New Youtube video of pico reefs and globe terrariums

[brandon429]

This video is compiled from seven years worth of filming and almost ten years in pics to show the experimental history of gallon and sub-gallon pico reefs. Older designs are shown, and the then the video and following pics show the reefbowl today in my house. It took three hours alone just to go through the 8mm tapes and import them all into windows movie maker so please enjoy. 8mm lacks detail, one day digital vid is coming. 90% of the footage is new and not seen on my other youtube videos however...

 

 

b429

[hlander]

That vase is packed!

[gena]

That was a joy to watch You've done an amazing job. I actually got misty eyed when you showed the turtle. The planted tank was my favorite..though I absolutley loved it all. Thanks for sharing!

[brandon429]

hey thank you very much. That turtle had an interesting life so that should add a little more maybe...he ended up living in a 10,000 gallon koi pond which he cannot tell from actual nirvana after I took down the tank to trade it for that globe one, it took up less space. The turtle is likely still alive because fully aquatic turtles get attacked by birds less and this particular koi pond is too manicured to have heron or hornbill problems anyway. I would estimate these stinkpots to live past ten years with good care so he's right around midlife. thanks for chatting!

B

[pismo_reefer]

huge amounts of life, on a small scale.

 

you truly are a MASTER of your craft my friend...

 

 

the picos are AMAZING!

 

and that bog system surrounded by plants is nothing short of INCREDIBLE.

 

thx 4 sharing!

[Warehouse41Ant]

Every one of those tanks is simply amazing. Love the vase setup and the 1/2 gallon. Incredible!

[travisurfer]

You and your tanks are an inspiration as always.

[zjharva]

dayum.

[tankcrazed]

Hi Brandon,

 

just looked at your creations. very impressive!

I've created quite a few aquarium vases myself and just like you I had to fight with hiding cables and equipment.

But then i found beautiful apothecary jars with lids and tried to drill the glass...and it worked. I actually managed to fit an led lighting fixture into the lid and have a powerhead in the vase. The cable is running through a hole that i drilled and fixed up with silicone. I haven't tried a saltwater setup yet because i haven't found a device that could scratch corraline algae off the rounded glass.

I'll try to post a pic of the planted vase i have.

Would be awesome to talk some more!

[roy91079]

Is the clown happy in a little tank like that. It looks a little crowded for him to have high spirits.

[brandon429]

didn't even see this thread get a toss up I try not to rebump after like 5 weeks thks yo lol

 

Man I am really glad you have tried some vases, you know I have seen a few -very- expensive crystal vases in an upscale shop and wondered if they would have wierd things like lead or impurities relative to marine life. that's cool you are using glassware like that feel free to post up pics as these are unique types of pico reefs. leds and vase reefs, no one else is doing that so that's a cool combo

 

I am particularly interested in sealing techniques above topoff. But, as a temperature medium (where totally sealed tanks always run hot) and open topped which is cool but a pain, partial sealing like the reefbowl is great. I was thinking those guys' water bottle idea might help extend the reefbowl a little longer for ski runs, but it will go three days in between topoffs and this is easily repeatable by anyone, wish reef vases would catch on faster...

 

got to have the inner diameter lid though or the sealing isn't as effective, KevinStan is also running a great vase and his tank will mature nicely along with its many brothers I think the young man is up to 9 reefs now get him help asap.

 

 

Coralline---okay here's my take. Haven't seen a scraper that can actually cut it but in the reef vase nothing beats wire hangers for repositioning and angled coralline scraping. Some scratches occur, but I mean it really cuts coralline and this is worth it in rounded containers. Kudos to you for having a coralline problem in the first place.

 

The strongest pico magnet I have seen is the ones made from sectioning out a mini mag scraper. held together by four magnets, darn good ones, cut out two. Cut out a section of the actual pad surfaces the diameter of each magnet, about pencil eraser sized. they peel off like tough stickers, and fit that onto a magnet side that has been coated in epoxy on top of a paper plate then cut out. epoxy prevents sw corrosion. this is a mini version of the original size scraper meant for a large tank.

