Wow tinyreef!! This tank is really an inspiration! I really like the simplicity and thanks for documenting the setup and progress.... and hope you win the contest on the way as well

thanks for the kind words, baj!

the contest is more of an excuse for me to try things out that's been bouncing in my head for a while. i wanted to do this for the prior contest but it was nano-cube-only. win/lose whatever. i'm just as interested in the various ideas/designs coming out from everyone, e.g. tigah, grizzle, ann (foreign/overseas viewpoints), etc. i've never been a great coral grower so i just hang back.

so the documenting is as much for me learning as showing the process. after this tank i may opt for one of the larger sizes anyway. one thing i'm trying to get around is "viewing of the tank". because of the light source angle the tank has to be situated a certain way, which makes viewing less than optimal.

there's an angled skylight i saw once that allows for a direct top/down drop of sunlight by bending the sunlight like along fiber optics. i'm thinking about that as a farther future project. that way viewing can be done easily anywhere, e.g. middle of the room, 180-degree viewing, etc.

i've been thinking a larger application of this (5.5g or 10g) might actually be more effective. i'm really feeling the cramped quarters of the pico, part of which is the available equipment to be able to apply (i.e. no mods allowed). i think the larger (more popular) sizes have more variety available to them versus the 2.5g.

Update pic



temps have stabilized from the heat wave of yesterday. i'm not 100% sure if it's the colder weather today or the fan though. but at least i've got a glimpse of what to expect come spring/summer.

all the corals seem to be ok, except the clavularia. but it may just be po'd that i was messing with it the other day. (cleaning some cyano off)

coloration still seems to be an issue. the palys i got from seacrop aren't looking like they did in the polybag (bright green). they're looking pukey-brown. bleah. but again, i think it may just be color rendering from the sun (supposed to be CRI 100, ain't it? maybe they mean tropical sun.).

You know what would be interesting is if you suplemented that sunlight with 18w of actinic. That way you could have a more blue reef tank light color.

But that would be cheating the spirit of the experiment.

correct!

but i had been thinking of just putting one up for pics or to check/gauge coloration versus a typical artificially-lit tank.

maybe i'll put a blue LED over it when i take pictures.

Mid-week Update


took this pic from outside the house. most of the corals are showing a lot of expansion. i'm waiting to see if it's growth or light-deprivation.

the shroom looks like it's ready to split though (based on shape/form). it's the grey glob at the bottom. i gotta get a better camera.

the paly colony from seacrop is opened nicely. again, the color isn't as rich as it was when i first got it. i'm afraid the sunlight is subduing some of its emerald green coloration.

one zoanthid colony still seems ticked off though. gonna wait and see.

snails are doing a fine job and most of the zoanthids are taking hold/anchoring down already, couple of new polyps/buds showing. still waiting on the capnella to root but at least it has recovered from its illness from the other tank.

I really like how this tank is turning out, it may not end up as the most beautiful tank in the competition, or even win, but I think it's going to be v interesting to follow. Hopefully we can all learn a few things about lighting needs and effect along the way. The idea of a reflected skylight sounds good for the future too.

I agree, I love this design!

Not sure reflected skylights are going to catch on around where you and I live though Fras!

ouch!

thanks for the good comments at least.

yeah, i've really been thinking on improving my photo skills. one of the main problems i have is that when i'm around the tank is in "sleep mode" already. the brightly lit phase has already passed, whereas in artificially lit tanks we control the photoperiod for optimal viewing times.

but i also think the shabby look of the tank is my crappy camera and photo skills. there's just not enough resolution and clarity, not to mention correct lighting for photos. i'm starting to research that though (a la paradise's photo forum and friends).

the corals are actually beginning to grow nicely (i snuck around an extra hour today to peek in on it). when i come home (during "sleep mode") everything's closed up already and i can't really gauge it too well.

but looking at it today at 9:30AM i can see new polyp growth and richer color. not that i can capture it too well on the crappy pocket digicam i'm using.

i'll try and get better looking pics.

