Jarquarium Challenge

[CarrillXXP]

Very cool, and I like the glass globe idea, I may tag along when I have some more money.

Edited March 4, 2012 by CarrillXXP

[Jacob042426]

?⚡?

[Whys]

I still can't wait to do this.

 

Whys- It sounds like the creatures that only need micro algae to survive are the ones thriving.

 

Yeah, probably the same reason that's all NASA put in theirs.

 

I am fascinated by the success of the polychaete worms however. Now the question is... will red shrimp breed in 1.019 SG? Could be awhile before I know the answer to that one.

[animalmaster6]

It could happen. You never know!

[jbowser]

I have no idea about the temps...

My goldfish stays at 65 so I guess somewhere between 65 and 75...

Although I must say that the jar only gets about 4 hours of direct sunlight and after that only indirect.

 

Jb

[herranton]

This is Patrick

I actually set this up about 8 days ago, and I have been procrastinating at getting a thread up. Maybe this week sometime....Maybe.

 

Honestly, Its a miracle that I got this far. Thank god it requires no input from me from now on. The perfect little (sorta)reef.

[Whys]

Lol.

 

Bad news for mine. Today 4 of the 5 red shrimp are dead. The only one still living is the one that never turned red. There is a small reading on the Ammonia Alert, and I know actual ammonia levels can be higher than what's indicated on the badge, but I've had some experience with these badges and the reading just seems too minimal to be the cause.

 

I actually suspect lack of oxygen. Either the algae isn't producing it like it should be (dead and decaying?), or the nitrification cycle is using it up too quickly. But this is just a hunch.

 

I'm going to do a significant water change at some point today and will probably shift the specific gravity downward slightly, since all the amphipods appear to be dead anyway. I'll be curious to see how the polycheate worms do in the lower SG.

[Whys]

Nah, it had to be the ammonia. I'm wishing I had done a simple sniff test a day or two ago, because it smelled bad. Overly confident I suppose. My best guess as to the alert badge is that they are even less reliable without flow.

 

Too much die off from the sand and amphipods. Less sand would have helped, but honestly, I should have allowed it to cycle without the shrimp. I just wasn't expecting that much die off.

 

The algae clump actually looks healthy.

 

I've removed all but the shells, a few of the larger pebbles, and performed a 98% water change. It was a real challenge not to harm the shrimp, but I managed.

 

So... lessons learned prior to sealing the jar, lets review:

 

• Sand taken from high light, moderate flow, then placed in low light, no flow, will experience significant die off.
  
• In a no flow system, a simple sniff test is a more reliable indicator of toxicity than an Ammonia Alert badge.
  
• Green Hair algae taken from the overflow appears to work as intended.
  
• Spionid worm fail.
  
• Amphipod fail.
  
• Polychaete worm successful.
  

Edited March 6, 2012 by Whys

[animalmaster6]

This is Patrick

I actually set this up about 8 days ago, and I have been procrastinating at getting a thread up. Maybe this week sometime....Maybe.

 

Honestly, Its a miracle that I got this far. Thank god it requires no input from me from now on. The perfect little (sorta)reef.

Noice!

 

Lol.

 

Bad news for mine. Today 4 of the 5 red shrimp are dead. The only one still living is the one that never turned red. There is a small reading on the Ammonia Alert, and I know actual ammonia levels can be higher than what's indicated on the badge, but I've had some experience with these badges and the reading just seems too minimal to be the cause.

 

I actually suspect lack of oxygen. Either the algae isn't producing it like it should be (dead and decaying?), or the nitrification cycle is using it up too quickly. But this is just a hunch.

 

I'm going to do a significant water change at some point today and will probably shift the specific gravity downward slightly, since all the amphipods appear to be dead anyway. I'll be curious to see how the polycheate worms do in the lower SG.

That's really a bummer

 

Nah, it had to be the ammonia. I'm wishing I had done a simple sniff test a day or two ago, because it smelled bad. Overly confident I suppose. My best guess as to the alert badge is that they are even less reliable without flow.

 

Too much die off from the sand and amphipods. Less sand would have helped, but honestly, I should have allowed it to cycle without the shrimp. I just wasn't expecting that much die off.

 

The algae clump actually looks healthy.

 

I've removed all but the shells, a few of the larger pebbles, and performed a 98% water change. It was a real challenge not to harm the shrimp, but I managed.

 

So... lessons learned prior to sealing the jar, lets review:

 

• Sand taken from high light, moderate flow, then placed in low light, no flow, will experience significant die off.
  
• In a no flow system, a simple sniff test is a more reliable indicator of toxicity than an Ammonia Alert badge.
  
