My JBJ Cube

[Seldon]

Well, I believe that I am ready to post some pics of my tank. It has been running for about a month and a half now and is doing great.

 

Tank Specs

JBJ Nano Cube

64w PC lighting

stock power head(no noise what so ever) and mini jet 606 (in tank)

in fuge-no bio balls or ciramic rings, purigen, liverock pieces and foam blocks (cleaned regularly)

14 lbs carib sea arigonite

12 lbs figi live rock

1 six line wrasse

1 pepermint shrimp

1 emrald crab

various snails and hermits

ricorda

shrooms

polyps-zoos palthoa etc.

xenia

anthelia

gsp

purple gorgonian

orange gorgonian

coraline algae growing everywhere

Full tank shot

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=500&page=1

others

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=500&page=1

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=500&page=1

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...&cat=500&page=1

 

Let me know what you think.

Chris

[Stingray]

Great looking live rock you picked out. Lots of coralline.

[Seldon]

a lot of it has grown on its own also. It's spreading all over the place and has been a pain to keep off of the glass.

[Seldon]

I'd love to hear anyone else's opinions or suggestions. Let me know what you think. Thanks

Chris

[Jay1204]

Seldon,

 

Nice lookin tank you got there.

How often & how much do you change your water?

Phosphate level?

I had my jbjNC for 3month and no sign of coraline algae..... I'm little frustrated.

[Seldon]

I change my water about every 1.5 to 2 weeks. Its about a 2 gallon water change at most. I do have a very small amount of phosphates, not sure on the current number. I have my lfs do that test because I do not want to spend the money on the kit and the lfs does it for free. I also mix 1 teaspoon of reef builder in with 1 gallon of top-off water and alternate weekly between reef builder and reef advantage calcium.

[Seldon]

Here is a pic of my current lighting setup. I was thinking of putting the stock bulb back in along with the 2 32w pcs.

Chris

[Seldon]

Here is a pic of my current barrier between the lighting and the water. I origonally had the stock one, which quickly, even with the fans, melted and warped.

Chris

[DitchPlains]

Hey how's it going....the lighting setup looks ok a bit sloppy with the reflector and ballasts being exposed to moisture like that...hmmmm sees burnt bulbs and dead fish in your future. I'd cover it up more then with that thin piece. I have 96 watts in my nano cube under the original plastic hood, until my two Sunon fans it warped n melted a bit, not enough to remove it. Is that Lexan or glass you have placed over your tank? I am currently looking to make my own Lexan Cover, but I might just opt to ditch my pc's for a 150XM 20k HQI bulb. Depends on mood. good luck stocking it!

[Seldon]

if you look about an inch above the top of the lights I have a piece of plexiglass coming down which meets up perpendicularly with the glass cover. So far I have had no problems with any moisture. I may even use some weatherstripping around the edge of the plexi and inner edge of the sides and back of the hood for a complete seal.

[john76]

I'd extend the wiring on those ballasts so that you could mount them remotely and reduce the heat

[Seldon]

The heat really isnt to bad. The fans do help. Currently I am in a dorm without any a/c and on the hottest day up here my room got up to about 90 degrees and my tank got up to 80. However, thanks for the suggestion, I'll probally do that and put them into some sort of ballast box or something just to neaten things up and to help control the temp better (that means more room for more lighting...hmm).

[Seldon]

What kind of whire would anyone reccomend to extend my ballasts? Should I use a shielded wire or just regular electical wire or something else?

[DitchPlains]

There is Silicone, heat resistant water proof wire, that would last long with no corrosion. good luck.

[DitchPlains]

Oh hey with those Emerald crabs be careful with a new tank, they happent o love coraline algae, so if your planning on getting all of your rocks nice n pink purple, might be time to either feed them directly or give them another home, just my experience, they don;t seem goodnano home makers. I had two that went nuts and tried to eat all my coraline, I gave them to my friend with his 100g tank, he hardly notices them.

[Seldon]

I have noticed that myself so I already feed mine seperatly.

Thanks for the heads up though. Does home depo carry that wire or at least some place like it?

Chris

[DitchPlains]

When I originally just adde dthe extra 32 and had to put the 24 watt ballast on back I extended the wires just a bit with some silicone from HD. I'm dying right now I want a metal Halide, but my money is low, can't afford a custom hood and new lights, has to deal with 96w of pc. Oh well could be worse.

[Seldon]

yeah, i would eventually like to setup another tank with halides, but for the time being i have to reserve money for school so i will stick with the 2x32w pcs and hopefully add the 24w after i relocate the ballasts. Thanks for the help btw. I dont care how experienced one is at this hobby, there is always somthing to learn or be improved upon.

chris

[wenhamjj]

Tank looks great! How did you get all that in there in only 1 1/2 months? Everything I have read says to add slowly like one addition evey 1-2 weeks. Did it take long for your xenia to start pulsing? Anyhow, it really looks good!

[DitchPlains]

true, I'm always learning, so many good ideas out there and good people who share....keep up the good work man...take care.

[Seldon]

Defiantly, I completely agree with the take it slow method, but I also made adjusted my pace to that of my tank. I have rock in my tank from an established tank which helped. I monitored my parameters daily for the first week. I received my cycle early, probably finished on the 3rd day. After one week I added my first round of cleanup crew: 6 hermits and 8 snails. After about 1 month, all of my diatoms were gone and coralline algae was spreading all over the tank wall and rock (having established rock with coralline algae on it helped with this). I took this as a sign that I could start adding corals. I started with some gsp and a small piece of xenia from a friend. This quickly started spreading and is doing great. The xenia has since more than quadrupled in size. I then placed an order at garf.org later that week. I received the gorgonians, various polyps, a ricorda, anthelia, some kind of tree coral ( I think), and something else I cant currently remember the name of. All in all I am happy with the way my tank has turned out, however I am currently looking for some red and blue corals (probably going to go with some zoos). Thanks for the feedback everyone who has posted, keep them coming.

Chris

[wenhamjj]

Well, whatever you are doing you are doing it right! My cycle went fast also (5 days). Now I am at the beginning of the Diatom bloom. Every time I turn around I get another opinion about running the lights the full time at this stage. What did you do? Did you go say 6-8 hrs on the lights at first? And if so at what point did you do the 12 photo period?

[Seldon]

i ran my actinics 24hrs/day for the first week. then i swithched to 12 hrs actinic and 10 hrs 10k. 1hr actinic before and after the 10k. I also vaccumed the top of my sand and cleaned my foam blocks about 5 times a week.

Chris

[rutledgek]

I left my lights run a normal day cycle during the diatom bloom. I also didnt vacuum anything off. I figured that since they were blooming because there were possible phosphates and silicates in the water, the best way to remove them is to let the algea consume them until the algea dies off itself.

[Seldon]

when i say first week, i mean that my tank was up. during the diatom bloom i too ran the normal cycle.

sorry i wasnt clear the first time.