Great idea for the tank. Nice to see something "outside the box" in the stock category.

I love the tank and applaude you for havingthe motivation to try something so different. Only bad thing is now Im wondering if I can get that to work in NE ohio.

thanks, zaraxus!

"thinking out of the box" is what started our niche of the hobby ("40g is the smallest you can have for a reef tank blah blah blah"). so constant challenges to the "norm or accepted" is what we're all about!

perrin does greenhouse reefing in romulus, michigan. that's about the same as NE OH; in fact, probably a degree more northerly.

calfo did greenhouse reefing in western PA, right next to you.

go for it! lighting setup is cheeeep!

Ive began to go over this design in my head and was curious how effective some well placed mirror's would be at adding light to the tank.

you'd probably have to hang that (mirror setup) higher up and "parabolic it/reflectorize" (my engrish) to hit the tank.

i'd be very concerned about the heat generated though. right now for me, the issue isn't the amount of lighting. i'm actually thinking i'm going to have to move back to a north window in the spring/summer.

my main issues so far are the viewability of the tank (due to its placement to accomodate the sun) and flow rates. because it's a Stock competition, i didn't modify the ugf and it has cost me significant flow in the tank.

next-gen, i'll probably do some modifications and use perrin's methods of airtube waterflow. it's kind of a "C" pvc apparatus. designed to create a re-circulating flow.

maybe i'll incorporate a protein skimmer too. (just more ideas bouncing around in my head)

the ideas are telling me to buy another freezer too.

Your ugf doesn't point the water flow across the tank? From the earlier pictures I thought it did. How different is that from this "perrin" technique?

the issue isn't so much the direction but the amount of flow.

perrin's setup allows for an unencumbered inflow, as it's basically just an open pipe inflow-wise (the bottom of the "C") and an open pipe outflow-wise (the top of the "C"). the bubbles rise along the back of the "C", creating the current that pulls-in/pushes-out the water.

with the ugf, the inflow is spread thru out the grille of the grating and somewhat restricted. besides, i don't really want/need the void of the ugf grating. i'm not trying for a plenum or similar setup. increasing the airflow just sucks in the granules, just like you experienced on your setup.

but by using the simple open pipe system perrin's using (btw these are just my dohickey names for his design), i can hold the C-pipe above the substrate and not suck in sand. i can also put in multiple units versus the one in this Stock competition. i've also been thinking of a possible manifold layout too but that's really in-depth and more suited for larger tanks imo.

in addition, i could also divvy up the outflow into multiple outflows in order to aim flow all around the tank. currently, i'm limited to just the one direction.

btw, the ugf's already looking a little scummy in the riser tube. another benefit of perrin's simple design is ease of maintenance.

i may mockup something again ('cause i know i'm not describing this concept very well). i did a unit a while back but never put it in water to test out. again, this contest gave me the perfect opportunity to put into practice these concepts i've been mulling over.

Gotcha, The UGF I'm using is just a 5 inch disc (made for goldfish bowls) so it isn't like it covers the entire bottom. Pretty much little more then a stand holding the pipe. Wasn't sure how different yours was.

But since i had to add the elbow for whatever reason, I was wondering why yours didn't seem to be worked as well as mine is. I clearly see particles (white dots, either air bubbles or pods) flowly easily to the far wall. Since yours appeared to have a directed port i figured you'd be seeing similar.

it's probably similar but i'm getting some dead spots here and there. i just wish i had another "tube" for more flow and more directional control. right now it's just bubble-gurgle-pop! -> flow. the bubble explosion is where the flow comes from. because of the tank/rock layout, the directional updraft is basically muffled.

where it's "high flow" it's decently fast (right by the bubbles' surfacing). but slow areas are basically stagnant. i've had to re-aquascape a bit lately to ease up restrictions to flow.

one good thing though, this pico's issues have made me re-aware of flow rates and directions in my larger tanks. funny thing because i've always espoused flow as one of the main aspects of reefing (for myself at least).

i've also re-aquascaped both of them as well recently and i've already seen a resurgence in the corals in each tank. i had just been lumping in corals and letting them attach where they dropped (literally), rock and coral. now i've tidied things up and everything's looking fine again.

