JBJ 20 gallon AIO reef tank

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey guys
Back in early January I bought my first saltwater tank !
I started with a 20 gallon high
7E8D40C2-5A6F-45E1-8896-FA2D644D5DF0.jpeg

This was day one of the tank set up
Equipment was
Cheap wave maker
Aqueon hang on back filter
Random cheap light on amazon
Carib live sand
And dry rock

fast forward 2 months
D32A7B22-8429-4347-B62B-09AA9A288084.jpeg
71499DD2-CD20-4EA8-8143-DFE807B87209.jpeg

I add 2 clowns and a cheap drag from lfs
Also upgraded light to AI prime HD

Then I fell in love with cubes
63506CF6-F0D3-4909-9033-8DBE8F4EFE0F.jpeg

Day it arrived 20 gallon AIO JBJ

642D930B-48C6-4ACB-BC0B-D8DA0DE545F0.jpeg

filled it with water and rescaped
ED78FF60-6389-481E-9A41-792EF9AB264A.jpeg

same cheap drag under AI prime also added a few corals and bought a Nero 3
B0FF9BF6-18BF-4452-9FFA-4B9AD7BF0EE2.jpeg

I will finish this post tomorrow lol !
thank you
 

fishguy242

Cronies..... INSERT BUILD THREAD BADGE HERE !!
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2020
Messages
42,772
Reaction score
246,079
Location
Illinois
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
here now... :cool:
 
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Okay so work got in the way now I can finish …. Oh yeah
7A1F7B16-18A7-4096-917B-3F01194D94AB.jpeg
got the RBT for free from my lfs they couldn’t move it so they gave it to me … I was still new but it was free and it looked awesome and I thought to my self this will be easy ! .. boy was I wrong
0CF231C1-61D6-4428-8113-E5B9423D251A.jpeg
this was the last picture of the RBT 3 months later it unfortunately died and I removed it from the tank.
 
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sorry last post !
E527CE23-CCAF-4E0E-916B-F5E803955A19.jpeg
Some one from reef2reef sent me a free Kenya tree but unfortunately it died during transportable had algae growing on it so it was a lost cause … or so I thought I just left in the tank and it just started sprouting this was in March
20219AB9-DD3C-4056-A3D8-B6B422869FDA.jpeg
this is the Kenya tree as of may.
all was fine untill I dosed vibrant because I was getting way too much algae and instead of getting more CUC I dosed… worst mistake I every made since my tank was not really established I lost my mushroom , hammer and another zoa colony.
6400FF42-AD57-4F4C-8385-48139AE456E1.jpeg
4466A165-6247-435E-A084-F2E6B8D82D29.jpeg
Xenia shrunk down but seeing it still had a stump I kept it and now it’s growing it’s polyps again after 3 months. Yes I’m upset I lost these corals but you live and you learn. So I was battling what looked like to be Cyano/Dino combo I went to chemi clean and the next day boom cyano was gone but a new evil came
5423DB5B-1C75-4383-82E9-9F1220260DBB.jpeg
dinos…. It covered EVERYTHING corals rocks Powerheads you name it !. It was terrible I got some advice from people on reef2reef in @fishguy242 thread and I was able to see a clean sand bed.
39D0E031-B7BE-4FF3-9B53-791127DFDCFD.jpeg
Thank you for tuning in ! And I hope to bring more good news in the future.
 
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
so it’s been 1 month today that I’ve been dealing with cyano/dino every time I would use chemi clean the red will go away but an even more aggressive dino would take over. So I left the tank alone for 3 weeks.

did no water changes regular feedings and no glass scraping I needed the tank to be as dirty as possible to try and balance and raise nutrients to fix the imbalance.

I take a look at my tank last week and I find diatoms !! I never thought I would be excited to see diatoms but as you know diatoms competes for space like cyano and is more aggressive for it. I waited another week did a 5 gallon water change and removed all the cyano .
I’m starting to see the end of this tunnel and it’ feels glorious.
The lesson in all this DONT ADD STUFF TO YOUR TANK IF IT DOESN’T NEED IT like vibrant in this case. and that algae is a good sign sometimes.

I hope I’m 2 weeks I can finally start my process

here is a photo that is less then an hour old
 

Attachments

  • 346F3EB3-1BEB-4756-BC8E-A65135D94DB5.jpeg
    346F3EB3-1BEB-4756-BC8E-A65135D94DB5.jpeg
    286.5 KB · Views: 234
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Day 2

the cyano or what I think is cyano is back ! But not as bad as before the corals look mad but The Kenya tree is opening a little bit Im sure I have tons of flow with this Nero 3 but I have no idea where a good spot to put it so I’m getting adequate flow throughout the tank. Will update again soon
 

Attachments

  • C6CE9B75-3C82-4148-BB9D-40A748F2C297.jpeg
    C6CE9B75-3C82-4148-BB9D-40A748F2C297.jpeg
    251 KB · Views: 230
  • 5F772184-58FC-4E16-B8C5-30E9CA9DEA32.jpeg
    5F772184-58FC-4E16-B8C5-30E9CA9DEA32.jpeg
    218.5 KB · Views: 133
  • 290811CC-9CCD-4F30-BCC8-ECDCC7E40F17.jpeg
    290811CC-9CCD-4F30-BCC8-ECDCC7E40F17.jpeg
    339.1 KB · Views: 125
  • 957F6D57-1CB9-4946-86BE-BFB495552ACE.jpeg
    957F6D57-1CB9-4946-86BE-BFB495552ACE.jpeg
    275 KB · Views: 137
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey guys ! Just an update the algae/bacteria came back. Tragic I know. But I just ordered some microbac 7 and chemi pure blue to help I need to be aggressive but patient because I will come out of this battle Victorious.
 

Attachments

  • 70209F7B-9B2C-4AC0-A633-464FF5972197.jpeg
    70209F7B-9B2C-4AC0-A633-464FF5972197.jpeg
    321.1 KB · Views: 134
  • CAA981D5-B89F-4F56-952F-8A2258489B63.jpeg
    CAA981D5-B89F-4F56-952F-8A2258489B63.jpeg
    310.2 KB · Views: 132
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Just tested the nutrients that is very very red .-. I did a 50% water change on Sunday I would’ve thought it would go down

Forgot to mention the phosphates are 0 or not reading on my salifert test
143EB644-57C7-45BF-9A05-A0F56F538462.jpeg
 
Last edited:

LegendaryCG

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 22, 2019
Messages
2,005
Reaction score
2,676
Location
Fond Du Lac, WI
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yes it’s been a tough battle for a few months but slowly getting it together.
Most of us have been there. Once you’ve had a few reefs you start to be happy that your tank looks the same as it did yesterday.
 
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Most of us have been there. Once you’ve had a few reefs you start to be happy that your tank looks the same as it did yeste

indeed I only had the tank set up since January and I believe I had a tank crash and killed most of corals even a mushroom…
 
OP
OP
shadow_k

shadow_k

I have a kickable face
View Badges
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
12,925
Location
bridgeport
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
hey guys
Just did another water test and my nitrates are still koolaid color and 0 phosphates. Even after feeding reef roids 2 days in a row I know it’s gonna take a while but the bacteria is taunting me disappearing at night and coming back in the AM
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 58 50.0%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 64 55.2%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 27 23.3%
  • None.

    Votes: 28 24.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 7.8%
Back
Top