• Green Hair algae taken from the overflow appears to work as intended.
  
• Spionid worm fail.
  
• Amphipod fail.
  
• Polychaete worm successful.
  

Interesting. I'm little surprise you lost the Spionid Worm. Are all the Polychaete Worms still alive?

[Whys]

Look on the bright side: I still have one shrimp.

 

The polycheates were on the rise. I don't know how many are still in there now that much of substrate has been removed, but I'll watch for them.

 

The spionid might have been killed when the jar got down to 60 degrees. I'm not certain, but it disappeared very early. I'm more curious why you would expect it to succeed.

Edited March 6, 2012 by Whys

[animalmaster6]

I'm not certain, but it disappeared very early. I'm more curious why you would expect it to succeed.

They seem pretty hardy and likely that they would survive.

[Whys]

herranton, I see Patrick is not currently red in color.

 

When I received the 5, only 1 was red. Within a few days, they were all red except 1. That was the only one to survive the toxic water. Now, only one day after removing the corpses and performing a 98% water change, that 1 shrimp has turned a vibrant red.

 

Huh...

[herranton]

herranton, I see Patrick is not currently red in color.

 

When I received the 5, only 1 was red. Within a few days, they were all red except 1. That was the only one to survive the toxic water. Now, only one day after removing the corpses and performing a 98% water change, that 1 shrimp has turned a vibrant red.

 

Huh...

LOL,

 

When I got my shrimp, I had 3 that were bright red and 4 that were clear to redish. I set up two jars. one with Patrick, some shells, and a bit of LR that had GHA, bubble algae, a small aiptasia and four shrimp. The second jar had a very large piece of LR taken from my LFS's rock pool, a smaller piece with a bit of GHA and aiptasia, a bit of chaeto, and 3 shrimp. Both tanks have a thin layer of crushed coral at the bottom.

 

They are lit by a 3500k(ish) 17 watt screw in CF lamp that is about 3 feet away. The lamp stays on for about 8 hours everyday on a timer. My LEDs are still sitting in a post office in a Hong Kong somewhere

 

I haven't looked at the jars since Monday night and they seemed to be doing fine except for a few issues. In the jar with the large piece of LR, I can never find all 3 shrimp I seem to always see the same two, but I am not sure. They seem to like to hide in the rock. There are tons of little holes in it for them to explore. Also in this jar, the aiptasia died and I found a small dead bristle worm. (I think it was a bristle worm).

 

In Patrick's jar, I think one of the shrimp died, but again, there are some good hiding places and I haven't looked at it for long enough to figure it out. Also the aiptasia is dead. I don't think that aiptasia is very well suited for no flow environments. I knew that going in, but I figured that it was aiptasia, the hardiest thing in the world and impossible to get rid of, so I thought it might be ok.

 

All of the remaining shrimp seemed happy as could be, as far as I can tell. They seemed to be doing shrimp like things and stuff. The algae has neither grown nor shrunk, and has stayed the same color.

Edited March 9, 2012 by herranton

[Whys]

I just ordered some LEDs for my refugiums. FedEx spent a week moving it from Kentucky to the pacific coast, just so they could then drop it in a USPS drop box, where it then back tracked east a few hundred miles before finally arriving. Such is the shipping for back ordered items. Or maybe it was the tornadoes?

 

So what's so special about theses LEDs from Hong Kong? Details? Pictures?

 

The filter feeders do not appear to do well without flow. It really is tempting to attempt flow.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Whys

[herranton]

So what's so special about theses LEDs from Hong Kong? Details? Pictures?

There is really nothing special about the LEDs from China. The are generic 3535 strip leds, I think about 1/6(one sixth) watt each. I have used them before in a different application. You get them in a 34 foot long strip about half an inch across with the LEDs spaces about an inch apart. You can cut the strip to different lengths every 4 inches or so. Here is a link to them: White leds And some pics:

 

I got some blue and some white so I can have a sunrise/sunset thing going on.

[AquaticEngineer]

Tabletop Tidepool Update

 

Phytoplankton bloom again, I expected as much since the algae I use in the jars came out of my phytoplankton grow outs.

 

Not a bad thing by any means.

 

I have been experimenting in a few of the jars that had phyto blooms by using mussels for a filtration mechanism. The large mussels overfiltered the jars and I had die offs of the shrimp within 5 days everytime. Last time I went out collecting I brought home a couple clusters of the smallest mussels I could find. The mussels are all under 1/2" and the total cluster size of each is about 1" squared.