Yeah, too bad I think my main tank has excessive flow and simply has light issues.

But my little pico seems to be good on flow. Looking at it now, it looks like my bubbles blow the water against the long sides, it follows to the end of the tank and then loops back through the middle. It's actually interesting flow and should work well for me I think.

Now just if I can fix the lighting problem on my pico (it has none)

Just curious about how everything is going while I make plans for my own. Currently I have a 20L and a aquaclear Im going to use as a refugium.

things are going very well. i'll probably update with pics later today. i've been moving some frags around for better flow and added a couple of new ones (finally glued one down as it was zoanthid mat-only, i.e. no rock or rubble to anchor itself). i just put in a baby sarco elegans too (my fav coral), a 8 to 12 polyp pico-baby-frag.

i just noticed temps were up again today. again, it's only on sundays that can i really see the tank "perform". it was almost 84F(!) so i changed the fan back to "HI" setting. i had turned it down during the week when i thought it was too low (76F~77F) and the heater seemed to be on too much.

all the coral/polyps are growing well, either significantly enlarging or already shooting off daughter-polyps. coloration is beginning to settle back into them too. while i think they'd probably color/present themselves much better under actinic supps, i'm still quite pleased with their color rendering under the natural sunlight considering it's probably around 6500K for my latitude (tropics is around 5000K iirc).

still waiting on the shroom to split or something but i did notice something unusual about it today. it was "satellite dishing". i.e. it was actually tracking the sun's movement across the sky through the day and moving its crown to capture the optimal lighting.

it "stemmed" up (which could be a light deprivation symptom, so hence my caution still) and moved itself to greet the sunlight as the day wore on. i've never seen that before, i've heard of it for corals but being i've always used stationary artificial lights (like most people) i've never seen it. moving track lighting probably creates the same effect.

the palythoas also do this but less pronounced imo as they sometimes point in different directions due to other reasons. i had noticed the "satellite tracking" on them before but not as obvious as the shroom's movements so i wrote it off as happenstance.

anywho, thanks for the inquiry. i'll update pics soon. my digital photography practice is also limiting things. i'm not as satisfied with most pics i've been taking lately but i'll post something just for update sake.

Sounds like things are going really well with this tank, please do post some more pics.

Best regards

Ann

as you command, milady.



this shot is actually from yesterday (when there was still a little daylight left). the pics from today are too yucky in quality imo. stooopid pos camera.



another angle/viewpoint at the same time. you can tell the sunlight is past peak. iirc it was around 2~3PM (DST, it gets dark around 4PM).

Click to view attachment

this is one of today's snapshots (see? they were all of equally crappy quality). it's a pic of a sarcophyton elegans frag (next to a couple of zoanthids, murky round looking things to the left of the yellow polypy thing-i.e. the sarco).

Doc was right, about your pictures......

awww shaddup, dickboy.

i don't gots no fancy-schmancy canon d20 50-gigapixels up-your-kazoo digitamacal camera like some folks.

if you're so critical why don't you bring your purty lips and camera over to help me take some decent pics?



edit: that post was for dickie, not snoop. altho i fail to see snoop's post pertinence.

I got a Nikon DSLR D50 yesterday....

ohh..and that link Snoop....that was funny $H!+....lol ...

arrrgh! <head-slam>

but.....i didnt pay for it...my parents did...im 13..... :rubs in face:

Not a bad idea......

maybe get one of your kids, one for Christmas......

"but honey, it's for them not me!"

