Jasonanatal's JBJ 28 gallon Nano Cube HQI Nano Reef Aquarium.

[Jasonanatal]

New LPS Coral Frag Addition.

On Saturday, December 29, 2007 I purchased a Coral Frag of Acanthastrea Lordhowensis from NaCl-H20 of the Manhattan Reefs Forum. It was dripped acclimated over a period of 2 hours and allowed 1 week before being photographed. It is my first every LPS Coral from Australia and I have been providing it with extra attention and some tender loving care since it was the smallest piece left from the fragging of the colony.



Photograph - Completed mounting the Coral Specimen: Acanthastrea Lordhowensis to a Boston AquaFarms Reef Disc. Photograph taken Saturday December 22, 2007.


Photograph - Coral Specimen: Acanthastrea Lordhowensis after a little over one week in my Nano Reef Aquarium.

Coral Family: Mussidea
Coral Genus: Acanthastrea
Common Name: Acanthastrea Lordhowensis
Common Morphologies: Encrusting
Origin: Pacific Ocean
Acquired: Saturday, December 22, 2007
Lighting Requirements: Moderate to high. Metal Halide Lighting is suggested. These are Shallow Reef Corals so their tolerance to light will vary.
Flow Requirements: Moderate flow. Australian Acans do best under medium flow. Medium flow is considered flow that will not disturb the coral or cause the flesh to peel off.
Availability: Low.
Growth: Growth rate increases when feeding, light and flow requirements are met. If you allow this coral to be exclusively photosynthetic then growth will be slower.
Difficulty: Moderate.

[Phurst]

Very nice acan!

[Jasonanatal]

Very nice acan!

Phurst, thank you for the compliments.

[Phurst]

Will it be staying on the sand bed? I'm picking up my HQI fixture today and I'm starting to think about how I'm going to have to rearrange some of the stuff in the tank.

[Jasonanatal]

Will it be staying on the sand bed? I'm picking up my HQI fixture today and I'm starting to think about how I'm going to have to rearrange some of the stuff in the tank.

Phurst, currently it will remain on the sandbed until it starts encrusting and reaching the end of the Boston AquaFarms Reef Disc. After that I will mount the Reef Disc on a piece of Live Rock to allow it to grow accordingly.

[V]

So this is your mussid ozzy eddition, nice bud.
Some can fetch a nice price tag along with it though, i definately wouldn't call them rare, but export can add to the weight quite easy. Not bad for a rock hugger lol


Food for thought from closer to home... check the hunger factor... Link me

[V]

Middle Beach, Lord Howe



Kims Look-out


Mount Lidgbird is on the left, Mount Gower on the right.


Totally controlled island thats mostly protected. & That includes people.

[Jasonanatal]

So this is your mussid ozzy eddition, nice bud.
Some can fetch a nice price tag along with it though, i definately wouldn't call them rare, but export can add to the weight quite easy. Not bad for a rock hugger lol

Food for thought from closer to home... check the hunger factor... Link me

Brother V, well that's easy for you not to consider them rare since you live in Australia. Cheater! LOL "Just Kidding" When are you shipping me some then. LOL

[R. Deschain]

V,

Nice to look at those pictures since it's 15 degrees F here today in Ohio.

Jason

Nice acan. I've had an acan frag on a peg for a couple of months that hasn't grown much. Still looks healthy though.

[rroselavy]

Nice acan. I've had an acan frag on a peg for a couple of months that hasn't grown much. Still looks healthy though.

Raises a good question. How fast can Acans be expected to grow when thriving?

Nice specimen. They are definitely on my list...

[V]

Oie, good question, I'll leave the average growth rate for someone else, cause honestly without locking down a species i couldn't tell you.
There's plenty in the family & especially when your talking an enclosed environment a great many factors matter, some will require great light & love being high, some will love great light & happy to be shaded, others prefer low light & high flow, others prefer high light with low flow, plus couple that with the type & regularity in which you gross feed them & the space in which they have to colonize will dictate your question, or someone can tell you about 3inchs a year..lol

[Jasonanatal]

V,

Nice to look at those pictures since it's 15 degrees F here today in Ohio.

