# JBL 24 gallon Nano Cube Deluxe



## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Anyone have one of these? I noticed a sale on them for $219 with free shipping. Comes with a matching stand too, though there is an additional cost of $7.99 for shipping weight (weighs 100 lbs i think).










I'm looking to set up a nano reef as it's been years since I had a reef tank. Through extensive research I'm confident I can make a small reef work in this tank with a few soft corals and a fish or two. Has anyone actually had one of these and have experiences to offer?

I really like the modern look of the tank, and the curved glass viewing area. I know I could build something and save a few dollars, but realistically I'm sure I would end up spending more.

Someone talk me out of it?


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on the nano last week. Also got an RO/DI for making sea water. My local saltwater shop was pretty low on live rock, mostly just small pieces left that no one wanted. The good thing is that it has all been in the tank for awhile and is completely cured. I added 20 lbs initially on Sunday, and went back on Tuesday and got another 15 lbs. The sand is 20 lbs of Carib Sea Arag-Alive Bahamas Oolite. Testing is showing 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and about 5 nitrate. I'm going to start stocking the end of the week as long as the water parameters hold. I know pretty much which corals I will be adding (a couple leathers, zoanthids, mushroom anemones, possibly star polyps and or xenia) (maybe a couple LPS like frogspawn, hammer, or elegant) but not sure on fish yet. I may just not have any fish at all, at least initially.

And so it begins. Not much to look at currently but that will change.










I know this isn't about cichlids but maybe it will interest someone who thought saltwater was too hard or too much work.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Looking forward to the updates...


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Thanks Iggy!

I picked up two corals from my local guy yesterday, a yellow toadstool and a kenya tree. The Kenya opened up today and looks good. The toadstool may take some time before it opens its polyps. The store didn't have much of a selection, they are kind of going down hill I think.

I plan to get a few more corals in a week or two from an online vendor here in Florida, assuming water parameters stay in line. A couple more softies like Blue Snow Flake Pollyps, Green Star Pollyps, some zoas or mushrooms, and possibly a Frogspawn frag.

I also added a hand full of macro algae to the middle chamber in the back of the tank. That along with some live rock rubble is the only filtration I'm using so far. I'll stick a micron pad in for a few hours here and there if needed, but so far the water has been nice and clear. It's running ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5, and ph about 8.1.

So that's it for now. Pictures for reference, though the tank is still pretty bare.


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## letsgoflyers6387 (Jul 19, 2010)

Cool. This is something I'm considering. I'm interested in how your experience goes. Please keep the updates coming.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Thanks letsgoflyers, I'm hoping my experiences will encourage others to try reef keeping. It's not as hard as a lot make it out to be. I maintained a 125 gallon reef for about 7 years and it was amazing. These smaller setups can look just as good as large reefs, and you can still have a lot of diversity.

I picked up 5 new pieces over the weekend from a semi local shop. They had a lot coral frags starting at $5 and some unreal brain corals for around $30. I ended up getting a small head of frogspawn (which has always been my favorite), a small rock with some zoanthids, green star pollyps, anthelia, and a ricordea mushroom. I did my first water change yesterday of about 5 gallons and other than some diatoms showing up things are looking great. The leather and kenya tree have opened up nicely, and the kenya tree is about twice the size of the picture above now that it has had a few days.

I also added a nano power head as the stock pump is a little lacking on its own. The leather seems to like pretty strong current though I'm a little disappointed that it is the small polyp variety. I thought it was the same as the fiji yellow I had years ago with nicer long pollyps, but the color is nice.

Here are some pics of the new additions, they are tiny frags but I have had good experiences with these corals in the past and they should spread to the point that they will need to be trimmed back in time.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Looks good!

A friend of mine has a 200 gallon reef tank. It's had it's ups and downs, but when it's up, it is something else.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Tank is doing great so far. Getting some algae on the sand, and some on the lower rocks now but not too bad. There are a lot of tiny Collinista snails that came on the live rock coming out at night to eat it off the rocks. Lots of filter feeder tubes popping up too all over the place as they try to relocate into the flow. I added a few more pieces pictured below. There are still a few more corals I would like to get, but none are available locally. Looking like I will have to make an online order eventually.

This was sold to me as Toxic Candycane. It's pretty striking and stands out from across the room.









An Acanthastrea brain coral. It has three heads and really inflates during the daytime.









I noticed some polyps on one of the live rocks when I picked them out, but thought it might have dried out too much during bringing the rock home. Surprisingly it's starting back and seems to be a good sized colony. I believe it's more anthelia.









I'm starting to really like this leather even with the short polyps. 









Got this one as a frag pretty cheap. Must be at least 50 zoas on this rock. Took this after I just put it in so it wasn't all opened up yet.









One shot of the whole tank to give some perspective. It's coming along pretty well I think, still a long way to go.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Coming together nice, dude.

What's your eventual fish stocking plans? I'm guessing 3 total? Just, a guess...


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

No idea on fish yet lol. Most suitable are some of the smaller gobies, blennys, and basslets. I really like the tailspot blenny, but it seems people have mixed success with them. Small clowns could work too, or even a yellow tail damsel. Could do 3 if they are small, and that's a good number. A nice shrimp like the skunk cleaner is a possibility. I'm looking to fill in with a few more soft corals, and another LPS, then I will give more thought to the fish.


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## Qozux (Sep 3, 2013)

I'm loving this thing! I want to do a nano reef, but I don't even have an idea of where to start. (I guess on forums probably)


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Hi Qozux!

There are a lot of good articles out there for starting a reef tank, be it a large reef, nano, or even pico. The most important thing starting out is to get a good RO/DI filter, and a couple containers to store and mix seawater. With smaller tanks the live rock and water changes are all that is needed to control water quality. The most expensive part, other than the livestock, will probably be the lighting.

