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NanoGeek's JBJ RL 45!


NanoGeek

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FTS 11/2015

 

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Hello everyone, Im new to the forum so I just wanted to introduce myself and my aquarium I have been working on. In the past I had a 65 gallon reef tank that I kept for several years, but that went to my ex after my divorce. I have been debating setting up another tank for years now, but have been put off because I have been moving alot. Well it finally got the best of me and I got a jbj rimless 45. I like the idea of a all in one system just in case I do decide to move again. For now I got the tank, stand, Hydra 26 for lighting, Diy light hanging fixture, cadlights nano skimmer, innovative marine minimax reactor desktop size, and a jbj auto top off. I am already debating in upgrading the media baskets which I will ask about in my questions.

 

My last tank I used all live rock and live sand, but this go around I really wanted to take my time, design my own scape and not be pressured with a time limit of getting rocks in the water. My LFS sells marco rock, its a few cents more per lb, but since I got to play with it there, build it up and pick my own pieces it was worth it. I picked up 30lbs and took the minimalist approach. Even though I liked the scape I came up with at the lfs, I totally changed it into something better after I got home. I joined most of the rock together with jbj water weld so I could easily transfer it to the tank.

 

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So at this point I have everything up and running, put in some frozen krill shrimp to get the cycle started and am just impatiently waiting for the cycle to complete. I found out all too quick that a hydrometer isnt that accurate so I picked up a refractometer. All of my water came from the lfs and it reads 1.028. Is that too high for the cycle? I do plan to lower it to 1.026 with some fresh water, but want to check the water first at the lfs to make sure my refractometer is actually reading correctly and calibrated.

 

Here is some pics of it set up, sorry for my phone taking crappy pictures. The light was only on for the pics, Im leaving it off while it cycles. Although now I am running the skimmer just to get it broken in.

 

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So a few questions I have, if I decide to order upgraded media baskets from inTank with filter floss and chemi pure blue, will new media start my cycle all over? Or do I put in the media thats in there now with the new stuff until the cycle is finished then take it out?

 

Another question about the chemi pure blue. It says its good for 4 to 6 months, do I need a bag on both sides or will one side be sufficient? When I change it do I just take out the bag and put another in? Will that affect any bacteria?

 

Last is about my salinity. Like I said my refractometer reads 1.028, all my saltwater came from a lfs, which I plan to buy from when I do water changes. Next time I go I want to see if theirs reads the same in house. If it does should I leave it or lower it with some fresh water? All of their tanks, corals, fish look spectacular with tons of color.

 

Thats all of the questions I have for now, Im sure I will have plenty more in the future. Thanks for all the great information on the forum!

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HarryPotter

Okay so the InTank media basket will NOT effect the cycle. Just out your media in the new tack and put it in :)

 

1.028 is pretty high for salinity- are you "topping off" (correcting evaporation) with fresh (NOT SALT) water?

 

You should take out some of your water and replace with distilled/RODI water to lower the salinity.

 

Check out my build! I have the same tank :)

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/361233-harrys-hyper-rl-45-new-orleans/

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Wow your tank is looking great!

 

Yes, I forgot to mention I am topping off about a liter a day total. I have been adding fresh RO water from the lfs once in the morning, and once in the evening. I am still waiting on my pump to come in for my ato.

 

I plan to stop by tomorrow after work to check the salinity of their water. Even the extra buckets of saltwater I have reads 1.028, so either their water is indeed high, or the refractometer they sold me is inaccurate. I did calibrate it with distilled water per the instructions and it reads 0 on 3 or 4 kinds of fresh water including the RO water I am topping off with.

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HarryPotter

Sounds good!

 

I definitely reccomend the InTank baskets. I did an entire review of them in my thread- they're awesome. Double your filteration and allow you to use more media and a refugium! :)

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Yes, thanks for the review its what sold me on the baskets. Did you get the chemi pure blue for each basket? And is just a direct swap out when its time to change it?

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HarryPotter

Yes, thanks for the review its what sold me on the baskets. Did you get the chemi pure blue for each basket? And is just a direct swap out when its time to change it?

I put chemi-pure blue in only one basket because it is rated for 40+ gallons. Yes, it is just a direct swap- no modification required.

