My JBJ 28gal Nano Build Thread

[ange062]

Thanks fote! And Jason, if my ammonia levels spike after you come here, I am going to spike your mom, just sayin....

So, after the pleasurable water test yesterday, I got the go ahead from my LFS to go ahead and add a CUC. This is what I got:

• 3 assorted hermits
• 2 nassarius snails
• 5 Astraea turbo snails
• 1 emerald crab
• 1 coral banded shrimp

$48 total, not too shabby... Wanna give a shout out to Fish Ranch in Houston again, for their excellent service, advice, and stock.

I have to say that I am surprised how effective they are. I had a mild brown bloom mixed with a mild green bloom, and after only about 6-hrs they have the substrate clean and are now working on the rocks. I may have to supplement them!!!

The turbo snails are working the glass, all the way to the top. Nassarius are just buried and waiting for some goods, though each have taken a short exploration trip around the tank. The hermits are voracious, and haven't stopped grubbin since they were introduced.

The emerald was shy for a bit, but he has been out exploring and mowing the grass for a while now, very fun to watch. The CBS has been mostly shy so far, but has ventured out once or twice.

Also, my LFS also threw in a zoa frag (about 40 small polyps!) and some macro algae that I liked for free. Planted the macro up front, and the zoa is already opening up and looking great (it's a mix green/orange).

At this point, pictures aren't doing it justice, so I will post some videos tomorrow. All the substrate excavation from the CUC has the tank looking a little disturbed, but I'll snag some vids tomorrow.

[ange062]

Oh, forgot to mention, my CBS has become partial to the bolt hole that my firefish Bolt was using, so it should be interesting to see how that turns out...

Also, decided to name the CBS "Tyson" aka Mike Tyson, a pun on the boxer shrimp thing. The emerald is "Claw", and still workin on the rest. All very distinct personalities so far.

[RedAggie03]

I can't believe you are naming your fish...****.

If your Tropheus keeps beating up on my other fish I'm going to name him "flush"

[schneidergarret]

how is the coral banded shrimp i had once and he was snipping my fishes tails so i had to get rid of him

[ange062]

**** Jason, you flush my tropheus and I'll keeeeel you! LOL

CBS seems fine so far, still pretty timid and has spent most his time hanging upside down in a cave that he stole from my firefish, which I thought may cause issues. However, this morning they were both in there, maybe they will end up paired, that would be cool. Will have to see what happens over the next few weeks.

[schneidergarret]

yeah i would just keep an eye on him cant ever be too safe and they get pretty big and mean

[ange062]

Here are a couple videos I took. At some point I will get some 720p videos with the DSLR.

[ange062]

Everything is still looking good in the tank, and everything is getting along well. I was beginning to think my CBS and emerald might have something wrong because they only came out of hiding spaces briefly at feeding time. Last night, however, I caught them in the middle of the night, with only moonlights on and they were both out all over the tank eating algae. I guess they just haven't acclimated to the bright lights yet.

I'll be out of town next week, but when I get back I plan to add a coral beauty, fire shrimp, and feather duster. I really wanted to go with a flame angel, but my LFS says I'm much better off with the coral beauty and they haven't steered me wrong yet.

[ange062]

Well, contrary to my previous plans of waiting to return from Germany next week, I made a trip to the LFS to do a water change before the trip and also had the water checked.

No ammonia or nitrite, 5ppm nitrate, salinity 1.023, and pH 8.1. This tank setup was pretty amazing, it's only been up for 3.5-wks and it only had a very small initial mini-cycle. Probably since I used water/sand from an established tank at the LFS and fully cured liverock.

So I did a water change, scrubbed the glass with an algae pad, replaced the carbon with Purigen, and set the pumps to alternate at 30s since it seems to give better flow in the tank with less dead spots (albeit at half the turnover rate). Debating whether to add a powerhead on the wavemaker and run both pumps continuously, or upgrade the pumps to higher flow units and use the wavemaker on the stock returns. May just leave it alone...

Anyway, I got the go ahead from the LFS to add a little more livestock. I REALLY wanted this cool neon green long tentacle plate coral, but my LFS owner strongly suggested that I not do that. I also wanted to do a flame angel, which again he suggested against for now. He hasn't steered me wrong yet, and the one time I didn't listen to him and did something on my own I ended up having to return it, LOL. I swore I would take his advice from then on.

I ended up getting a fairly large chunk of liverock covered in green star polyps. Very cool looking, they are easy to care for, glow under the moonlight, and move around quite a bit in the flow. He also threw in a green candy cane coral that I liked for free. I wanted to add some more movement to the tank also, so picked out a nice and healthy looking coral beauty angel.

Everything is in and looks happy. The coral beauty is still a little shy, but is eating and doesn't look stressed. Both corals were open within an hour. The green star had part of the mat hanging off the LR where it was attached to something else in the LFS aquarium, but that has already attached to another chunk of rock in my tank.

Will post up some pics/vids later tonight.

[duncantse]

Can't wait to see some pics
Wished I had a LFS like yours.

