Hellsinki's JBJ30RL - 15 years since my last reef build thread

Hellsinki · Feb 3, 2015

Ok, I just joined today and was not going to start a thread yet, but saw this JBJ subforum and can't hold back. So I'm 40 days into my journey already, so I'll backtrack a little to start from the beginning. I decided that 15 years since my last reef was long enough to wait, so I bought a 14G Coralife cube with a 150w MH fixture from CL for 50 bucks.. got some live sand and about 5lbs live rock plus water from my LFS's display tank to get started (no cycle). I started with a little mushroom rock and a YWG about a week later. I bought an APEX Jr. and realized that my temp was fluctuating from 72 to about 82 with the MH fixture. I bought a heater and after some heavy research, and recommendation from another LFS that the A160WE and controller was the fixture that fit my needs/wants best. All was good until I decided to buy 2 clowns from another supplier in the valley and he had a JBJ30RL and stand on display. I left that night with my 2 clowns, the JBJ tank and stand. A few days later I did the swap.

borrowed my daughter's sand toy to keep the sand from going everywhere. Used about 10lbs of sand out of the 14G plus 25lbs live sand from Petco of all places (was convenient).

Photo taken 12-24-14

more coming soon..

Hellsinki · Feb 3, 2015

aargh.. typo title is "...last reef..." how do you edit your post?

Rob.D · Feb 3, 2015

Welcome to R2R!!! Looks like you're off to a great start, keep the pics coming

Title fixed.

Hellsinki · Feb 4, 2015

Rob.D said:
Welcome to R2R!!! Looks like you're off to a great start, keep the pics coming

Title fixed.

Thanks man, and thanks for fixing the title!

Hellsinki · Feb 4, 2015

12-26-14 water still cloudy from the live sand and my sweet clowns of which the smaller died of ich :sad:. I tried to save him by setting up my biocube again and tried an herbal ich treatment, which was useless and killed him in less than 24 hours. I put the bigger one back in the main tank and started soaking his food in garlic.. he's pretty well recovered and seems normal now. Had I known how powerful garlic is, I would have saved both fish, not just one.

12-31-14 my YWG hiding in his cave. The GSP colony looked really good, but decided to close up completely shortly after this photo. All water parameters tested normal. My mushrooms never really opened up under the Kessil up to this point, so I put them in the 'shade' and they started to acclimate.. wait until the next update

1-8-15 decided that manual top off was a huge waste of time and bad for the tank due to inconsistency. After some research I decided on a Tunze 3155 for the failsafe option.. love it.

GSP fully closed, slime algae on the sand, but healthy Xenia

Hellsinki · Feb 5, 2015

1-9-15 This hitch hiker zoa has doubled in size and reproduced. It now has 2 little offspring

1-15-15 : I glued some free frags I got on my little 'arch' rock in the back. One of my suppliers gave me 9 free little frags when I bought my clowns and tank from him..very nice and not necessary, but he wanted to do it

Caulerpa growth really taking off..yeah trimming is happening soon.. Here you can also see the size of the xenia as well as the GSP polyps slowly starting to open back up.

Hellsinki · Feb 6, 2015

1-16-15 : Rescape time. I added 4 pieces of rock including the big 'mountain' rock in the back. Also added a Peppermint shrimp, Emerald crab and a nice sized zoa colony.

J.guokas · Feb 6, 2015

Looking good. Although I like the look of the caulerpa algae in there I would be scared it would eventually take over. Are you still using the halide or did you pick up a kessil?

Hellsinki · Feb 6, 2015

J.guokas said:
Looking good. Although I like the look of the caulerpa algae in there I would be scared it would eventually take over. Are you still using the halide or did you pick up a kessil?

I just put the Halide on there for the first photo, at that point I still had the Kessil over my BC14. This tank has had the Kessil since day 1. The caulerpa is a super aggressive plant. Now I've been trimming it once per week. As soon as I make a decision on a fuge light, all the caulerpa will go in the fuge. For now, it still entertains me to watch it grow, which it 'almost' grows while watching it lol

Tahoe61 · Feb 10, 2015

How are you liking the Tunze Osmolator?

Nice progression on the tank.

Hellsinki · Feb 10, 2015

Tahoe61 said:
How are you liking the Tunze Osmolator?

Nice progression on the tank.

Thanks. I love the 3155 Osmolator. After some research, I chose it because of the failsafe shutoff feature.

Hellsinki · Feb 12, 2015

2-7-15

Hellsinki · Mar 19, 2015

Day 86: JBJ30RL - no additions besides a kalk reactor about a month ago. I've noticed my hardness is more consistent and higher. Calcium is also maybe even too high hovering at 500. I attribute to the kalk 'dosing' if you want to call it thatI had a near disaster a few days ago when my caulerpa went sexual (released gametes and bleached). I immediately pulled them out of the tank and all seems fine. I also made some lighting adjustments, keeping intensity at 90-100 for most of the cycle with higher Kelvin setting (bluer). I still have not fed the corals, but am researching what food I should use for them. The clown has fully recovered from ich with nothing but garlic added to his food. I'm now ready for my next fish, which I want to be a lawnmower blenny. My zoas have been multiplying in the last few weeks, which is very cool.