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If you get the InTank Media baskets just keep in mind JBJ updated the design on the flow inserts so you might need a razor to cut a small piece of plastic off in order to get the thing in there, just found that out myself.

 

As for using Live rock in the back of an AIO for the purpose of filtration that's an excellent idea but take a tip, Place the live rock rubble in a mesh bag, similar to an Orange bag. The reason being crap builds up under it and trying to pull all rock out to clean under it when doing maintenance can be tricky so just being able to pull a mesh bag out, vacuum, then place the bag back in is much more convenient.

 

Just curious why did you choose the IM Reactor? What do you plan to run in it? I'm not saying its a bad reactor at all just curious on your choice.

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HarryPotter

If you get the InTank Media baskets just keep in mind JBJ updated the design on the flow inserts so you might need a razor to cut a small piece of plastic off in order to get the thing in there, just found that out myself.

 

As for using Live rock in the back of an AIO for the purpose of filtration that's an excellent idea but take a tip, Place the live rock rubble in a mesh bag, similar to an Orange bag. The reason being crap builds up under it and trying to pull all rock out to clean under it when doing maintenance can be tricky so just being able to pull a mesh bag out, vacuum, then place the bag back in is much more convenient.

 

Just curious why did you choose the IM Reactor? What do you plan to run in it? I'm not saying its a bad reactor at all just curious on your choice.

Flow inserts? I got my tank direct from them two months ago and do not have them! :o

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Yes I was wondering the same thing. Do you have pictures of what you had to modify? I just placed an order for these baskets. Also, I chose the IM reactor based on it having a smaller footprint than the cadlights reactor. I can fit it in the middle return sump if I want to use one on the side for a refugium. Right now I have biopellets to put in it, but might do more research and see if something is better. Its not installed right now, I am waiting on my cycle to finish and get some livestock in there first.

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take a look at this link: http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Rimless-Nano-Cube-30-Media-Basket-RL30MR.htm

Look at "Note on Water Director" I understand he states its for the 30RL But was just giving a heads up in case you got them in the mail and found a difficult time getting it to fit like i did. :) When a company changes something its not unusual to change it across all their products especially something that's directing flow in JBJ's case.

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Thanks for the link! I dont have that water director behind my overflows. Looks kind of neat though, it will get the water out towards the middle of the filter. wonder if I could add some to my order.

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Ok then in that case your good :) I have the JBJ 30RL but figured the 45 was pretty much the same except for size, You should have no issues with the baskets, Mine worked it just took a lot of cramming to get it in and when trying to put on the water director I almost broke it before looking at the page and realizing I had to make a couple of cuts.

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So they added 2 of the water directors to my order. Told me I will still have to trim a little to get those to fit, but it will be better getting the water flow out further on top of the filters. Thanks for that tip!

 

My lfs is closed today so I cant go and check the salinity of their water, but I think I will go ahead and lower mine when I get home. Like I said its at 1.028, should I start with say 1/2 gallon fresh water to see where it drops to or more? Was thinking my refractometer could have been reading incorrectly, but its probably not. Even my hydrometer shows the salinity to be high.

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HarryPotter

So they added 2 of the water directors to my order. Told me I will still have to trim a little to get those to fit, but it will be better getting the water flow out further on top of the filters. Thanks for that tip!

 

My lfs is closed today so I cant go and check the salinity of their water, but I think I will go ahead and lower mine when I get home. Like I said its at 1.028, should I start with say 1/2 gallon fresh water to see where it drops to or more? Was thinking my refractometer could have been reading incorrectly, but its probably not. Even my hydrometer shows the salinity to be high.

Yeah remove 1/2 gallon of salt water and add 1/2 gallon of RO/DI. If thats not enough wait an hour and do it again

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Ok, so I got my sg down to 1.026 which I am happy with. I should receive my pump tomorrow for my ato, so when I get that hooked up I will finish dialing in the sg.

 

As far as my cycle though, its day 6 in my cycle and I still havent seen more than .25 ammonia. Actually I dont think its even got that high, just in between 0 and .25. I put a healthy portion of krill shrimp in there so I would think it would produce something. Nitrites have been 0, havent checked nitrates.

 

I did add a half bottle of fritz-zyme turbo 900, did this stuff really work? Should I add the rest of the frozen krill shrimp I have or impatiently wait a few more days to watch for an ammonia spike?

