New 24G JBJ Nano Owner

T

ttugrad95

Hello, I have been a member of this forum for ages. I used to own a 58 gallon salt water fish only aquarium but have been out of the hobby for many years. I have long wanted to get another tank, about 30 gallons and do a reef but was unsure of what to do. I recently became interested in the nano systems and stopped by an aquarium shop on the way home from work to browse and they had a JBJ 24 gallon used and I said, SOLD. I went ahead and got a couple pieces of rock to get me started. I welcome any hints and suggestions you guys may have. I'm including an image although there isn't much to see just yet. Right now I have it sitting on my counter top (granite) but it isn't as wide as I though it was so I need to get a stand pretty quick.
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you need about 25-30 more pounds of live rock. Get it from someone on the forums and save lots of money. People usually sell it on here for $3 a pound. Is the cube modded?

Also I am not sure if your familiar with http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/ but they have a section dedicated to all in one tanks.
 
I totally plan to purchase more live rock, I just bought a couple pieces to get me started. The total was adding up and I wasn't sure what was in the checking account, haha. I just got the tank set up not more than an hour ago. Thanks for the tip on getting live rock on here, I'm sure its probably of a little better quality as well being in a tank for a while. I also just registered over at that other site, thanks for that tip as well. As far as I know the tank is not modded at all.
 
read up on the mods. They have all kinds of little tricks to make those all in one tanks work better. SO far you are off to a good start
 
Ok, I already have a question. The guy told me the tank is complete but I have located an owners manual and none of the filter media is present (bio balls, ceramic rings? charcoal pouch). I have the sponge physical filter media and the manual says the rest of that stuff is only needed for fish tanks. Is that true? Since when is having more biological filtration bad?
 
that sone of the mods! You dont want the bio balls in there. They are good for fresh water but on our tanks we dont need that crap. The sponge filter is also something that needs ot come out unless you clean it often. Your live rock is all the bilogical filtration you'll ever need. People also make little refugiums in the back chambers. I would check and see if the tank has an upgraded pump. I know lots of guys put MJ1200's on those tanks in order to make the water flow faster.
 
I would definately mod the existing pump with a MJ 1200, and maybe even a Koralia 1 on the inside. I did it recently on my 12 gallon nano. I took out the sponges, and ceramic and replaced it with live rock rubble. But I kept the carbon, and replace it often.
 
I need to verify that the pump hasn't already been upgraded but its unlikely, I'll definitely look into the MJ1200. Thanks for the Koralia suggestion. I saw those in many other people's tank but didn't know what they were. Never had power heads that looked like that when I was in the hobby before.
I have seen many people putting live rock in the filter, will look into that maybe in the future. That would turn it into a refugium right and I would assume you would need a light in that area to go this route? I'm trying to take this somewhat slow, I know it would be simple to drop a pretty penny into this tank.
 
Ok the tank has been up and going for about 1 1/2 weeks. On DaveG's advice I purchased about 17 pounds of live rock from a guy on here, I found a stand on here as well. I was thinking with a large portion of my rock from an established tank mine may not cycle so I took a sample of water to Neptunes Cove and I was correct, all my levels were good. Time to add some livestock. The rock I bought already had a good deal of coral on it but I bought a little blue zoos and a clown to go along with the hitchhikers I already had which include up to this point (more keep showing themselves) a crab, a few weird looking worms, one white one black and a black slug looking thing. I also picked up some live rock rubble to go in the first chamber of my filter. Everything seems to be doing well, the clown is a curious little guy, he likes to chase the algae magnet and always come up to greet me.
I came home Monday to the brown algae and a tank temp of 85! Figured out that if I prop the feeding lid open it keeps the temp at a much more respectable level, today it was only about 82 after the same period of time with the lights on. The lids on these things are designed well to stop evaporation, maybe a good thing if you live in an ice box or house an octopus but not for the rest of us.
Here are some pics.

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Nice, but why is the back of the cabinet glowing red? I've upgraded to the MJ 1200 and two Koralia on the inside and have never had brown algae.
 
Picked up some more more live rock and coral this weekend. Got a leather coral, some pink birdsnest, green digitata, and frogspawn. Tank is coming along but I can't get the aquascaping like I want, I am completely artistically challenged. Anyone in the McKinney area wanna help? :)

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