Jahmic's JBJ 28 build

[jahmic]

Gotta start somewhere, so here's the empty tank shot.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0582.jpg

I'm going to take my time starting this up and deciding on livestock. As of now I'm leaning towards running the tank with a fuge in the back. It's the CF model, and I'll be sticking with zoas and softies to ease the learning curve as I make the transition from planted FW tanks.

[jahmic]

I was fortunate enough to have a local reefer hook me up with an excessive amount of live sand from an established tank, and a few pieces of live rock to get started. Staging area:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0589.jpg

The sand is a mix of sugar and medium aragonite, I'm definitely liking the look...although I quickly learned how easily the water can cloud up when you disturb the sand bed. Found a couple hitch-hikers on the live rock...a zebra turbo snail and a cerith. I guess those 2 are my first livestock for the tank. They seem to be grazing actively so far...I've been keeping an eye on the parameters and the ammonia has stayed at 0.5 and I think I saw the first trace of nitrite today...I'm thinking they're hardy enough to survive a small cycle.

On day 2 I stopped by the lfs and picked up an additional 10lb of live rock and a dry base rock. They called it Tonga...not sure I can really confirm that, but it's limestone based and extremely porous. After soaking and rinsing the rock, I could here water gurgling inside the rock...which eventually trickled out...so I'm thinking it'll make for a great bacteria colony.

[jahmic]

Sandstorm #2 came when I pulled the live rock I tossed in on day 1 to make way for the base rock. It was immediately impossible to see in the tank, and so I decided to just place the base rock and call it for the night.

The base rock was shaped like a square-top mountain; it was placed in the tank "upside down" to give myself more of a shelf to work with, and limit the dead spots in the sand bed.

The rest of the live rock was tossed in the tank...and my decision to wait a day to finish the scape after the sandstorm was overcome by my curiosity and impatience.

I decided to see if I could place the rocks by "feel" since I'd likely be stirring up sand throughout the process anyway. The goal was to get a couple nice shelves and a few caves to keep the fish happy.

Here's what things looked like once the dust settled.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0590.jpg

[boostd2valve]

Looks like your off to a good start!

[jahmic]

Here's the tank on day 5.

FTS
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0594.jpg

Left
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0592.jpg

I surprised myself with how well those 2 rocks ended up fitting together. I suppose there's something to be said about arranging rocks blindly and just going for balance ;)

Right
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0593.jpg

I'm just running polyfil in the top and bottom chambers of the media basket with carbon in the middle. So far it's done a decent job of cleaning the water of particles...but I can definitely see the limitations of the stock basket as the spill from the overflow seems to be too much for the basket to handle, and a lot if the crud seems to bypass the media.

I hate to already be considering upgrades, but I may replace the media basket to fix the issue with the overflow not dumping into the basket...I'll probably also run a fuge.

[jahmic]

As far as stocking plans go, for corals I'm thinking mostly zoas, paly, and rics with a mix of softies like frogspawn, hammer, and some xenia.

For fish I'm leaning towards:

orchid Purple pseudochromis
Diamond goby
Black clown
(insert suggestions here)

I'm not entirely sure on the goby and clown sp that I'd like to go with, and I'm completely undecided on the final fish. I really wanted a coral beauty until I learned that they aren't too reef safe...so that spot's up in the air.

CUC is still undecided.

[ange062]

I like the scape, looks like you are off to a good start! Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like your sandbed is really deep. This will become a problem long term, you should probably remove some now while it's easy. 1" would be good, 2" at the very most.

And, as much as you try to deny it right now, upgrades will be coming, it's inevitable!! :)

[jahmic]

I like the scape, looks like you are off to a good start! Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like your sandbed is really deep. This will become a problem long term, you should probably remove some now while it's easy. 1" would be good, 2" at the very most.

And, as much as you try to deny it right now, upgrades will be coming, it's inevitable!! :)

Thanks! The sandbed is at 2.25 inches...I laid enough sand for a 2" bed, then added and buried the rock. It wasn't until after I finished the scape that I realized I had goofed in not accounting for the rock displacing the sand. I plan on siphoning out some sand with the first couple water changes to get down to 2"...we'll see how well that plan actually works. I'd like to stay closer to the 2" mark to keep the scape stable.

And yea...I'm already eying an MP10 and a protein skimmer. You're review convinced me to go with the Aquamaxx HOB; it's next on the list after the media basket.

