28 gal. Intermediate LED nanocube

[markalot]

Awesome, as usual. I missed the update when I was on vacation. Tank is looking fantastic, and yet another that is over a year old and I think qualifies for a monthly profile.

[nlopez99]

Just read that goniopora and alveopora are difficult to keep. Have you had to dose extra calcium to keep yours healthy? I'm thinking the frequent water changes help to keep your levels adequate.

[saltt]

Awesome, as usual. I missed the update when I was on vacation. Tank is looking fantastic, and yet another that is over a year old and I think qualifies for a monthly profile.

Wow thanks =) that would be awesome to have a chance at tank of the month!

Just read that goniopora and alveopora are difficult to keep. Have you had to dose extra calcium to keep yours healthy? I'm thinking the frequent water changes help to keep your levels adequate.

I'm glad my tank inspired you! The intermediate LEDs are more than enough to keep LPS as long as they are placed properly. I've had my alveopora in this tank even when It was cycling (oops) but I had used the rock and water from my previous tank, so the cycle wasn't too bad but I'm pretty surprised it survived through that. I've read that alveopora/goniopora prefer nutrient-rich water, which most people who run protein skimmers don't necessarily have. I have never run a skimmer on my tank which I think has attributed to the upkeep of those corals, and I don't have to dose calcium too regularly, but I can't seem to get my Alk above 7.7-8! It's driving me crazy

 

Also, according to LiveAquaria, those blue waving hand polyps (Anthelia) are "difficult" to keep but they have become a weed that I wish I never put in my tank!

[nlopez99]

I'll never be accused of having nutrient-free water, especially with 2 young daughters who love to feed the fish!

[Gramophone]

Beautiful tank! Do your hogfish and wrasse get along okay?

[saltt]

Beautiful tank! Do your hogfish and wrasse get along okay?

 

Thank you! They get along great! Each one completely minds its own business

[oldSWseamomma]

Awesomely-Gorgeous tank ! I just finished reading your whole thread and love your tank. I love the deep purple mushroom I just got this same tank last weekend and have been researching on how people have set theirs up. I was concerned about getting a skimmer for it and hate the ones that hang off the back of the tank, but your success without using one is inspiring. I do have a RSM130D that is pretty much a FOWLR tank except for a pulsing Xenia and GSP. When I start this jBj I'm going to use a few pieces of LR from the RSM as I have too much in there. I will be following your thread and hope my tank turns out as well as yours. I do have a few questions tho. I plan to get StevieT's mediabasket for the center filtration chamber and also a heater for the tank - do you use the stock mediabasket in your tank? I was thinking of changing out the stock pumps for Ehiem or Tunze nano pumps so am wondering if you are using the stock pumps? And do you use the wavemaker - and if so what setting do you use? I can't wait to get this tank up and running EEEEE! Again, I plan to rescape my RSM and thin out that rock pile and then start filling both tanks up with corals (for beginners).

[saltt]

Awesomely-Gorgeous tank ! I just finished reading your whole thread and love your tank. I love the deep purple mushroom I just got this same tank last weekend and have been researching on how people have set theirs up. I was concerned about getting a skimmer for it and hate the ones that hang off the back of the tank, but your success without using one is inspiring. I do have a RSM130D that is pretty much a FOWLR tank except for a pulsing Xenia and GSP. When I start this jBj I'm going to use a few pieces of LR from the RSM as I have too much in there. I will be following your thread and hope my tank turns out as well as yours. I do have a few questions tho. I plan to get StevieT's mediabasket for the center filtration chamber and also a heater for the tank - do you use the stock mediabasket in your tank? I was thinking of changing out the stock pumps for Ehiem or Tunze nano pumps so am wondering if you are using the stock pumps? And do you use the wavemaker - and if so what setting do you use? I can't wait to get this tank up and running EEEEE! Again, I plan to rescape my RSM and thin out that rock pile and then start filling both tanks up with corals (for beginners).

