JBJ rimless 10 gallon

[jeffmr4]

I had originally wanted to post a journal of my care of the tank but had some bad rock which I lived with for a long time.  The many things I tried to fix the algae problem with it didn't work except taking it out and starting with 'life rock' from caribsea.

 

The algae was continuing to grow so I decided to do a semi-re-boot.  I took all the rock out, vacuumed the sand and put about 9 lbs. of caribsea life rock in it.  I've also gotten a coralife 24w 24" t-5 fixture and put in ati aquablue special and blue plus bulbs.  I also have a kessil a160we pointing inward on half of the tank with the hard corals and clam and the a80 pointing in on the softies part.

[jeffmr4]

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[jeffmr4]

[teemonee6]

bump

 

as I am now subscribing to this, I too have the jbj10g.

 

my filter pump went bad and i have been trying to find a replacement part for it with no luck.

 

im trying to decide if i should just take out that whole black piece and do a canister setup. the only thing with that is i do not want the nitrate factory so would clean it out every week and not add any filter floss in the canister.

 

what are your thoughts?

[jeffmr4]

Hello,

  Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.  I remember someone getting their own little pump and using it in one of these.  I think it was a hydor or sicce.  They have some small pumps that might work I think.  I use the filter for just the heater and filter floss and if on a special occasion I need to add carbon or something else.

  You could do the canister.  It just depends on what you want to do.  I would recommend more flow whichever route you go so you might need to add a pump (like maybe a koralia nano or something) to get good flow.  Before I had the half gyre I had cyano problems but it went away with that.

  Good luck and let me know what you decide.

[teemonee6]

Thanks for responding, I never got a notification that you did lol.

 

If you are down, we can share ideas and pics.. I am just new to this whole forum thing though.

 

I am going to do a reboot of the my jbj 10g, its going to be JBJ 3.0 . 1.0 was total GHA fail, 2.0 wasnt bad, but I had to tear down the tank due to some life events. I could of actually kept 2.0 up but decided not to because I wanted to rescape and redo the whole setup. Pic is of early setup 2.0. Would like to split ideas. This is my office tank so I am limited on what I can really do .. its not even approved to be there LOL.

 

 

[teemonee6]

Here are some other old photos of the 10000 setups I did. I put most of them into my home tank or gave away.

I got all the fishes as a baby, and they all grew, basically once they get too big for the tank. I would just trade them in or sell them.

 

I wanted to hide more of the stuff in the tank, I am following you and getting the protein skimmer, I wish there was a heater that would fit in the chambers. I was reading the media basket doesnt do anything because the setup is not made correctly therefore making the media chamber worthless.

 

By the way, how would I show more photos? Says I can only upload 6mb.

[jeffmr4]

Your tank looks really nice.  I like the light on it and the black sand in the first photo.  The heater I have in mine is a marineland 50w.  It fits but I think there are others that will fit.  Probably need to be 50 watt though.  You don't really need a media basket.  If you want to use carbon or gfo buy a micron filter bag from bulk reef supply and put it in the second chamber.  I bought some filter pads and just cut them to fit the second chamber so they are flat (parallel to the ground), the water goes through them and anything else that is underneath.

  Not sure about the photos but you could create an account at photobucket and use their link to make them appear.

  I'd also recommend doing water changes every week to keep down phosphates and replenish elements.  I'm not currently doing this and I've accumulated some algae.  If you can use an ro/di filter that will help or at least get your water from a good source.

  Let me know what you come up with!

[Christopher Marks]

On 8/12/2017 at 3:32 PM, teemonee6 said:

By the way, how would I show more photos? Says I can only upload 6mb.

That is per 6mb photo you upload, but there is still an over-all storage limit per account. To share large photos it's best to use Flickr.com, you can share a Flickr photo here by simply copying and pasting the Flickr photo page address or share link into the browser here, it will automatically embed.

 

How is this tank doing these days @jeffmr4?

[jeffmr4]

Thanks for asking @Christopher Marks.  It is going ok.  I have just moved so moved the whole thing.  I accidentally broke part of the reef glass skimmer so it is out of commission and I think I have dinoflagellates so that is something I am going to have to battle.  But, the corals seem to be doing well.  I think there has been some growth of the sps corals and the clam.  I am going to try to feed the tank phytoplankton (phyto 2) in the hopes that the zooplankton they create will eat some of the dinos.  I know lights out, stopping water changes and some other things are suggested.  I might try stopping water changes for a while.

[trong]

I had the same tank... it's a horrible tank. The overflow chamber and pump sucks. It did not surface skim at all. I had to sell it, but both your tanks look great btw. 

