JBJ 45 G Rimless Build (KCV)

[MrJay]

Looking fantastic! Love the rock work

 

[KC V.]

This week I learned the my firefish were not a bonded pair. Sadly the bigger one was acting strangely one evening and died within a few hours. He looked really beat up and the decline was really fast. Trying to separate the two added additional stress that was too much for him. Just goes to show that when the environment changes for fish, they change their behaviour.

In the QT this week, I used sponge filters from the DT sump. No cycle occurred, and the Added a few easy corals to the QT from Live Aquaria. All seem happy and in good shape. I didn't know the mushroom polyp would come on a live rock. I noticed that after the dip, an orange worm emerged. When I was physically removing it, out started spewing out tiny white worms that are still coming out. Additionally, I have other hitch hikers I'm not sure about. Can anyone help with IDs?

 

[KC V.]

After having this tank up for 30 days, it's time for an update with more pictures. Despite the fire fish deciding to having a deadly spat, the tank has been pretty good at staying clean and stable. Levels of ammonia and nitrite have stabilized at 0.0, and the nitrate has not risen over 10 ppm is over a week (still did the water change to get that lower and lower). I am starting to see a little algae growing on the rocks (mostly on the back half of the rocks) and I just cannot keep up with the cloudy substances in the sandbed, so I am going to introduce a limited cleanup crew of mostly snails before the holidays.

My cardinal fish has spent their month in quarantine and were introduced to the tank this past weekend. They have moved in and adjusted pretty well between them, but I definitely see a dominant potential bully between the two of them trying to win out on food. I will definitely keep an eye of that situation. The bully is on the left of this photo, opposite of the Christmas tree glare.

Last step is the next series of inhabitants to consider. I have purchased a Royal Gramma Basslet who is totally a big personality (loves to play hide and seek in the quarantine tank with me). He's my first fish I am quarantining myself, so it's been fun to play hide and seek with him when I go to observe, feed, and clean. He sees me coming and will hide in a PVC joint, and then slowly stick his head out when he thinks I'm gone, then he'll see me again and hide--rinse and repeat for a few minutes and then he'll come begging for food. I am so excited to be introducing him to the tank once his quarantine clock is up, because I think he will add personality just like the fire fish who loves to swim in the center of the tank with the waves. After that, I'll be moving down the list.

We are starting to gather a few ideas for corals and starting the quarantine process for these guys as well. The first few have been a mushroom coral, a xenia (who will inhabit the rock island in the middle), a montipora, and a candy cane. These are "cooking" in the invert QT for now, while they recover from the move and are being observed for more worms. Even though it's the holiday season, I already have a date set for February 7th in the phone to mark when these will all make their move from the invertebrate quarantine to the DT.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Hard to tell, but I do not see anything outwardly scary. Some worms mostly, maybe a stomatella. Be careful dipping rocks. Not something I would do. They must be rinsed very well after as they are so porous.

 

[ReefyB]

Congrats on the new build. Your scape looks good, I’ve got a JBJ 45 too. It’s great that you dipping your coral but I’m wondering if the QT is worth it for you. What’s the coral QT setup like? Now that you’ve got LPS and SPS (moving kinda fast but I know the addiction is real lol) you’d ideally need that QT to have at least as good lighting as your current DT, and your going to be trying to maintain stable parameters (alk/ca/mg/salinity) on that small system, just to have to reacclimate them all over again when you move it to the DT. If your DT is stable, I’d add them to the DT after a good dip.

 

[KC V.]

Hard to tell, but I do not see anything outwardly scary. Some worms mostly, maybe a stomatella. Be careful dipping rocks. Not something I would do. They must be rinsed very well after as they are so porous.

Thanks for opinion on the buddies going for ride and the caution with knowing what I'm working with before dipping. Totally had regret after dipping that one specific item, so I gave it extra rinses and am still keeping an eye on it (and providing rinses).

 

[Xclusive Reef]

congrats I also have the jbj 45 and love this little tank. I have to be honest i do miss not having a sump but for what it is, it is great. I am at week 8 i believe and just hit a diatom bloom this past week. It's a ugly scene. lol take it slow and don't add too much too fast.

