JBJ Nano 28 HQI

[tizzy]

http://flickr.com/photos/37131934@N00/

4 months old, completely stock setup except for a recently-added phosphate reactor. 25 lbs live carribsea argonite, 60 lbs live rock from TB Saltwater.

[zma21]

Looking good. That's A LOT of rock.

[racksteris]

Cool Tank.

[tizzy]

I have a 180 and 260 just sitting dry until I move next year, so this is all I have for now.

[everl0ng]

your setup looks beautiful. that regal looks so tiny since it is in that 24. is that a yellow clown goby you have perched at the top? what are your plans with the 180 and 260? are they going to be separate tanks or one system? how is your anemone doing in that tank? i have a 24 with a 150w sunpod and would eventually like to keep one until it grows enough to move to a bigger tank.

[tizzy]

It is a yellow clown goby along with a 6-line, a cinni clown and the hippo tang. It may seem a bit crowded but everyone gets along with staked claims to their favorite crevace, and my levels are all in tolerance. They only have to stay cramped for 6 more months before getting a bigger home. The GBTA sadly died but I replaced it with a RBTA that's happy and on the verge of a split.

The reason for mothballing the larger tanks is I'm moving in June and don't want to set them up and tear them down so quickly.

I also have a perc clown pair in a jbj 6 gallon and they're happy in spades. Even when I move up I'll always keep the nanos as breeder, isolation or species tanks. It's just nice to have everything in one package and if you keep relatively small fish the reef seems to be in good proportion despite the small size.

[reefman13]

Hope this helps

[seapug]

nice. great tank, isn't it? I'm quite happy with mine.....

[tizzy]

thanks reefman

[tizzy]

I am happy with the tank except for the way the top and bottom edges fit together. I get a lot of salt creep since the top overhangs the bottom.

I'd recomend having the top lip fit within the bottom and to angle the inside bottom lip so it slopes down toward the water so the condensation drips back in istead of pooling and seeping out.

I also thought the pumps were underpowered so I switched them to Rio 6HFs.

[seapug]

I haven't had any salt creep issues with mine but your ideas do make sense.

[scottydo]

Originally posted by tizzy
I am happy with the tank except for the way the top and bottom edges fit together. I get a lot of salt creep since the top overhangs the bottom.

I'd recomend having the top lip fit within the bottom and to angle the inside bottom lip so it slopes down toward the water so the condensation drips back in istead of pooling and seeping out.

I also thought the pumps were underpowered so I switched them to Rio 6HFs.

Part of the salt creep problem could also be higher volume pumps. I also bought the Rio 6 HF's and if you run both at the same time, they greatly increase the level of water in the main tank because the overflow was designed with the stock pumps in mind.
I chose to run one Rio 6 HF and one stock pump but since my Rio 6 HF is pushing the water down to a chiller and back up, my flow is probably close to the stock pump. For increased flow in the tank, I use a couple Koralia Nano's.

[tizzy]

I have both the rios hooked up at the same time, but they are on the dual wavemaker, so only one is pumping at a time.

The problem doesn't seem to be the water level itself, but the condensation and pooling of water on the flat edge, then dripping out.

No biggie, there's always something to deal with...and this is relatively small.

[scottydo]

That seems strange - I run both pumps at the same time since I am using the wavemakers for the Koralia's. That makes my water level pretty high. I see a lot of condensation in my lid when I open it but usually only a few drops on the flat edges. In fact, in the last few months I have only seen a tiny little speck of salt creep once.

[jdpierce21]

Nice tank. I am really looking into upgrading my 24 JBJ to the 29 HQI. Do you really like yours? Do you find the water gets too hot?

[tizzy]

I do like my system other than the issue listed above. My water stays @ 80-82 after a full day of running, but as I said I upgraded the pumps so they probably do a better job of cooling and the internal ballast fans work very well also.

The other issue imo with these closed systems is gas exchange. The back compartments are open to the air, but 90% of the total water surface is under the hood, so I suspect it's lacking there.

[tizzy]

forgot to mention I leave the lid door open @ night to facilitate exchange, no escapees yet