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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:37 AM   #1
grmoore
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 22
GR's JBJ Nano Cube 28g HQI Zoa/Paly/Macro Build

Hi everyone... I thought I would share my 28g Nano Cube HQI build with you. I purchased it from Foster & Smith after Christmas while they were still on sale. I've added a chiller, refugium, MP10, and upgraded the pumps and lighting. The substrate is 20lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Fine Oolite Sand, and about 22lbs of Florida Reef Rock from ReefCleaners. The rock-work was created using several pieces of rock puttied together onto a heavy rock base. The sump area and refugium each have about 2lbs of rock rubble. I hope you enjoy this running log of my efforts and look forward to your comments, both good and bad!

Equipment:
  • JBJ Nano Cube 28g HQI
  • Aqua Euro 1/13 HP Chiller
  • CPR AquaFuge Small
  • Acella Pump
  • MJ1200 Pump driving Chiller
  • MJ600 Pump driving Refugium
  • Eheim Jager 125W Heater
  • Ecotech MP10es in Reef Crest mode
  • Tunze Osmolator ATO
  • Lifeguard Time or Temp

Lighting:
  • JBJ 150W HQI 14K MH
  • CPR Aquatic CPRL1318 18W Full Spectrum Light

Clean Up Crew:
  • 26 - Dwarf Ceriths (more like 50)
  • 12 - Nassarius
  • 11 - Florida Ceriths
  • 6 - Large Nerites
  • 5 - Small to Medium Nerites
  • 3 - Juvenile Blue Leg Hermits (Hitchhikers)
  • 2 - Juvenile Red Leg Hermits (Hitchhikers)

Livestock:
  • 3 - Blue/Green Reef Chromis - Chromis viridis
  • Pom Pom Crab - Lybia edmondsoni
  • 2 - Maxi Mini Anemonies
  • 13 - Various Zoa and Paly Frags

Macro Algaes:
  • Chaeto (Refugium)
  • Short Codium (Display)
  • Sargassum (Display)
  • Ulva (Display and Refugium)
  • Red Gracilaria (Refugium)
  • Several other unidentifed Macro Algaes [Display]

Measured Water Parameters:
  • Temperature: 77.9 F
  • Specific Gravity: 1.0255
  • pH: 8.3 (API Test Kit)
  • Ammonia: 0 ppm (API Test Kit)
  • Nitrites: 0 ppm (API Test Kit)
  • Nitrates: < 5 ppm (API Test Kit)
  • Calcium: 440 ppm (API Test Kit)
  • Alkalinty: 9 dKH (API Test Kit)
  • Magnesium: 1280 mg/L (Salifert Test Kit)
  • Phosphates: 0 mg/L (API Test Kit)

Dosing:
  • Brightwell Ferrion Liquid Iron - 15 drops MWF
  • Kent Tech-M Magnesium - As needed to maintain 1300 mg/L
  • Two Little Fishies C-Balance A&B - As needed to maintain 440 ppm/11 dKH

Filter Media:
  • Stock Media Basket
  • Filter Floss (Middle Chamber)

Change Log:
  • 2011 May 23 - Mr. Coral - Purchased 13 Zoa and Paly Frags and 2 Free Maxi Mini Anemones
  • 2011 May 20 - Foster & Smith - Purchased Brightwell Lugol's, Tech-i, Reef Plus for the arriving corals, MJ 400 PRO and Pre-Filter. I need more water movement in the refugium to limit Cyanobacteria growth, but not more flow, so the powerhead will go in the refugium itself.
  • 2011 May 20 - Lowered Iron dosing to 15 drops MWF. Still dosing C-Balance 2 to push Alkalinity to 11 dKH.
  • 2011 May 15 - Began dosing Kent Tech-M Magnesium to bump up the Magnesium level from 1230 mg/L to 1300 mg/L
  • 2011 May 10 - First algae outbreak. It's ALL Ulva! No hair algae, no diatoms, just Ulva - everywhere. I attribute this to the iron dosing of 15 drops every day.
  • 2011 May 7 - Began dosing C-Balance 2 to increase Alkalinity, and Brightwell Ferrion Liquid Iron.
  • 2011 May 5 - Installed bare-bottom refugium.
  • 2011 May 2 - Received 3 Blue/Green Chromis and Pom Pom Crab via Fedex. Great packaging. Animals in perfect condition. Very impressed with LiveAquaria. MH light is on 7/17 schedule and refugium light is on 17/7.
  • 2011 April 30 - Received CUC. Good packaging. Everything looked good but one Macro. Not quite as much Chaeto as I was expecting. Tons of snails. Five hitchhiker juvenile red and blue leg hermits.
  • 2011 April 29 - Fishless cycle completed. No algae bloom at all. Lights still off.
  • 2011 April 29 - LiveAquaria.com - Purchased 3 Blue/Green Chromis and 1 Pom Pom Crab
  • 2011 April 28 - Foster & Smith - Purchased C-Balance and Salifert Magnesium Test Kit. Alkalinity was measuring at 6 dKH and I wanted to check the Magnesium level before dosing.
  • 2011 April 26 - Sniff Enterprises Ebay Store - Purchased Ecotech MP10
  • 2011 April 26 - Craigslist - Bought a lightly used CPR AquaFuge Small.
  • 2011 April 22 - ReefCleaners - Purchased a 29g Quick Crew, 5 Macro Algaes and a dry barnicle cluster.
  • 2011 April 22 - Ebay - Sold Remora skimmer as my build plans changed.
  • 2011 April 14 - Added Dr. Tim's Nitrifying Bacteria - great stuff
  • 2011 April 3 - Began fishless cycle using ammonia.
  • 2011 April 2 - Did the initial build... stand, tank with updated lighting, chiller. Lights off.
  • 2011 March 22 - PetStore.com - Purchase B-Ionic Saltwater System
  • 2011 March 8 - ReefCleaners - Purchased 30 lbs of Florida Reef Rock
  • 2011 February 16 - Premium Aquatics - Purchased an Aqua Euro 1/13 HP Chiller, JBJ Chiller Installation kit, Nano-mag and locking hose clamps.
  • 2011 February 12 - Craigslist - Bought a lightly used Remora skimmer and 2 MJ1200 powerheads.
  • 2011 Febrary 5 - Did actinic lighting upgrade to JBJ hood.
  • 2011 January 31 - 1000Bulbs.com - Purchased Fulham Workhorse 33 WH33-120-L Ballast for actinic lighting upgrade
  • 2011 January 31 - PetMountain.com - Purchased End Cap, Clips and 2 Current USA Sunpaq Dual Actinic 420nm/460nm square pin bulbs for actinic lighting upgrade
  • 2011 January 18 - Built the JBJ Stand and Leak Tested the tank
  • 2011 January 13 - Foster & Smith - Purchased JBJ Nano Cube HQI and Stand