[jeffmr4]

Yeah, it can't work without some modification but I like the dimensions and rimless look.  The pump and filter (which has to be modified to work) work ok but you will need at least another pump somewhere.  I don't know about the lighting.  I didn't use mine for very long.  I am also battling some dinoflagellates right now so hopefully its not the system at fault but other reasons!  Hope you find something else that works.

[trong]

I'm think about the fusion lagoon 24 or the fusion 40 from innovative marine. I battling Dino for about 3 months unit I couldn't take it anymore and broke the tank down and sell it. I tried everything from h2o2 dosing to 3 days total black out and could not get rid of it. 

[jeffmr4]

I'm having the same problem.  It turns out having 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates is not entirely a good thing.  I'm trying a product called Vibrant with little luck so far.  I've heard Dino-x works well.  I am going to try some other things and see if they work.  Its a tough one from what I hear.  I've heard of the things you tried and I've also heard of raising magnesium, dirtying your water, developing zooplankton that will eat it and manually removing it.  I may try some of those things.  Innovative makes some nice tanks.

[trong]

Let me know if you beat the dino would really like to know what works for you. 

[teemonee6]

You guys have any recommendations on a tank that is similar? I'm about to give up on the jbj cuz now the return pump is broken. Can anybody share their mods on the tank or do you know of similar style and length of another? It has to be a desktop to fit in my office . Thanks in advance.

[trong]

I would go with the Innovative Marine nuvo fusion 20. Just slightly bigger than the JBJ. If you don't think the size will work try the fusion 10

[jeffmr4]

@teemonee6  Did you try to contact jbj about getting another pump?  You also might pull the pump and see if there are any markings on it and search for it on the internet.  If you can't find that pump I think I remember someone using one of these,

 

Hydor small pumps

 

I've pulled my gfo and carbon and just use a filter pad in the second chamber which I change weekly.  I do a 25% water change once per week and this seems to be helping with the dinos.  I'm also dosing vibrant although I don't know how much it is helping.  I use an ro/di filter for water and use a turkey baster like thing to blow detritus and dinos into the water column.  I also use a glass scraper to scrape off the algae once per week and have a reef glass skimmer hooked up.  @trong  I'm not sure if you had cyano but I had that in the beginning and it was mainly from lack of flow.  Once i added some flow and dosed chemiclean I got rid of it.  I think flow is also good for dinoflagellates.  My snail died which may have been from the vibrant, lack of algae, dinoflagellates or a combination of those things.  Another thing I am trying to do is get my nitrates and phosphates up a little (both are at 0).  I've heard dinos thrive in low nutrient conditions, particularly low phosphate.   I've been dosing phyto2 phytoplankton, occasionally spot feeding reef roids with a turkey baster and feeding the fish an alternation of ocean nutrition flakes and rod's frozen food.  When I do the water changes I also try to suck as much dino stuff as I can up from the rocks.  Every other week I siphon the sand.  That seems to help.  Anyway, if there is anything I can do to help, let me know.

[jeffmr4]

"

[jeffmr4]

I got my results back from the Triton lab.  I was surprised that mostly everything is ok.  My calcium was a little low and my magnesium was more where I wanted it.  I was surprised at this because my home tests showed the opposite.  My iodine was also low which is probably because of my use of carbon.  Here is the listing,

 

Triton Test Results for Home Reef Tank

[jeffmr4]

I tested my water again and the magnesium measures 1125 and the calcium 440.  Its hard to believe that the kits would be off by that much.  The calcium kit is a new api and the magnesium an older salifert.

[teenyreef]

I've had problems with old salifert magnesium test kits reading too low. If it seems too low it would be a good idea to cross check with a different kit or at the lfs. 

[jeffmr4]

Hey tr.  That is good to know.  I have tried to get someone from my local reef society to help without success and the local store doesn't test for calcium and magnesium.

[teenyreef]

5 hours ago, jeffmr4 said:

Hey tr.  That is good to know.  I have tried to get someone from my local reef society to help without success and the local store doesn't test for calcium and magnesium.

Wow, that really sucks. Where are you located? 

 

I'm fortunate to have several good LFS's and a very helpful local reefing community. But I've also accumulated multiple test kits from multiple manufacturers over the years just from the occasional times I've been worried about whether my test kit is good or not.

 

Btw, the Salifert mag test going bad has been reported by others from time to time. The manufacturer recommends always capping the reagent bottles right away to keep them from being exposed to the air for too long to try and avoid the problem.

[jeffmr4]

Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Ok good to know.  I have to Mg test kits from Salifert and they both read the same thing but I did mix what was left of reagent 3 with the new bottle.