JBJ 28 gallon owners thread.

I forgot to comment on your question. The options are either 105W compact fluorescent (should be fine for LPS), "intermediate" LED (should be fine for LPS), and "professional" LED (should be good for SPS). No MH option from what I could see.

 

MH HQI, they run hot though and I do not think you get good spread. This is what I have.

LPS need to be acclimated to the MH well otherwise you melt them. :-(

 

Thanks for the heads up Cheryl! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) DF&S is not selling the MH HQI model. I don't think JBJ even makes it anymore (just checked, and they have been discontinued).

I did a little more research and it seems people have had success with SPS & clams using the PC's. I would think you would need the professional LED series to do the same, but that would be $400 extra over the PC's!

I am definitely leaning towards going with the standard PC model for $299 including a stand The intermediate LED costs an extra $150, and I would need to upgrade if I wanted to do SPS/clams. I should be able to easily replace the PC's with some nice SPS capable 3W LED's for around $150 if and when the time comes

I guess my mind is made up?

 

OK, I am about to pull the trigger on the 28 w/ PC lighting. However, I do want to plumb this tank into the sump of my 55. Is it possible to use a HOB overflow box, or do you need to drill?

 

My Tank

I've been meaning to post something here for the longest. I figure it's time I start contributing something. I've been perusing the reef sites ever since I started researching saltwater tanks about 3 years ago. I've learned so much from the reefing community by visiting these sites. I also read Bob Fenner's book "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" Now hopefully I can take all this knowledge I've learned and apply it with some measure of extended success. I've been doing ok so far. I do realize I have so much more to learn, but it might help someone just to read about my limited experience. Perhaps someone new doing some research for their first tank.

Ok, so about my tank. I was originally going to do a 90 gal, but my living situation changed and I had to downsize, so I bought a JBJ NC28 LED Pro. This is my first attempt at a saltwater tank. The tank has been up for about 5 months. I cycled it for a month with dry rock and some seed live rock and live sand. Only then did I slowly add livestock over the next few months starting with a decent CUC. I have also done all the upgrades.

MJ1200 return pumps
Aquamaxx HOB Skimmer (awesome skimmer, water crystal clear even with my propensity for overfeeding a little bit.)
Vortech MP10 powerhead
InTank media basket running Chemipure and Purigen.

I do weekly 5 gallon water changes. and test water weekly. Current stock list in order of introduction to the tank is:

1. Purple Firefish
2. Tail Spot Blenny
3. Six Line Wrasse
4. 2 Peppermint Shrimp

I plan on adding a clown down the road and hope it will work out with the wrasse, and that will be it on the fish. Everyone is happy and healthy and gets along. I've even seen the wrasse trying to clean the firefish. I got the wrasse because I was losing some magicians palythoas to.. believe it or not.. amphipods. I even have pictures. I got the Peppermint Shrimp for a little aptasia and some extra cleaners.

As for corals I have a bit of everything. I started with zoas and shrooms and after a couple of months a couple of soft corals, and after that a couple of LPS. I recently added a few easier sps.

Various shrooms, zoas and palythoas
2 hitchiking tree corals
Finger leather coral
Green Star Polyps
Blue Sympodium Polyps
Pulsating Xenia
Torch Coral
Aussie Duncan
Leptastrea
Green Birdsnest
Montipora confusa
2 Pocillopora Damicornis

That's it. So far everything has been awesome. Minimal losses of one LPS and a couple of escaped free floating mushrooms. Heck they may still be in the cave somewhere! The corals are all doing good although I wouldn't mind faster growth. All there is to do now is maintain it and keep my hands out of the darn thing! I think that's my impatience. This whole experience has been a lesson in patience. Here is a a sequence of pictures. Thanks for taking a look and any comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here is a couple more pics of the side views. Plus there are two pictures of the amphipods eating the palythoas.

 

One of the very nicest JBJ I have seen.

The back is awesome.

Hope the Wrasse works out long term for you, they can be little buggers in smaller tanks.

Beautiful stuff you have in there.

If the Amphipods get too bad and you can catch the shrimp you might want to think about Interceptor.

 

Thanks Corailline. For some reason those pods only seemed to like those magicians palys. They never bothered any other zoas/palys. Unfortunately they decimated them before the wrasse was able to hunt them all down. I'm pretty sure they are under control now. I have not seen any larger pods in the last week or so. The wrasse seems to have handled his business I'm just really hoping that I do well with the sps and that the wrasse stays mellow. There are tons of hiding places in there. The whole middle is one big cave with many tunnels and swim throughs. The blenny likes to hang out with the wrasse at times and he doesn't seem to mind the company. The firefish has its one little cave that its had since the beginning, and the blenny has multiple areas he likes, so I'm hoping for the best. I've even seen the firefish let the wrasse attempt to clean it a couple of times. Pretty cool.

 

Officially the newest member to the JBJ 28 club I did get a CF-Quad w/ stand from DF&S for $299. The light came broken, but they immediately shipped out a new one. It has been up and running for a month now, and will do a separate build thread shortly. Here is a sneak peak of its first inhabitant (besides some snails and Zoa's):

 

Next to clowns my all time favorite fish.

Personality plus 10.