[jahmic]

Salinity was at 1.023 yesterday, and I wanted to get it to 1.025 before stocking. So I grabbed some salt mix, did a water change...siphoned out some sand and got the sandbed down to about 1.5 inches up front and maybe 2 in the back. The pic did turn out to be a little deceiving since there was a nice depression in the cave that needed filling.

Parameters have been stable after the short, small cycle last week. The most I got was an ammonia reading that peaked at 0.5 and nitrite that was readable as a "trace" on api's scale. Getting sand and live rock out of an established tank was a huge help.

Parameters the last 4 days:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
pH - 8.2
dkH - 9

[jahmic]

After watching the parameters remain stable for a few days after stirring up the sand, I decided to go ahead and introduce a diamond goby.

I had received some varying advice from a couple lfs, but figured he would do well since the sand came from an established tank and he likely had plenty food to sift out of the sand bed. I've also been "injecting" frozen mysis under the sand with a syringe outside his burrow...and he's been venturing out of his cave to eat the strategically placed food.

Here he is moments after adding him to the tank. Poor guy was missing the sand I think...the lfs had him in a BB tank, and he got to work as soon as he was acclimated.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/VIDEO0074.mp4

[jahmic]

...

[jahmic]

Coming from the freshwater world of planted tanks, where HOB filters grossly underperform compared to a canister...I found it difficult to stomach the purchase of an Aquamaxx HOB skimmer, especially given the price.

But I purchased one anyway...and, like many others, was thoroughly impressed by the build quality. Honestly, I didn't realize how large the skimmer was either...wish I would have paid more attention, but I'm pretty sure I primed it with close to a gallon of water.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0614.jpg

I ran it in hot water for a couple hours and it has been running quiet enough since then....not as loud as the fans on my hood, but not without the occasional gurgle either. No complaints. It's been running for three days now, and the cup seems to be adjusted fairly well...the cup fills about 1/4 of the way over 24hrs. It took some patience, and I'm not sure if that's an ideal rate, but the other alternatives I've come across are: no collection; or cup full in 4 hrs.

It's slowly been pulling off less water and more skimmate, so I'm hoping it won't require more adjusting.

[AFRobert568]

I like the tank, I have one myself. I’m not sure if you’re interested, but I don’t use carbon and I only have pillow stuffing in the top hole. This allows me to walkup and pull it out when I think its dirty without having to make a big deal out of it. I also don’t jam it with stuffing but I’ve learned the right amount to clean the tank with only one pump at a time.
Lastly if you do upgrade be sure to measure the opening, because I was told that the aftermarket media baskets might not fit because JBJ does a terrible job with being consistent with their clearances.

[jahmic]

I decided to see how a few corals would do in the tank, and got plenty help through the generosity of some local reef club members.

Yesterday I added a frag of hammer coral, a couple ricordea yuma, an unidentified mushroom, and a large stone covered with a colony of nuclear holocaust palys.

The hammer coral took about a day to fully open, but is looking happy in it's corner. Actually, I initially placed it in the center of the tank in front of the live rock, and it didn't open at all after several hours. There seemed to be little flow there, so I moved it to it's present corner. It started to open literally a few minutes after moving it, so hopefully it stays healthy in that spot.

The palys started opening almost right away...which I was happy to see. I had spotted bristle worms and a few unknown hitchhikers living in that rock, so I decided to dip it in CoralRx before adding it to the tank. Followed the instructions, acquired a slew of dead bugs, and things appear to be doing well.

Both of the rics and the mushroom are being kept in tupperware containers with bridal veil lids. I placed some rock rubble and sand in each as they're both unattached. I'd like to get a couple small colonies going on small rocks in the sand, and plan on keeping them off the main rockwork. One ric yuma has opened up and is laying flat; it floats around some but stays upright and is looking great. The other is still curled up...I found it upside down today and repositioned it. Hopefully it finds its way to attaching itself and surviving. The mushroom, of all things, is not looking great. Unless its supposed to be swollen puffy...but it has at least tripled in volume since I brought it home. I do think I know why though.

I was told I could try to gently shove the mushroom into a hole in a piece of liverock to get it to hold. So, I attempted that. The mushroom didn't like the idea much and squirt...it was the perfect facial money shot.

I laughed. My girlfriend didn't...it almost got her in the mouth from across the room. In all fairness, I did make sure she was ok before I laughed, and she laughed too...eventually. Hey, it was her idea that I start a reef anyway!


