8 yr old reefbowl 1 gallon vase update

[brandon429]

 

 

Fully reducing sandbed

 

lots of microfauna

 

Not frags, colonies all grown into the rock, cemented together. Coral holds all rock structure in place

 

Lots of 35% peroxide used as needed to clean glass, burn off coralline etc

 

Full water changes weekly

Blastomussa m. frag comes from a line of coral I had in reef bowl one from 2001, so about 13 years cloned in a vase pico it is a fast grower. Over 100 full polyps

 

From 5 transplanted

 

Sps has plated over the reef like a rock eye patch.

[grmoore]

After all these years still beautiful and amazing.

[brandon429]

Thanks for stopping in grmoore!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R237MB2jvb8

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 yr old no electric plugs planted tank. Self contained long term ecosystem 8 foot bamboo shoots

 

The only electric use is the 14k metal halide, not in the tank. High organic content yields co2, no injection needed. 100 year ecosystem for sure. Can run on Window light

 

Breeding colony of cherry shrimp and wild type guppies

[grmoore]

What maintenance do you do on the FW system? Have you had to restock any of the plants or animals?

[.Newman.]

[DannaM]

That's truly amazing Brandon !!!! It absolutely goes to show that there's no "one way" of keeping a healthy thriving reef. Awesome

[flypenfly]

Looks like a perfect candidate for a BioOrb upgrade.

[andi.rahl]

I showed this to my mother and she loved it! Do you have any other threads about this tank? - I'll search in a moment, just thought I'd ask here, too.

[brandon429]

Hi Shiny~! thanks for stopping in, I did a picture article on the vase along with a little sealed reef that can be searched on google, called the history of pico reef biology. just a little rambling about gallon reefs back when big reefs ruled the roost.

Newman I have jealousy issues with your planted shrimp bowls Im new to shrimpin in them and am tempted to dose iodine to help them molt but have held off like we advise in reefing lol. do you dose iodine in any way to yours? I figured/hoped maybe food was enough.

Maintenance on the freshwater setup was designed to be as much as you want, or none. I specifically didn't do a water change on it for the first 5 or 6 years I cant recall...it was to build up heavy, heavy organic loading in the soil from fish and snail waste.

As Nano Sapiens mentioned in some recent posts, advection xfers small particles all throughout the sandbed in aquatic/marine environments and the decaying leaf litter + animal waste makes for a permanent vitamin and Co2 pump for the system such that injection is not needed for massive plant growth. I had used flourite and laterite powder, about 2 lbs, as the bottom substrate layer.

Some of the weaknesses of the bowl is that it wont grow the ultra cool amano-style carpeting growth, perhaps due to no actual CO2 injection (it naturally produces just enough to get by for the easier aquatic plants) and it actually pumped bugs into my house for the first two years

some of that driftwood came out of a lake, to import some natural fauna, and boy did it ever. Tiny little wood lice things that looked like mini centipedes (although not biting or dangerous, I held some for inspections, they are just natural degraders) would crawl out of the tank onto my floor and that was annoying. as in hundreds of them, until their populations dwindled. They were very tiny, only an inch long, but I couldnt wait for that to stop lol.

The vid isn't ultra clear but Ill try to put close up pics later on of the backround wall for the planted tank. I got the idea of a site that sells terrarium goods, I think amazon jungle or something. You take any container you want an amazon backround in, and you use triple expanding foam to lock in some rock, driftwood, a tube for a waterfall etc. Then when it hardens (you hand shape and dremel it into place) you coat the yellow glue surfaces with silicone, then press bark or cork onto it to cover up those yellow spots. The dried result is a sick backround that will hold in place on the back wall and never fall off or degrade. my foam is as tough now as it was in 01 or 02 when this was built.

I haven't been able to post pics since the new site rolled over, Im sure it involves linking to a flickr acct vs the old way of just upload a pic. Ill go try to read how to post them, and put some build pics up for the two systems. thanks for stopping in ladies and gents

B

[brandon429]

the place you buy the large acrylic sphere for the planted bowl is fantasybowls.com

[Kiwi]

you and your vase is the reason, I am into marine tanks now… thank you

[wow.such.chris]

Wow! Not only is the vase itself phenominal but the amount of information on it and its development supplimenting the pictures is unmatched in the vase world. Also done in a very professional and scientific manner, thank you!

