Kade'S JBJ 65 Rimless Build

[KadeSirin]

Thanks, I'm setting up that tank & the 65 at the same time so it's a bit hectic and slow. The 100 is cycling though I WAYYY overdosed Ammonia so I'm a bit worried. I might get a build up for the 65 this weekend, I have rock stacked for it just need to cement it together & i'm in the process of building an egg crate cage for the refugium & 2 sets of egg crate legs for the two intake chambers. I went with Intank baskets for the 45g (they're a bit short). I also went single pump with a Sicce 1.5 I believe.

Hopefully its not too bad, can't be over 5ppm on ammonia, right?

I was looking at the intank baskets, not sure if I wanted to put them in, right now I just have my media sitting in seachem bags on some egg crate on the bottom of the compartments.

 

[KadeSirin]

More testing equipment and calibration solutions arrived, I'm waiting on more hanna reagents, but I think I'm ready to go. Just waiting on this cycle~!

For the apex ph probe and the (eventual) low-range ph probe for calcium reactor.

For the salinity probe.

And the Hannah checker. Does anyone keep the outer casing or do you usually just keep them in their black cases? I think I'll try to keep the outer slip case as in tact as possible, and once it breaks, put the little colored dots on the sides of each checker box.

Then there's this guy....

Tank status:
Salinity 1.026 sg
Temp 77.6F
PH 7.85
Ammonia 0.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

 

[harthag12]

Hopefully its not too bad, can't be over 5ppm on ammonia, right?

I was looking at the intank baskets, not sure if I wanted to put them in, right now I just have my media sitting in seachem bags on some egg crate on the bottom of the compartments.

It's currently some color that's not even on the API test kits, it's almost blue which the test kit only goes dark green. I have Nitrites so I'm just letting it go for now and figuring it may take awhile. If I had known the red sea cups fit that section I might have gone that route instead of baskets and just made something out of egg crate to put media on under it that I could easily pull up. It would have been cheaper and still fit my needs. I have 2 7" cups in the 100 and it looks easy to work with. If you check out CJ's Aquariums on youtube he's setting up this same tank and his only complaint is the waterfall sound into those socks, not sure how bad it is but that would be my only concern sticking to sock / cup setup.

 

[KadeSirin]

It's currently some color that's not even on the API test kits, it's almost blue which the test kit only goes dark green. I have Nitrites so I'm just letting it go for now and figuring it may take awhile. If I had known the red sea cups fit that section I might have gone that route instead of baskets and just made something out of egg crate to put media on under it that I could easily pull up. It would have been cheaper and still fit my needs. I have 2 7" cups in the 100 and it looks easy to work with. If you check out CJ's Aquariums on youtube he's setting up this same tank and his only complaint is the waterfall sound into those socks, not sure how bad it is but that would be my only concern sticking to sock / cup setup.

Oh that's definitely a ton of ammonia. Are you curing rock as well? That's the only time I've ever seen blue from an API kit.

If you've tested and it's slowly coming back to green, you're probably fine. If the color isn't changing, maybe a water change is in order.

As for the filter socks, I have a sock in on one side and filter media in the other (skimmer side). As I'm running a cycle, I left the skimmer off and took out the sock so the bacteria doesn't get filtered out. However, after today, I'm gonna be putting things back in. To dampen or reduce the sound, plus extend the sock life, I'm going to put a piece of cut filter pad on top of the sock.

Will upload pictures tonight when I do it.

 

[KadeSirin]

@harthag12 This is what I did with my filter socks on each side of the tank.

Its a piece of 100 micron filter pad, cut slightly larger than the filter sock holder, and pushed into place. The water instead of flooding down the sock flows onto the pad before flowing into the filter sock. I will probably be replacing the pad weekly or bi-weekly. So far I've just rinsed it off in RODI water and put it back in.

Speaking of the cycle, here's my numbers from yesterday afternoon and this morning.

Tuesday
Ammonia 1.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Friday (today)
Ammonia .2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10 (somewhere between 10 and 20)

Should I be testing for phosphates as well?

Looks like things have started... but I don't have any nitrites, should I find some way of adding them?

 

[harthag12]

I wouldn't test for phosphates yet but I'm no expert by any means. I would redose Ammonia back up to 2, think you're supposed to have it processed within 24 hours to call the cycle doneish. That's a good idea with the filter socks. I got alot done on mine this weekend, hopefully can put some water in this week & start along with you on it. Holding off till I recieve a new dehumidifier later this week, with the 100 running it feels a bit to humid for my liking and don't want to add more water to room till than.

