My 2020 JBJ 20 frag tank build

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Hello all. You guys may have seen me around here occasionally. I had a packed 38 gal. reef going in my kitchen at my old house from around 2007 to 2010. It was successful. I decided to shut it down and sell off livestock and most equipment at that time when we were looking to move and our daughter was "on the way" It was emotionally somewhat of a hard thing to do for me, but I really didn't mind saving the money for a while. The experience I gained from that tank was highly valuable.

Fast forward 10 years. Live in a different house. Still had the reef bug in my system and periodically I'd want to get back in. So one day a few years ago I bought a JBJ 20 gal AIO frag tank because I saw one and loved it. (And because I got a smoking deal on it because it was pre-owned but still new. Somebody shipped it to me from CA.)

It's not a display, just pure utility, shallow water for frag grow out and QT for a future larger system. Big enough to work with but plenty small and manageable. Just something to play with. Well, it sat on some foam in the basement for a few years. My kids are young but starting to get bigger so I wanted them to be able to see what reefing was all about. So around March 2020, I went to Home Depot and bought lumber for a stand....

 

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Bought lumber, a new radial arm saw with stand and went to work. Ran a new dedicated circuit down next to it on a GFCI too just to be safe and make it easier. This was where the project was Jan. 31st, 2020.

 

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Then I did some jigsaw work for the floor of it. Used birch plywood. Probably too nice but what the heck.

 

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Shortly after, in February I decided to go with a single Kessil A160 over it. So this is another test case of what a single Kessil A160 will grow and how fast. I also got in my Ice Cap nano skimmer this month. It fits perfectly in the rear chamber. You may notice on the right side is a 7.5 gal dog food container from PetSmart that is food grade for auto top off water. I found a new Tunze Nano in the basement I forgot I had so I was ready to go in that department.

 

[KellyCorals]

Nice wood work on the stand! Interested to see what that single tuna blue can do as well.

 

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March 15th it got water in it. Initially I really wanted to use the egg crate that came with it to cover the entire area like everyone else does. But I quickly got annoyed by things falling through it or needing to access below it which required lifting the whole thing out of the tank so I just couldn’t do it.

 

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April 12th I went to the LFS and picked up my first frags for it to try out. I got a sickly looking echinata I suspected could look a lot better, a RPE polyp, some GSP, a favia frag and forest fire monti digi that was from a local reefer.

 

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Nice wood work on the stand! Interested to see what that single tuna blue can do as well.

Thanks! The walnut top was way overkill but I have a lot of dried furniture grade wood around and a friend that has a shop so way more work went into the finishing on it than it needed but it is what it is. The 2x4 parts and floor I cut at home and in the basement. I put birch plywood sides and floor on it even though it was just going in the basement. lol (I still have to look at it.)

Oh, and there's already decent data on the kessil. more to come...

 

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I picked up an IM reef rack for it and it in conjunction with another egg crate rack I made are mainly what I use in it. I decided to add some dry live rock to it and seeded it with coraline algae and bacterial. Most people I see with these tanks don’t have live rock in them so I’m posting this here to see what people think. Is it worth it? Does it take up too much room? I don’t know. I put some in it for the sake of the biological filter initially. Don’t know if it really needs it anymore.

 

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Around the end of April, I committed a portion of our stimulus to an Apex El and life changed. lol Hooked it up to the Wifi and it was pretty cool. Loved the alerts and being able to check on the tank while at work. I also use the data log for entering tests in which is so convenient and keeps a running graph. Excellent product.

In the mean time, I gradually continued expanding my test kit selection and adding coral frags that I really liked.

 

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In July I added a pH scrubber to recirculate air on the skimmer. A fresh air line from a window upstairs wasn’t cutting it. PH was still dropping into the 7.9s and 7.8s and I wanted to stay above 8. Well this thing from BRS is pretty huge for this tank and works almost too well. I have not changed the media since I got it and still works good almost 2 months later. Believe it or not. The media never turned purple on me yet.

 

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You may notice I have some thick insulation on the back and sides. I did it just to help insulate it in the cold basement so the heater didn't have to work as hard. I also had a custom top built for it from a guy in Arizona that someone recommended on here. The top is awesome and the guy built it exactly to what I wanted. Theres enough open screen to let light though while also maintaining some solid area all around that does assist in holding the heat and evaporation in, better than nothing. It also assists in keeping fish from jumping out.

I decided to add fish to it. That was not the original plan but everything I read says that fish are helpful in providing some of the nutrients needed for the coral to stay happy.

The fish situation for this tank has been a saga. Initially I was going to go with a couple yellow tailed damsels. Ordered them online. Two tiny ones arrived. Was treating them in QT and they died. Then I got a couple perculas and a really nice, healthy orchid dotty back from LFS. They were quarantined. Then went in this tank. Well, I was feeding corals one night and took the lid off for about half an hour and put the lid back on. Within the 30 minutes, the dotty back jumped and I didn't see him until the next day. Then I ordered a fairy basslet to replace him because I thought about getting one of those initially. Arrived in mail, after only 12 hrs shipping, DOA.

