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Jarquarium, finally live and running


impactfour

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Hi all, so having created a few successful planted freshwater self sustaining eco systems, I have decided to take on a new challenge, Im taking a sealed jar from walmart: http://www.buildmyled.com, this kit would have 7.9 watts. Im going to run a potentiometer and a 0-10v driver for dimming.

 

For a fixture, im going to be making a wood box, which will hold the pump for for filter and the driver, as well as the potentiometer for dimming, I also plan on putting a valve inline with the pump for the filter, to control flow if need be.

 

Inside the tank will be simple, much like pjreef runs his jars, I plan on placing macro algae, zoanthids, palythoas, and mushrooms inside the tank, after a month long cycle with live rock.

 

After this I will seal the tank and leave it shut until an health problems arise, I am drilling a separate grommeted hole for pulling out water to sample with a syringe, which will result in slight water change, about 50 ml per series of tests, out of roughly 2500 ml total after a lb or so of live rock. Other than that I plan on doing no water changes unless nitrogen levels rise to a toxic rate, which would surprise unless there are deaths.

 

Anyone have any advice or thoughts, only livestock other than coral and macroalgae that I plan on having will be hitchhikers from live rock.

 

 

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Are you going to do a build thread for this? Sounds amazing and I'd like to follow along and maybe try something like this myself.

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I plan to, just pulling together the money currently, also about to move to new housing for 3 weeks, then moving again into my dorm at college, pretty busy right now working as an intern at an aquaculture facility in florida. I will definitely update with photo's once I begin to pull this project together more. Since the filter i will be using works off an airpump, i'm going to be drilling an additional hole at the top for an airline with a valve for oxygen release in case pressure builds, on a similar note, there will also be an airline with a valve towards the bottom for water sampling for testing and easy water changes, the top hole may also be used to nutrient and food addition.

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  • 1 month later...

So, it's been a while, I'm done with my internship, and back to school, so I've been working on my tank a in the spare time i occasisionally get. So I have: Built my led lights, cut and measured the wood for the stand, drilled all holes, put lines in them and siliconed them. I basically need to build the stand, and put all the equipment in place, then it's ready to be filled. Quite excited, pics will come soon.

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This sounds really cool. I would love some more details on what this filter is that you mention and what kind of pump you are using. I also have no idea about gas exchange but I see it mentioned a lot is that an issue? Seems like a really interesting relatively cheap(for the hobby) experiment. I'll be following along.

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I'm using the whisper i3 filter, it's a small filter powered by an air pump, i took out the media and filled it with bio-media, today i built the box for the stand and painted it, i just need to build the light fixture, then put it onto the stand so to speak, and then i can put in the airlines after that and we were all ready.

 

This is the filter by the way:

 

14070.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

So, Everything is done, I built the stand, light fixture, drilled and sealed all lines, installed the valve system for the water change system, and have tested the tank, to ensure it's water-tight. Everything is ready for water and rock, but that's going to be a bit of time unfortunately. I need to move the light fixture forward, but here it is:

 

 

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i like it. i'd put a coupla inches of sand in it. then get rid of that filter.. just use a rigid air hose. and i love the water changer...

 

yeah, get some good old tank sand from a good source and slowly add it over a week to a nice depth where the worms can bury themselves i it... that'll stabilize it for you, and pretty much anything that you wanna keep in there...

worms are a good sign.

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I can grab sand from st. pete beach, no problem, I think i'm gonna keep the filter though, maybe ill run the tank without to see what it's like, but i like it.

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lnglostsurfer

I would be weary grabbing sand from the beach. The beach is kind of a natural filter for the ocean as the waves crash up onto the beach and run back down, it will leave a lot of debris and nasty stuff in the sand. Your best bet for getting sand from the ocean would be to go out a ways into the gulf (which is easy since it stays relatively shallow pretty far out). I lived out on Clearwater beach for a bit and researched doing the same thing.

 

Your best bet will really be to talk to fellow reefers (or your boss since you work at an aquaculture facility). With the small amount of sand that you will need for this, it shouldn't be an issue taking a few cups out of someones tank. Or a couple tanks.