[ange062]

Thanks duncanste! And yeah, my LFS is awesome, can't give enough good reviews for them. Great advice, won't get me in over my head, and tons of freebies!!

Here are some pics from tonight:
Coral Beauty, my chick named him "Javier", that's what I get for asking her to name him while listening to salsa music and drinking wine, LOL


Firefish, aka Bolt


Yellowtail Damsel, aka The Dood, and one cluster of orange zoa's


Candy cane


FTS Right


FTS Left


Green star polyps


Mixed zoa frag

[ange062]

Couple of the mushrooms (growing like crazy!!)


Hermits, sorry for the crazy white balance, still trying to figure out aquarium photog


And finally, a video, sorry for Hitch in the background

[ange062]

Only planned livestock left are a nice clown (undecided on variety), fire shrimp, torch coral (in place of a nem for the clown), and a frogspawn. Then just let it all grow!

[ange062]

Much better pic of the GSP's that I meant to post originally, too late to edit post now.

[RedAggie03]

wow, those look cool

[ange062]

Thanks Jason!

Can't wait to get back and see how everything looks. My pet-sitter says everything is looking good.

[ange062]

So on a whim I just ordered an MP10 and some Chemi-pure to replace the stock biorings. Also plan to add a clown and fireshrimp this week, and either a torch or frogspawn.

[ange062]

And an InTank media basket, haha. Figure I will run both stock pumps all the time, the InTank is needed to keep up with the flow (stock spills over), and the MP10 is going to provide excellent in-display circulation.

[ange062]

Got back from Germany and everything was good. Did have a pretty serious algae coating on the glass, and I think this is due to dropping my flow back from both pumps continuous to alternating at 30s.

Brought some water in, still 0 ammonia and nitrite, around 5ppm nitrate so looking good. Ph and salinity are still staying the same at 8.1 and 1.023.

LFS gave me some red kelp that I liked to throw in, but he gave me a ton so not quite sure what to do with it all just yet. Also found an AWESOME true percula that made me pass on the idea of ordering an ORA snowflake because it looked that good and at a fraction of the cost.

MP10, InTank media basket, chemipure and poly floss should all be here on Thurs according to tracking info, looking forward to it. Till then I went back to both pumps operating fulltime to increase the flow and hopefully scale back the glass algae issue.

The clown went in after acclimation and after I finished a thorough cleanup and water change, and was NOT shy at all like my others have been. The energetic little bugger hasn't stopped swimming at the front glass yet!! The rest of the tank has really picked up activity also, the Coral Beauty isn't shy at all anymore, and even my CBS and emerald have been making appearances since I found they each molted.

Been looking into and AquaC Remora HOB Skimmer, probably do that sometime soon to decrease the nutrient levels. Anyway, enough rambling. Here are a few pics of the clown. Sorry for the crap quality, he was too active to get a decent shot on the cell, will take some DSLR pics later.

[duncantse]

Your tank is looking better and better!

How did you acclimate the clownfish?
Can you tell me what is in your filteration right now?

[Tahoe69]

tanks looking good! wish my lfs was as good as yours!!

[ange062]

Thanks for following ducantse. My typical acclimation process was taken from liveaquaria. Shut lights off in tank. Float the bag unopened for 15min to adjust temp, then start adding water to the bag while the bag floats (or hangs from the hood stand). I do a few ounces every 5min until the bag is full, then empty half the bag into bucket and repeat. This takes about an hour, then dump the bag through my net into a bucket, and quickly transport the fish (via net) to the aquarium. Inverts I typically don't use the net, I dump most of the water into the bucket, but leave the invert in bag covered in water and release into aquarium.

Filtration is all stock right now except carbon in 2nd chamber has been replaced with Purigen. Will have significant updates to this later this week as I mentioned.

Thanks tahoe, my LFS really is awesome, I feel quite lucky since it doesn't seem to be the norm.

[RedAggie03]

Looks hot. What is the Clown's name?

[ange062]

Thanks J, no name yet, though the girl is trying to name him Marco along with the hispanic names she has for the rest of the tank, LOL!

So, two things I have noticed in the past few days:
1: Running both pumps continuously (instead of alternating on wavemaker) brings up the tank temp by ~2.5 degrees
2: There is a lot of junk floating in the water, think it's time to ditch the stock sponges for some poly-floss

Both issues should be solved tomorrow. The MP10 will provide more then enough flow while keeping heat outside the tank, so I can scale back to alternating pumps until I can order cooling fans. The InTank media basket and Chemipure, along with the bulk polyfloss I ordered should clear up the water.

[ange062]

So I got some new goodies in today!! Got an InTank Media Basket, Chemi-pure, bonded filter floss, and the highlight of the show is the Vortech MP10es.

Can't comment on much since it's barely installed, but I can say this. The InTank is phenomenally well manufactured, and makes the stock POS look just like that. The fit and finish are amazing, a great $50 upgrade.

Also, you get what you pay for with the MP10, right down to the packaging. Very well packed, great instructions, and even the mounting hardware is legit down to the details of including cord hangers and velcro.