Pics:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0611.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0612.jpg

The palys toward the top of that colony have more brown and much less green than the ones toward the bottom, the polyps sticking out to the side have the most coloration. Could that mean the ones near the top got too much light in the previous tank? They seem to have colored up some in only a day...so if that continues I'll probably stop worrying, but I'm curious to know if there's an explanation for that appearance.

FTS:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0613.jpg

[jahmic]

I like the tank, I have one myself. I’m not sure if you’re interested, but I don’t use carbon and I only have pillow stuffing in the top hole. This allows me to walkup and pull it out when I think its dirty without having to make a big deal out of it. I also don’t jam it with stuffing but I’ve learned the right amount to clean the tank with only one pump at a time.
Lastly if you do upgrade be sure to measure the opening, because I was told that the aftermarket media baskets might not fit because JBJ does a terrible job with being consistent with their clearances.

Thanks for the heads up on the clearances with that chamber.

I actually removed the carbon after the tank was up for a couple weeks and cycled. Just prior to adding the goby I switched the carbon for a bag of purigen since I had some extra laying around. I'm now running that sandwiched between the polyfil in the top and bottom chamber. I do like the of changing the polyfil without removing the basket, so with that in mind, if I don't run chaeto I may pull the floss out of that bottom basket and run another chamber of chemical filtration. Thanks for the pointer.

[AFRobert568]

It sounds like you got some cool club mates, and I have no personal experience with the mediabaskets, but that was recently a thread on this forum. I look forward to see this develop.

[jahmic]

I do think I remember seeing that thread now that you mention it...I may end up just making a basket. There's an acrylic shop here that will cut to spec for free...as long as you ask for basic squares/rectangles. I'd have to drill the dividers and assemble it, but if the materials cost less than $30 I may go that route

[IndexKey]

Hey! You and I are doing very similar build from the same situation, I too just came from fw planted tanks. I plan on doing a mostly Lps dominated tank though, maybe some sps and a few softies. You really can do just about anything with these tanks, just check on John miller's thread and ange's. Looks like you're off to a good start.

[jahmic]

My computer is currently out of commission (posting from work...shhhh), so I haven't been taking many photos with my D80. Luckily, my girl's camera phone takes much better photos than mine.

Here are a couple shots she grabbed of the Nuclear Holocaust palys on Sunday:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/2012-02-26183912medium.jpg



http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/2012-02-26183637small.jpg

Can you spot the injured hitchhiker? (hint - he only has 3 out of 5 appendages left)


It appears that a couple asterina stars made it into the tank with that paly colony attached to the live rock. I grabbed a tiny keychain LED flashlight last night to check for any other hitchhikers and saw a few bristleworms crawling back into their holes in the live rock. Ugh those things gross me out, lol. The CoralRx dip did leave behind more than a dozen dead bristleworms, but these guys seem to have survived...they must have been hiding pretty deep in the rock. I had filled a bucket with about a gallon of water and used the 4 caps as per the instructions...but I did only agitate the rock by hand. I didn't see any dead "bad" hitchikers after the dip, and still have not spotted any in the tank, so I'm hoping that I just ended up with a few "beneficial" survivors. I know that some people tend to see asterina stars as a nuisance...but I'm hoping they just scavenge as they should and really don't go after living coral.

[jahmic]

I got home today and things seem to have improved with the ricordeas and the mushroom. Both rics are laying flat in the trays side-by-side adjacent to the rock that I'm hoping they attach to...both mouths are open so I'm thinking they will be fine. Last night after the lights shut off, the mushroom shrank back to its normal size, and is now attaching itself to the coral skeleton in the tray.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0617.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0618.jpg

[jahmic]

Ok, so I have a question concerning temperature regulation in the tank. It's winter in Denver, so the issue isn't fluctuation from heat while the lights are on...

I have a reliable 100w titanium heater that I ordered from catalina aquariums as well as a medical grade digital thermometer and probe. Both were in use for over a year, so I thought it was odd when the thermostat seemed to go bad when I placed the heater in this tank. Thermostat was set to 78, thermometer read 75. I have another identical heater that I use to heat my r/o for changes, and figured I'd swap them.

When I placed my hand in the heater chamber, I figured out my problem immediately...the water in the chamber heats faster than the volume in the display, and thus cuts the heater off before reaching the target temp. I raised the thermostar to 80, tank temp is now 77.

What is the best solution? Can I just set my thermostat on the heater for 82 (in a couple days) to keep the display at 79? Or do I run the "risk" of allowing my tank to fluctuate that much daily. I'm used to my tanks being in the +/- 1 range, but am not sure how essential that amount of accuracy really is. I'm assuming this is why people use fancy controllers with probes...and though I'm just as attracted to the bright lights of new equipment, I'm hoping for a simple solution.

