28 gallon nano cube

[averagejoe]

so after my 46 gallon bow reef nearly set my house on fire faulty skimmer killed all my fish and coral and set part of the wall on fire i took it apart and walked away. but i have decided to go again. this time going with a nano. i just purchased the jbj 28 gallon nano cube cf quad arrives monday. adding a tunze nano skimmer to it and once the tank cycles with the live rock and live sand giong to change the 3 stage filtration into a refugium. any ideas

[averagejoe]

so my lighting is a total of 105w cf quad which comes out about 3.75w per gallon. i believe is a nice amount of light for this nano. also thinking about using a chiller. i have a brand new one from my 125 gallon that i never used. it is 1/10 rated up to 130 gallons. dont want to buy a smaller one u think this chiller will be fine or to big. thinking about keeping tank around 76 or 77. any help would be great

[CarmieJo]

Good luck with the new tank. I'd cycle it without the filtration which usually includes some sort of aerobic media and that you will just have to remove if you want to keep nitrates low.

The watts per gallon formula is bandied about a lot but is not really useful. The really useful measure is how much PAR gets to the corals. Anyhow, those A-I-O tanks generally have enough light to keep most corals.

I think a 1/10 chiller would have been way too small for a 125 but it should be fine for the 28. You will want to run it on a controller to avoid overcooling the tank. In my opinion you want to be around 78.

[averagejoe]

the A-I-O comes with a sponge, carbon, and rings they call it three stage filteration. so dont use it at all to cycle the tank. after the tank cycles i was going to put micro algea in the first two stage and live rock in the third. dont know if i should use the sponge. was also going to put a light on for the micro algea and have that light come on when the aquarium light goes off. the chiller is jbj and it is all digital also has a plug for a heater what kind of controller would i need. also was just going to use one of the pumps from the tank for the chiller. the aquarium is also from jbj.

[averagejoe]

getting ready for my tank to arrive today so i decide to take the chiller out of the basement. to my surprise it is a 1/4 current- usa chiller rated for 240 gallons. now i dont know if i should use it cause it being so big. but really dont want to buy a new one. this one is brand new and has never been taken out of the box. editing my post because i realize chiller way to big n will have to buy i new one

[averagejoe]

so i put the stand together and place the aquarium on top. then came the water. going to order my live rock and live sand. been looking around and found a place called tampabaysaltwater.com. people have been raving about it. does anyone know of another place i can look at. also i have both pumps going at the same time for more water flow instead of using the wave maker let me know what u guys think of this. havent heard to much from people

[CarmieJo]

Yeah, I think that a 1/4 hp chiller would be way too much! But, you will have a few months until you need it. Maybe your LFS would trade it out for you.

I don't use the sponges, they are a pain to keep clean. I like your idea of turning the one compartment into a fuge and light it on a reverse photoperiod.

[averagejoe]

so i am going to order my liverock and live sand today. was going to order 40lbs of rock and 20lbs of sand. so does that sound good enough or to much or to little.

[CarmieJo]

How deep do you want the sand to be? I think a NC28 is about 18x20 so 20# of sand will give you about 1.5" of sand. 40# of rock should be about right.

[Mostly Rock]

I made the mistake of not going with a DSB and now I'm paying for it. I suggest starting with a 6" DSB, it'll compact over time. I also say use straight aragonite sand, don't pay for caribsea live sand. Once you have a zero in Ammonia and Nitrites, go ahead and add a cup of seeded live sand from an existing, mature tank, It'll all of your base sand into a high quality sand bed. Carmie is a much better resource than me though, if I were you, I'd do whatever she says.

[CarmieJo]

I agree no need to pay a premium price for live sand in a bag. Your LR will seed your sand and it will quickly become live. The cup of sand will add micro critters that may increase the diversity of your tank.

[averagejoe]

so my tunze nano skimmer came today and i realized it goes in the same compartment as the 3 stage filter basket. so i think i might go with a hang on refugium.

[averagejoe]

so still debating on getting a hang of refugium or a larger one. the tunze nano skimmer is so much more important then the sponge, carbon n rings which i wasnt going to use away. by the way i had to saw off the magnet that was attached to the skimmer to get it to fit. also can someone let me know about a good ro/di unit i can purchase

[Mostly Rock]

Amphibious knows a lot about good RO/DI units, I'd bug him about it but I bug him about everything

[Amphibious]

All bugging is well tolerated by this old man. You teach me so much.

Couple of things about RO/DI units. Even though you have a 28 gallon system you will want...

1. A 75 or 150 gpd (gallon per day) unit. The reason being, the cost between a 50, 75 and a 150 gpd is negligible. You will thank me later on for my wisdom. We do not recommend the 100 gpd membrane because it has a lower rejection rate (96% as opposed to 98%) than the 50, 75 and 150 units. The higher the rejection rate the better the end product, the 0 TDS water you require for your reef.

2. There’s no need to pay more than about $150 plus shipping. Don’t cheap out this purchase AND don’t pay much more than the $150. All RO/DI unit parts are made by the same manufacturer and companies assemble the parts, slap their label on them and price them as high as 3 or 4 hundred dollars, yes as much as $400 for the same unit you are going to buy for about $150 plus shipping.

3. You will want a 5 stage unit. Better pre-filtering = longer life of the membrane.

4. You will want to get a TDS meter with the unit.

5. Buy the unit from a company with a good reputation that will help you in time of need and is easily available to you.

With that said, we use the 5 stage unit from Air Water and Ice with the 150 gpd membrane in our aquaculture facility with complete satisfaction. The same unit comes with a 75 gpd membrane which I recommend for the average reefer. It’s cost is a little lower than the 150 gpd unit. Everything is the same with the exception of the membrane and the price.

Check out the Typhoon 5 Stage here - 5 Stage RO/DI Unit

Thanks,

Dick

[averagejoe]

so finally i got the tunze skimmer to work. after email after email it took 5 days to get it right. instructions read like stereo instructions

[CarmieJo]

LOL, someone in China probably wrote them.

[averagejoe]

so i was testing my water and looking at my live rock i happened to notice these tiny what i believe are feather dusters on my rock. they are extending out of the rock opening up then going back into the rock. does this sound like feather dusters to anybody. just incase u where wondering got my aquacultered live rock from tambabaysaltwater. rock looks amazing

[CarmieJo]

Feather dusters are common hitchhikers but they usually build a little tube to live in.

[averagejoe]

so i cant take my tunze skimmer anymore. the bottom keeps falling off and pump comes out. it is made of cheap plastic crap. might be one of the worst things i have ever brought. going to look at different skimmers. pictures coming soon

[Mostly Rock]

I'd ask Gobby about the Tunze skimmer... I think that's the one he uses. He has the same tank as you, so he could probably help you work out some of the bugs.

[averagejoe]

so my second shipment from tampabaysaltwater came today and i can not tell you the look on my face when i opened the boxs and saw all the extra's. there where 3 plants, 3 sponges, 2 gorgonians, and the list goes on and on. also the live rock had ton of life on it. there are even a couple of corals on the rock. will post a couple of pictures just need some info on how to do that.

[Amphibious]

To post pictures, open a free account at photobucket.com, upload your pic there. Once they are uploaded, copy the (img)*(/img) code and paste that in your message on here and the picture will magically appear.

[averagejoe]

thank you amphibious will post soon. i also used the acclimate x large for my critters to get use to my water. it is so simple to use and works like a charm. set it up left it for a hour did a couple of things around the house came back and released criiters into the tank.

[averagejoe]

so here are some photo's that came with my second shipment from tampabaysaltwater