My JBJ 28gal Nano Build Thread

[ange062]

Originally Posted by venom550pm

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes. You're right though, slow and steady and good husbandry will get you out of the woods. lots of water changes and lights out for 2 or 3 days will help too.



You should set up a frag tank, then you can always tinker and have a pristine tank too!

Eh, it's no big deal really, sucks to lose some of my older / nicer corals but in the end it's really my fault for neglecting the tank. And some of the corals are still doing great!

I've actually kinda been thinking it would be cool to change it up anyway, non-reefers always love "flowy" looking corals, even though we have a tendency to like SPS in the reefing community. A nem tank might be interesting! And no room for a frag tank, though that would be pretty fun.

[ojonas81]

If you have room for a nem I would go that route. I love my RBTA. Adds a nice "flow" to the tank that SPS cannot provide.

[calistyle]

Ange, have you considered upgrading your GEN1 to a PRO? I hear it's going to be 200-300 to do so, but would add the nice ultraviolet and more...

[ange062]

Originally Posted by ojonas81

If you have room for a nem I would go that route. I love my RBTA. Adds a nice "flow" to the tank that SPS cannot provide.

No room now, but there may be if I ditch some SPS. I was thinking more along the lines of a nem dominant tank!! Or maybe I should go NPS... So many options to explore!

Originally Posted by calistyle

Ange, have you considered upgrading your GEN1 to a PRO? I hear it's going to be 200-300 to do so, but would add the nice ultraviolet and more...

Nope, I hadn't thought about it. I've had pretty dang good success and color with my original version. Maybe one of these days I may give it a whirl, I'll have to see where I go with this tank.

[venom550pm]

i have a RBTA in my tank right now, and it split last week so now i have two. Luckily when it split it went to a place that had no coral. I do love the nem though i love watching the clowns in it.

If you go NPS get a Dendro, by far my favorite coral. Even over all the SPS. I guess it is part LPS but it is also NPS as well.

[calistyle]

Ange!

I have the radions up and created a quick artifcial profile...If you have a chance, I would love to get my hands on your initial profiles. My email addy is in my last PM to you.

[pleuralplexus]

ange, I gues you realize you've become THE authority on the 28g nanocube, dont you?

anyway I'm about to post bail from my crappy a** stock LED hood and get the radion. I'd love to have your initial profiles too...

[ange062]

Originally Posted by calistyle

Ange!

I have the radions up and created a quick artifcial profile...If you have a chance, I would love to get my hands on your initial profiles. My email addy is in my last PM to you.

Sent dood! Enjoy!

Originally Posted by pleuralplexus

ange, I gues you realize you've become THE authority on the 28g nanocube, dont you?

anyway I'm about to post bail from my crappy a** stock LED hood and get the radion. I'd love to have your initial profiles too...

Haha, thanks man. Too bad my tank is in the crapper right now, though I am looking forward to starting over. At least my fish and clams are healthy, and I was really wanting to start over on SPS anyway now that I know a lot more about growth forms and placement.

PM me your email address and I'll send the profiles over.

[pleuralplexus]

PM sent. Thanks!!

[johntran216]

i just spent two hours on this thread, because im about to start on the same tank. well worth it can u tell me ur new maintenance schedule ever since u installed the reactors?
1)how often/much do you change ur water?
2)how much are u dosing now?
3)how often do u change the medias in the reactors?
thanks !! i hope mine can turn out as well as urs.

[ange062]

Originally Posted by johntran216

i just spent two hours on this thread, because im about to start on the same tank. well worth it can u tell me ur new maintenance schedule ever since u installed the reactors?
1)how often/much do you change ur water?
2)how much are u dosing now?
3)how often do u change the medias in the reactors?
thanks !! i hope mine can turn out as well as urs.

All the info is in here, but I will recap anyway because I know it's a lot to read through:
1) I still target weekly changes, but I've gone up to 5 or 6 weeks mostly due to negligence
2) I was dosing at peak growth 36ml divided into 12 doses a day of both Ca / Alk plus another 8ml of mg going in 4 doses. Given recent troubles, it's greatly reduced now.
3) Definitely every 3-4 weeks is optimal.

And good luck with your tank! Look forward to progress!

As to the latest update on mine, negligence and travel have definitely taken their toll. I spent some time tossing dead corals today. My bali green table and bali deepwater were both dead, as were my ORA borealis and prize cali tort.

The ORA green bn is still looking to be on it's way out, but is hanging in there (and I almost threw it out once years ago as a frag and it came back and flourished) so I am holding onto it for now. ORA plum crazy is shedding flesh and looks like it will be gone soon. Stylo's look as good as ever, along with the hyacinth bn. Turki acro is also looking perfect (surprisingly for a smooth skin). ORA kelly green is also doing fine. My sunset mille is starting to show less PE, which isn't a good sign.

After trashing the dead corals I cut up the ORA green stylo from it's encrustation to relocate it back further in the tank, and moved up the crocea clam. I actually really like the new scape and it showcases my large colonies much better now. It's hard to picture a 2-yr scape when you are buying / placing frags, lol.

