syeve's JBJ 28G build

[syeve]

Hello all, thought I would try to keep a journal on this new (slightly used tank) and I also thought I would include some prices for a ground up build. I started looking for an all-in-one system about a month ago and this is what I ended up with. Used JBJ 28 with a tunze skimmer.

I want to incllude prices for a couple of reasons. 1. to help anyone who wants a ground up, start from nothing budget outline. 2. to identify if I'm over paying for anything or if I'm buying anything that I don't need.

My goal is to spend under $1,000 pre livestock.

Thanks for looking!

Thanks to JDigital for the help!
Also thanks to KennyKen for the tank!

Bought so far...
Tank/heater/thermometer/skimmer and 30lbs live rock - $550
Live Sand 20 lbs - $40
Bucket of Salt (instant ocean) - $50
Hydrometer - $20
Instant Ocean Test kits (calcium, ph, Ammonia & nitrate) - $70
Chemicals - (magnesium, Bacter booster, de-clorinator) - $55

Total so far - $785

First day

Cleaned the tank, ready for live sand

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0554.jpg

Skimmer installed and ready to go (I think??)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0556.jpg

Hood Cleaned and ready

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0557.jpg

Live rock

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0558.jpg

First night - salinity was OK but tem was HIGH

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0567.jpg

Second day - temp and salinity good to go

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0569.jpg

Day 3 - water clearing up nicely. Took some of the rock out (I am a minimalist lol)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0576.jpg

More to come!

[JDigital]

Nice tank! Glad it's coming together for ya. I could have probably gave you my hydrometer as I don't use it anymore, but too late. lol

[Chaloupa]

The only suggestion I would have looking at it...is to make sure that you have room on all 3 side to clean the glass. The way it looks right now (unless you haven't scaped it yet) is that rock is touching both sides....a nightmare to try to keep clean. Otherwise....looks good. Love the hood...it's an upgrade isn't it?

[Carmen]

Nice tank! Glad it's coming together for ya. I could have probably gave you my hydrometer as I don't use it anymore, but too late. lol

Ditto! If you are looking for stuff, try posting here on canreef - may be able to find something for half the price!:mrgreen:

Looking Good! Exciting starting up a new build! It's addicting!

[syeve]

Thanks for the suggestion! I am going to move the rock around right now.

And for the prices etc. I really have no idea so I defn will post up any purchases I am going to make.

Thanks again folks!

[syeve]

Quick update...

Tank cycled like a champ. Levels are normal, CUC is in place. I went with;

2 turbo snails
6 algea crabs
6 small snails (can't remember their name)
1 rock blennie (couldn't resist)

I'm noticing dozens of other life growing in the tank; snails, pods, algea, zoo's, mushrooms etc.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0817.jpg

This picture has 4 snails, 1 crab, rock blennie and some type of duster just to his left.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0820.jpg


I did upgrade the cooling as I was seeing temps creep up a little high in the day so I jumped on the DIY train and fashioned a compact and quiet fan w/bracket. Total cost was under $30 and cools very well.

So far so good!

Thanks for looking!


http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0824.jpg

[JDigital]

I was just thinking about your tank yesterday... Wondering how it was coming along...

Your Blenny looks like a Lawnmower Blenny. :smile: Time to start adding coral. :mrgreen:

[fishytime]

So you are officially a reefaholic? The first step is admitting you have a problem....the second step is cutting up your credit cards.... All kidding aside welcome to the dark side and to canreef. Looking good so far.

[syeve]

I was just thinking about your tank yesterday... Wondering how it was coming along...

Your Blenny looks like a Lawnmower Blenny. :smile: Time to start adding coral. :mrgreen:

Yah! Lawnmower...I looked at a few, got confused with the names.

I think I saw you at RC the day I got him. You were just leaving, I saw a dude with a sweet camera and the owner called you Josh. Anyways, wasn't sure if it was you.

What would be a good coral to start with? Maybe some Zoo's? Mushrooms?

Thanks for looking fishytime!

Steve

[brizzo]

Very nice! Welcome to the HQI nanocube club :robot:

Is that a 20k bulb? With it being a used setup, do you know how old the bulb is?

PS: That rocks is some nice wicked purple! :mrgreen:

[syeve]

I believe it's the stock bulb, so 14k. It is about 8 months old I believe. I can double check with Kenny.

The rock is working out really well, lots of color. Sinse my last post I found two little star fish. Sweet.

[JDigital]

Yah! Lawnmower...I looked at a few, got confused with the names.