 

Look at how much the plant growth in my living room has changed in six years. first post has 2003 pics then this last one shows the pothos vine which is about 30 feet long wraps living room. This and most of the other plants are either rooted in the bog terrarium or being fed water from it via hospital iv pumps. all the plants are driven by a 175 watt 20K reef metal halide hanging up high on the cieling. makes the house very blue, when hung up this high it shines out into the street as well

[brandon429]

Roy thank you for pointing that out, I should leave an explanation when posting up pics of a fish in a .5 which I don't recommend. I chose it for several reasons, namely size and behavior. it ate cyclopeeze easily as the corals ate.

 

its a panda goby and I was experimenting with nitrate clearances for the system, the fish was in for a couple months then traded.

[travisurfer]

Looks great Brandon! I just don't know if I can make the sub-gallon jump yet

[non-photosynt]

Great tanks! The learning example for all of us. Tank you very much!

 

Brandon, if you can, post more information, please, on:

 

- Weaning and feeding panda goby in pico tanks, with food, amount of food, frequency of feeding, removing leftovers, and how did you find it to feed. They are usually die in a months without starting eating and hide all the time. Was yours on the pocillopora branches? Do you know anything about their medical treatment (fins)?

 

- Cleaning glass in pico, illustrated tutorial will be extremely helpful. Even nimble magnets are too big for picos. Cleaning bottom too.

 

- How joined cubes are set, how much food is given, is there any filtration between cubes to avoid pollution and red slime in refugium.

 

Somehow you are able keep water quality when others (like me) can't

[brandon429]

thank you for stopping in non-photosynt!

 

Regarding fish Id direct you to lalani or the crew that keeps them here, I haven't kept them on a long term basis. Would you believe in keeping picos since '01 I have only owned one cherry head goby and one panda as experiments to see what would happen to the pico. after a few weeks they were traded off, never kept long term.

 

My feeding regimen is the same on all picos, feed about twice a week and slurry in a mix of frozen foods heavily, let it sit for two hours (sometimes I go overnite) then rip out all the water in a 100% water change. So the panda goby was buffetted by tiny food particles, enough to get in his gills even if he didn't open his mouth ha! Most tanks can't feed that heavily, cuz they don't want to do a full water change thereafter. for 1 gallons and half gallons its dang easy but the main point is Im willing to do that work to see how long a pico can truly live. My water change regimen described below is for gallon and less tanks, not 3+ picos. those can go longer in between changes but better than normal change habits benefit larger picos too.

 

I dose with C balance in between this cleaning. I truly believe the heavy water change is what keeps algae at bay, reds and cyano included. Its true larger tanks, or tanks with mechanics like skimmers can go much better on water changes, this is just a machine-free option and the tradeoff is water changes. The reefvase has had the same rock, sand and 1/3rd of original corals for several years now but that also means I've done roughly ~500+ water changes lol.

 

the square cubes were totally sealed. a minijet pump pushed water through and simple back pressure forced it through the other tube. Having no gravity to help the flow, the pump had to be set on low and this was a weakness for the systemalong with the heating which was a manually controlled pad heater.

 

cleaning. use razors, hemostats, scouring pads meant for dishes and wires to scrape. I get a few scratches, but these work fastest and most thorough.

 

The rest is all done with a piece of straightened coat hanger. With that I can bend it into shape, and scrape coralline down to clear glass anywhere in the tank one tiny swath at a time. In this pic I had let it almost seal the entire aquarium! then I took 2 hours to hanger it, and it gets back down to clear again for about 3 months.

 

 

here's a coralline shot w some alveopora growth that also shows years of coralline crust. the alternating bands of green/red/purple/white are strata indicators of tank husbandry for a few month's period I can now see. times where I was lazy in dosing it bleached, then layed back down heavy with good dosing. periods of green/red to me reflect nutrient/algal levels in the water kinda like rings on a tree Im thinking.

[brandon429]

just wanted to add that incorrect water change frequency is the chief lifespan-limiter of pico reefs and the main reason gallon tanks are not common (or at all, try to find *any) past 2 years old.

 

All pico reefs look great upon first build, and don't have any nutrients stored up in the cracks and crevices. we tend to change maybe 25% of the water, infrequently, because no algae have started yet. Then in a few months the catch up begins, but we are also addicted and adding more and more life to the tanks while in catchup mode you see regarding the water change and detritus removal.