Update



not much to update other than practicing more with the "new"/upgraded digicam. nikon coolpix 995 (3.34 mp) versus the old sony cybershot (2.0 mp). also using photoshop versus oem editor to crop and clean it up.

the top and bottom polyps in the shot above are new growth since the contest start. the corals have begun to "pick up steam" in regards to growth. i guess they're used to the tank now. the varying daylight concerns me a little though (i.e. more cloudy days this time of year). but when direct sunlight's on, it's blaring bright!

there's some more pics in my gallery but more test comparisons of older shots (sorry for the sizing if it's off, still learning PS). trying to get a good angle is also a challenge. i did move the tank backwards into the room/away from the window about 6" for better viewing though. i'll try and post a fts or partial later on.

Very nice I cant wait to get mine up and running Im moving to my new house next weekend going to pickout a good window and get started then.

go sunlight.
nice pics

whoo-whoo-whoo!

thanks, i've been really trying with the pics and upgraded camera. for instance, this used to be a yellow blur in the corner. no matter what i did i couldn't get the pos camera to macro focus.



i finally was able to macro it with the upgraded nikon. the sand tubes below the corals are phyllochaetopterus sp. worms.

the sarco's grown 6~8 polyps (or so i think/guess). and the zoos/palys(?) are the rare exotic brown-people-crappers. ooooh, aahhh, bleh.

anywho, go sun reefs!

Nice pic, much better than before. I like the cute little Sarco a lot.

Best regards

Ann

thanks, i like your shots too. in fact, i use one or two of them (along with some other peeps here) as desktop background.

zarax, i'd set up the tank empty for a week to test temps. check the highs and lows, it'll be a very significant range ime.

also think about how you're going to look at it. that was probably my #1 issue. the photoperiod also bites (if you work/school daytimes). post pics when you set up!

Updates (you get more on long weekends )



finally got some pics of the "satellite-dish" effect i mentioned earlier. the pic above shows the shroom around midday going for full sunlight. chopsticks to the right.

the pic below shows the shroom a little while later as the sun tracks across the sky (it's just beginning to angle to the right/west).



the pic below shows a stoloniferan i've had for a while. it's identical to the "unidentified stoloniferan" delbeek/sprung wrote of in TRA II. i'm sure it's ID'd by now though. it's a very hardy coral and a very fast grower. i'm hoping it anchors down a couple of frags in its vicinity in the tank. damn those bulldozing snails!



the last pic (sorry for the bandwidth hogging), is just an updated pic of the acrylic canopy. it was getting kinda scummy. :insert-pukey-emoticon: i cleaned it off and the condensate's just beginning to start beading again. there was some salt grain/creep buildup because of the organics on the canopy. :pukey-emoticon:



i was in a cleaning mode anyways. did my weekly pint o' waterchange, carbon cartridge, and polyfilter swaps. also pruned some nuisance and chaeto as well.

things are growing pretty well. 'pods, worms, corals, even aiptasia are growing quite nicely. so far so good. i'd rate the growth rate on par with the MH lighting i run on my other tanks, perhaps a little faster than the newer of the other two tanks even. (but that gets into my belief about biotopes yada yada yada)

some hitchhiker corals are also doing well. a pink shroom the size of this "O" fell into the LR a month back but it's now crawled its way into view/daylight. it's now an exotic "dung-brown" from what i can see. also some hitchhiking anthelia(?) from seacrop are beginning to multiply. woo hoo!

you gotta love freebies!

Looking good.... like the pics with the new camera.

Put on some actinics for a FTS.

I'm loving the tank Tiny. I can't wait to see it after it fills out a bit.



Bob

Looking good, does the temp changes on the tank much during the day? - mainly thinking when it moves more towards summer. How did you bend the acrylic for the canopy?

