Back in the game (45jbj)

[BattleReefer]

After some time away from the hobby due to moving and work, I couldn’t resist the itch any longer and decided to set up a tank once again. Not new to the hobby, have had tanks on and off for almost 15 years. I have done nano, AIO, large, medium, you name it. However an extremely busy work and home life led me towards an AIO set up that was still modifiable to support a full reef, with reduced maintenance. As such, I landed on the jbj45. Look and feel of the tank is extremely high quality. The tank itself is extremely heavy! The stand is just ok, still kinda flimsy IMO, but does look nice. I set the tank up towards the end of November, and so far so good. Below is a list of equipment/mods for the tank along with a few pics. I will have to get a FTS later, apparently I don’t even have one on my phone lol. Let me know what you guys think, questions, suggestion on equipment you have had good experience with, etc.

45jbj flat panel with stand
Removed all stock filtration
Upgraded return pumps to a single Tunze 1073.020
Apex system with recent auto feeder purchase
Radion XR15 blue
Maxspect Gyre XF330
Jebao wave maker
Autoaqua ATO
Santa Monica Drop 1.2 algae reactor
9W UV sterilizer (can’t remember brand)
Started with a Tunze 9004 skimmer, it worked ok, just wasn’t impressed with skimate production, just swapped it for the Ice Cap K1-50. Worlds apart, highly recommend this skimmer, only down side is it sticks well above the tank, but it doesn’t bother me and is extremely quiet.
Running pond matrix and carbon
Started tank with Caribsea life rock and a mix of dry and live sand.

 

[lapin]

nice

howdy and welcome

 

[doh_nutz]

Greetings! Very nice setup you have going on.

I'm debating between the Icecap K1 or CADlights PLS-50. But like you mentioned, they both protrude a great deal.

 

[BattleReefer]

Greetings! Very nice setup you have going on.

I'm debating between the Icecap K1 or CADlights PLS-50. But like you mentioned, they both protrude a great deal.

I spent a good deal of time deciding between the two, I saw a lot of people that really liked the CADlights. There were three main reasons I went with the icecap. First, there is not bubble diffuser plate on the CADlights, in my experience, the diffuser plate seems to produce better results. Second, the CADlights is adjusted by lifting the skimmer our of our further into the water, makes fine adjustments difficult where the Icecap has an adjustment knob like you get with much bigger skimmers. Lastly, the Icecap is slightly larger, I’ve always been an advocate for heavy skimming.
However, that extra size is probably the biggest con for the Icecap. With the CADlights, I could put it in the second chamber that most people want to skim out of. The Icecap is about 1/2” too big for that chamber and it barely fits in the first, but it does lol. It’s still early to tell but I’m happy with the performance so far.

 

[doh_nutz]

I spent a good deal of time deciding between the two, I saw a lot of people that really liked the CADlights. There were three main reasons I went with the icecap. First, there is not bubble diffuser plate on the CADlights, in my experience, the diffuser plate seems to produce better results. Second, the CADlights is adjusted by lifting the skimmer our of our further into the water, makes fine adjustments difficult where the Icecap has an adjustment knob like you get with much bigger skimmers. Lastly, the Icecap is slightly larger, I’ve always been an advocate for heavy skimming.
However, that extra size is probably the biggest con for the Icecap. With the CADlights, I could put it in the second chamber that most people want to skim out of. The Icecap is about 1/2” too big for that chamber and it barely fits in the first, but it does lol. It’s still early to tell but I’m happy with the performance so far.

Thank you for sharing those specifics. I'm still waiting on my IM Nuvo Lagoon 50 to arrive, so I'll have to dig into some measurements too now.