 

I learned early to treat my new pico as if it were an old man, then getting them to the old man stage and beyond is really possible. Of course if you can fit in skimmers, uv, etc you can alter your water change variation. Im just saying if you want to grow coral in a goldfish bowl this is the best way lol

 

most people put food in the system and it's expected to deal with it until the next water change, likely a week or more away. This is wholly different than putting in 10x the normal amount of food, then taking it all back out along with the tank's water, leaving only fattened polyps stuck to the rock. I only use my biofiltration to deal with the *wastes created by the animals after this fattening. No unused food is left in the tank

 

usually i just kick around old pics, here's one from 5 mins ago. i didn't turn off the lights because I wanted to show how bright the light is by using one coralife mini aqua light and one extra 13 watt 50 50 galaxy light from azoo. total lighting cost $100 and the aqualight has been running for 8 years with a few bulb changes, i bought it in '01 dang good lifespan on ballasts/plastic coralife!

 

The glare prevents clear vision, but i am trying a trick called exoscaping I thought of last month. like the dolphin and turtle half in/half out aquarium toys I have affixed the skeleton of montipora digitata to the outside of the vase neck by superglue. on the inside is a table top formation growing on the glass wall of the vase. so you can touch it, outside, and see what the exact inside specimen feels like inside. People dig that tactile approach... on the other piece some lr rubble is glued outside the tank, and on the inside is some isauraus frags plating on the glass, looks like it's growing outside just a little vase tweak lol

 

this pic I just now snapped w cellphone

 

B

[non-photosynt]

Thank you, Brandon!

 

Water changes:

I was somehow under impression that you fed corals, emptied pico and added new water. Fish will be lost then , so I'm missing something.

 

Is it siphoning water and detritus out by airline tubing, like most of us, and then pouring water with the glass? Then fish will be without water again.

 

Can you tell how do you do water changes? In handheld pico and in connected cubed that can't be kept upside down because they are connected.

 

And just curious, how long you are keeping prepared new saltwater, aerated and heated? Hours or days before using it?

------------------------------------------------------

Are you still keeping sps in pico under PC? Did you try LED?

 

Any thoughts on picoizing open brain corals (cynarina lacrimalis and others)? I'm very fond of them, but they are too big. Or the only way is using Blastomussa welsii or even button polyps as a scaled version of them?

-------------------------------------------

I'm thinking about trying to follow you system and make sun corals pico that would be fed twice a week, followed by complete water change, maybe even twice to wash out particles, and, later, some of regurgitated food (they do that sometimes). Already bought the tank. But I foresee some problems, maybe you can advise:

 

1. Sun corals and dendrophyllias polyps have a big size when open, up to 1" in diameter, each polyp. I mounted closed polyps very spaciously, yet after opening some of them are too close.

Its like candycanes in your tank or other corals with sweeping tentacles.

 

2. They grow fairly fast, by budding new polyps between the old ones, and by encrusting the base.

You were gluing frags of your corals to the back wall, but how keep them in a small size? Fragging without removing from tank is difficult, they are harder than candycanes, more like maze brains. Plus this will pollute water up to the point of killing everything.

 

3. After feeding the polyps are well inflated, and living them without water support could be distressful for a coral and even may cause it spit eaten food right after water change (the same what brains will do). This will lead to necessity of the second water change and so on.

 

4. Some food particles will hide between corals and in crevices. How to wash them out?

 

5. Vertical growing sun corals (Tubastrea micranthus): just cut their top each time when they overgrow allotted space?

 

And not a problem yet, but how to leave space for a new additions?

One never knows if something interesting will appears in LFS some day.

 

Any thoughts about what shape of tank would be better: like yours, with vertical positioning corals on the back wall, or a cube 6x6 in. ?

 

Sorry for so many questions, it is a rare occasion to learn from advanced aquarist in so rare area of knowledge as keeping pico tanks.

 

Here is my current small sun corals system, and I'm not happy with water cleaning by equipment. Water changes should be much better.