-Mike

thanks, ice! i like the macro option and flexibility the upgrade allows me. plus, the camera was just lying around at work, i had paid for it already but mktg already upgraded without me knowing.

yeah, snoop, i was thinking the same thing. the sunlight really drowns the pics in red/yellow. i gotta set up one of my 13W galaxy lights with actinic for pics. not sure if it would be enough though. will advise.

thanks, bob! i've always admired your setups so i appreciate the compliment. i'm hoping it fills out nicely too. i've been positioning and re-positioning corals keeping in mind future growth. i'm hoping things start looking grown in after 4~5 months. i figure it really won't look mature for another year though.

thanks! yes, there's a very significant temp swing due to the sunlight. without a fan, it's gone as high as 88F+ from a heater stabilized night temp of 77~78F. with the fan on "low" setting the tank still gets into 83~84F range. it needs "high" setting to keep it in 78~80F range.

some of the issue is the limiting of the evaporative cooling. with the enclosed canopy, it gets pretty steamy (as evidenced in the pic above) so not a lot of cooling is gained by evaporation. i am expecting a much more drastic temp issues in the spring/summer just as i see with all my systems, historically speaking.

i had set up a cpu heatsink/fan system on my office nano before and it actually worked pretty well. i may have to do something similar for this setup. i was also thinking of downgrading back to a northern window but the cooling is something i'd like to resolve because i am planning much bigger systems (e.g. 29g, 300+, lagoon, etc...also planning on winning the lottery <sigh> ) in the future. i'd probably just go chiller with the much larger tanks/setups though.

i work in plastic manufacturing already (plastic injection molding) so i have access to heat guns (you can get these at grainger or mcmaster-carr, industrial supply houses). i just held the plastic (already cut to shape, luckily i still have ten fingers) with the gun, basically a industrial hair dryer (altho not the same thing-this can burn the skin off your bone!), and molded the piece as i wanted. i was careful not to overheat so it became too molten though. then i just bonded the end pieces on with methylene chloride (again, plastic mfg access).

thanks for all the comments!

Tiny,

Your updates are such a pleasure to read.

I'm loving the new pictures too, those mushroom shots really do show it responding to the sun nicely. I have to say that my tiny red 'shroom seems to be totally indifferent to the T5 lighting on my Pico.

Best regards

Ann

Weekend Update

the pics this week are a bit biggish so i didn't link them in. they're in my photo album though for those interested. basically, they're just growth updates, various new polyps or body mass growth.

i did finally catch a couple of closeups that i had been trying to get:

one is of a protruding tentacle from one of the phyllochaeto worms inhabiting one of the rocks (baby sarcophyton elegans rock).

the other is of one of the tunicates growing in the pico. most are hidden underneath or hard to photograph. there's this one that's sitting on top of a rock. a bit difficult to make out but i think the pic caught it alright.

another "lucky" pic is the mystery shroom that had been lost in the bowels of the LR when i first started. it's finally showing itself on a regular basis and at least 3x the size it originally was. it's still a yucky brown though.

btw ann, thanks for the comments.



i figured maybe one pic link is ok (upgrade your bandwidth ). this one shows easy comparison to the same colony shown on one of the posts at the top of this page.

just wanted to add that the baby xenia just started pumping!

i thought they were anthelia when they first came in from seacrop as wee little babies hitchhiking with my zoanthids.

they were just tiny greyish nubs that i could barely make out as octocorals at all (they were about the size of this asterick " * "!).

another side note; my chaeto has been growing like bonkers! it's doubling its mass almost every week. i just pruned it (halved it) again, twice now in 6-weeks. i always thought of it as a slow grower but under sunlight it's showing me growth speed!

looks gud. get mor snales

wisenheimer.

thanks for the backhanded compliment.

i've got three astrae and 1-cerith already. they're doing pretty good so far. i'll post a fts later. maybe add another astrae, ok? i still have to figure out the snail problem i've got in the other tank though.

it's the damn aipts that i'm beginning to worry about. time for joe's juice or a kalk vaccination.

Go ahead Tiny.....

Use the Joe's Juice!!!!


You know you really want to.....you just like the sound of it!!!

i think Joan's Juice might be marginally better marketability-wise.

i always thought he should change that moniker. anti-aptasia, apt-off, or something would've been better imo. most of the places i usually order from don't carry it.

btw gimme your rebel so i can take some real pics.