 

One quick question that im sure ill find the answer to in one of your blogs. How did you get the heater cord through the little gromet, cut the plug off?

[llama roadkill]

[brandon429]

I indeed did snip away at all cords

 

I simply use 4 holes in the lid. 1 is for heater, 2 are for incoming airlines, and one big one is the feed/water change hole lol that has a big ole cork in it most of the time.

 

since the reefbowl sits next to the sink, I insert hose, siphon all the water out into the drain. leave the reefbowl bone dry, all the corals hanging in the breeze. I wet a little magnet sponge I made with 35% peroxide and wipe all the inside of the tank using the magnet. this removes coralline, algae etc without having to scrape any longer. I scraped with a scouring pad for years, before being shown the peroxide method by reefmiser in our big thread here.

 

I let the bowl sit maybe ten mins bone dry, peroxide baking...then I refill half the bowl with clean saltwater through that 1 inch service hole lol.

 

then I take all that peroxide water back out. lastly, one more total refill to bring everything back up to normal.

 

I only peroxide clean about once a month but I change water weekly, so maybe about 400 full water changes have been done by now

 

some weaknesses in the bowl are: this is power compact lighting from the 90's still, Ive never owned LED reef lights so I dont get that amazing color pop I see on ya'lls tanks. one day for sure

 

I dont care if mostly brown SPS is taking over everything, at least its growing. color improvement is a challenge ongoing. I should have never glued that original montipora frag to the glass

 

another important care method I like to recommend to everyone using deep sand beds (so 1990s) is to thoroughly clean the heck out of it, as often as you can stand to. Mine is blast cleaned once or twice a year.

 

Notice in the video up-close shots, there is relatively evenly-dispersed color patches for algae, some coralline, a little cyano patches, all common in an aged dsb. But you dont see layer after layer of brown gunk penetrating the whole bed, that would have wrecked my tank by now with incessant algae problems.

 

I take the bowl off the cabinet twice a year usually, set it in my sink, and *forcefully* pour 20 gallons of fresh saltwater through it, carrying everything up and over the vase into the sink drain. it really messes up the corals, puts sand all over them etc. but that first two inches is now BLASTED clean and has no more detritus.

 

the corals fix them selves in a day or two, open better than ever, and the process will repeat in 2015 onward as well. Lastly, I have never known what my phosphate and nitrate levels are for this reef as testing for those is optional, having an algae free reef can work other ways. I choose peroxide use occasionally over GFO replenishment occasionally and tedious testing/param chasing.

 

I only have two goals for these systems, live forever and *hope my electricity providers keep the electrons flowing steady to my house lol. one of the incoming airlines on the reefbowl is T'd to a battery powered air pump that switches on during brief power outages. I haven't contrived a heating method for it yet, just lucky so far.

 

Newman pointed out something smart I may need to do. replace the heater proactively before it craps out...killing everything. i paid like $25 for this tetra preset 78 degree heater, its only smart to replace proactively as mine is all crudded up with growth now and its not worth the risk to keep putting off basic preventative maintenance. Im still clicking around trying to figure out how to get some flickr pics on here w try to do by end of day. some close ups of the sandbed and stuff.

[.Newman.]

I hope you replace that heater soon! I thought you did already

 

For the shrimp in bowls, I used re-mineralizer with Distilled water to get a TDS of 100ppm for my crystal shrimp and other soft water shrimp. I used a re-mineralizer that had iodine/iodide in it to help molting.

for cherry shrimp, i just added a few drops of the re-mineralizer to regular tap water for water changes so that they could get a little iodine in their water too.

I used Mosura mineral+ but Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ is great too. also fluval makes one i think.

otherwise if you feed them foods that naturally has iodine in them they will do fine. shrimp have a real problem molting sometimes and i think it is due to trace minerals that they need. and obvious ones like calcium and magnesium.

[brandon429]

Nice~ Thanks man I didn't know there were shrimp mineral additives will check on them thanks! !

[Nano sapiens]

Always awesome to see this. Cool beans :0

[neuwave]

Brandon429- What happened to the tank in your avatar? I remember it from a while back. It was doing great.

