Jbj 45 rimless

[Jay Z]

Hello. I am new to this site and joined because of all the info and friendly people on here. Almost like a family.

I will be doing a long multi post on my set up, upgrades, and modification with reasons for what I did and what I could have done differently to make life easier.

Might help with ideas for others or help from preventing mistakes.

 

[reef lover]

Sounds cool!

 

[Jay Z]

B

Sounds cool!

Lol. Believe me. My moments of genius rival my moments of stupidity.

 

[SPR1968]

Sounds great and looking forward to the pictures (hint! Lol)

Welcome to R2R it’s great to have you with us!

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R

 

[NY_Caveman]

Cannot wait to see this. Do you have the Flat Panel tank or the one with the rounded edges?

 

[Jay Z]

Cannot wait to see this. Do you have the Flat Panel tank or the one with the rounded edges?

I happened to find a round edge locally that was in stock.

 

[Jay Z]

Along with my tank build I will be posting once a month with tank pics and changes made. This will help me notice little changes I might not catch by looking at my tank daily. I do apologize for the pictures, my camera, like many does not do the tank justice for depth and color quality.

I know some will take issue with my stock in the tank. I like to run a lot of small fish, then remove them when they get to big for my tank, then replace with a smaller version. I have always had good luck with a full tank, pretty much eliminates all tank drama. Corals and such are randomly moved until I find the location they like best.

Tank was setup in one of my small extra bedrooms that I was on the fence about redoing. Now I pretty much sleep in that room every night to watch the tank. It was setup to watch from bed, hence some of the equipment locations are configured differently than others.

Feb 22 2019

Water parameters - Normal

Tank Stock

Fish
- Purple Tang
- FlameFin Tang
- Yellow Tang
- Hippo Tang
- Coral Beauty
- Flame Angel
- Ruby Red Dragonet
- Mandarin Dragonet
- 4 Wheel Drive Goby
- Cleaner Wrasse

Inverts
- Green Tip Anemone
- Long Tip Anemone
- 6 Emerald Crabs
- 2 Sexy Shrimp
- Cleaner Shrimp
- Fire Shrimp
- 2 Tiger Conchs
- 2 Anemone Crabs
- Boxer Crab
- Harlequin Shrimp
- Salty Light Foot Crab
- Hermits, no idea 15+
- Astrea Snails, no idea 15+
- Nassarius Snails 10
- 2 Cowrie Snails

 

[Jay Z]

December 31st, 2018 Walked into a local pet store looking to get back into the aquarium scene. Been years since I've done it and really like the colors of reef tanks, so I decided to start my first reef tank.

Ended up purchasing a jbj 45 round corner with stand, titanium 300 watt heater, jbj 45 skimmer, kessil ap700 with mounting arms, 40 lbs of Hawaiian black, and close to 70lbs of live rock and coral, reef crystals, start up chemicals, and 3 clowns.

Put the tank in my spare bedroom and had to hug the wall to keep the clearance between the bed and the wall. Figured no need to get to the back of the tank, everything I need is all enclosed in the back.

Went with my normal quick set up from back in the day. Add gravel, get tub water up to 78, mix water from tub into buckets, add chemicals and salt, dump in tank and repeat. After halfway full start adding my live rock and start building the bowl shape I had in my head. Finished, gave her 15 minutes to settle, checked temp and salinity, released the clowns.

After my initial set up, went back the next day and got another 20lbs of live rock. Right off the get go I was not happy with the filter system for the direction I was heading. Went to pet smart and got a fluvial fx4 for my main pump to replace the ones it came with. Plumber her into the existing lines for the return and removed the old pumps. Loaded her up with all the filter media and was off to a good start.

 

[Jay Z]

After a couple days of watching the tiny portion skimmer, the noise it made, and countless hours rigging up a system to control the bubbles I decided to upgrade to a better skimmer.

Decided on a Octo 90 hob. This is when I figured out where I first messed up. No room behind the tank, plus if I could get in back there it wouldn't work with the chamber system. So on the right side of the tank she went.

Now it might not be in the prettiest spot, but with my lack of space in the back.... It ended up in the main tank, with the return pressed against the sump intake. I had to work the anti bubble foam tight on the front and open in the back so any micro bubble went into the media in the sump and into the fx4. Tired multiple ideas for bubble control for a filter sock half over the foam and some other ideas with the sock. In the end splitting the foam to control the micro bubble exit was the perfect option.

With the cycling chemicals and new start up I went hard on the skimmer from the bat. After the first cupple cup over flows I got a big bottle for a back up drain. After a couple big bottle over flows I learned I have 3 peak skimmer times, Lights on, 20-30 minutes after feeding, and after the lights go out. So I would adjust accordingly depending on the time of day.

Tank ended up cycling in 6-7 days. Time to start stocking.

 

[Jay Z]

Added a flame angel, cleaner wrasse, peppermint shrimp that was actually a fire shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, a couple hermits and snails, and 3-4 more pics of live rock filled with mushrooms and Zoa's.

After 3-4 trips to the store for ro water, I decided to get my own ro system. I hate driving around on the weekends, Picked up a BRS 7 stage. I already had a whole house booster pump running at 80 psi, so I was covered on that. Ran 2 1/4" lines from the basement, fresh and drain. Also added a trigger 10 gal res to hold my new water. If you forget your keys and other things all the time, make sure you get a water cut off float. Or if it came with one, just drill the tank and install it. Only took 3 over fills for me to do it.

Next was the water saver for the ro, very good upgrade, and a salt mix tank, 5 gallon.
After 5 over fills on that I installed a float for that also. First fill, overfill! float was junk. Wet carpet again!
Added a small pump in the salt res to keep her mixed.