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All of you all have great looking tanks! Just figured out that I have to be on the full version to follow, for some reason there is no option in the mobile version of the site. Anyways, Im following all of you now.

 

As for my tank, I received my ATO pump today. Havent hooked it up yet though. Its an Avast diaphram pump, supposed to be able to handle a lot more head pressure over the aqua lifter, so hopefully it works out. All my stuff should come in tomorrow from inTank, so I will probably just set it up then.

 

I did find 10 percent pure ammonia today at Ace Hardware so I dosed it and got the ammonia up to 4ppm and added the other half bottle of fritz-zyme tonight. I am interested to see if this product actually does anything for a quick cycle. My lfs swears by it, so we will see over the next couple days. My plan is to have the tank completely processing 2ppm in 24 hours before I add any livestock. According to my lfs that should be relatively quick with the bacteria, but I am always skeptical.

 

Wretched: how deep do you have your cadlights skimmer in the sump? I have mine as far down as it will go, is that too deep? I plan to keep my water level about an inch lower in the center section from where it over flows from the skimmer section.

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HarryPotter

All of you all have great looking tanks! Just figured out that I have to be on the full version to follow, for some reason there is no option in the mobile version of the site. Anyways, Im following all of you now.

 

As for my tank, I received my ATO pump today. Havent hooked it up yet though. Its an Avast diaphram pump, supposed to be able to handle a lot more head pressure over the aqua lifter, so hopefully it works out. All my stuff should come in tomorrow from inTank, so I will probably just set it up then.

 

I did find 10 percent pure ammonia today at Ace Hardware so I dosed it and got the ammonia up to 4ppm and added the other half bottle of fritz-zyme tonight. I am interested to see if this product actually does anything for a quick cycle. My lfs swears by it, so we will see over the next couple days. My plan is to have the tank completely processing 2ppm in 24 hours before I add any livestock. According to my lfs that should be relatively quick with the bacteria, but I am always skeptical.

 

Wretched: how deep do you have your cadlights skimmer in the sump? I have mine as far down as it will go, is that too deep? I plan to keep my water level about an inch lower in the center section from where it over flows from the skimmer section.

 

Same skimmer here- make sure it goes in the second compartment next to the input.

 

Foam should be no less than the bottom of the cup

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All of you all have great looking tanks! Just figured out that I have to be on the full version to follow, for some reason there is no option in the mobile version of the site. Anyways, Im following all of you now.

 

As for my tank, I received my ATO pump today. Havent hooked it up yet though. Its an Avast diaphram pump, supposed to be able to handle a lot more head pressure over the aqua lifter, so hopefully it works out. All my stuff should come in tomorrow from inTank, so I will probably just set it up then.

 

I did find 10 percent pure ammonia today at Ace Hardware so I dosed it and got the ammonia up to 4ppm and added the other half bottle of fritz-zyme tonight. I am interested to see if this product actually does anything for a quick cycle. My lfs swears by it, so we will see over the next couple days. My plan is to have the tank completely processing 2ppm in 24 hours before I add any livestock. According to my lfs that should be relatively quick with the bacteria, but I am always skeptical.

 

Wretched: how deep do you have your cadlights skimmer in the sump? I have mine as far down as it will go, is that too deep? I plan to keep my water level about an inch lower in the center section from where it over flows from the skimmer section.

 

Very nice. If your pump doesn't work... I'm using the nano tunze osmolater and its pushing a good 5' of head straight into my chamber.... Hasn't failed me yet and its been over a year of use. My skimmer sits on the black part of the back of the tank and it's all the way down... It's working well right now.. The water level i'd say is about half way up the acrylic. Check out my thread and videos. Adding the ammonia will increase cycle time, I also know others who dose it directly... just make sure you levels are correct and stables for 3 days or so before adding livestock..

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Ok, looks like your skimmers are working great. I just have the bubbles coming up to about the o-ring on the cup, but as of now I'm just letting it break in while the tank cycles. I will fine tune it more after I start getting livestock in.

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HarryPotter

Ok, looks like your skimmers are working great. I just have the bubbles coming up to about the o-ring on the cup, but as of now I'm just letting it break in while the tank cycles. I will fine tune it more after I start getting livestock in.

 

Push it in a bit more with a twist?

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