JBJ 28g Nano build

[Phranque]

Up & running.....

Picked up my 89w LED Nano last weekend for my birthday, and got it set up today. Will be getting sand & rock on Thursday, and after that settles, I'll get a shrimp in there on Friday. Got my Refractometer, API marine & reef test kits on hand, and can't wait to get using them!!!

I've run FOWLR's, but this will be my first attempt at corals. Planning a couple of softies to get started, but will definitely be leaving room for moving up to LPS & later an SPS or two. Fish I'd like to get will probably be an ocellaris, a purple firefish, and one of the small wrasses. Gonna keep the fish bioload to a minimum, but gotta have a little activity.

Will be posting as things happen.......

 

[Crystal A]

Make sure your tank is cycled before adding livestock. 4 days dosent seem long enough.

 

[Phranque]

Make sure your tank is cycled before adding livestock. 4 days dosent seem long enough.

Guess I could've worded that a little bit different.... I meant adding a DEAD shrimp to start the cycle.

 

[Crystal A]

Ya that woulda helped. Dead shrimp makes more sense. Lol

 

[Phranque]

Got up this morning and the temp had stabilized at 78.3, but the salinity was 1.029... oops, overweighed the salt a bit. Pulled some out & replaced with RODI, rechecked a couple hours later and hit 1.025. This was with the refractometer calibrated to 1.000 with RODI water, but that's good enough for now. I'll pick up some 35ppt solution for comfort sake prior to livestock going it.

Since it's a 100 outside, the AC doesn't quite keep up... We normaly keep the house set at 70, but I knew it would get up to about 74 in here today, so I decided to run a heat test. Turned on the main & dawn/dusk lights at 10am, and as of now (11 hours later), the temp came up to 80, just short of 2 degrees.... not bad. Only problem I just noticed (as I was writing this) was that after the main lights were turned off, the cooling fans went off with them, so the residual heat is no longer being vented.... tank just went up another .3 degrees in the past few minutes. Looks like I will be hooking up a small supplemental cooling fan on a seperate timer to keep running for another hour or so after the mains go out.


Tomorrow is sand & rock......

 

[Crystal A]

I went and got two tiny clamps from a hardware store to keep my hood slightly propped up at all times to vent heat. I have halide lights so those buggers get real hot. Just a thought for ya.

 

[Phranque]

Good idea.... having the LED's shouldn't present as much of a problem as the HQI, but I'll keep that one in mind. By the time I start adding stock, we should (hopefully) be out of this heat.

Nice looking tank, btw....

 

[Phranque]

Sand & rock are in..... 22lbs of Real Reef. After the cycle, about another 10-12lbs of live rock will be added. All of the rocks are stacked so that there are no dead spots.

 

[Phranque]

Well, some things in life are free...... Went to the seafood counter at the store this morning and told the guy "it may sound strange, but I just need a single, uncooked shrimp". He just looked at me for a second and said "Nope, not as strange as you may think" He put one in a plastic container, wrote something on top, handed it to me, and said "enjoy your tank"......

It's in the tank, and lights out for 6-8 weeks:

 

[Ftfunnative]

That is too funny. Keep us posted.

 

[Phranque]

Day 1, and detectable ammo already!!

 

[22engine]

Nice it stared. The shrimp is doing its job.

 

[Phranque]

Day 2, and I certainly wasn't expecting THIS...... Nitrites already???

The ammo isn't quite as dark as it looks in the pic, since it's opaque, but it's already upwards of 2ppm..... Should I pull the shrimp and let the system work on what's there???

 

[Phranque]

Just to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me, I ran another 2 nitrite tests. In the pic, the tube on the right is at the end of the 5 minutes, and the tube on the left is the beginning of a test so I could get a pic of the difference.... It's not quite as discernible in the pic as it is in person, but you can definitely see it.

 

[scottayy]

Don't pull the shrimp. Let it keep decaying and releasing ammonia.

 

[Phranque]

Don't pull the shrimp. Let it keep decaying and releasing ammonia.

Done..


Day 3 wasn't much to report. Nitrites up just a bit, However.......

Day 4: Nitrites up even more & Nitrates are beginning to show!!

 

[scottayy]

Sweet. It's exciting cuz it's a long process lol. For my cycles the longest part has been nitrite -> nitrate.

 

[Phranque]

Day 5: This is cool seeing day-to day changes....

Nitrites & Nitrates on their way up, and it looks like Ammo may have lightened up a bit.

 

[Phranque]

Day 7: Nitrites & Nitrates holding pretty steady, but Ammo definitely on it's way down...

 

[Sillyfishies]

Why is your cycle so fast