Jason

Nice acan. I've had an acan frag on a peg for a couple of months that hasn't grown much. Still looks healthy though.

Thank you for the compliments on the Acan. I have no previous experience with them so unfortunately this is a learning experience for me and could not provide you much information on speeding up their growth.

[Jasonanatal]

Raises a good question. How fast can Acans be expected to grow when thriving?

Nice specimen. They are definitely on my list...

roselavy, well I will be taking weekly photographs so we can document their growth visually and I'm sure that we can come to some sort of conclusion but as Brother V stated it honestly is dependant on the particular species and environment.

[Small Fry]

with my acan colony, that i had for about 6 months, i experienced growth of about 1 polyp (or head) every two months, relatively slow compared to most corals. Of course, mine died, so lets not measure by what i say XD

[thesaent14]

my god this nano tank have everything but living in NY where is the heater

[Jasonanatal]

my god this nano tank have everything but living in NY where is the heater

Thesaent14, their is a 150 watt Marineland Visi-therm Stealth Heater installed within the Middle Right Baffle within the Rear Chamber of the Nano Reef Aquarium. This Baffle and the Middle Left Baffle Both maintain a constant water level which was designed specifically for the placement of a Heater or two in my case for redundancy and reduced workload. (The second Heater will be ordered on Tuesday January 15, 2008). I will take more photographs to fully document when my replacement JBJ 28 gallon Nano Cube HQI SPS Reef Aquarium arrives.

[Jasonanatal]

Out with the Old In with In with the New: Elos & LaMotte Test Kits.

In my quest to achieve a striving Nano Reef Aquarium my philosophy mainly revolves around among the belief that you get back what you put into it. Now there is much debate on the accuracy of more expensive Liquid Test Kits in comparison to the less expensive and more accessible brands and this post does not provide any type of scientific information to back my particular opinion on why I choose these companies/test kits over their less expensive competitors. Both companies caught my eye since do to their use in very large and captivating Aquariums of other members of various online communities as well as the companies guidelines as to the preperation, storage and eventually sale of these quality items. Both Elos and LaMotte take pride and care in extensively documentating the shelf life and batch numbers for each test kit as my previous test kit Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Incoporated did none of that. And if a company can take the time to document even the most miniscul item then they definitely have my attention. (My wife being Italian and subecting my to the quality foods, drinks and culture of Italians had nothing to do with me selecting the Elos Liquid Test Kits).



Photograph - My new Elos Expert Line Liquid Test Kit for Phosphate (PO4) and pH. Photograph taken Friday, January 04, 2008.


Photograph - My new LaMotte Liquid Test Kits for Alkalinity (dKH) and Calcium (CA). Photograph taken Friday, January 04, 2008.

[rroselavy]

[B][U]
Photograph - My new LaMotte Liquid Test Kits for Alkalinity (dKH) and Calcium (CA). Photograph taken Friday, January 04, 2008.

LOL! I just picked up the ELOS dKH and Ca kits!

The only odd aspect of both ELOS kits that took me totally off guard is the lack of resolution of the tests. Both kits are titration methods. The Alk is 1 drop = 1 dKH, and the Ca test is 1 drop = 25 ppm. My first test for Alk was 8 drops (8 dKH) and Ca was 15 drops (375 ppm).

It was not until I re-read the Ca instructions that I realized that this was as precise as the dropper allows. The ELOS kit requires that you buy a "Reagent D" if you want more precision. This is really odd since the test seems almost identical to the Salifert test, down to the color of the reagents and solutions. The only difference is that the Salifert kit uses a syringe with a precision tip for much smaller drops. I do not see why the ELOS kit cannot do the same. If I am raising my Ca gradually with 2 part or Kalkwasser, I'd like to see the results more clearly to make sure my efforts are making a difference. The ELOS kit is almost half the number of tests than Salifert. For that, I would expect to have reagent D (or a precision tip) already in the box.

With that said, the glass vial is a nice touch, the test is easy to perform, and the NIST quality checks offer peace of mind.

I suppose the Alk kit is precise enough, but I was expecting precision to the nearest tenth of a dKH.