[brandon429]

Sold! The only time in my life I ever made a reef profit

 

All else has been a money black hole no return lol

 

It was on display at Omni max science spectrum during a reef weekend thing in June of 05 or 06 can't remember, guy had a wad of cash I accepted and literally picked it up and walked out with it. Me and buddy Jared took the spoils to Dallas and barely made it back with our sanity intact.

 

I still have two of those mini systems in the cabinet unused. They cannot be found any more, you have to custom make them now. Mine were betta tanks called R aquariums whatever that means, no online history of them. I bought all 3 the lfs had the instant they stocked them.

[gogo]

nice to see you keep up the faith with the vase. i love that green eyed orange red favites(?) :47 high five for the pure packed to the rim visual. it reminds of an old ad in FAMA, a picture of a jammed packed reef tank, every aquarist dreamed of...

 

..my one gallon lasted just over three years, then i had to upgrade to 2.6 g. i sometimes feel like i let the bonsai vase community down a little that day.

 

brandon, i gotta say you gotta good little grow op going on there... +1

[jimnyo]

happy birthday to the vase...or birthyear?

anyway, we had a power outage this week, our first with the pico reef and it did get me wondering about what to do if it was longer (i was lucky--only an hour or two and on a warm day). i figured for heat, i could use something like these, which is what i think one company used when they shipped my corals: http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Factory-Large-Hand-Warmer/dp/B002O14BI0/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1384472358&sr=1-1&keywords=body+warmer

 

i was stumped on the air pump, so i was glad when you mentioned the battery pump. is it something like this? http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Series-Battery-Operated-Aquarium/dp/B000256502/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1384471999&sr=8-5&keywords=battery+powered+air+pump

 

if i was REALLY in a pinch, could i use something like this (which i already have), using the smallest nozzle shoved into the air tubing?

[th64]

This is AMAZING!

[jjaro]

right on! thats truely amazing, very cool little setup! congrats on having something so small thrive for so long

[BaristaBob]

Update??

[brandon429]

ok I shall do

Going on 9 yrs 1gallon w sps here are my stats:


This doesnt look like a normal reef compared to tanks of the month where you can actually see space in the bowl, so I expect "that looks ugly" from any status quo perspective. But if we consider the perspective of the longest living pico reef in the world, on any site from any forum at any period of time, allowed to grow unchecked for about 9 years, well she looks fab





pros: zero algae, I have beaten it forever and my phosphates arent great. I test for no params other than temp

I have problematic blue sps growth that has actually killed some corals and overtaken half the bowl, in an ugly manner, but still when is the last time anyone had their pico killed by rampant acroporids. its a nice battle to lose, kind of

my deep sand bed is permanently able to sustain this tank, whereas DSBs are supposed to be a liability. my care methods make it not a liability, and more importantly, a true gas reducer of nitrate. Per the hd video Ill link showing bed bubbles of n2


the negatives:

I am using all retro 90s gear, no led pop. My sps have lots of brown, fluorescent lighting, but this is designed to be old first, pretty if attainable and that wasn't attained lol

From not pruning in 9 yrs, things are somewhat crowded and red mushrooms have overtaken half the tank. Nobody gets out 9 yrs problem free, so what you are about to see when I post pics tonite is a crowded vase half full of mushrooms, brains and sps and lps so crowded you cant believe it.

To save the bowl from death by overtaking of 100 red mushrooms in an 8 inch space, I w soon buy a majano wand and shock them. Ive been putting it off due to 100.00 pricing. I know I can retro fix this and allow the saved corals to regrow, but its not the financial priority right now.

 

Youd think we could just frag out all the sps mass to keep it in check, but in time we see it taking shapes and forms one simply can't clip. I have a 1000% increase in inaccessible sps mass. destructively, its the cost of such a small space and a true test of unstopped growth.

Permanenly beating all algae regardless of nutrient levels and attaining true long term growth was the hallmark of this bowl, not stopping red mushrooms first day was the liability. But, red mushrooms don't make the reef less functional they are just aggressive. My biology is rock solid here, crowd control not so much. Theories about coral allelopathic interactions must change with the advent of pico reef biology, everyone who keeps them contributes to that new knowledge

ThANKS for asking, w make a new video tonite or tomorrow and post