[brandon429]

Water changes:

I was somehow under impression that you fed corals, emptied pico and added new water. Fish will be lost then , so I'm missing something.

 

the fish never minded for some reason, but I matched parameters/temp/s.g very closely and when I changed water I didn't take every bit out, there was enough for them to swim in at the bottom. so w fish they were 98% water changes. it's like where people say not to change 100% of water due to stress, animals rise to the occasion?

 

Is it siphoning water and detritus out by airline tubing, like most of us, and then pouring water with the glass? Then fish will be without water again.

 

No I use a larger diameter tubing from home depot, half inch I believe. im either doing a giant water change with inside scouring pad scraping (monthly) or a light change where I stick the tube in the feeding cork hole and siphon it all out without moving/uncapping the tank.

 

Can you tell how do you do water changes? In handheld pico and in connected cubed that can't be kept upside down because they are connected.

 

I would just stick in the tube and siphon it all out, scooting shrimp out of the way with the mini magnet. This is one potential removal trick for the stenopus shrimp if he outgrows the tank, I'll use the inch tubing and just siphon him out.

 

And just curious, how long you are keeping prepared new saltwater, aerated and heated? Hours or days before using it?

 

i keep it uncapped (or it will develop that stink) in a 3 gallon tank under the sink. I place it in a sink of hot water for about 3 mins on the morning of water changes, then dump it all in. I also keep a few five gallon uncapped water bottles of it in the garage, to refill the 3 every week or so. Now the reefbowl sits two feet away from my kitchen sink, I just drain it directly into the sink and carefully pour the water back through the feeding cork hole lol

------------------------------------------------------

Are you still keeping sps in pico under PC? Did you try LED?

 

LED'w were not common when I started pico reefing so no I haven't. pc's always worked for me, but they are hot if I had $$ I'd convert over.

 

Any thoughts on picoizing open brain corals (cynarina lacrimalis and others)? I'm very fond of them, but they are too big. Or the only way is using Blastomussa welsii or even button polyps as a scaled version of them?

 

pic included. I kept one in the .5

he was eventually traded for a red blastomussa that I thought was prettier. the open brain ate mysis/cyclopeeze Im sure they require no more special care than a lobo or acan. I like your idea of using alternate genera to give the visual impression of what we see in larger tanks. I personally like to saw off candy coral heads down to the flesh and glue them in place for this reason.

-------------------------------------------

I'm thinking about trying to follow you system and make sun corals pico that would be fed twice a week, followed by complete water change, maybe even twice to wash out particles, and, later, some of regurgitated food (they do that sometimes). Already bought the tank. But I foresee some problems, maybe you can advise:

 

1. Sun corals and dendrophyllias polyps have a big size when open, up to 1" in diameter, each polyp. I mounted closed polyps very spaciously, yet after opening some of them are too close.

Its like candycanes in your tank or other corals with sweeping tentacles.

 

mine simply hang there full of food, or if I wait over nite they have already done the digestion and expulsion phase so the change is even more helpful. My water flow doesn't just blast everything, it's kinda low on purpose. That's why, in the video, you see the boxer crab hanging out under a galaxea that is plating the rear wall but not ever sending up tentacles/plus, the current in the vase reef is such that if it did they would just flow straight up and not touch anything anyway.

 

2. They grow fairly fast, by budding new polyps between the old ones, and by encrusting the base.

You were gluing frags of your corals to the back wall, but how keep them in a small size? Fragging without removing from tank is difficult, they are harder than candycanes, more like maze brains. Plus this will pollute water up to the point of killing everything.

 

I trade off corals if they grow too large. the small size is achieved by only buying the smallest possible frags you can get. Or, sometimes I even buy parent colonies meant for a 100 g tank, strip off the anthocauli or babies from the base, then sell the parents back for 70% recoup. It took me almost two years to completely stock the tabletop acro palmtop. I had to wait for micro frags, or shave the other ones down to nubs and give them time to grow back in so the pic wouldn't look all chopped up.

 

3. After feeding the polyps are well inflated, and living them without water support could be distressful for a coral and even may cause it spit eaten food right after water change (the same what brains will do). This will lead to necessity of the second water change and so on.