If you have any questions I can try to answer them, I'm no expert but I have some experience keeping most types of corals.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Tank is doing great! I'm looking into getting a tailspot blenny for my first fish. My local guy gets fish tomorrow and said he'll get one if it's available. Might add a yellow tail blue damsel too. Had one in my last reef and he was always colorful and hardy. As far as corals go I want to get some more colorful ricordea mushrooms to go with the one I have. I saw some red mushrooms locally that I might get to fill out the lower left side. Going to just stay local and not order online for now. Only really want a few more corals then I'll just sit back and enjoy the tank while things grow.

Couple shots of some interesting critters. First one is a type of flat worm. 









This next one I'm not sure, looks like some kind of pod. Has some nice green protrusions on him.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Quick update. Tank has been running just over a month now, only one loss so far. Sadly the yellow toadstool leather started to melt away  Everything else is doing great, and showing good growth. New additions since last post are a few snails, 2 Astraea and 3 Nassarius snails, a bicolor blenny (fish), emerald crab, 3 new colored Ricordea mushrooms, some red mushrooms, a blue green sympodium coral, and a 2 head hammer coral. The corals I just got this morning from an online retailer on the east coast. They look in good health and should open up more in a few days.

This fish is really entertaining. He's starting to get over his shyness, had him about 2 weeks now, and he doesn't hide every time I get near the tank. Still have not gotten any good pictures of him, but I'll work on it. He decided to take up residence in the nano power head. He darts into it every time he gets spooked, and sleeps in it all night lol, so funny. Don't worry I unplugged it! I'll probably take the impeller out so he has more room in there when I catch him hiding in the rock work. He doesn't have a swim bladder so he swims kind of like an eel, and he perches on the rocks the rest of the time. He has a couple favorite spots, and he holds up his head with his front fins and his bugg eyes roll all around checking everything out.









Remember the little creature I posted the picture of above with the green tentacles? Well turns out it was a zoanthid eating nidibranch. Found him munching away on my green zoas :x had to get the tweezers on him. I have since found out that the color of their tentacles comes from the coral they are eating, so they blend in really well. Keeping an eye out for any more but so far so good. He is in the picture below almost dead center next to the poor zoa all closed up and hiding :roll: 









Couple more shots and I'm out for now. One full tank shot, and one of the emerald crab munching on some bubble algae (main reason I got him).


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Tank looks so cool. Before I read the explanation, I saw the pic of the blenny and was wondering how in the world can 'beware' use that thing on a timer?


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Thanks Iggy. I had unplugged the powerhead before adding the blenny because on further observation the stock pump creates ideal flow in most of the tank. It's a little strong along the front bottom, but everywhere else blows the corals just right.

On a sad note the blenny is no longer with me  I really liked that guy, and he had an interesting personality. Long story short I got a new 2 head duncan coral yesterday, and today the blenny decided he liked the way it tasted...He was nipping it and actually ripped of a small chunk and spit it out on the rocks. Took him back to the store, and picked up a firefish goby to replace him.

The new fish swam into the rocks for about a minute when first introduced to the tank, then he came out and seems pretty comfortable. He doesn't hide when I come into the room, or even get up close to look at the tank which I like. Still can't believe the blenny turned evil on me so quickly, but I think I'm pretty safe with this new guy


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

That's too bad. I love the look of those fish. Makes sense though... It's a reef tank. Not a fish tank. Good luck with Mr. Goby


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Seems time for an update for anyone following this. Tank is doing great, no problems so far! I have made a few changes to the tank as follows.

New DIY led lighting from rapidled. They have a standard retrofit for this tank but I went with a different approach and saved some money. Instead of the 24 les the kit comes with I went with only 16 led as follows;

6 neutral white cree 3w leds
6 royal blue cree 3w leds
4 blue cree 3w leds

Also went with the lower output drivers rated at 750nm. Even though these drivers only drive the leds at around 2 watts, I'm still only running them around 1/2 power, and they are plenty bright. Quite a bit less than the 72 watts the power compacts output. Best thing about this kit is that it all fits in the stock hood, and puts out a lot less heat. It also allows me to dim each channel, blue and white, for the look I want.

Next I added a reefkeeper elite controller. It allows me to simulate sunrise and sunset by adjusting the led dimming up and down when the light cycle begins and ends. Also has a moonlight function that controls the intensity of the moonlights according to the current lunar cycle. Still have to install the moonlight pods but haven't gotten around to taking off the hood again. It basically controls everything, heater, main lights, fuge light, pumps and fans.

For live stock I added a few more zoa frags, green center clove polyps, a skunk cleaner shrimp, and a shark nose goby. Think that's it...

Coralline algae has been growing like mad along the back wall, and the glass. Most of the corals have grown considerably too. I'll upload a short video that shows a bit more of the tank soon.

Something interesting I didn't notice when I got it. The rock with the blue sympodiums on it also has a small plate coral growing on it. These grow attached to a rock when young, then detach and move down to the sand. When they detach they usually leave behind a little flesh that grows into another plate coral, so that will be interesting to track. Not only that but there are 2 good size pieces of sps encrusting coral on the same rock (probably montipora). I didn't notice these until only the blue light was on and they glowed bright green.

I'm pretty glad I got this tank, have been out of reefing so long I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Doing weekly water changes of 5 gallons, and running a small square of 100 micron felt in the back that gets changed about every 2 days. This tank is honestly less work than my cichlid tank, of course the cichlid tank is larger.

So I hope some of you enjoy seeing this come together, I know it's a lot of fun for me


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