TylerMoralez

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Wanted to share my latest endeavor in the reefing-world. I pulled the trigger on a nano tank that is pretty hard to find at your LFS, unless of course you're down with Amazon. The brand is out of Asia called AquaJapan, and there is one seller of these tanks on Amazon called DiscountAquatics based out of Southern California. They are very friendly and easy to work with for your shipment, and take great care of their products during shipment.

There are many different sizes from AquaJapan, all of which are an AIO (all-in-one) tank. On top of this, which is my most favorite, is that all of their tanks have curved edges in the front. It really draws you in from all angles. There isn't a single review on these tanks from any distributor for any size... So it was very hard for me to determine whether or not this was a good idea. Luckily, one of my favorite LFS started carrying these, and I was able to look around it and decide if it was worth the investment. The prices aren't too steep, at $180 before shipping for a 17 gallon AIO cube, I thought it was a great deal. And after having this up and running for a while now, I am very pleased with these tanks and would definitely recommend these for a beginner or the most advanced aquarist.

*Note: These tanks DO NOT come with a return pump, you must purchase this yourself. However, it does come with a very large sponge roughly 5"x15" and a bag of filter media.

This thread might become a little long with all of my updates and questions, so feel free to subscribe and follow along with me. I am always open to suggestions, advice and ideas as I myself am just an intermediate reefer.

Outline

Tank:
AquaJapan AJ-40B (15.75"x15.75"x15.75") - approx. 17gal
Filtration: Filtration chamber with 14gal BioCube Media Basket (top-->bottom: filter floss, ChemiPue Blue, Seachem Purigen)
Return Pump: Sicce Syncra 1.5 pump (357 gph)
Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 50W
Water Flow: EcoTech VorTech MP10 with ReefLink
Lighting: Kessil 160WE with Spectrum Controller
Skimmer: Innovative Marine Aqua Gadget Ghost Desktop
ATO: Tunze USA 3152.000 Nano Osmolator
Substrate: 10lbs. Nature's Ocean No.0 Bio-Activ Live Aragonite
Rock: CaribSea South Sea Base Rock (dried) @ 20lbs.
Fish: 2 Black Photon Clownfish
Coral: TBD

*Note: The dimensions of the filtration chambers are no where to be located, so I had to do some measuring of my own. If you are interested in this particular model, the dimensions of each chamber is 4.75"long x 2.25"deep x 15.75"high. My IM Ghost Skimmer was way too short to fit in the chamber, so I raised it by cutting the sponge that came with this tank so that it was roughly 6in high, and placed the skimmer on top. It is working perfectly, and I figured the sponge would be a perfect place for pods to grow undisturbed. I have the media basket in the first chamber on the right, then my sponge and skimmer in the middle chamber, and the return pump in the last chamber on the left.

Photos

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My obsessive reef haul - had to make sure I had everything before I got the tank... Because I'm just that irritating (;

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Placement of the tank before being "unboxed"

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Finally sitting in it's place with my egg crate in the bottom. There is a very nice and convenient sliding glass lid and legs on each corner of this tank. Didn't even need the leveling mat from Mr. Aqua that you can see on the bottom.

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Front and Top view of my arched rockscape. Dang there was so much more room than I thought in this tank!!! I have an ample amount of room on all four sides!

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Front and Top view of my rockscape after adding sand

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Full tank shot after adding water and with the lights on...

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Finally clearing up after letting the sand settle with only filter floss in my media basket and running only the return pump. This took roughly 6 hours...

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And finally my current FTS with my 2 Black Photon Clowns

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melypr1985

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Looks great!!! Thanks for sharing!
 

Cory

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Off to a good start! Love the white stand
 
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TylerMoralez

TylerMoralez

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So it's time for corals... any ideas for what to start with and maybe some good placement locations based on the pictures provided?

My goal corals for this tank would be:

•green slimer
•GSP (on the island)
•Ricordia
•Pulsing Xenia
•BTA
•Toadstool
•red/orange Montipora
•zoa's

Any other ideas?

I am also in need of a clean up crew... I'm trying to avoid a turbo snail as I feel they don't do much but disrupt the view. Also not much of a fan of coral banded shrimp.

Thanks in advance!
 

revhtree

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Looking good!
 
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TylerMoralez

TylerMoralez

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Decided to go with a snail-only CUC. I've read some really good articles on this idea and I love it. They noted how crabs don't benefit much for the tank when compared to snails except for aesthetics, as well as them killing snails for larger shells.

I agree with this as I've seen almost every snail except for my turbos in my other tank get killed and only crabs alive. I never thought about that before...

I went with three nassarius snails to begin with. I don't want to add a CUC until it is needed for specific reasons (i.e. Ceriths for diatoms, etc). Nassarius are great at sifting sand and eating leftover food and detritus; which at this point is my only problem I might encounter (doubt it).
 
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TylerMoralez

TylerMoralez

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I also added a small pulsing Xenia island that is fragged to a coralline piece of rubble rock. Hopefully this will help jumpstart the coralline algae eventually... I know it might be a little early for that at this point. You never know!

I'll post of a pic of them once they open up and I finish acclimating them to the Kessil LED's.
 
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TylerMoralez

TylerMoralez

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Small set back.. I went to power up the MP10 right out of the box and it's not working. I called technical support at EcoTech Marine and they have been very helpful. Apparently there is a problem with the driver so we will have to get a replacement for that. Kinda sucks... however in the meantime I'm using a Jebao RW-8 for good flow.

I thought the Sicce Return Pump would be enough flow at max output, but the Xenias and GSP weren't opening up quite as much as I'd like. Once I plugged in the Jebao... all I can say is WOW! So much flow from this thing. I have it on the lowest setting and it's the perfect random flow! I would have no problem staying with this as my method of water flow, however it is a little too big for my liking and kind of obstructs the view even though I have it placed on the back. I probably should've gone with the Rw-4 but this is just a temporary fix. For $80 you can't go wrong.
 

John Nguyen

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Hi, do you have any updates on this tank?
How is the quality of it?

I'm thinking about getting the 15 gallon version of this tank.
 
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TylerMoralez

TylerMoralez

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Hi you guys, sadly this tank was taken down only a couple months after due to moving and a breakup (lol). BUT I'm back and will be starting a new build. I'll post the link to the thread once I get it started.
 

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