 

this may occur initially, but in time they just adapt to it I don't know why.

 

4. Some food particles will hide between corals and in crevices. How to wash them out?

 

I try not to wash them out, that's what the copepods get! I keep huge cope populations in these tanks with this feeding method. I just try to remove the food on the surfaces and bottom that's not eaten.

 

5. Vertical growing sun corals (Tubastrea micranthus): just cut their top each time when they overgrow allotted space?

mine don't grow that fast to worry. Like xenia, peeps say it will overtake a tank. it doesn't in mine, it grows slow but consistent. If I had that prob w dendros id be selling them back for credit at the lfs

 

And not a problem yet, but how to leave space for a new additions?

One never knows if something interesting will appears in LFS some day.

 

True! that's when I have to choose who to let go. My tanks have no available space as I like that kind of look. when I wanted the red blasto, I had to lose the open red/green brain which incidentally I found the size of a quarter at the lfs/ don't remember what I traded off to make room for the brain.

 

Any thoughts about what shape of tank would be better: like yours, with vertical positioning corals on the back wall, or a cube 6x6 in. ?

 

man the dynamics are so different among shapes. even though it sounds self promoting I think the vase is the best shape because you get inherent natural skimming, evap control down to 3 day topoff, glass not acrylic etc

 

Sorry for so many questions, it is a rare occasion to learn from advanced aquarist in so rare area of knowledge as keeping pico tanks.

 

thanks but I have found my techniques are really only good for gallon and less tanks. above that, even at 3 gallon, some of my practices for dosing and water change don't work

 

Here is my current small sun corals system, and I'm not happy with water cleaning by equipment. Water changes should be much better.

 

those systems are sick! I think you and KevinStan should be neighbors lol. I actually remember commenting on that sun coral setup somewhere non-photosynth, maybe a vid of it but I've certainly seen it before and liked it. You have access to animals we simply can't get here in Lubbock! Your fish, tube anemones, wow man wish I could try some

 

here's the open brain in the half gallon pico along with the baby acro frags

 

also a build pic of the palmtop tank, from the rear. shows the cabling run through the glass lid with grommets, how the refugium division houses the heater and how the water pump is placed in the tank.

 

just now did a water change on the reefbowl, this is exactly what it looks like. I just fed the tank cyclopeeze, spot fed some mysis, and then some frozen/thawed plankton (red) then suck the tank dry. it is totally empty in this shot and the shrimp is flopping around in the sand until I put the phone down and go refill it lol

[Fratitude]

wow amazing! I had no idea you had these...great work

[brandon429]

frat thanks man feel free to come by one day and see the bowl! I would trust you from knowing you off the lubbock site I can tell your in the loop man lol.

a fellow reef aquarist hasn't seen the bowl in about 4 years id like for a trained eye to get a look at all the detail in the vase. the tabletop 1/2 was sold for 800 bucks awhile ago but i still have the vase and none of my non aquarist friends could care less ha ha

 

shoot me a pm or something if you are out and about around 82nd and university im in that area. Non-photo I thank you for your asks I will respond real quick at work for a sec...

[Fratitude]

frat thanks man feel free to come by one day and see the bowl! I would trust you from knowing you off the lubbock site I can tell your in the loop man lol.

a fellow reef aquarist hasn't seen the bowl in about 4 years id like for a trained eye to get a look at all the detail in the vase. the tabletop 1/2 was sold for 800 bucks awhile ago but i still have the vase and none of my non aquarist friends could care less ha ha

 

shoot me a pm or something if you are out and about around 82nd and university im in that area. Non-photo I thank you for your asks I will respond real quick at work for a sec...

 

yes for sure! I am out there often. I will shoot you a PM on LRC. I cant believe how much life you got going in that vase.

[non-photosynt]

Brandon, my questions interrupt your beautiful show case thread.

If you ever will start a subgallon pico handbook thread or pico-reefing in a bowl or vase, I'll be there to learn.

[brandon429]

hey brutha photosynth they add to it because it generates discussion and ideas! i consider your posts awesome and they keep new discussion material going, my threads never stay up this long thanks to you bud.

