JBJ cubey is an all-in-one pico system with a cute name but disappointed owners.

Torx · #1 11-19-2013, 06:27 PM

A mighty 3 gallons, the JBJ Cubey is a great tank for a kids room or just about anywhere there is a small area left in your house needing a tank (I am thinking on the bathroom counter for my next one, or maybe on the toilet tank). This all-in-one packaging has a three-stage filtration. You get 54 low temperature LEDs configured with 24 cool white (10,000K) and 24 full spectrum blue LEDs (20,000) and 6 red to give you a crisp white overall look pushing out a bit more than 15 W of output. It is unfortunate that the tank comes only with three light switches and only one power cord. This severely limits the lighting possibilities and pretty much prohibits any sunrise/sunset automatic simulation.

It also uses a three-chamber water filtration much like it larger relative the NanoCube. Chamber one has 2 openings, one at the top and bottom of the tank and brings in the water. It can be used for a heater and additional media before heading to the middle chamber where the filter media caddy allows you to use mechanical, chemical and biological filtration controls before heading over to the return chamber. There is one major downfall being there is no surface skimming on this tank. The return is also located without a directional nozzle and does not agitate the surface tension. There does seem to be just the right amount of flow through the tank.

All in all, this is a great little Pico tank. Still lots more pictures and info to come and more rock to be added. Yes that is a tiny zebra damsel in there at the moment. I understand the Damsel Police will be on me, however its tiny size will be okay for a short while and then will move to my 120. Just need to go shopping for a proper Pico tank fish.

But that is where the story turns...

So this has gone from a great little Pico to and utter disaster. September 9th I contacted JBJ as I was having flickering lights I can only assume was the water in the fixture itself sitting on the back of the unprotected LED boards. When I open the hood, the drops moved/dripped onto the boards creating electrical bridges in the board causing the lights to flicker.

The LED fixture sits all of a 1/4" above the water level when the lid is closed and this is a completely enclosed aquarium. Therefor it is high humidity in that small area. The light fixture enclosure itself is 2 parts of acrylic that are affixed together with only a few screws that also mount the fixture to the lid itself. There is no rubber seal of any kind. The 2 pieces are also not a tight fit leaving obvious gaps now that I am looking closely at it. There is also a hole in the back of the LED fixture where the wires are fed through that is not sealed. You can see the water in the enclosure itself before I opened it for cleaning and drying. The white 'electrical boxes' on it were the exact same story. They were not sealed and water was in both of the white enclosures. The screws that were used to construct the fixture had rusted and corroded. I can only re-use 4 of them. It seems that none of the wiring itself has not corroded at this point, but you can imagine how close that was to happening. The LED boards have no corrosion as well, but I can see the water rings from drops. I will be cleaning the boards and I will be reassembling the fixture with aquarium safe silicone to seal everything.

They did respond quickly at first and sent out a replacement Cubey after calling them. It was received via UPS on September 20th, 11 days after the first email was sent. However...the replacement already had screws that were rusting AND there was visible gaps of silicone missing as well as the bead at the front bottom of the tank is on the front glass, not touching/sealing to the bottom glass.

I contacted them again about the faulty replacement Cubey for them to advise me to use the return label they sent for the original Cubey and send the defective replacement to them, which I did. After several emails and finally calling on my only day off when they are open, they said that they will be sending another replacement. 3 weeks later, (now 2 and a half months since the original contact) I contacted them again, they are now saying that they are not going to send a replacement and I am stuck with the one that I have. It has been several days since my last response to them and they have stopped returning my messages. The light has now started over heating and warping the lid of the tank. I have borrowed a light from a friend to use until I buy my own. Needless to say, my 6 year old is not smiling over her tank anymore like in the pics above.

Dearth · #2 11-19-2013, 06:56 PM

Friend of mine bought one for his kitchen countertop and similar story except that the board the lights were attached to was badly damaged from the water moisture. After some reading and some help from his electrician brother ended up making his own DIY LeD lights with timer for day/night cycles which hang down from under the cupboard on to the tank looks pretty cool I will have to get some pictures next time I am at his place to post.

Torx · #3 11-19-2013, 07:12 PM

I will either doing either a small DIY or a full spec led bulb. I am no stranger to LED DIY fixtures, just frusterated at the poor quality of their lighting fixture and now poor service from jbjlighting. Teaches my 6 year old daughter (5 1/2 actually, going on 16 lol) some life lessons as well.

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Magickiwi · #4 11-19-2013, 08:59 PM

I think JBJ has let their quality control slip quite a bit. I ordered a couple nano-zap UV sterilizers for my nanos and with one the bottom 1/2" connector just pulled right out of the body. It looked like it was wrapped a couple times with masking tape and just crammed in. That's one of the biggest issues with this hobby is that you think you're buying from a quality manufacturer and expect a product that at least WORKS but then you wind up with something like this, or a Coralife Dual Timer, or Kent Carbon etc.

Torx · #5 11-19-2013, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magickiwi

... That's one of the biggest issues with this hobby is that you think you're buying from a quality manufacturer and expect a product that at least WORKS but then you wind up with something like this, or a Coralife Dual Timer, or Kent Carbon etc.

Makes me really realize why these China brand equipment is becoming so popular. After all, if you are going to take a chance on quality, you may as well pay 4x less while doing it. I had better customer support from Jebao about a WP pump that I purchased used.

Poseidons Reef · #6 12-13-2013, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torx

Makes me really realize why these China brand equipment is becoming so popular. After all, if you are going to take a chance on quality, you may as well pay 4x less while doing it. I had better customer support from Jebao about a WP pump that I purchased used.

Yea this whole situation sucks, it is nice to keep things in the country but not for an inferior product and more dough.

Torx · #7 12-13-2013, 07:23 PM

So after venting in a few places, they noticed me again and tried again to fix it. Focus on the word tried...

On top of this one being chipped and having gaps in the fixture still, they are still shipping these with bare metal screws that will rust and drip. I think I officially give up.

Chipped

Gaps in fixture

Oh, and the other crack/chip on the front, bottom left corner

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #8 12-13-2013, 08:48 PM

I wonder if its their packing or the tanks are chipped before they even send it out the door?

Torx · #9 12-13-2013, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

I wonder if its their packing or the tanks are chipped before they even send it out the door?

They shipped my 2 replacements personally. The origional one was shipped personally from them as well. I sort of assumed that they would inspect the ones they are sending as a replacement to avoid any issues, but that does not seem to be the case here. They were shipped in over sized boxes and with tons of packaging material, so the damage was not from shipping in this case.

Either way, the Cubey's that they are still shipping still have screws that will rust and drip rust into the tank, as well, there are gaps in the fixture that lets moisture into the electronics. Some other sites have replied to JBJ CUbey threads with similar issues, only they gave up long before I did.

Torx · #10 12-13-2013, 09:02 PM

I havent called them about this one yet as I got it right before work and do not have enough time to call and try and get things sorted, I will have to wait and call them in a week or so when I have time off when they are open. (they typically do not reply to my emails)