Please let me know how you like the Lamotte tests. I am very curious. I also appreciate those plastic cases they come with.

[V]

the bigger the hole, the more you use.....the more you use the quicker you'll use up the product.......the quicker you use up the product the sooner you have to buy..........the sooner you buy, the richer i get..umm, the richer whom ever own the company will get

[rroselavy]

The only odd aspect of both ELOS kits that took me totally off guard is the lack of resolution of the tests. Both kits are titration methods. The Alk is 1 drop = 1 dKH, and the Ca test is 1 drop = 25 ppm. My first test for Alk was 8 drops (8 dKH) and Ca was 15 drops (375 ppm).

I actually heard from the Elos rep today, who kindly explained in detail that there are many hidden aspects of Elos kits that are well worth the price. Apart from the NIST reagent checks, Elos is obsessed about maintaining the regents at controlled temperatures almost all the way to the customer. Precautions were made to insure that MD is keeping the reagents stored in a controlled manner. Other efforts, such as using safest reagents possible (which is usually more expensive), proper child-proof safety caps for the more toxic reagents, color charts re-calibrated every 6 months, and raised labeling for the visually impaired make the Elos kits stand out. He also made it clear that Elos will consider ways to improve upon these kits (including sensitivity) wherever possible and especially as increased sales afford.

There seemed to be real commitment there, and I appreciate that.

Jason- Please let me know how the Elos PO4 kit works for you. I hear it is a good one!

[Jasonanatal]

I'm Back in Business

Hello everyone, this is going to be a very short post but with more to come this evening. I have decided that my 28 gallon JBJ Nano Cube HQU Reef Aquarium will be put back into full effect with no expense spared. So here is a teaser photograph for your enjoyment. I hope everyone like.


Photograph - 28 gallon JBJ Nano Cube HQI Reef Aquarium Teaser.

[Jasonanatal]

I'm Back in Business

Here a daylight photograph.


Photograph - 28 gallon JBJ Nano Cube HQI Reef Aquarium Teaser.

[CarmieJo]

New light! Why did you go away from the stock light?

[Jasonanatal]

New light! Why did you go away from the stock light?

CarmieJo, At first I noticed that the top 1/4 of the Aquarium became uninhabital by even high lighting requirement SPS Corals. Also the closed lid design of the Aquarium definitely increased the temperature of the water by not allowing normal evaporation to occur. There is more but I will post shortly concerning it.

[Jasonanatal]

Lighting System Redesign

Nano Aquariums are just absolutely great and as being the new fade in the world of Reef Keeping their are a few design flaws that I feel are apart of any new product. My 28 gallon JBJ Nano Cube HQI was the first Nano Aquarium to my knowledge to introduce Metal Halide Lighting as a stock component in their package giving Reef Aquarist the ability to maintain High Lighting Corals right out of the box. However, some of the drawbacks to this all-in-one design include increased Aquarium water temperature due to the decreased ability to normally evaporate water and the creation of what I refer to as
the "dead zone". The "dead zone is an area created in the upper 1/4 region of the Aquarium in which even high lighting Corals will not survive due to the lighting intensity being too high.

I decided to incorporate a redesign in my Aquarium to provide the most suitable environment for my inhabitants. I decided that I should completely remove the stock lid/integrated lighting system and go with a Pendent Style Reflector. This will create an open design that would allow normal evaporation to occur which results in natural reduction of heat of the Aquariumw water.



Photograph - Google Sketchup Design of Aquarium Lighting.


For the choice of the reflector I decided to go with the Lumenarc III Stealth Mini Double Ended Reflector which has a 14.5 Inch length x 14.5 Inch depth footprint which provides more then adequate lighting. It is able to house up a 150 watt, 250 watt and 400 watt Double Ended HQI Bulb all by just adjusting the mounting brackets within the reflector. The reflector is currently suspended 11.5 inches above the surface of the Aquarium water by Yo-Yo Hangers which provide me the ability to adjust the vertical height of the reflector by utilizing its pulley system.




Photograph - Lumenarc III Stealth Mini Double Ended HQI Pendent Style Reflector.




Photograph - Yo-Yo Hanger Pulley System.