Out of frustration I decided to just stick with the percs for the time being but eventually the pods took over and I wanted something to pick them off. So I ordered a six line wrasse. Well, overnight shipping from LA ended up turning into a full 48 hr adventure with FedEx and temps were in the 80s. The box sat in Indianapolis for 12 hrs before being shipped to Memphis, then back to Indianapois, then back to Memphis, then to Cedar Rapids, then to Dubuque and out to me, arriving at 11:55 a.m. the second day on a Saturday. I was really pi$$ed off. I opened the box and to my surprise, the wrasse was darting around just fine. The cold pack kept the water cool enough to where he survived and they're supposedly not good shippers.
Then one of the clowns kept getting ich and I kept dipping him to provide relief. Then I dipped him in some medication and it must have been too harsh or too long because when I put him back in the tank it was all screwed up. I watched it die. I think he got copper poisoning. I felt bad for accidentally killing off my clownfish's partner so I ordered an ORA cinnamon oscellaris for it. It came in great condition and these are the 3 fish I currently have for it. As a precaution, this tank is completely devoid of fish until November and my clowns and six line are in QT tank right now living in hyposalinity at 1.009. They are doing great and eating well. No signs of disease but sometimes my larger clownfish likes to bang it's head on the PVC and I really don't know why. I don't see any visible problems on it.

I'm going to leave the frag tank fallow with no fish until early November so hopefully any fish diseases will have completely ran their course and died out before these guys go back in. My plan was to have this tank disease free and it just didn't happen. I didn't QT long enough. It's now fishless and the pods are taking over.

 

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This is the tank as it stands today. I grow chaeto in the back on a reverse light cycle. It grows like crazy. For filtration I use half the foam block that came with it under the intake. Then I use those pourous blocks that Algaebarn sells to help with bacteria surface area. There’s also a little live rock In the back. The icecap skimmer runs 24/7. Chaeto light is on from 8 to 8. I use a 150 watt slim neo therm heater mounted on the back wall. It actually fits behind the skimmer and works fantastic. If the tank drops 0.2 of a degree it’s disappointing with this heater. The Tunze nano auto top off float is in the last chamber to the right. It’s held by magnet on the divider wall and the ATO hose squirts in front of the skimmer.

 

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Top down shot with the pumps off.

 

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I'm at the 5 month mark using the Kessil over some of these frags. There has been no added supplemental lighting. I haven't even ran the kessil at 100% yet. For the majority of the time, I maxed the intensity out at only 60%. I just recently ramped it up to max out at 85% mid day and then it tapers off. The lens is 9" off the surface of the water. My acros and other branching SPS are only covered by about 1" of water.

So what has happened in this tank over the past 5 months with only a brief period of 60% intensity from a single Kessil A160?

I have to say it's really a mixed bag. I was nervous about turning it all the way up to 100% in such a shallow tank but I may go there soon. Although for many of the coral, this schedule is adequate.
The light turns on at 8 a.m and does the following:

8 a.m. 0% color 10% intensity
9 a.m. - 10% color 20% intensity
10 a.m.- 30% color 35% intensity
12 p.m. 45% color 76% intensity
1 p.m. 22% color 85% intensity
3 p.m. 15% color 55% intensity
5 p.m. 0% color 40% intensity
Then it gradually drops in intensity until it shuts off at 8 p.m.

As I say, the results with this are mixed. I know some people run their kessils 100% all day. Maybe some stuff would grow more but I think other things may suffer. Monti caps are growing on the glass. They have nice rounded edges now. April 21 I got a Strawberry shortcake acro. It had not spread out past the superglue on the plug yet.

Here it is about 5 months later. The base has spread out off of the plug and is growing down the holes of the tray. I put another empty plug next to it so it would grow onto it for an easy frag. This one has been my most successful acro so far.

Sorry trying to upload these off of phone and do this on computer at the same time. Pics got switched.

 

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Here’s 5 months of growth on a forest fire monti. You can’t see it in the pic too well but the base is melting out and over the frag plug on the back side of it.

 

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These guys were 2 and 3 heads when I got them. These are well fed and seem to thrive under this light. I can’t imagine how many more heads there will be in a years time. Had these about 4 months.

 

[KellyCorals]

I would say that’s good growth. Not super fast but tank is very clean and consistent. Nice job!

 

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I would say that’s good growth. Not super fast but tank is very clean and consistent. Nice job!

Thanks again. I'm open to opinions on this. I'm well aware the light schedule I'm on is pretty weak but this is what it has done. Favias and acans are growing well. SPS are growing and colors are good. Zoanthid colors look good but they're not really multiplying like I was expecting. I often wonder what 100% intensity for 7 hrs a day would do. I just don't want to stress things out. Maybe it wouldn't? Maybe somebody will come along and say I may as well do it right now. There is definitely some shadowing on the branching sps as all the videos mention. I've often thought about adding a small reef bright xho for some supplementation on the shaded side.

A friend gave me the unused GEO reactor to add kalk to the top off. Occasionally have pH spikes from it. I dose 7 drops of coral amino a day and a drop of Lugols once in a while to try to get the zoas going. Often once a day. Supplement with two part. Keep alk around 8 to 10. pH is usually 8.1 at the lowest and is normally 8.2 to 8.3 during the day. Sometimes as high as 8.4 to 8.5 briefly. I target feed stuff once or twice a week. Sometimes frozen mysis shrimp or Rods food and sometimes a thick mixture of reef roids with a drop of coral amino.

This setup uses about $8 a month in electricity to run. Pretty energy efficient for growing coral.

 

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I just noticed another growth comparison pic for you guys. The little piece of orange monti cap on the magnetic frag seen at the end of post #7, is the same one seen in post #13 on the false wall in the chaeto pic. It does not get the full intensity of light from the settings listed as its covered by the solid portion of the acrylic top which usually has condensation on it, but it grows nonetheless. Monti cap doesn't need much light to grow.

Also the small favia in post #7 is seen on the right rack below the blue zoanthids on the post #14 top down pic. Its really starting to spread out now.