28g JBJ HQI
 

I recently purchased the JBJ 28g HQI. It has a 150w MH light as well as 4 lunar LEDs. It has dual 266gph return pumps and a wavemaker. The setup also comes with a basic airstone skimmer. It seems to be a pretty solid setup. Within the next few weeks I will be transferring the contents of my 10g over to this new tank. I bought the stand and chiller as well. The stand is a cheap particleboard stand but was designed well to work with the chiller. Down the road I will rebuild the stand out of real wood. I was a little disappointed that the chiller is sold so incomplete. I had to buy an installation kit and still have to find a pump for it. Personally, I would rather they packaged a complete kit and raise the price. All in all it is a pretty sweet setup and I can’t wait to get it up and running.

The tank and stand
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...nkandstand.jpg

The lights and overflow
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v..._llane/lid.jpg

The sump
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...llane/sump.jpg

Inside the stand
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...nsidestand.jpg

In the last photo you can see the chiller, wave maker, ballast, and air pump. You can't really tell from the pictures but the stand is designed with ventilation for the chiller.

Here are some of the inhabitants of the 10g that will be moving over.

The sun coral and clown fish
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...alandclown.jpg

The bubble coral
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ubblecoral.jpg

The cleaner shrimp
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...anershrimp.jpg

I also have a chromis and assortmant of snails and hermitts that will be moved over. There is a mystery crab in there that I hope I can get rid of in the process.

At this point I plan to use a SSB and about 18lbs of hopefully cured live rock. Once the tank has cycled the 12 lbs of live rock will move over from the 10g. I will also move over the K1 because the stock water flow in the JBJ is only 266gph. That seems to be pretty bare minimum to me, correct me if I'm wrong.

Will I have any problems with the bubble coral going from 40w PC lighting at the top of a 10g to 150w MH lighting? Should I be doing something to help the coral adjust to the stronger light?

looks good so far. a nice little mod for extra flow is replace the stock pumps with something a little more powerfull like maxi jets or maybe a rio of some kind.
you should indeed acclimate the coral to the light. the best way i find is to find a shady spot on the sand bed, then every about 2nd day(may take longer for certain corals)move it up a little until it's where you want it to be

Wow, this is going to be one heck of a coral producing tank once you have it all set up, I really look forward to seeing the end!

Any new news on how this tank is doing?

Well so far everything is on track. I bought aprox. 18lbs of live rock and it is doing its thing. There has been no noticeable spike an anything yet so I am not sure if there will be an actual cycle. I have the lights on a timer at 4 hrs/day this week. I am following the advice I have received from bauder1986 and increasing the daylight by 2 hrs every week to avoid problem algae.

The live rock came with aptasia that I am trying to kill off. I have also spotted a crab in there that I have to figure out how to catch. Any suggestions?

There are a couple of threads on here about bottle trapping. I dont really know what that is about because I got lucky this far and havent had to go and catch any annoying hitchhickers (knock on wood). But yah, search bottle traps/trapping in the forums and read away.

Well things are going good so far. There was no cycle so the rock must have had very little die off. The hair algea is starting so I didn't increase the light cycle this week.

I was thinking of peging my rockwork. Any advice on the best way to do that? Any reason not to do it?

nothing new to report. I have some hair algea and the start of a diatoms bloom.

I was wondering if I should remove the ceramic rings and sponge from the filter chamber. Any thoughts?

Well I finally have an update worth posting about. I added the sand, rock, and the first fish. I tried pegging the rockwork but that really didn't work out. I tried a few different ways and every time the rocks were unbalanced and I really wasn't happy.

So instead I tried epoxy putty and zap straps. The zap straps allowed for securing rocks in very interesting positions. I am happy with what I was able to do with that. Hopefully it doesn't take long for coraline to hide the ugly straps though. I am not really sold on the putty. It has no bonding at all. it works well to even out surfaces for stacking rock but for the most part I could have accomplished the same result with the zap straps alone.

The fish has been in there for a few days now. Amonia is 0, nitrite is .1, and nitrate is .5. Im not really sure were the nitrate came from with no bioload. It is a little frustrating to have climbing nitrate already and an unstocked tank.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ne/rock1-1.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/rock2.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/rock3.jpg

Makana - Nice aquascape. My experience with the putty is not much of an adhesive but it does as you found out level and fill in holes nicely. The rock looks great and in time the zip straps will be invisible.