 

[KadeSirin]

I wouldn't test for phosphates yet but I'm no expert by any means. I would redose Ammonia back up to 2, think you're supposed to have it processed within 24 hours to call the cycle doneish. That's a good idea with the filter socks. I got alot done on mine this weekend, hopefully can put some water in this week & start along with you on it. Holding off till I recieve a new dehumidifier later this week, with the 100 running it feels a bit to humid for my liking and don't want to add more water to room till than.

For the pads above the filter socks, I'm doubling up, one above the other. Idea is to keep whatever biologicals that are alive in there and a new pad doesn't remove them completely.

I also added marine pure balls (2 qt) to the tank.

After doing a lot of review, I actually dose ammonia last Saturday. Tested before I dosed, and oddly, there's no nitrates. Bought a bottle of ammonia from LFS and dosed it. I didn't take it all the way up to 2, but did get it up to 1. This morning's test shows...

Yesterday morning:
Ammonia: 0.8
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.2

This morning:
Ammonia: between 0 and 0.2 on Red Sea test
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.2

So, looks like the tank has cycled. Although nitrate being at 0 is a bit odd, I thought there should've been a nitrate spike.

I also put in some cheato into the refugium.

 

[KadeSirin]

Update, we're in a power outage at the house. Going to hold off backup generator until later today.

Have 8hrs of UPS backup on the Nero5, COR-15, and Refugium pump. I think we'll be okay. Apex is running as well.

 

[KadeSirin]

Well, tank made it through two extended power outages without issue. I'm updating my stocking list here:

Planned:
Fish:
2x Banggai Cardinalfish
1x Purple Firefish or Red Firefish
1x Yellow Tang (maybe)
2x Yasha Shrimp Goby (mated pair hopefully)
1x Wrasse (not sure which type yet - maybe a carpenter wrasse)
1x Red/Green/Blue Mandarin (at some point)
1x Matted Leatherjacket Filefish OR Harlequin Filefish
1x Whitespotted Pygmy Filefish

Inverts:
1x Cleaner Shrimp
1x Pistol shrimp (for goby)
1x Abalone
1x Pincushion Urchin
1x Crocea Clam
1x Maxima Clam

CUC:
1x Fighting Conch
5x Trochus Snails
5x Nassarius Snails
5x Blue Leg Hermits

Coral:
Bubble Coral
Branching Hammer
Hammer
Torch
Plate Coral (Fungia short tentacle)
Fathead Dendro
Brain Coral
Duncan
Tongue Coral
Blastomussa
Purple Ribbon Gorgonian

- - - -
Water stats as of today (no fish or coral, just chaeto and phantom feeding plus the ammonia dose last Saturday)
PH 8.2
Salinity 1.026
Akl 7.73
Ammonia 0.2
Nitrate 5

I have reagents for phosphate and calcium coming in later today, so I'll test for those soon.

I have a batch of phyto and pods are arriving on Friday, so I'll dose them when they arrive.

 

[KadeSirin]

So I've been busy and the tank has been on maintenance mode for the last three weeks.

First of all, here's a FTS:

Local area had a fragswap, so I picked up some frags:

Lights just came on, so not everything is extended, but anyways, corals as follows, from bottom to top, left to right,
Octospawn, Hammer, Grape Cristata(SP?), Blastomusa Wellsi Red, Blastomussa Merletti, Fathead Dendro, another Hammer (3 heads!), smaller gold/orange hammer, a zoa (not sure what kind), slightly left, acan (again, not sure type), Trumpet, another acan with a weird split color, and a duncan.

Current tank residents are:
Carpenter wrasse, 2 Banggai Cardinalfish, a yellow clown goby, a purple firefish, and a ton of inverts...

I've got pods growing all over, dozens in the water column, and I'm having a problem with how "clear" the water is in the tank due to the pods floating around. There's also coraline growth... and I did my first harvest of sea lettuce and cheato. We had some seaweed salad (sea lettuce) and gave the cheato away.

Tank parameters:
pH 8.2
Salanity 1.026
Alk: 10.02
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 0
Phosphate 0

I'm a little concerned about the alk being at 10, but I the corals and fish haven't had an issue. My test kit for magnesium and trace elements like iodine are coming soon. I'm also going to start testing calcium.

 

[KadeSirin]

Oh, and some better photos:

Hammers

Plate coral

I forget the name of this one...

Scoly

Pipe organ and urchin

As the frags grow, I'll eventually find a place in the tank for them. I could look into buying whole colonies, but I'm not sure if I want to take that risk at this time.

I also found out that Apex can control Hydra 52 HDs and 26 HDs as well as the AI Prime. So that's getting a new lighting schedule.

Plus, if you can see from the pictures... there's LOTS of pods.