[jahmic]

Nevermind, I think I just solved the problem. There wasn't enough flow in the heater chamber due to the placement of the skimmer in the constant level chamber on the opposite side...basically the water was flowing toward the skimmer intake and a bit stagnant in the heater chamber.

I moved the heater next to the skimmer intake and things are back in order.

[jahmic]

It's been a while since I updated...I've basically just been keeping an eye on things as the tank settles in.

I noticed the diamond goby was spending most of his time hunting pods in the tank, and decided to cut back feeding to once every couple days to cut back on algae growth. Nothing out of hand so far, but I did notice some diatoms and hair algae popping up on the glass and back wall. I've been cleaning the glass every other day, and leave the back wall untouched...if the algae is gonna grow, might as well be there. The pair of asterina stars have since spent their time on the back wall; I haven't seen them venture elsewhere in several days.

Pics:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0629.jpg

One of the yuma's has attached to a piece of rubble, I had transfered it to a smaller container to keep it from moving around too much...in an effort to force it to attach, and it seems to have worked. The other yuma is taking a bit longer, but it still looks healthy. I ended up losing the mushroom...it attached, then came lose, floated around, and hid in the cave. I attached it again, but the process repeated itself and it got caught in the overflow...I'm sure it would have survived, but I didn't want to lose it in the cave again and risk it taking over the tank.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0630.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0626.jpg

Hammer coral is looking good, it's been fully extended daily, and I noticed that the skeleton started to heal a few days after target feeding it some of Elite's marine cuisine...you can see where it started healing on the bottom left.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0628.jpg

Nuclear holocaust paly colony has started growing some new polyps...sorry about the crappy quality, still having computer issues, so no dslr images yet.


http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0631.jpg

I plan on splitting that mixed paly rock to separate the colonies and hopefully grow them out. Spotted this...necrosis? on one of the polyps early on. Not sure if it is something I should be concerned about, or if it just happened during transfer to the tank. It doesn't seem to be spreading, and I haven't noticed polyps closing 'randomly' so I'm hoping it's nothing to worry about.

[jahmic]

Oh, almost forgot. So much for sticking with the PC hood. A local reef club member gave me a sweet deal on a hood + chiller in exchange for my stock hood. I'm currently running a 150w metal halide with 2x18w actinics installed as well. I'm pretty sure the increased light is what ****ed off my mushroom and made it shrink and detach...it happened the day after the upgrade and u hadn't touched anything else. I moved the yuma to a more shaded area as a precaution.

Not running the chiller now as I keep my house at 72 in the winter. My temps have fluctuated from 78-81, and things seem fine. I'll definitely have to plumb it before summer though, since my ambient temp inside has crept up to 85 in the past while I'm at work. This is with no a/c though, so I may just hook my window unit back up this year and run it. This would probably limit the spawning fest in my FW setup as well...had to give away a couple fish last year when multiple species tried to claim the same corner for their eggs. ;)

Also worth mentioning...I placed a PAR meter under the HQI hood, and although the readings are higher than the PC bulb, they are lower than expected. It's a used bulb though, so I'll be replacing it. Figured it would only help to allow the tank to adjust to the increased light incrementally...so I plan on waiting a couple weeks to replace the bulb.

[jahmic]

Pic update.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/photobucket-5331-1331865573624.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/photobucket-5401-1331866343436.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/photobucket-5086-1331868891248.jpg

Happy acan

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/IMAG0634.jpg


Very unhappy acan

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/photobucket-3644-1331868908029.jpg


Not really sure what's going on here. Dipped before putting it in the tank and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Had some closed up zoas scare me early this week, but it turned out to be amphipods irritating the zoas as far as I can tell. Two days after adding the acans, a vermetid snail "web" was stuck to the acan and it had closed up. I rinsed the acan, killed the snails...but it hasn't opened since and the tissue has been receding. Also checked my levels today

Salinity 1.025
Alk 8.5
pH 8.4
Ca 430
Mg 1410
PO4 0.03
Nitrate. 0

Hoping I don't lose this frag, but it's not looking good.

[jahmic]

Haven't updated in a LONG while. I had been trying to do a build thread on 2 forums, and got lazy...ended up just keeping my local forum's thread updated.