Here are the current Full Tank shots - I'll get better ones tonight when the lights are on.

Front


Right


Left



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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:39 AM   #2
grmoore
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Here is the initial rock work from April 2011. The Florida Reef Rock is great to work with.






















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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:39 AM   #3
grmoore
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Here are more images of the initial rock work from April 2011. The Florida Reef Rock is great to work with.














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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:40 AM   #4
grmoore
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Here is how the stand internals, tank wiring and plumbing look before and after the refugium addition.

The RO reservoir, chiller and MP10 controller


Using cable guides for everything, and the chiller plumbing.




Note the use of the long sponges in the return chambers to prevent microbubbles


The MH ballest outside the stand for cooling


The chiller


Pumps on the left, lighting on the right. That's a Coralife dual power center timer on the right - they're junk but do the job for now.


7 Gallon RO Reservior by AquaTainer.


Temperature is pretty much steady at 77.9 day and night


The Refugium installed. Intake is from chamber 3 and outlet is into chamber 2



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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:40 AM   #5
grmoore
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The clean up crew arrived along with macros. Here are some shots of that.

Big clumps of macros, and a few snails






John at ReefCleaners give pretty generous portions of snails!





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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:41 AM   #6
grmoore
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The Pom Pom Crab doesn't come out too often... He does come out every evening when I feed Rod's Reef Original though. Even the snails come running for that!






















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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:42 AM   #7
grmoore
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Ulva everywhere! I've not had any diatoms or hair algae (knock on wood), and when I started dosing iron, the Ulva just exploded.


















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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:43 AM   #8
grmoore
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Here's some shots that include the short Codium and an unidentified red macro I mounted on the rock face




Sargassum and more Ulva





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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:44 AM   #9
grmoore
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An unknown isopod. It doesn't appear to be bad. I found it last night, and it has just been eating detritis. Moves very slow. It appears to be female based on various texts and online images. Any thoughts?




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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:44 AM   #10
grmoore
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Ordered 13 various Zoa and Paly frags from Mr. Coral, along with a pair of free Maxi Mini anemonies. If anyone knows the real name to any of these, please do let me know and I'll update the captions.

Maxi Mini Anemone


Maxi Mini Anemone


Armor of the Gods Palys


Red Zoas


Superman Zoas


Paly Mix


Independence Day Palys


Radioactive Dragon Eyes



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Unread 05/24/2011, 10:45 AM   #11
grmoore
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... And the rest of the order...

Everlasting Gobstopper


Watermelon Zoas


Blue Demon


Japanese Red People Eaters


Joker Palys


Magician Palys


Shortcake Zoas



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Unread 05/24/2011, 04:19 PM   #12
eXcite95
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Posts: 615
looks like a nice setup, cant wait til those zoas grow in for ya.

nick b


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Unread 12/29/2011, 08:43 PM   #13
Ochuxgoon
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Update?


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Unread 12/30/2011, 06:15 AM   #14
grmoore
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Sorry, I don't come on this forum much anymore - I visit the macroalgae forum on the nano-reef site for the most part now. I've replaced this system with a Mr. Aqua 12g long. You can find my build over there under the same user name. Here is the thread : http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=279382


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Unread 05/11/2012, 10:12 AM   #15
Clown99
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nice setup!!


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