Anyway, I've been paying more attention to the tank, testing more, doing weekly WC's, and trying to trouble shoot other problems. My latest hypothesis is that a switch to 100% use of BRS HC GFO led to an upswing in phosphates (evident by cyano outbreaks). I'm buying some Phosban tomorrow at my LFS, changing out media in my reactors, and giving the skimmer and back chambers a good cleaning and hoping for the best. Worst, case, my softies and clams are still doing great so I just won't have an SPS dominant tank for a while, lol. I'll post pics sometime soon once I feel it's presentable...

[venom550pm]

hang in there, you'll turn it around! Sorry to hear about all the loss, it's sad to say bye to your favorites, plus it's a lot of money to boot!

[ange062]

Originally Posted by venom550pm

hang in there, you'll turn it around! Sorry to hear about all the loss, it's sad to say bye to your favorites, plus it's a lot of money to boot!

Thanks for the vote of confidence!! And this may sound funny, but it's really not about the money. It's more about seeing 2-yrs worth of growth slowly die off And even more frustrating is not knowing what the heck is wrong!! I was starting to think maybe it was phosphates and my old school API test kit just wasn't reading anything. So today I went and bought a Salifert kit at my LFS, and behold! It reads and absolute 0 even at double accuracy... Another dead end.

Not sure what else to do besides keep up with weekly WC's and try out the RowaPhos media I bought and threw in my reactor today. Fingers crossed...

[biocube14g]

i finally got to the end after three days!!!! best thread on RC!

[biocube14g]

oh, and i have an NC28 HQI w/10 gallon sump, 150 watt 14k bulb on top, overflow box to sump, skimmer......its all starting to look like a tank now, after 2.5 months. now i just need to get some nicer coral like what was in your tank...thanks again for the amazing thread!

[ange062]

Originally Posted by biocube14g

i finally got to the end after three days!!!! best thread on RC!

Originally Posted by biocube14g

oh, and i have an NC28 HQI w/10 gallon sump, 150 watt 14k bulb on top, overflow box to sump, skimmer......its all starting to look like a tank now, after 2.5 months. now i just need to get some nicer coral like what was in your tank...thanks again for the amazing thread!

Thanks a ton for the compliments, and so glad to hear you read through the whole long mess/adventure!! I'll go look for your thread.

As for my tank, I'm reinvigorated to get things back in shape. I spent over 10-hrs this weekend cleaning, water changing, testing, killing mojano's, etc. Also dropped $100 at the LFS for things to get it all back in line. I'm confident I'll figure it out, get things back in line, and start anew with my great fish, clams, and softies still in place. I've got a lot of ideas for what-to-do, what-not-to-do, and better SPS coral selections and placement. I'm looking forward to an even better Ange062 NC28 version 1.1!

[ange062]

My sister printed out some of my macro shots of the tank in better days for Xmas. All on canvas and ready to be stretched onto frames, great reef pr0n for the fish room in my soon to be new house!! And more inspiration for tank 1.1!!!

[biocube14g]

Wow. How much for an original on canvas? I'm dead serious.

[ange062]

Originally Posted by biocube14g

Wow. How much for an original on canvas? I'm dead serious.

I think they cost about $35ea for the prints on canvas. Maybe I should sell em for $60ea as a tank v1.1 restart fund!!

[biocube14g]

Ill give u $35 as a promotional price!

[ange062]

Originally Posted by biocube14g

Ill give u $35 as a promotional price!

Ya gotta pay the artist (aka me) a fee too lol!!!

[venom550pm]

Those are some cool looking prints.

As far as the die off. does it coincide with switching GFO? A couple of times when i've switched from Phosgard to GFO i had some of my SPS recede and some parts had to be cut off. I've read also when you have a little bit of PO4 and Nitrates and all of a sudden clean it all out the SPS and some other corals go into shock and can die.

[ange062]

Originally Posted by venom550pm

Those are some cool looking prints.

As far as the die off. does it coincide with switching GFO? A couple of times when i've switched from Phosgard to GFO i had some of my SPS recede and some parts had to be cut off. I've read also when you have a little bit of PO4 and Nitrates and all of a sudden clean it all out the SPS and some other corals go into shock and can die.

Nope, it's not GFO related bleaching die off as Ive seen that before. On the contrary, I think it may be related to excess PO4 given other signs in the tank such as cyano and a bit of GHA. This is despite both API tests and Salifert double accuracy readings of 0.

Here is a bit of the carnage. Borealis, plum crazy, turaki, red planet, and blue mille. Sunset mille is looking bad, as is the green stylo. Purple stylo and hyacinth bn are still looking good for now, as are the clams and fish.




Started carbon dosing as an attempt to help and have been diligent with weekly WC's for about a month. Hopefully I can turn this thing around. On a positive note, softies and the tank overall still look pretty good with everything that is left.

Worst case it becomes a colorful softie tank, but would love to have an SPS resurgence at some point when it's ready!!

[ange062]

Decided to toss the green bn also, RIP!

[ange062]

Originally Posted by jek

Hey all... it's been awhile since I posted. Here's a FTS, the tank will be 2 years old in February.

-Jek-

Jek, I think you are looking for the NC28 owners thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1659353

This thread is for my own personal tank build.