Video Update

A lilttle video update, sorry it was early in the morning so it was running under the Actinic and Moonlights

There She Blows

Well there she is, water is starting to clear out

Fill er Up!

Fill er Up! and I don't mean this high gas prices.  OK, so I got my water, the problem is that I didn't want to just add it directly into the tank.  Past experience I end up knocking my rocks over and not to mention I got sand all over.  Going through my aquarium spare parts box I found a MJ pump.. sweet! the problem is that it doesn't fit in the mouth of the container.  I got the 5 gal bucket I had my rocks in, rinsed it, got some tubing, drain the water inside... and off we go!



I started in center of the tank with a low flow over the rocks to wash away sand that fell on top when i was adding it.  Water started getting cloudy, after half ways of the tank

 I placed the hose in the back chambers. as water started to rise, the cloudinest was fading.

 

BareBottom or Sandy

There was so many different options on going with this tank.  The 1st option was going BB, but I'm a sucker to the nice sandy color.  I know that BB are quite nice it set up correctly and are easier to maintain.  Well, as you can see I ended up going with the sand.  I wanted live sand instead of dry to speed up my cycling.
My 1st choice was the Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand Oolite, I had this on my 12gl JBJ, I like the true white that stands out, my concern was that it's fine sugar grain and it would blow all over my corals and rocks. So my next choice was the Caribsea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink, now this one I love how it has the pink specs.  But like I mentioned I'm a sucker for the whitest sand.  So my third and final choice was the Caribsea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand.  All three products are great with 4 1/2 stars reviews, but the special grade was just the perfect size I needed.  Special Grade Reef Sand - Grain Size 1.0 - 2.0 mm. This coarse sand is 100aragonite and has excellent diffusive properties.
 

Road Trip

Today I drove all the way to LFS to get some water.  I like their quality water, the livestock, and not to mention their customer service :) I ended up with 6 5 gallons and tempted to get other stuff I had to refrained myself from doing it. 

Time to go back home to set it up.

Rattle and Roll....

Ok seriously... what's that noise... hahaha well as you can tell, placing the tank right on the wooden platform of the stand created all humming and rattle when I tested the tank.  So this was the perfect moment to isolate the noise nuisance.  My other hobby involves music and recording so I hate noisy, humming or any type of feedback.  Then there was that bright lighted bulb on top of my head.  I got the idea from my buddy at work.  He used a yoga mat to place it between the tank and stand.
check out it here :) http://www.remsreef.com/2011/03/yoga-mat-instead-of-foam.html
So my destiny for the end of the day was to get a yoga mat.  Since I'm in a budget I figured I tried yard sales... no luck :(  next stop was the dollar stores, I figure i can substitute them with drawer liners... awww to thin and it only comes in 12"...
So I had to suck it up and ended going to Sport Authority... let me tell you, yoga mats are not cheap. The more cushion the more expensive it is. The color I was looking for was black so it can match with the tank and stand, all black mat where like over $27-$56. No way i was going to drop some cash on some mat that i was going to just end up tearing up. To my surprise i found the $9 section, NO BLACK!... u got to be kidding me. I ended up with a dark blue/green color, I folded up 3 times, slid it in there. The next thing was to get my hobby knife and just cut around the tank to get a nice even patten.  Overall the color wasn't an eye sore since it's dark and blends it really well.  The mat is pretty thick and it absorbs the vibrations and acoustics.  So I'm pretty pleased with the results.

It's time for some Creative Designing

 

So i got my live rock and now it's time for some aquascaping.  Before I added them in the tank I had them in a 5 gal Home Depot bucket dip in water, a powerhead to give it some flow, and a heater.  So now it's the fun part.  Here's where I get to be a kid and use my imagination.

So I place them together to make several designs until i came up with this one.  I feel comfortable about this layout.  I made sure they are nice and stable so they won't collapse.  Once i add water if I start seeing movement I'll use some epoxy to keep them together.

It has Begun

     So the next thing is where am i going to place this thing. I originally had a place on the little hall that connects to all rooms but I figure somebody can easily knock it over if not careful.  So it went back to the living room.

I actually like the stand. I wanted to build one that was going to be more sturdy and have room to play with in case I needed to add a chiller or a sump, but working my butt off at the Reef-A-Palooza i ended up with a free stand.  Thank you Ben!

     The stand is not too bad, it is made of particle board so i had to use L clamps on each corner to reinforce it. The height is a little bit more than I expected but it does give a really clean setup.

It's Christmas morning...no.. not really

It's Christmas morning...no.. not really......Well I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.  This thing was huge(that's what she said), pack so tough with styro foam and wrap around with plastic.  Awww.. the smell of a new aquarium...

Choosing the Right Nozzle

Flare nozzles are awesome if you want direct flow but i'm looking into something more random. Since i want a great variety flow and my water to be more oxygenated I'll be swapping out the flare nozzles. I'm deciding between the Innovative Marine Spin Stream and the Hydor Flo Rotating Deflector.

So the  Innovative Marine has Pretty slick design, It comes with 3 adapters and it's packaged like a BOSS!

It costs $30.00 and it's rated for 52-600 GPH.

The Hydor Flo has the bullet shape and it comes with 4 adapters.  It's packaged just in a simple box it goes for $10.99.  It is rated for 80-310 GPH.

Both nozzles are pretty much plug and play straight out of the box.  Since they both come with standard size fittings it's pretty much easy as 1-2-3.  The drawback on the IM Spin Stream is the cost, like others i'm a hobbyist in a budget.

The Hydor Flo is more bulky and takes more space, kind of disappointed that it only pushes up to 310 GPH,

JBJ 28 Gallon Nano Cube LED Aquarium - 89 Watt Advanced

So getting the JBJ 28 gallon tank I thought I was going to be disappointed due to the fact that I owned a 12 gallon before.  I had to do several modifications in order to get the 12 gallon to where I wanted it to be.  To my surprise JBJ 28 has done a great job on this updated model.

This offers:

Tank Dimensions 18 x 22 x 22
Daylight - 25 x 3 Watt - 14k
Dawn/Dusk - 4 x 3 Watt - Actinic/466nm
Monn - 2 x 1 Watt - Nite-Vu/456nm
3 Stage Filter Mediabasket
Heater Column
Auxillary Column(for a protein skimmer)
The Ocean Pulse Duo-Wavemaker
4 3000 rpm Cooling Fans
Easier access to feeding/maintenance lid

So, as you can see i'm excited to get this started.  

Intro.. a little bout myself

So I figure I share my experience with all of you. I have about 6 years in freshwater experience and 11 years in saltwater. My 1st two years of saltwater I had a 55 gallon and that was back in the day when under gravel filters where cool... lol it was a PITA I tell you and gave up when I move to a different location. After several years I decided I wanted to get back into it and realized how much the hobby has changed. I notice the AIO tanks where making a hit so I decided to get a JBJ 12gl DX tank. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I knew that you could keep a small saltwater tank but it would require a lot of work. The nano did great for over 2 years, I ended up also getting a custom frag tank but unfortunately I just recently moved and had to get rid of all my livestock. So now i have to start from scratch. I recently started a new job and I am fortunate to have such great co-workers and bosses.  They have giving me the best tools and advise for this hobby and they are truly great mentors. I was fortunate to receive a new JBJ 28 gallon tank from my work. So pretty much this blog will be my experience on putting this nano together.