 

[KadeSirin]

Fed the tank today, will be testing parameters tomorrow.

Blasto looks like its trying to eat too many shrimp. The zoas attached to the frag plug aren't too happy however.

Octospawn looks good however.

Fathead dendro was fully extended earlier. Its got a ton of food so far.

 

[KadeSirin]

Its been almost a month since my last update... here's another one!

First of all, I made my own lid for the tank out of 3/8 acrylic.

Next I picked up a Lettuce nudibranch or lettuce sea slug... it hasn't done much, just sunbathes under my lights at the top of the rocks.

I also picked up a Dracula goby.

And a pair of pipefish.

Now here's a FTS from this morning. I'll pick a better one tonight.

That's about it!

Alk is stable at 9
pH 8.2

Relatively little other changes. I'm gonna have to start dosing soon with the clam that I got....

 

[Janci]

I love this tank.
Following

 

[KadeSirin]

Caught one of my two conches having a moment this morning.

Just thought it'd be amusing. I'm going to re-arrange some things and take a better image tonight.

I love this tank.
Following

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Janci]

Caught one of my two conches having a moment this morning.

Just thought it'd be amusing. I'm going to re-arrange some things and take a better image tonight.


Any thoughts? Suggestions?

I am interested to see your thought on the HOB refugium. If you still use this?

 

[KadeSirin]

I am interested to see your thought on the HOB refugium. If you still use this?

I've still got it on the system.

Currently looks like this: Please excuse the dirty filter pad.

Front section filled with cheato, the rest with sea lettuce. The bottom has a bit of sand, and in the forward and rear sections a bunch of marinepure spheres.
I have a pair of hermits, two snails, and that's about it. Keeps my nitrates and phosphates near undetectable. It also adds a nice amount of water volume, almost 5 gallons or 10% of total water volume in the display.

I don't really like the pump that it came with and I intend on making a manifold off a better and more quiet pump, but I also don't have much room in the sump area of this AIO.

 

[Devaji]

nice build!
I did not no they come in white! sweet! where did you find it at?

marine depo says empty tank weight 88# there website says 128# could you move this by yourself? I may need to down grade from a dream tank to something more moveable.

maybe I missed it what what is the display depth? front to back
if you where shopping for a tank would you buy it again? or go with a tank w/ a sump?

 

[KadeSirin]

Got a pom pom crab and LFS says they have a mimic saddle puffer on the way. So I put a hold on that filefish. We'll see how it goes.

Going to be trimming the sea lettuce and making seaweed salad tomorrow afternoon and also taking some of the cheato out. Some other general maintenance things like the routine water change only 2 gal as I'm using it to replenish lost trace elements using Red Sea Coral Pro.

nice build!
I did not no they come in white! sweet! where did you find it at?

marine depo says empty tank weight 88# there website says 128# could you move this by yourself? I may need to down grade from a dream tank to something more moveable.

maybe I missed it what what is the display depth? front to back
if you where shopping for a tank would you buy it again? or go with a tank w/ a sump?

I got my from my LFS, tank and stand for less than $800.

As for the empty tank and stand, I wasn't able to move the tank on my own at least not safely. I could probably do it on my own and not have an issue, but I didn't take anything to chance. The stand was actually heavier and seemed to need more strength to move around. Maybe because it was just bigger.

Display depth? I think something like 16"

As for this tank? Its the best one that fit and the only place where I could get a tank in the house. Its not my ideal tank (6' x 2' x 2 w/ at least 50% DT sump), and I definitely have some issues with the lack of a sump. I've been tempted at times as JBJ says it is drillable. However there's not much room in the stand for a sump. Plus I wouldn't have anywhere to store my equipment and supplies.

 

[KadeSirin]

Update today, my nitrates have finally started rising, my weekly test shows 2 PPM nitrates, probably because I haven't changed the filter sock in two weeks and I haven't changed the filter pad on the other side in roughly 10 days.

Additionally, an acro frag I was given browned out, so I went ahead and checked to see why with my par meter. It turns out at the center of my reef, which is the overlap between the two Hydra 52s, is NOT the brightest spot in the reef. I also found out from checking that my lights were way too high at 12" above water's surface.

So, I've lowered the lights, and according to my chart, the hot spots in the tank (directly under the LEDs) are at just under 600 PAR, near the surface, they're getting about 1500 PAR and near the lights I'm seeing around 3000 PAR. Before, the lowest points were only getting about 100 PAR, now they're at 200 PAR. So hopefully things will be happier and grow faster.

Lights are currently on acclimation mode, 50% brightness across all channels until everything goes back to normal on the 22nd.

I also added another 3 Nero 5s and greatly reduced the power on them, my LPS appear to be much happier.