 

The issue I see with the filter would be

A) It would clutter the look of the jar

B) I feel that the rubble in the filter would just trap all kinds of detritus and junk. If you are planning a no-maintenance type system I think the only thing you would need would be an airline for some water flow. Or better yet, what about an aqualifter that you can pull from one side of the tank and put back into the other? That way you wouldn't have to have a "pressure valve" to release extra air added by the air pump. The more 'sealed' you can keep this system, the less top offs and water changes I think you would have to do. The pjreef jars are completely sealed with no flow at all.



P.S....Loving the landyachts boards, me and some buddies used to bomb the sand key bridge all the time along with some parking garages around Clearwater. Those boards are beasts

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I would be weary grabbing sand from the beach. The beach is kind of a natural filter for the ocean as the waves crash up onto the beach and run back down, it will leave a lot of debris and nasty stuff in the sand. Your best bet for getting sand from the ocean would be to go out a ways into the gulf (which is easy since it stays relatively shallow pretty far out). I lived out on Clearwater beach for a bit and researched doing the same thing.

 

Your best bet will really be to talk to fellow reefers (or your boss since you work at an aquaculture facility). With the small amount of sand that you will need for this, it shouldn't be an issue taking a few cups out of someones tank. Or a couple tanks.

 

The issue I see with the filter would be

A) It would clutter the look of the jar

B) I feel that the rubble in the filter would just trap all kinds of detritus and junk. If you are planning a no-maintenance type system I think the only thing you would need would be an airline for some water flow. Or better yet, what about an aqualifter that you can pull from one side of the tank and put back into the other? That way you wouldn't have to have a "pressure valve" to release extra air added by the air pump. The more 'sealed' you can keep this system, the less top offs and water changes I think you would have to do. The pjreef jars are completely sealed with no flow at all.

 

P.S....Loving the landyachts boards, me and some buddies used to bomb the sand key bridge all the time along with some parking garages around Clearwater. Those boards are beasts

I've actually placed the filter behind a piece of lexan, and i'm using bio-media instead of live rock rubble. And, the air pressure problem is solved, as for the aqualifter, it's pretty much permanently set up how it is, but i like it, it moves a little extra water for me, but mainly allows for the easy water changes. And hell yea, landyachtz are awesome.

 

As for the sand, I'm still debating it, I might have a friend collect some for me from the gulf, we'll see.

 

Oh, and if im not forgetting anything, I used:

1. 130 fl oz latch sealed acrylic jar

1. Aqua-lifter

1. Whisper i3 internal air-pump driven filter

4. Airlines Valves

4. 90* airline elbows

2. 2 way airline splitters

1. 6"x10" heatsink with: 1. Blue LED 1. Royal Blue LED 1. Warm White LED 1. Neutral White LED 1. UV LED 1. Cyan LED

1. Dimmable Driver with potentiometer

1. 90* pvc pipe elbow

1. T shaped pvc elbow

1. 12"X12" piece of lexan

2. PVC Pipe Clamps

A bunch of airline tubing

Wood

pvc pipe

Reef safe silicone

Reef safe Glue

And black paint

 

to build it

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  • 3 months later...

So I added live rock about a week ago, and have been keeping track of parameters, just waiting for the nitrogen cycle to be finished and then I can start adding soft coral and macro-algae. Everything is going pretty smoothly, surprisingly, my dorms air conditioning has been keeping the tank a little too cold though, so I need to brainstorm up a heater, I was considering a reptile heating bad, or a hermit crab heating pad, placed under the tank. Other than that, I'm considering re-scaping, it's tough to feel like I have enough surface for corals without the tiny tank looking cluttered. On to the shitty cell phone pics (once I add coral, I'll have my girlfriend take some real ones with her camera.)

 

grdm.jpg

 

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pq7z.jpg

 

sorry for the sideways images, the forum's attachment uploader likes to rotate my photos, if anyone has a fix I'd appreciate it, and I'm sure some necks would too.
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Some pictures of the new aquascape, I think im gonna stick with this one. I've started to get a lot of algae growth, which makes sense as ammonia spiked the other day and has dropped, nitrite spiked and seems to being going down, and nitrate is on the rise. Shouldn't be too much longer before I add my clean-up crew, and then coral :)

 

bhf3.jpg

 

ek1k.jpg

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I like the new scape. Shouldn't take much to make this thing look relatively filled. just a handful of frags probably. Looking forward to seeing the progress

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Exactly what I was going for, it was very counter-intuitive, trying to make my aquarium easy to fill is not usually the goal, but with this one, I only want to add a few frags, and a handful of macro-algae pieces, and then let nature take it's course.

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