 

[Bob Escher]

congrats I also have the jbj 45 and love this little tank. I have to be honest i do miss not having a sump but for what it is, it is great. I am at week 8 i believe and just hit a diatom bloom this past week. It's a ugly scene. lol take it slow and don't add too much too fast.

Why can’t have one on that JBJ 45? I have one on mine?

Here is my tank

 

[Xclusive Reef]

Why can’t have one on that JBJ 45? I have one on mine?

Here is my tank

honestly i am not a fan of hob stuff. if I did I would need to drill the tank and I am not taking that chance. I thought about drilling it and doing a ghost overflow and removing the acrylic black back off. This tank is also temp being that I am in apartment. When I have the house then i am looking for a 220 75x30x24 dimensions. I am planning to grow out the corals I want then transfer to the larger system one day.

 

[Bob Escher]

I’m in a Condo, 2fl, but yes it is a HOB, I it after I filled the tank so the false back is still in place

 

[KC V.]

Congrats on the new build. Your scape looks good, I’ve got a JBJ 45 too. It’s great that you dipping your coral but I’m wondering if the QT is worth it for you. What’s the coral QT setup like? Now that you’ve got LPS and SPS (moving kinda fast but I know the addiction is real lol) you’d ideally need that QT to have at least as good lighting as your current DT, and your going to be trying to maintain stable parameters (alk/ca/mg/salinity) on that small system, just to have to reacclimate them all over again when you move it to the DT. If your DT is stable, I’d add them to the DT after a good dip.

So the setup is 10 gallon with a sponge filter and a powerhead with a custom light that my former boss built me for growing corals. I was trying to get more stats from him, but the PAR rating at the water surface was 700- 900 when he sent it to me, and there is a tunable feature to control the intensity during acclimation. It seems that the initial lighting was too strong for the mushroom corals, since they started relocating to the bottom of the rack. Currently we're reading at 400 ppm Ca, 9-10 dKH, 1400 ppm K, and 1.025 sg in the quarantine tank. This is where it has stayed, but that's because I had been doing a decent number of partial water changes to keep nitrates down to 5 ppm (1-2/week). Lately this has moved down to one a week, and the corals are getting comfortable, so I assume this will be tougher to keep. I already have the red sea reef nutrients (A/B/C), so those are ready to go with whichever tank needs these. Are there other dosing nutrients that people recommend? For the coral that I am happy with, I'll consider moving it into the DT. However, there are still 3 of the 4 that I want to keep an eye on. The montipora was not my pick, but I had to go with spouse's choice to get away with the others!

 

[KC V.]

congrats I also have the jbj 45 and love this little tank. I have to be honest i do miss not having a sump but for what it is, it is great. I am at week 8 i believe and just hit a diatom bloom this past week. It's a ugly scene. lol take it slow and don't add too much too fast.

I am really appreciative of your build thread, so please keep them coming. It's almost a preview of what I am to see. It seems within the cycling of the tank, you are about 1-2 weeks ahead. I am hoping that I am at my diatom bloom right now.

honestly i am not a fan of hob stuff. if I did I would need to drill the tank and I am not taking that chance. I thought about drilling it and doing a ghost overflow and removing the acrylic black back off. This tank is also temp being that I am in apartment. When I have the house then i am looking for a 220 75x30x24 dimensions. I am planning to grow out the corals I want then transfer to the larger system one day.

I’m in a Condo, 2fl, but yes it is a HOB, I it after I filled the tank so the false back is still in place

These made me feel better about my own situation. I'm in an apartment as well, and I love this setup for the space and where I am at. I'll dream of the day when I can be in a house and can have a larger tank. Do you guys use the lid panels on the front part of the DT?

@bob-escher.56778 could you link to your HOB sump pictures/info or post them? Would like to see what sort of upgrades you've done over the past few years.

 

[KC V.]

Just like @xclusive-reef.8562 I am going through the diatom bloom on this tank. It started probably on Friday or Saturday, and it's just been getting worse. I stocked with the tank cleaning kit from cleanupcrews.org because I started seeing some signs of green algae in addition to diatoms. It seems that right now we're in a cycle in which the cleanup crew gets everything in decent shape during the evening (the outbreak looks better in the morning), and then the outbreak increases during the day when the CUC isn't really active. It's been tough with the relatives being around for the holidays and commenting on the quality of the tank, knowing that likely the outbreak will eventually go away. Just need to be patient.