I think I saw you at RC the day I got him. You were just leaving, I saw a dude with a sweet camera and the owner called you Josh. Anyways, wasn't sure if it was you.

What would be a good coral to start with? Maybe some Zoo's? Mushrooms?

Thanks for looking fishytime!

Steve

Yup, that would have been me.

As for starting coral.. Zoas, Mushrooms, Ricordias...

[syeve]

I have a quick question..I have dozens of VERY small while "things" on the glass of my tank. I don't know how else to describe them, they could be baby pods? They showed up at the same time I started getting some algea. They move around so I know they aren't snail eggs or something. I tried to get a picture but they are way too small. Any ideas? (they defn are NOT baby snails)

Thanks!
Steve

[JDigital]

Sounds like Amphipods... they are good things.. :mrgreen:

[syeve]

^^Thanks Josh!

Lots of growth so far!

I noticed about 6-8 green eggs on one of my snails. They are long and skinny. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Steve

[KennyKen]

Sinse my last post I found two little star fish. Sweet.

2 little brittle stars?
They came with a couple of frags i got a while back. Glad they made it.

Keep em coming

[syeve]

Couple of small additions. Unfortunatly I have not seen the two stars for a while, I think my crabs may have eaten them, they seem to eat just about anything.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0977.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_1002.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0973.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0982.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0993.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[brizzo]

Nice fire fish! One of my favorites; mine died a couple years ago without explanation.

Tank is looking really good!

[JDigital]

Those green zoas are nice! I got the same ones in my 75G..

Starting to look good! I think you need to make another trip to the store though. :mrgreen:

EDIT: Just realized how much coraline you got on ur rocks! thats awesome!

[syeve]

^^thanks! Another trip is coming soon...I LOVE the Zoa's!

Got to give Kenny props for the rock, it came that way :biggrin:

Thanks nazerine!


Steve

[syeve]

Quick update/question (of course :))

I made a little bit of an impulsed buy...A BTA and a couple captive bread percs.

NOW, the question...the BTA was pretty big in the store, but I thought it wouldn't be too bad. I got it home, and two days later it spread out to like half the width of my tank. I'm assuming that this will effect my bio load? Will this be too much load? Does the mushroom that doubled in size going to effect my bio load?

FTS (my DSLR is at a friends, sorry for the crap pics)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/DSC01264.jpg

The culprit
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/DSC01265.jpg
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/DSC01263.jpg


The mushroom thats growing...

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/DSC01268.jpg

The tank is doing great, I am just worried about the size of these things...also, notice the new star polyp! I love it! Color is crap in these but it look florecent!

Thanks for looking!

[JDigital]

Yea, a BTA is a bit of an impulse buy.. haha It will probably affect your bio-load just because of how new your tank is. But keep up on your water changes and tank parameter consistency and you should be ok.

Tank is looking really good though.

[jalemboo]

Well... your tank looked great...

i just started my tank week and a half ago, and i can't wait to have my tank looking like yours..

i have the same tank as you, and i saw you have a power head in your tank, do i need one too. i noticed the my sand is getting dirty by days.

Here is the picture of my tank.

[syeve]

Thanks!

Josh, yah, total inpulse buy...It was always the end goal of my tank to have a hosted anenome...just a little sooner than I planned (and a little bigger than I planned).

jalemboo, I like the power head pointed towards the surface, it creates a lot of surface movement and the inhabitants seem to really like it. You prob don't need one but for like 35 bones it's money well spent. All I can suggest is read a lot and leave your tank to cycle for as long as you can. I got a small clean up crew at week 5...havn't looked back sinse!

Thanks for looking!

[spanky]

Your tank looks really good, i started out with the same tank, unfortunatly i had to sell it to get lights for my "new to me" 110g. I do miss it though. Here are some pics of what it looked like before i moved everything to my new tank. I still miss it. If your careful where u put everthing you can have alot of diversity in these tanks.


http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll67/spanky29ca/reeftank007.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll67/spanky29ca/2008_0703tankreef0002.jpg

[jalemboo]

Syeve, how do i post picture on my message?

[syeve]

Hey Spankey, thanks! Your tank looked amazing!

jalemboo, I would just sign up for a photobucket account. Just upload your pic's. Once your pictures are uploaded, just run your mouse over the image and click on the "IMG code" It will copy your image link with the ...just copy and paste on here!

It will look like this...

htp://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_0556.jpg

[syeve]

Just a couple of new pics..sorry for the quality, I had a lot of sunlight shinning in and didn't feel like closing all my blinds.

Nothing really new, tank is doing great, no issues!

