JBJ nanocube 24 questions...

[Brian32FSU]

Greetings all...I've had my 24 gal nanocube up and running for a few months now and i have a few questions about the setup. First I'll give the details of what's in there now.

24 gal JBJ Nanocube dx
stock pump
1 stock 50/50 bulb, 1 hamilton dual actinic 03 bulb
2 blue current usa moonlights
30lbs live sand
30lbs live rock
purple firefish
true percula clownfish
red and blue leg hermits
2 giant mexican turbo snails
Green BTA
orange ricordia
green and blue zoos
red and green open brain
favia brain
orange mushrooms
green blastos
torch coral

1) is there a better magnetic glass cleaner for this setup to get around the curves in the glass than a magfloat?

2) is an upgrade to the stock return pump worthwhile? If so, what size pump is good to use?

3) i've heard mixed reviews on the nano fisson skimmer and the uv sterilizer sold by nanotuners, has anyone tried either with success or failure?

4) has anyone worked out a way to put the lights on a timer? i added a set of current usa blue led moonlights, but would like to make use of the moonlights already there if possible.

5) any other suggestions that someone with more experience can offer?

[All Delight]

1. No, not that I know of. I also use the magfloat.

2. I've heard yes and no. Personally I didn't and things are pretty good for me. Mostly all my corals are zoos or rics. So for the rics I don't want too much circulation. But I hear people upgrade to a Rio 800.

3. I've heard about 80% bad stories of the fission skimmer. 20% of the good were from the LFS's trying to sell them to me. I hear they make too many micro bubbles in your tank. Thats enough for me to stay away.

4. I have mine on a timer. But with the stock ballast I don't think its possible. You have to go this route. ( http://nanotuners.nanocustoms.com/nanotuners/product_info.php?products_id=75 )

5. Sounds like your doing good with what you have!

[Brian32FSU]

How difficult is the moonlight fix to install?

[dacoolguychris]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6982022#post6982022 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Brian32FSU
How difficult is the moonlight fix to install?
it is very easy to install.. just have to remove the plastic cover over the pc lights and clip in the moonlight fix.. all that you need is a screw driver...
I even had nanotuners rig me up an extra 2 moonlights to the fix.. now i am running 4 moonlights on a separate cord from the pc lights.. the switch on the top still work for them..

-Chris

[Brian32FSU]

Thanks Chris.

is anyone running the uv sterilizer from nanotuners?

[waterman78]

Hey Brian, I remember having that problem with the Mag-Float clearing out the algae from the corners of my Nano Cube. However, after months and months of stressing out, I discovered the Algae Scrub Pad by Pentair Aquatics. It's a 3 inch pad made for glass aquariums. It works great on getting the algae out of the corners of the Nano Cube.

In regards to the protein skimmer issue...I'm now looking into removing the hood; installing a metal halide fixture to fit my Nano Cube and install a hang-on protein skimmer. The Fission Skimmer isn't made for every reef application...IMO (after 2 months of testing) depending on your livestock and maintainence schedule, this skimmer could be the next best thing for JBJ's Nano Cube. However, some people like myself are not truly satisfied with it. I find myself checking and adjusting it more than I thought it needed. A simple assembly, but it's a hassle on a 24gallon. Maybe it is a true skimmer for 12 gallons and smaller. I never mentioned this but I am running a 24 gallon with 9 fish.

1 - Common Clownfish
1 - Sixline Wrasse
1 - Mandrarin Goby
1 - Raniford's Goby
1 - Watchman Goby w/Pistol Shrimp
1 - Twinspot Goby
1 - Firefish
2- Blue Green Chromis

Water Parameters are fine: 5 - 10 gallon water change every wk.

pH: 8.2
Ca: 475
dKH: 9
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0

Good luck and I hope my info helped out.

[Brian32FSU]

Thanks for the info, i'm planning on keeping my bioload pretty light, maybe one or two more fish at most, and a coral banded shrimp. I'd really like to be able to do some protein skimming so I can relax on my water change schedule a bit. i'm doing 5-7 gals a week currently. The skimmer isn't that expensive, so i might just pick one up and try it out for myself, and the same for the uv sterilizer. I'll let you know....

[waterman78]

After I submitted my post, I immediately removed the skimmer from the tank and cleaned it. I also added a new bubble reducing foam ring and this morning I was surprised to see a nice amount of froth. (Never really happened until today). Thanks for your post, this helped me appreciate my skimmer all over again. I was ready to toss it out, but I gave it another try...

[Brian32FSU]

Glad to hear it, that gives me a little more confidence to buy one myself.

[skripo]

1) There is a really neat magnetic cleaner called the Nimble Nano. They are getting rave reviews and I just ordered one:

http://www.nimblenano.com/default.htm

2) There is a Maxijet 1200 but it is 20 watts so it transfers a lot of heat. You can try the MJ 900. It is slightly less flow than the stock one but it is only 13 watts.

3) I purchased 2 and never installed them because of the 30 page 54K view thread I read. People never get this to work for more than 2 weeks max. Then it falls off.