Otherwise, there have been no changes in the tank. I am not planning on any additions until at least mid-Jan. I need everything to reach some equilibrium.

 

[Bob Escher]

I am really appreciative of your build thread, so please keep them coming. It's almost a preview of what I am to see. It seems within the cycling of the tank, you are about 1-2 weeks ahead. I am hoping that I am at my diatom bloom right now.





These made me feel better about my own situation. I'm in an apartment as well, and I love this setup for the space and where I am at. I'll dream of the day when I can be in a house and can have a larger tank. Do you guys use the lid panels on the front part of the DT?

@bob-escher.56778 could you link to your HOB sump pictures/info or post them? Would like to see what sort of upgrades you've done over the past few years.

Almost all of my build and my HOB is in videos and is in my signature line all on utube

 

[KC V.]

Thank you. I'll definitely be catching up on what I have missed here.

So my diatom bloom disappeared this morning. Mainly it was this afternoon, and I realized that I could see everything in my tank. Levels are still within defined amounts. We were happy with the items within quarantine, so we transferred over corals that had no issues and the royal gramma to DT (it's a little fast, but we needed something). I'll include a pic tomorrow since now it's lights out. It's been a divisive point in the house over the appropriate quarantine period, but now we have agreed 78 days for the next batch... (fingers crossed).

There were some awesome reef-related presents that were exchanged this holiday season, including a phyto tank (update soon) and a refractometer. Hopefully everything makes my life a little more automated and easier.

 

[KC V.]

Thank you. I'll definitely be catching up on what I have missed here.

So my diatom bloom disappeared this morning. Mainly it was this afternoon, and I realized that I could see everything in my tank. Levels are still within defined amounts. We were happy with the items within quarantine, so we transferred over corals that had no issues and the royal gramma to DT (it's a little fast, but we needed something). I'll include a pic tomorrow since now it's lights out. It's been a divisive point in the house over the appropriate quarantine period, but now we have agreed 78 days for the next batch... (fingers crossed).

There were some awesome reef-related presents that were exchanged this holiday season, including a phyto tank (update soon) and a refractometer. Hopefully everything makes my life a little more automated and easier.

Finally had a chance to get a picture. This week has been maintenance and monitoring to see how everything is going. Parameters have been stable and currently it seems like it's time to relax and enjoy.

Luckily we realized that the mushroom corals on the rock piece were the type that can detach. So we encouraged them off the rock and into the main system.

 

[Bob Escher]

Slowly looking better
Don’t get mad at me. But you may want to get a camera filter
If you use a smartphone or a iPad ( I use)
This is perfect to get the blue out
I bought this and took this picture today with it

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/orange-hd-smart-phone-lens-filter-aquariclip.html

 

[KC V.]

Slowly looking better
Don’t get mad at me. But you may want to get a camera filter
If you use a smartphone or a iPad ( I use)
This is perfect to get the blue out
I bought this and took this picture today with it

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/orange-hd-smart-phone-lens-filter-aquariclip.html

Ha! How can I get mad now that I have one on the way? I think my phone loves the blues, so I need all the help I can get? Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[KC V.]

Today was a little dramatic. Something didn't seem right with the tank--polyps were open, fish were out, and everything looked okay but just different. There was a little algae growth, but nothing major. So I started doing a few water tests to see what was up.

Salinity: 1.0255 SG
Nitrate: 17 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
pH: 8.15
Ca: 420 ppm
Alk: 10.1 dKH
Mg: 1500 ppm (this has always been high in every test--Red Sea)
Phosphate: 0.08 ppm

So any idea what would have brought the nitrate up so far? All livestock except one mushroom coral is accounted for (one of the mushroom corals attached where we put it with the others, but then decided that it wanted to just disappear). I haven't changed the feeding schedule at all either, but I will try to cut down on the feeding as well.

As a result, I did a 40% WC to try to bring down the nitrates. I was considering adding some sort of algae reactor or refugium over this quarter, and maybe my tank heard me?

 

[Bob Escher]

Feeding?
Where are you going add algae reactor, did you check the nitrates after the water change