Maybe I ought to use the bio-magnet bag that came with the sand or rinsed it. I just realized I bought the reefmaster test kit forgot the saltwater one. Have to pick one up soon and start testing for ph and ammonia. I hope the rock is fine for a few days. I'd rather not start water changes without knowing yet.

 

bluefun - Really? You're only using a Nano? I'm thinking of having the Koralia 1 and adding a Nano for more power. Maybe I ought to wait.

[thirdchild]

Day 3 - Tank is clearing up though, moving around rock probably doesn't help. Aquascaped with what I have so far. Found a aiptasia I think and tried squirting it with a stream of hot water. It must have been weak or something because I was able to suck it out about half an hour later.

 

No other things found except for some red bumps.

 

[bluefunelement]

bluefun - Really? You're only using a Nano? I'm thinking of having the Koralia 1 and adding a Nano for more power. Maybe I ought to wait.

 

I had 2 of each to play with but the K1's were too much for what I am keeping and it's too large in tank - many have them so you're fine if you want it but I find after upgrading the stock pump to a MJ1200 and having a KNano pointing across the tank at that output it's not bad flow. I would probably add another KNano on the opposite side of the output if they were controllable. Maybe still will.

[thirdchild]

Day 4 - Added another 3lb rock in the back to stabilize the structure and did a 10% water change too. Salinity is around 1.024 and 1.025. Ammonia at 0ppm.

[thirdchild]

Day 7 - Added 5lbs more rock and did a 5% water change to get some water to do a salinity dip. A couple of the new rocks smell fishy.

 

I think the last addition is another 20lbs of sand in about a week so I can have about 2-3". Wonder if I'm prolonging the cycle?

 

[Nemo Niblets]

The rocks look nice, but I think you might want more in the future for more corals. But they look super duper cool.

[thirdchild]

The rocks look nice, but I think you might want more in the future for more corals. But they look super duper cool.

 

Thanks. I liked the arch shape I saw at a LFS tank so I want to make one of my own.

 

Hmm. I have a LFS closer by I can hit up. Maybe I can just buy 4lb more and get to 22lb of rock total.

 

Really pretty tank in your signature! How much LR do you have?

[thirdchild]

On Day 8, added 4 more lbs of rock.

 

Today, on Day 11, added 10 more lbs of live sand to get to 2-3in everywhere. I hope a live rock is still live if there's sand or other rocks on it. A couple of rocks are buried away now. Big crop of diatoms but ammonia never went above 0.5 so far. No nitrite or nitrate.

 

This is the final aquascape I think. The previous high arch just looked a little weird, I'm trying for the natural look :-) I had a low arch look in my old planted aquarium anyways.

 

[uwwmatt]

I think you're off to a good start. Each time you add rock you are prolonging your cycle so remember that before you start adding livestock.

[Arkayology]

It's alive! It's ALIVE!!!!

 

 

Nice start

[thirdchild]

Thanks, as long as I'm not making any huge mistakes I'm happy.

 

Yeah, somehow it's not going to be a struggle to wait. My wallet needs to recover from setting up.

[thirdchild]

Day 18 - Water chemistry is leaving me a little confused.

 

Salinity: 1.025

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0.25

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 5

Phosphate: 0.5

 

Ammonia has been 0.25 for 11 days now. Haven't seen Nitrite go up at all. Nitrate is now holding at 5.

 

Is this red patch is algae or coraline? Filmy green algae on the glass, fluffy fern-like algae, green and brown algae and maybe a slimy patch of something in the back. I've removed some algae by hand today.

 

Should I put the purigen and chemipure in now? Or a CUC? or wait another week and let the algae go nuts?

 

[thirdchild]

Well to catch up

 

Day 19, figured out my test kit for ammonia was off and Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite at 0. This was also when the green algae took over. Plucked and trimmed. Dropped the light to 8 hours a day and it subsided a little.

 

Day 28, 20% waterchange and added purigen & chemipure elite.

 

Today - Day 31, finally added a CUC!

30+? dwarf ceriths, 4 dwarf planaxis, 3 florida ceriths, 3 nerites, 1 chiton, chaeto and red algae from reefcleaners. Great job packing and lots more dwarfs than I ordered. These things really are tiny.

 

Now let's see them tackle this!

 

[thirdchild]

Day 56

 

Regular 4G weekly water changes, plucking, and the cleanup crew has reduced the green hair algae alot. Apparently, they were covering tiny bubble algae, colonial hydroids, a few more feather dusters, a couple of small bristleworms and a tiny chiton. Who knew?

 

Still I think it's clean enough to add my first coral! I'm going to delay adding fish til January though.

 

[j5c077]

you should really buy the surface skimmer

http://www.jbjnanocubes.com/contents/en-us...ce-skimmer.html

[thirdchild]

you should really buy the surface skimmer

http://www.jbjnanocubes.com/contents/en-us...ce-skimmer.html

 

Really? I've got it but it doesn't seem to do much...

[SPARTAN VI]

Doesn't seem like it does much now at least. Once you have livestock, fish, and you start feeding them and they start pooping, the surface skimmer does a decent job of nabbing the stuff that happens to float to the top.

 

It requires that you have the correct amount of water in the tank to adhere to the overflow and often people complain that it falls down when they turn off the pumps. Simple solution to that is to use your magfloat to pin the surface skimmer against the overflow.

[thirdchild]

Doesn't seem like it does much now at least. Once you have livestock, fish, and you start feeding them and they start pooping, the surface skimmer does a decent job of nabbing the stuff that happens to float to the top.

 

It requires that you have the correct amount of water in the tank to adhere to the overflow and often people complain that it falls down when they turn off the pumps. Simple solution to that is to use your magfloat to pin the surface skimmer against the overflow.

 

Ohhhh that makes sense.

[thirdchild]

To catch up, the surface skimmer finally stayed in and on Day 60, I added the first coral, a red mushroom. It survived a couple of doses of Reef Snow and ate a pellet a week or so.

 

At long last, today, Day 84, I added the first fish naturally my new Randall's Goby headed for the back and ignored the 2 nice burrows in the front.

 

Sadly 2 nerites died (1 from wandering and 1 from unknown causes). Hopefully the chiton and other snails will go for the seaweed I'm adding every couple of days or more snails might die. Just got a patch or two of bubble and turf algae now.

[thirdchild]

Day 92, (yesterday) added a nickel sized ricordea and it's tiny friend. Also placed an order for a Randall's pistol shrimp which should arrive on friday.

 

[thirdchild]

Day 99, added some pulsing xenia. It was being blown around too much in the original spot, so it's now directly below the koralia. A little dark, but I'm hoping not to have to move it again.

 

Day 102, added a red & green favia, frogspawn and metallic GSP.

 

It's been weirdly hard to get a pistol shrimp. 1st LFS tried to tell me a coral shrimp would pair... my guess is they couldn't find a pistol shrimp in time. Now waiting on LFS #2, where I bought the goby to begin with. It's much farther away, but nicer stock.

 

Today, Day 106, Live rock's turning purple, original mushroom sprouted 2 babies and goby is still alive. Ricordia still showing alot of skin though after 2 weeks. :-( Maybe my tank's not meant for ricordias.