Thanks for looking!

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_1402.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_1382.jpg

[JDigital]

Did you change your nem? Looks different..

The clowns look good... at least someone can keep them alive.. I sure as hell can't.

[karazy]

love that second shot of the clowns!

[syeve]

Did you change your nem? Looks different..

The clowns look good... at least someone can keep them alive.. I sure as hell can't.
:biggrin::biggrin:

Nope, same one, I think it has grown though, it looks different everyday, somedays its half that size, somedays, it bigger...I may have to give it away...it is about 4 inches from touching both sides of my tank when its fully spread. I really like it and it hasn't moved sinse the first week I got it so I think it's happy where it is. The clowns actually host my green star polyp more often (I don't think they are very smart :mrgreen:).

Those two clown are from RC, they were in the captive bread tru perc batch, they were super healthy when I got them, they seem to be doing ok, they eat everything in site.

Thanks for the comment karazy!

[kelbri]

Read through your journal. Great looking tank. I love the color of the rock.

I am going to set up a 29g (hopefully this week or next). Fish only with LR. The q's I have are...

Did you cure your rock first, or was it cured? Or was your tank set up for weeks before adding the cleaning crew?

What was your total price (before livestock)?

How are the clowns doing? We are going to stock with just 4 clowns, with more as the bug bites us and we get a bigger tank.

Thanks for posting this build. Very helpful to me anyways :)

Brian

[JDigital]

Read through your journal. Great looking tank. I love the color of the rock.

I am going to set up a 29g (hopefully this week or next). Fish only with LR. The q's I have are...

Did you cure your rock first, or was it cured? Or was your tank set up for weeks before adding the cleaning crew?

What was your total price (before livestock)?

How are the clowns doing? We are going to stock with just 4 clowns, with more as the bug bites us and we get a bigger tank.

Thanks for posting this build. Very helpful to me anyways :)

Brian

Don't mean to hi-jack your thread syeve... Brain, Please don't add 4 clowns to a 29G tank... Sooner or later you will only have 2, because the most dominant will kill off the two weakest.

[kelbri]

:). Yeah, I got that info from elsewhere since posting here. Definitly 2 clowns, plus I don't know what. Thanks though, and sorry syeve ;)

[KennyKen]

Read through your journal. Great looking tank. I love the color of the rock.

I am going to set up a 29g (hopefully this week or next). Fish only with LR. The q's I have are...

Did you cure your rock first, or was it cured? Or was your tank set up for weeks before adding the cleaning crew?

What was your total price (before livestock)?

How are the clowns doing? We are going to stock with just 4 clowns, with more as the bug bites us and we get a bigger tank.

Thanks for posting this build. Very helpful to me anyways :)

Brian

Rock was cured for a year, because it came from my tank,
and he got a pretty sweet deal on the setup and the rock, if i do say so myself.
:lol:

[syeve]

Oups! I missed these last few posts, sorry guys. No problem on the questions Brian! Any more come up don't hesitate to ask.

Yah, I got it from Ken and it was in amazing shape and color when I got it. Ken gave me a sweet deal on some nice rock for sure. It has done really well and to this day I have had zero issues with the tank, I believe a large part due to the fact that the rock was so well taken care of. Actually, the only issue I have is my nem and my mushrooms are growing to big for the tank :lol:

EDIT: I missed one of your questions Brian, the tank with rock, livestock, sand, salt, test equip has been under $1k (around $900 I think). Pretty good considering the new price of a JBJ is around that same price. The only full time filtering I run is a Tunnze skimmer. Other than that I let the rock do all the work.

A few pics!

My weird ass clowns harassing my GSP

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_1547.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_1535.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/Syeve/IMG_1530.jpg

[fishytime]

Great shots of the clowns. Can they come to my house and kill off....I mean host in my gsp?:lol:

[kelbri]

Thanks for the update Syeve. I have been debating on whether or not to run a skimmer, as I am planning on fish only with LR, but your budget is very encouraging.

[mylesw42]

Hey, I noticed you have this skimmer on your tank. I thought the skimmer cup interferes with closing the hood all the way? Any modifications required?

Thanks,

Myles

[syeve]

Hey Brian, I would personally run a skimmer. The crap it filters out is stuff I never want to linger in my tank :biggrin:

Hey Myles, I have no prob closing the hood, the problem is opening it. You have to remove the skimmer cup to open it all the way. I only open it to clean the glass so it's really no big deal. If you have a similar tank I would lean towards the tunze, it is a little more money but it is quiet and works very well for a nano skimmer.