 

 

Thank you so much for the kind words!! I'll be posting some pictures later today possibly of my tank now, everything has grown out even more. I can't wait to see how your tank turns out! I'll be following your thread as well I don't use the stock media basket, I threw that out immediately. All I have in the back center chamber is (From top to bottom) a clump of filter floss that i change out twice a week, a bag of Phosguard, a bag of Purigen, Chemipure, and a sponge. Oh, and the pump that feeds into my chiller! I still use the stock pumps and they work great and are silent. I don't use the wavemaker, it never appealed to me Anyways, I can't wait to see how your tank turns out!!!

[oldSWseamomma]

Can't wait to see your new pics ! Thanks for answering all my questions I think I am going to run the stock pumps for now and see how they do - yours seems to be doing great for your tank so no need to spend money if I don't have to - ha! I am going to get StevieT's media basket for it tho. I have pretty good luck with no heat issues in my house (in TN) and for the summer I don't have the heater going in the RSM till it starts cooling off in the Fall. With the AC set at 73 my RSM stays at 76-78 all the time. When I replaced the lights in the hood the temp did spike up to 80 but that was with no AC running in the house so the new lights were absolutely stronger than the old ones that came with it. I have to put the stand together tonight for the jBj and leak test it - if no leaks then it's on to filling it with SW, LR and substrate this weekend. I'll take progress pics so that when I start a thread I'll have them to post. I need to start a thread on my RSM also but want to wait till I have a few more corals in it. Right now it's mostly a FOWLR - a pretty FOWLR but boring compared to yours and so many other tanks her on NR.

 

Do you have sand in yours or just really fine substrate? I love the look of it - but I really don't want to have sand that blows around at the least little disruption.

[Mike Savage]

Gorgeous tank!

 

Mike

[surgicalsense]

Looks great! Every one looks happy.

[llama roadkill]

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 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 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

-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 DendroFish:

-2 True Perculas

-1 Mystery Wrasse

-1 Yellow candy hogfish

-1 Geometric Hawkfish

-1 Yasha goby that lives in my DIY Jawfish houseInverts:

-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.

Heres what it looked like a week or so later:

And here's what it looks like today!

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

Heres some of my zoanthids.

4 of my Lord Acans:

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....

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

Some pink zoanthids next to my snail.

Side view:

The other side view:

The 2 Duncans-

Stop irritating my polyps!!!

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

The purple and green hammer:

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

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

 

Hi!

 

Awesome tank!

 

How are your Mystery Wrasse and Hogfish? I REALLY want them but people are saying they are aggresive and eat shrimp.

[oldSWseamomma]

Awesome tank and beautiful pictures ! I just now was able to fill my JBJ 28 LED Int. - one of my pups developed diabetes (inherent in the mini schnauzer breed ) He is doing well and responding to his insulin shots wonderfully so let's hope he lives a good long life with it. So that being said I had to put the JBJ on hold for lack of funds. It has had water in it a week and then this weekend I took about 10 lbs. of LR out of my RSM and put those in the JBJ. I still need another 10 lbs to finish the rock scape with and once I have that looking good then I will put the substrate in. I wanted to put the LR on the glass bottom instead of the substrate this time. Tank looks and runs great - no noise and no heat issues - love that !

 

I do have another question tho - did you keep the sponges in the return pump chambers ?? I was thinking the sponge in the middle chamber would be enough but before I remove the "long" sponges I'd ask. I did get the StevieT mediabasket for it tho - the stock mediabasket had a crack in it and the handle broke on me already so splurged on that.

 

Hope my tank ends up half as gorgeous as yours

[llama roadkill]

Awesome tank and beautiful pictures ! I just now was able to fill my JBJ 28 LED Int. - one of my pups developed diabetes (inherent in the mini schnauzer breed ) He is doing well and responding to his insulin shots wonderfully so let's hope he lives a good long life with it. So that being said I had to put the JBJ on hold for lack of funds. It has had water in it a week and then this weekend I took about 10 lbs. of LR out of my RSM and put those in the JBJ. I still need another 10 lbs to finish the rock scape with and once I have that looking good then I will put the substrate in. I wanted to put the LR on the glass bottom instead of the substrate this time. Tank looks and runs great - no noise and no heat issues - love that !

 

I do have another question tho - did you keep the sponges in the return pump chambers ?? I was thinking the sponge in the middle chamber would be enough but before I remove the "long" sponges I'd ask. I did get the StevieT mediabasket for it tho - the stock mediabasket had a crack in it and the handle broke on me already so splurged on that.

