Tremelle's Nano Slice of the Sea

T

Tremelle

Membership Expired
I recently purchased a slightly used JBJ 28 gallon HQI Nanocube. It will be my first foray into the nanocube world of marine aquaria. I have been in the marine aquarium hobby for over 12 years now. I am the proud caretaker of a 210 gallon reef tank. So I look forward to keeping livestock in my nanocube that would otherwise be overlooked in my larger tank.

The nano cube I purchased had already been running for months by it's previous owner. When I arrived to pick the tank up, I got a chance to view the owner's 90 gallon reef. After viewing it I felt pretty good about the purchase knowing I would not have to do much to get it up and running successfully. The whole break down, move and set back up process only took 2 hours. I got the tank, water, live sand and live rock with the purchase. Once set up at my home I tested the water to find it as almost a virtual match to my current tank. So I just did a 5 gallon water change and turned everything on.

The tank has a 150 watt HQI 20k bulb installed. After having the tank running for 1 and a half hours the temp was up to 82 degrees. That without a doubt was too high for my liking. So I installed a 4 inch fan at the rear blowing across the water entering from the overflow. That brought my water temp down to 79.3 degrees. Now I do not need to consider a chiller, which I do not run on my larger tank either. I keep my room temp at 75 degrees year round.

I will be adding a Tunze 9002 skimmer in the next couple days. I am picking up a used one locally this evening.

Ok, enough of the tank talk, on to the pics. You will see a digital thermometer hanging in the pics. It will not be in that position in future pics.
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Here is a pic of how I have the little 4" fan mounted right now.
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I have decided against using the Tunze 9002 skimmer since it would have to be mounted in the overflow chamber replacing the media basket. The primary reason I declined to buy the skimmer was due to my cooling method for the tank. I have the 4" fan blowing over the water as it enters the overflow compartment. With the skimmer located there I would loose the ability to have the fan blowing across the overflow compartment.
 
I added a Reef Keeper Lite controller to handle the control duties of the thank. It did take some time to get it programmed properly. The Digital Aquatics website made the programing sound overly simple, which is turned out not to be.

I also added two Tunze Nano Stream 6015s for flow. I may end up taking one out since the flows appears to be too strong right now. I may play with the powerhead placement to see if I can redirect some of the flow.

And then there was the box from LiveAquaria that arrived today. I got in two Helfrichi's Firefish, a Yellow Priolepis Goby, a Yasha White Ray Shrimp Goby and a Tiger Snapping Shrimp. They have made it through the acclimation process and are now in the tank with the lights out. I will try to get pics of the new inhabitants tomorrow once the lights come on.

The previous owner only ran a sponge, carbon and some live rock rubble in the media basket. I replaced the sponge with filter floss but added Purigen and Chemi-Pure Elite in the second and third compartments.
 
Well today I bought a slightly used AI Sol Blue led fixture for my nano. I wanted to switch to leds to help keep the heat down. I was trying to think of a solution for mounting the fixture and keep a lid on the tank. I had thought of creating an acrylic top and mount for the fixture. I then had the idea of using the hood I already have and just remove the hqi fixture. So that is what I did. The hood retains the stock cooling fans. As of right now they are not wired up but will be in the near future. I used 2 brackets to support the light fixture inside the canopy. Here are the results of my new nano cube with AI Sol fixture.

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About a week ago I purchased a Tunze Aquawind knock-off. It was only $17 on Amazon. It fits perfectly on the back of the tank. I cut a hole in the back of the canopy to allow it to blow air inside as needed. I now need to get some of the black mesh to close off the opening so no fish can possibly jump trough or into the fan. Here are a couple pics.

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Looks good, how much cooler is the tank with LEDs vs halides.
 
With the halide the tank temp would rise from 78.5 to 79.2 with the 4" fan blowing across the water in the overflow and filter section of the tank. The hqi would be on from 11 am until 8:30 pm. The fan would run from 11:15 am until 9:00 pm, all controlled via the Reek Keeper Lite. I was having to add top off water at about a half gallon a day.

I have only had the led installed one day. The temp rose from 78.5 to 78.8 and the fan only came on for about 5 minutes to lower the temp back to 78.7.

One of the reasons I also switched to led was for the ability to ramp the light up and down. One of my Helfrichi firefish trys to jump every night when the hqi would turn off. I think the sudden darkness scared it each evening. So I definitely have to keep a canopy on the tank.
 
can you send me the link to the 'knock off' aquawind?

subscribed to this thread, also just got me a hqi nano cube... coincidetally the previous owner also has a 90 g i checked out when i picked up the nano cube haha
 
@Tremelle wrote:
One of the reasons I also switched to led was for the ability to ramp the light up and down. One of my Helfrichi firefish trys to jump every night when the hqi would turn off. I think the sudden darkness scared it each evening. So I definitely have to keep a canopy on the tank. said:
Please keep us updated on how it reacts, that will will be great information to know.
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