I would have thought the heat from the chiller in that tiny space would be too much. How is it?

The chiller has actually never been turned on. I have a pump on order for it but there will be no real need to run it until the summer. I am running the tank at 78 now and it goes up to 80 with the light on. The stand is actually designed for the chiller, there are vents in the stand that match up with the vents on the chiller. So it should vent well I hope.

Wow makana! That tank is looking very clean! I think you are a prime example of someone that knows what the term 'patience' means! Shouldnt be too long till you have that tank running full blown with everything transfered over from the smaller nano! Oh yah and that aquascape is a gooder. Shouldnt be to long before the zip straps are covered by algea. Algea just loves plastic for some reason!

Thanks! It was not easy looking at a tank of rock for that long. What finally stunted the algea growth was I turned the light off for two days. I actually did it to adjust the temperature and two days later the diatoms and hair algea seemed to stop spreading and there were coraline spots on the glass.

yah I had to do the same thing with my 10 gal frag tank

Your rockwork is amazing.... can't wait to see this all set up as well. Your sun coral is gorgeous, wow!!!

Thanks! I really like the sun coral. It is impressive when it is all opened up. I have had some problems with algea growing on it though and damaging its skin. I don't really know how to deal with that, but it hasn't stopped the coral from forming new mouths.

How do you deal with the cleaner shrimp when feeding your sun coral? I almost had to beat mine off with a stick while I tried feeding my sun. Got to the point that I said the hell with it and sold it (the coral not the shrimps).

lol, yah. I usually give the cleaner shrimp a large piece of flake food to keep it busy while I feed the sun coral. Otherwise it will climb on it and pick all the food off. It's funny because the cleaner seems to know that its not allowed on the sun coral. When my hand is no longer in the tank the cleaner will sneak over towards the sun coral, but if I point then it will go back to its spot.

Well I have moved over the rest of my livestock to the new tank. I put the K1 from the 10g into the new tank but it seems to beat the crap out of the bubble coral. I don't understand how it could have no problems in the 10g but be too powerful in a much larger tank. I have tried pointing it in all sorts of directions but can't find one that doesn't push the bubble coral right over. The stock pumps are only 260gph which roughly gives me only 10X turnover.

Any suggestions? Should I just stick to the stock pumps? 10X turnover seems a little low.

I think maybe the rounded class is the problem. Nothing to disrupt the flow.

Should I use the K1 or just the stock pumps?

have you tried to move the coral around. i would keep the k1 as i have seen many who have one in their tanks.

I tried moving it around a bit but I am trying to keep it low until it adjusts the the new light. I ran the K1 for a couple days now but the coral hasn't really expanded like I know it can, so I am going to run without it and see if it opens up.

I have also discovered that if the wavemaker is unplugged then plugged back in it leaves both pumps on full time until you adjust the controll knob. The problem is with both pumps on the water level in the sump goes way down. So if there isn't enough water in the sump for both pumps on then they will suck air and fill the tank with bubbles. So I had to spend a bit of time trying to find the exact right amount of water were the pumps didn't suck air when both on and the sump didn't fill up past the baffles with only one pump on.

I'm not really impressed with that design.

Here are some updated photos. I managed to get the K1 pointed so that it doesn't cause too much issue for the bubble coral. The bubble cora hasn't opened up as big with it on but I think it will once it adjusts. I'm not sure what the green plant growing next to it is. It spring up out of the rock. I appear to be down to one hermit crab also. Not sure what happened to the others. They just vanished.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/tank2.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/tank1.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/tank3.jpg
http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...lane/fish1.jpg

Looking very good, you're off to a great start! That hitchhiker macroalgae is Padina spp., I believe.

Well its been a while since I updated this. I have been battling hair and cyano algea for weeks now. I am not sure what is causing it and I'm not making much headway at stopping it. All my inhabitants are doing well. I do need to get a proper sized cuc but the the lfs never seem to have anything. I was finally able to get the K1 positioned so that I can have it on and not bother the bubble coral.

Well its time for a long overdue update. My bubble coral died (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61551). I tried everything I could think of and nothing helped. Once it was gone what I thought was part of it's skeleton, moved and turned out to be a tiny clam.