 

Hope my tank ends up half as gorgeous as yours

Just wanted to say sorry for your pup. Hope he gets better!

[reefernanoman]

I have a 28g nanocube too, but it looks like junk compared to yours! Nice tank!

[markalot]

Thank you so much for the kind words!! I'll be posting some pictures later today possibly of my tank now, everything has grown out even more. I can't wait to see how your tank turns out! I'll be following your thread as well I don't use the stock media basket, I threw that out immediately. All I have in the back center chamber is (From top to bottom) a clump of filter floss that i change out twice a week, a bag of Phosguard, a bag of Purigen, Chemipure, and a sponge. Oh, and the pump that feeds into my chiller! I still use the stock pumps and they work great and are silent. I don't use the wavemaker, it never appealed to me Anyways, I can't wait to see how your tank turns out!!!

 

We need some updates!

[saltt]

 

Awesome tank and beautiful pictures ! I just now was able to fill my JBJ 28 LED Int. - one of my pups developed diabetes (inherent in the mini schnauzer breed ) He is doing well and responding to his insulin shots wonderfully so let's hope he lives a good long life with it. So that being said I had to put the JBJ on hold for lack of funds. It has had water in it a week and then this weekend I took about 10 lbs. of LR out of my RSM and put those in the JBJ. I still need another 10 lbs to finish the rock scape with and once I have that looking good then I will put the substrate in. I wanted to put the LR on the glass bottom instead of the substrate this time. Tank looks and runs great - no noise and no heat issues - love that !

 

I do have another question tho - did you keep the sponges in the return pump chambers ?? I was thinking the sponge in the middle chamber would be enough but before I remove the "long" sponges I'd ask. I did get the StevieT mediabasket for it tho - the stock mediabasket had a crack in it and the handle broke on me already so splurged on that.

 

Hope my tank ends up half as gorgeous as yours

Awh, I hope your pup is doing well! I would love to see pics of your tank once you have it up and running I did take out the long sponges in the return chamber, I found no need for them since my auto top off keeps my water level about 3 inches from the rim. And thanks!! My tank is doing well!

 

 

I have a 28g nanocube too, but it looks like junk compared to yours! Nice tank!

I'm sure yours doesn't look like junk!! But I, too, have days where I just dont' even want to look at my tank. Those blue waving hand polyps are starting to annoy me.. but there is nothing i can do about them

 

 

 

We need some updates!

Yes sir! Sorry I haven't been on here lately, I haven't bought any coral in a looong time, I honestly don't have much room to put anything new since the blue waving hand polyps have taken over! As for updates, I found my yasha goby dead yesterday. I think it's because he wasn't getting enough to eat since all my other fish are extremely aggressive eaters and he lived under a rock off to the side of the tank. I'd feed him with a pipette every time I fed my corals (about twice a week) but lately I have been pretty busy so I wasn't feeding as much, and I think that did him in. Everything else is growing really well, my acro, chalices, zoas, and acans. Here are some recent pics! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

[Maniu]

Color gamma and saturation is spot on. Sweet

[markalot]

Excellent! Thanks for updating, love the pics.

 

Oh, look at that little ponape birdsnest up top. Great color ... something else I'm jealous of.

[saltt]

Color gamma and saturation is spot on. Sweet

Lol, I just use an app to bump up the saturation a bit to make the colors pop iPhone pics tend to wash out the colors in my tank

[Maniu]

But it still looks so delicious. Candy shop lol

As far as room in your tank.......... Frag it, sell it and get yourself brand new shoes

[gena]

So nice to see an update!!!! Sorry about the goby....always a bummer. Your tank still looks gorgeous though.

 

I like the blue cloves...are they growing on the back wall too?

[HiImSean]

thanks for the update! i love the chalices and acans

[jojo822]

I have the same tank, how are you dosing it,or are you just doing water changes? Beautiful setup by the way!!

[saltt]

I have the same tank, how are you dosing it,or are you just doing water changes? Beautiful setup by the way!!

 

Thanks everyone! And I add Seachem alkalinity buffer a few times a week as well as the liquid calcium supplement. But I do regular water changes 1-2 times a week and it seems to keep everything in check.