 

I put those in on sunday and the phyto bloom is now to the point that you can see the shrimp again, lol. I figure another week and it should be under control.

 

I guess this just means I'm keeping the water parameters closer to what a true stagnant splash-zone

tidepool would be like since the algae, tigriopus, phyto, shrimp, and now mussels seem to be liking it

 

Video of the Sitka Shrimp and Tigriopus Californicus

 

 

And Pics

[Whys]

Looks like you have a real plan. Thank you for the update and photos!

 

I've linked the video to your showcase.

[Whys]

These last few days, sunlight has been sporadic, at best. I thought the jar might like a little more light, so decided to place it closer to the window. I knew it would get direct sunlight there and was curious to see how that might effect temp, so I was sure to watch the thermometer closely. My one remaining shrimp, lets call him Twitchy, was darting about as normal.

 

Fast forward a couple hours. Where's the shrimp? The thermometer reads 79 degrees, so I move it into the shade. After a couple minutes there, it becomes evident that direct sunlight was causing the thermometer to give a false reading and that actual water temp was much closer to 73 degrees. But where's the shrimp?

 

I eventually found Twitchy lying on his back, not moving. I sighed with some dismay, as I was uncertain just what it was that had killed him. I don't think temperature did it, and while ammonia is certainly a possibility, this shrimp recently survived much worse. Wondering if sealing the jar then placing it in direct sunlight had a sudden and adverse effect on water chemisty. I'm without a reliable ammonia tester at the moment, but the water looks and smells drinkable and the tuft of green algae remains healthy and unchanged. I did do a pH test: 7.7. That's down from an original pH of 8.0.

 

Resigned to his fate, I moved to remove the corpse, when suddenly --he twitched! Unfortunately, he's been like this for the last couple days now. He just lies there like a corpse, but still twitches when disturbed. I've done another water change, but I don't think Twitchy is going to make it. It could be a failure to molt. In any case, he'll soon die of starvation if nothing else. I might put him under the scope to see what I can see before that happens.

 

Anyway, that's that. I'm out! Now will the rest of you kindly show me how it's done.

[Whys]

Video:

[Whys]

herranton, I see your shrimp, but I don't see your jar. I need to see at least something of your jar to add it to the showcase. I know you're probably planning some grand unveiling, in which case, I'm simply explaining. Also, have you created a thread for it?

 

An updated photo from pj86 would also be nice.

 

I'll probably get back in this at some point, but not right now. In the mean time, I'll continue to moderate the thread.

[herranton]

herranton, I see your shrimp, but I don't see your jar. I need to see at least something of your jar to add it to the showcase. I know you're probably planning some grand unveiling, in which case, I'm simply explaining. Also, have you created a thread for it?

I wish I could say I had some grand unavailing coming. In reality, I'm just lazy....

 

Canned shimp

 

Edited March 20, 2012 by herranton

[AquaticEngineer]

Well I decided to kick it up a notch on the Table Top Tidepools since I got my phyto bloom taken care of now with the addition of micro mussels.

 

I went ahead and added a coraline covererd rock to the smaller jar and decided to try out one my Aggregating Anemones in there.

 

I decided on the Aggregating Anemone because it does still utilize photosynthesis as well as eat on anything it can catch. In this system it should have more than enough Tigriopus swimming around to keep it happy. The shrimp seem to be smart enough to stay out of the reach of the stinging tentacles so I wont worry about them. The Aggregating Anemones are another one of the hardy tide pool inhabitants that I regularly collect, and they dont get extrememly large.

 

Photos will be up in a bit when the water settles from me dropping rocks in there, lol.

[pj86]

An updated photo from pj86 would also be nice.

 

Girlfriend has the jar. I will ask her to take a photo. There are now

3 amphipods,

2-3 colonista snails,

the asterina starfish didn't make the move,

Algae has grown very nicely

GSP, zoa, taodstool (didn't know it was there but it started growing from a little piece) and mushroom doing great

Sponges have appeared

 

Havent done anything to it except, the transfer to her place, and one top off. It is crazy how well this little jar is doing.

[pj86]

Here is an updated photo as promised

 

 

[rb1685]

I'm about to jump on this little mad-scientist bandwagon.

 

Bought one of these from Bed Bath & Beyond for about $7.00. It's 4" in diameter and 5.5" high with a locking lid. Very clear acrylic.

 

 

I plan to keep it on my desk at work (which has no natural sunlight), so I will have artificial lighting on a timer. My dad has a LED light with a magnifying glass built in, and thought it would be perfect for this project. I think they have them at Hobby Lobby.

 

It kinda looks like this:

 

 

Updates coming soon!!!