JBJ 28 gallon owners thread.

Welcome to 3reef Dani. Glad you enjoyed the thread.

Two clowns and a BJF will become medium sized fish eventually, with that in mind 3 seems like the optimal number.
If you want to push the envelop a little I can see adding a small reef fish such as a Fire Fish or Royal Gramma.
You want to end up with peaceful, healthy tank and personally I think going above 4 fish could jeopardize that goal.

 

There is not a fixed number for any size tank, since it depends on the size of the individual fish, how much space they need, and how aggressive they are. I myself have a BSJ in my JBJ 28. Here is some info I posted for another member thinking about getting one:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-of...arine-nuvo-aquarium-138389-5.html#post1442879

The 3 main things required for a BSJ are a deep sand bed with plenty of objects for it to build its burrows with, a completely covered tank (stock hood works great), and cooler temps (I do think 79 may be too high; I keep mine at 76.6).

My tank has a BSJ, Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse (awesome fish and perfect for a nano with a good amount of rockwork and plenty of pods to pick off all day), Helfrichi Firefish (any firefish would be a great addition though), a Tailspot Blenny (again, highly recommend a smaller blenny from the Ecsenius family), and I have a Yellow Assessor in QT right now which will be the final addition. So a total of 5 fish, however 4 only grow to 2.5" or less, and all (except the BSJ) could be kept successfully in a much smaller tank.

So I hope this helps. Really think over the BSJ before getting one due to their specific needs. Other than that, if you don't get a BSJ, you could certainly do 2 smaller fish total: like the ones I mentioned, a smaller goby (not a sand sifter), etc.

 

I saw a BSJ in person at my LFS last weekend. What an amazing fish! I've always loved the photos of them on here...it was just interesting to see one in person. He was asking $85 which I thought was really pretty reasonable - unfortunately not an option for me 1) because of cost and 2) I don't have a hood....

 

$85 is indeed a great price. Mine was $140 :-/ But well worth it since he was a very healthy and active fish!

 

Thanks guys! The only thing I worry about is my temp now. I have a heater that it's supposed to keep it around 80°. Should i just take that out if I get the BSJ?

 

Well more important than keeping than tank cool would be to keep the temperature stable. You don't want it swinging by a few degrees daily. But you could just lower the temp on the heater, no? Also, how big is your sandbed?

 

My heater isn't adjustable... I can surely get one that is though! My sand bed is only about 2 inches so I will add another bag of live sand to get it to at least 3 inches. If I do that it shouldn't send my tank into a cycle right?

Also, I was just looking on the net and I saw the yellow head jaw fish. While this one isn't nearly as pretty IMO they seem to be better with higher temps and still have the same personalities. Anyone have experience with these?

 

I would just add regular "dead" sand. But it really does need at least a 4" sandbed IMO. A warmer species may be more suitable as you mentioned though. I would expect it to behave the same as the BSJ, just better suited to your tank temperature wise (and it is a slightly smaller fish, which is good as well).

 

Ok, so it looks like dry sand it is. I don't want to ruin my cycle so I will do it slowly. Maybe dig a few holes in the existing sand bed and fill them in every other day until I reach the right depth. That way I wont be covering my existing bed with new sand and kill everything off and it will all be nice and mixed in when I'm done. Will that work?

Also, I have never used a protein skimmer on my tank and was wondering if adding one would really benefit the tank that much. When I got my tank the LFS told me that a skimmer wasn't a necessity because the tank was small so I never got one. I haven't had any problems over the last 3 years but maybe adding one will help my corals?

 

A skimmer will definitely help, especially with the increased bioload. I use an Eshopps PSK-75H on mine. There are also a few nano skimmers that will work as well. You can actually search this thread to see some other options.

And yes, I think your plan to add sand should work well.