In any case...just wanted to confirm that the tank is doing well. Here's the current FTS:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/DSC_0991.jpg

[jahmic]

Here's some eye-candy to make up for my absence. ;)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/DSC_1014-1.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/DSC_0866edit-2.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/DSC_0941-2.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a333/rmitchell726/DSC_0948-2.jpg

[jahmic]

Apparently I can't edit my first post?

...so here's the current setup/equipment list:

-Lighting-
-150w phoenix 14k halide
-(2) 18w actinic pc-r bulbs

-Filtration and Circulation-
-Vortech MP10
-JNS VS-1 skimmer (more commonly seen as the Aquamaxx HOB1)
-Two Little Fishes 150 reactor running gfo
-In-Tank media basket (floss, carbon, purigen)

-Misc-
-Marine magic dual dosing pump
-JBJ 1/15hp chiller

No ATO...I bought one and ended up not using it. I just calculated my evap and matched the concentration of my alk and ca solution to make up for evaporation. I'm using seachem dry supplements so it ended up being easier to just mix the solution according to what evaporated. Salinity has been stable and parameters have been looking good...corals are definitely happy.

Ice eliminated a couple tiny pest outbreaks as the tank matured...hair algae, bryopsis, and aiptasia all appeared at some point but none survived my husbandry. ;) Cyano appeared a few weeks ago though, and appears to be more stubborn. It started in a mini fuge I was running in the rear sump, then spread to the display. I'm just siphoning it out every few days and staying with my water changes. So far I seem to be winning the battle...it'll probably take some time but I'm confident it'll subside with some persistence.

I did modify the stock returns on the tank. I pulled off those deflectors and installed some 90 degree pvc elbows instead...they point directly behind my rockwork and I get some nice flow through the cave.

[coralsnaked]

Acans are sensitive to low Alk, I would suggest keeping tank at 10.0 - 11.0

Just a suggestion, but 5 ml of Salifert All in One weekly and test next day for Calcium and Alk levels for individual dosing. As your coral load increases you will find that routine dosing is a must on these smaller tanks. Also if you are using a quality reef crystal mix and change 10% per week with a salinity level of 1.024 -5 you can skip the monthly dosing of Iodine (1ml). But without regular changes you will need to dose this as well aspecially if you are skimming with the HOB skimmer. It will pull iodine out of water pretty fast, in fact when I dose iodine I stop skimming for 8 hours to let corals and shrimp aquire the needed iodine before it gets skimmed out.

Also dont let those Palys squirt you in the face like the mushroom. Could be horrific instead of funny LOL.

Happy Reefing

[jahmic]

Thanks for the reply.

Yea that issue with the acan was back in March and has since been sorted.

Turns out my salinity was too low as my refractometer was incorrectly calibrated. I made some 1.026 standard solution and things have been going fine since then...actually have an acan in there now that's doing great.

I've been keeping the alk at 8.5 and the Ca at 450. The autodosing keeps things nice and steady. With the smaller tank I'm fine with the potentially slower growth with my alk being on the low end. I've never tested for or dosed iodine, but I do keep up with my water changes...I use aquavitro salinity for my salt mix.

[jahmic]

My levels seem to be dialed in and stable now.

Alk - 8.6
Calcium - 450
Mg - 1410
phosphate - (not detectable)
nitrate - 2.0ppm

They remained at those levels consistently for the past 4+ weeks and the cyano is slowly disappearing. I had been using aquavitro fuel in the past and have gone back and forth on using it. When I do, cyano definitely rebounds; 3 weeks without it and after siphoning out the last remnants of cyano, I really don't see any coming back. If I go back to using anything similar to "Fuel", it will probably just be an amino acid product; it seems that the Vitamin C additive in the aquavitro product was providing carbon and allowing the cyano to thrive.

I've been able to get back to feeding more regularly; I'm feeding 2x per day and have been supplementing with reef chili 2x a week. I do get a little more algae on the glass, but the nutrients have remained low or undetectable and it hasn't seemed to increase cyano growth.

Should have a FTS update soon. I've been getting some nice growth out of my blue mille, and that group of mille colonies on the right of that top shelf has really colored up nicely.

[Shallow]

Nice tank, all looks very healthy.
I like your pink bits on the LHS, what is it?

[jlong11]

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa351/jlong112211/IMG_20121002_151953.jpg

[jlong11]

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa351/jlong112211/IMG_20121002_151953.jpg

[jahmic]

Nice tank, all looks very healthy.
I like your pink bits on the LHS, what is it?

Growing against the left glass up front? Dragon's breath macro algae. It looks awesome under actinics...but hard to capture in a photo and do it any justice.