I had a large battle with nitrates that I finally won. 3-4 water changes a week did nothing. I finally started dosing sugar and that worked slowly but as soon as I started cutting back the nitrates came back. I finally bought an eshops75 HOB skimmer and within a week I had 0 nitrates and have ever since.

I added a yellow watchman and a purple fire fish. I think that will pretty much be it fish in this tank.

I added pulsing xenia, an open brain, and some mushrooms. Most of the mushrooms died right away and the remaining ones don't look like they will make it. I can't find any cause, all I can think of is maybe shock from the MH light. I don't know if maybe I need to learn how to acclimate corals to the light. Half the xenia shriveled up and died as well when they were added. The other half looked good and then started to die as well. I moved it up to the top of the tank and it rebounded great and is doing well. Makes me wonder if the new 20k bulb is maybe not putting out.

I discovered IO salts shortcomings and started dosing it for my water changes. Right after that something began using up the calcium and alk at insane rates and I had a steep learning curve (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=66997). I added a JBJ ATO controller with an aqualifter pump using full strength kalk for top off water. This helped with stability but my alk still drops 1 dkh per week.

I'll add new pictures when I get a chance.

Long Overdue Update
 

Well it has been far too long since the last update. I bought a house and moved across town without any losses.

My sun coral slowly deteriorated and died. I'm pretty sure it was from the clown fish hosting it at night when it would open up to feed. Some of the tissue was gone from the skeleton and algae took hold on the bare spots. After that it stopped feeding and I could not get it back. I setup a hospital tank for it but I think by that time it was too late.

I had a serious algae outbreak and am still fighting remnants of it. I tried everything with minimal success. I finally removed half the rock and cooked it, then the second half and cooked that. I have cheato in the display and an ATS I'm trying to get going in the back chamber. In the middle of the battle my skimmer pump melted.

I had an aiptasia problem that I had been battling since day one and I finally picked up a peppermint shrimp that made short work of my problem. My cleaner died shortly after that. I'm not sure if the new shrimp had anything to do with that or not. Apparently they don't live that long so maybe it would have died anyway.

The watchman goby did not survive long. It developed sores and died. It seemed to be out swimming around at the lfs but just hid in my tank. I had to target feed because it would not come out for food.

I have added a crocea clam, maze brain, candy cane frag, and gsp. I have had a real challenge with light acclimation and I think a lot of my corals have struggled with that. My open brain was doing fantastic since day one. Then I switched the bulb to a phoenix last year and I still don't know if it is recovering or slowly getting worse. The red tissue developed green spots that turned almost clear.

The maze brain has done great since I put it in. It has grown a lot from the frag I bought a year ago. The candy cane was up and down a lot for the longest time. Sometimes it would look deflated, like the skeleton was about to break through. It finally adapted to the tank and is now doing great. In the last few weeks it has begun developing another head. The xenia had turned into a small forest that the clown fish called home until I added an urchin with a fondness for wearing xenia. Now it is a little sparse but should come back.

At some point I added a toadstool that seemed to rot around a spot on the stem. I eventually fragged the head and cut off the rot. There are 3 frags from that currently growning in the tank.

Current stock list: Clown fish, purple fire fish, green chromis, blue tuxedo urchin, peppermint shrimp, crocea clam, GSP, xenia, open brain, maze brain, candy cane, toadstool, hermits, turbo snails, nassarius snails.

Now the pictures.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps8f47bd1c.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...psab28e0a2.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps8f3a7c8c.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps8579452c.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps037112f7.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...psf8828eb0.jpg

The urchin pushed the clam off about a week ago and now the clam won't grab on. I don't know if the clam is damaged and can't or just won't. Every couple days I find the clam pushed over again, often the urchin is still up there so I know it pushed the clam over again. The clam seems to be doing fine anyway, lots of growth on the shell, extends the mantle nicely.

Hopefully this doesn't cause long term issues of it.

I'm trying to figure out where I want all the corals to go long term. Any suggestions on where I should place the candy cane? Obviously the brains stay on the sand. I need a good location for a toadstool to grow up in as well. The upper portion of the tank I would like to have some SPS in if I ever get the algae issue taken care of. So if anyone can offer suggestions on corals that would go good and where in tank (possibly marked in the FTS), they should go I am all ears. It seems like some of the nicest tanks had the corals picked out for the locations and where just left to grow. I find with my level of experience I end up having to move them around trying to find a place that they tolerate.