4) Check my articles, especially the upcoming one. I would recommend the Insteaon. It is cheap, flexible, and works perfectly. Use appliance modules to avoid any issues.

5) Get a surface skimmer lfrom or do the casette mod.

[Brian32FSU]

thanks for all the great info i'll look into that right away..

[Brian32FSU]

I placed an order with nanotuners for the nano fission skimmer, the uv sterilizer, the nvm moonlight fix, and for the JBJ nanocube magnetic cleaner. I should have everything by thrusday and installed friday. I'll post my results...

[Brian32FSU]

Well, I have everything installed and I'm really happy with the moonlight fix and uv sterlizer, both work and were very easy to install. The JBJ magnetic cleaner doesnt seem strong enough to do a good job, and i'm still trying to get the fission skimmer adjusted....

[Spiffyguy]

How easy was it to put hte NVM moolight fix in? I was thinking about buy it but there is no instructions. Also thinking about buy the dual ballast to gain control of the fans and lights seperatly.

[Brian32FSU]

it is really easy to install and it does come with instructions. it might have taken me 20 minutes to do, and its pretty much plug and play. the only thing different i had to do was drill a 1/2" hole to run the dc wire out of the back of the hood. I wanted to do the two ballasts as well so i can run my 03 actinics seperate from my 50/50 and be able to do a dawn/daylight/dusk light cycle.

[Spiffyguy]

yeah that is what I was thinking and also gain control of the fans too so I can run them at night and keep the heat from creeping up too much.

[Brian32FSU]

I was thinking about taking out the stock fans and upgrading to fans that have their own power source...

[Spiffyguy]

yeah i think they are standard 60mm fans. I haven't measured them. Mine are really loud when they first start up but then taper off. With the dual ballast I think they are on their own power supply but I am not sure. Would be neat to get a set of fans that were variable speed so you could ramp them up with a controler based on heat.

[Brian32FSU]

i've been meaning to email the company about all that...if you try it out, let me know how it goes...

[Spiffyguy]

I dropped an email to them about 3 months ago about the NVM moonlight fix but didn't hear back from them. I will probably buy the moonlihgt fix once I get my taxes. I have had the tank up a year and no moonlights. think it is about time lol. you got any pics of your tank?

[Brian32FSU]

Just snapped these tonight...

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c82/Brian32FSU/mini-100_0846.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c82/Brian32FSU/mini-100_0845.jpg

[Spiffyguy]

nice looking. keep us updated.

[Brian32FSU]

Here are some of this weeks additions to the tank

Green Candycane
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c82/Brian32FSU/42730f7c.jpg

multicolored yuma
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c82/Brian32FSU/ac1a75a6.jpg

Green Ricordia
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c82/Brian32FSU/cdea96c7.jpg

Small Green Blastos
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c82/Brian32FSU/af2315e3.jpg

[Spiffyguy]

God stuff. Is that a torch? I was thinking of expanding my corals and maybe getting one. Right now I just have softies, Xenia, shrooms and some yellow polyps. THat blasto looks cool.

[Brian32FSU]

Yep, that's a torch, it's been doing really well in the tank too

[Im Lon 2]

have you gotton the little skimmer yet? If so any pic's?

Tank looks great by the way.

[Spiffyguy]

I didn't have too much luck with my fission skimmer. The air line was plugged form the get go and I could never get good skimmate. Hope you have better luck.

[raastamon]

i also have a jbj 24gnc and I currently have the fission skimmer. For the first two weeks I had difficulty arranging it so that it did not cause all the microbubbles that many have experienced with it. I found the location that worked well with me is to put the skimmer in the 1st chamber (far away from the return pump). I dont think it matters which position you put it. I also lifted the filter sponge from the 2nd chamber so that the flow goes through the sponge directly to the 3rd chamber. It works pretty well and do not have any microbubbles anymore.

good luck!!!

[Brian32FSU]

Well the Fission skimmer has come and gone, I found it too difficult to maintain. I never really got any dark foamy skimmate like I would out of the skimmers on my other tanks in the past. I heard a rumor that tunze has some kind of nano skimmer out, that I'll be looking in to. Been adding lots of corals and a few new fish since my last post, and I've been thinking about taking the tank topless and adding some kind of MH setup...

[Spiffyguy]

I built a skimmer for my 24. works pretty well so far and was fairly easy to make.

here is thread with some info. may help you out.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=853009

Also see the thread at nano-reef.com which I linked in the thread. was helpfull for me.

[SpongeRobert]

I use an aqua c remora, but I also made a custom canopy. As far as water flow, I use 2 of the Ehiem compact 1000 pumps each one is rated at 265 gal per hr and the wattage is a lot less than the maxi jet 1200. I'll look tomorrow on the exact wattage, but I beleive it is 12 watts.

[Brian32FSU]

I had changed the return pump to a MJ 1200 and bought a y adapter with 2 outlets, but I had to switch back to the stock pump. The MJ heated the tank to over 84 degrees...