 

ill just cut and paste the previous posts and bold in some ideas to your question:

 

hey wait man they are missing, put em back if you can photo!! I see you were trying to be helpful deleting them but what you wrote was more helpful than it's absence! I will type pages and pages anyway, your questions gave me an excuse to do it other than being eccentric lol

 

this is how I dose C Balance below. Some choose not to dose, but coralline is light.

Sunday-spotfeed heavily each coral and invert, change 100% water

Monday-dose 1/3rd capfull C Balance yellow bottle calcium mornings only never ever dose after lights on in a pico*

Tuesday-1/3rd capfull C Balance Blue bottle mornings only

Wed-skip dosing and you can either feed or not feed lightly.

Thursday-yellow bottle 1/3rd cap

Friday-blue bottle

skip sat or sometimes I feed real heavy and let it swirl around till Sunday morning, start all over again.

 

You can purple up any vessel ranging from half to 1 gallon with this exact method, enjoy! forgot I once had a small clown too make that 3 total fish in ten years.

 

*morning dosing rationale:

all marine tanks are best dosed in the mornings, this is the highest CO2 period for a photosystem and pH is lowest due to dissolved CO2, as carbonic acid, before light-driven photosynthesis strips it back out of the water during the day and raises pH. Your pH spikes less if you dose in the mornings. Larger tanks simply have better dilution and aren't as sensitive, but a relative once taking care of my tanks forgot to come over a.m. and one mL of the blue bottle killed every coral I had in a palmtop reef within 1 hour, to the skeleton. Mass destruction all because they thought lights on/afternoon was trivial thats what I get for messing with 1 galloners eh

[Weetabix7]

I agree very much that the recent question and answer was generating some discussion that I personally found very helpful.

Pls keep it going!!!

[non-photosynt]

With your permission, Brandon, I'll ask for more "how-to".

 

I don't know if folks here realize why your experience is so invaluable:

 

1.This was the one and only longest lived subgallon pico tank.

 

2. It was kept without natural sea water, filtered in laboratory conditions.

 

3. Being skimmerless subgallon sps tank; kept under PC lights, more of this rarely is ever changed PC bulbs. The usually required turbulent, not laminar flow, was produced by a single pump.

 

4. SPS were placed in close proximity of each other, not 6" between them

 

5. SPS, LPS, softies and nasties (aggressive hydnopora, galaxea, sliming leathers) were in the same tank, and this pico reef was alive and well.

 

6. Tank without chemical and visible biological filtration. Usually LR takes most of the place.

 

7. Reef Vase is the rare example of using round vessel, especially for a pico.

There is a lot of pitfalls with this type of tank, from finding place for heater, pump and filtration to LR and corals placement that will not interfere with all detritus removing during water changes. Try to target feed coral, positioned sideways, when it is not open, and you fight the gravity. Much more food should be introduced than when mouth of coral faces up. And so on.

 

8. The problem of pico tools for pico tanks was solved. Each one on us fights this problem on one's own, with nimble magnets as the smallest available. Yet solution is known.

 

9. Keeping corals' growth in check in a very small tank (coral pruning) is always a problem. From how to access, how to remove part of very hard stony coral (there are such, have them) without breaking the tank, to fighting slime production and tank crash due to that.

 

10. Even so small thing like using super glue for attaching corals. Curing CA glue in so small volume, as many tips and tutorials say, may be poisonous if too much glue was added at once. Too little, and it will not hold. Finding how to manage this, for so many corals in so small volume, is a discovery by itself.

 

11. Another small, but important thing, when setting pico tank: which hardware is better (more reliable than other, holding temperature better, not going wild and cooking all alive), working so for years If not - then how frequently replace it. Or what wattage of the heater should be used: 10W, 25W or 50W? Which water pumps are the smallest and slowest, and so on. You see my point.

 

12. Handling acrylic picos, that are prone to scratches. If move all reef wall from scratched container to the fresh and new one, how to do that.

 

13. Setting limits: when it will not work or become troublesome.

 

14. Last but not least, how many of us would like to keep more new and interesting corals without discarding the old, well known one? The one's own repository of corals you ever had. That do not require too much place, too much money to keep. In case if interests change again - you don't have to pay $50 for each again.

 

See your later.