500ml Wheaton Jar Experiment

[dgphelps]

In addition to two pico reef tanks I decided to do a little experiment. While not 100% marine based, half of this project is so I thought I would track it here and see if anyone has any ideas for evolution etc.

 

I have several 500ml Wheaton lab jars. My son convinced me to take some water from our outdoor pond one day to see what was in there and that turned into his first "tank". It is home to mosquito larvae, clam shrimp, fairy shrimp, and other random vernal pool bugs including a very quickly growing planaria. It's been going strong for over a month so I decided to bring this experiment to my office at work.

 

In one of the jars, I copied our home jar and added a dry leaf, anacharis, a few pieces of duckweed and fairy weed, detritus from the bottom of the pond and a super small marimo algae ball. I plan to do a weekly feeding with a mix of spirulina, chlorela, yeast, and sea monkey packet 3 powders which I added to a vial and mixed it together.

 

In the other jar, I took the detritus and a small amount of sand from our reef tanks water change bucket and a clump of chaeto. On a weekly basis I plan to do a 100% water change using old water from the reef tank with the theory that will help seed it and bring nutrients from the main tanks to the chaeto.

 

Both jars will remain at room temperature in my office which sits at 69F during the work hours and can get warmer when the building is closed - it never gets colder since we are on the top floor.

 

I used an LED light with a mix of 1w cool white (9) and actinic (6) bulbs that came with the Marineland contour kit over the top on a timer for 8 hours a day.

 

I'd like to add something of interest to the chaeto jar, maybe an aiptasia or some really, really robust coral polyp that can handle the lower temps? Any ideas?

 

 

 

[Dr.Brain Coral]

Sweettttt

[TheElysia]

That's an awesome idea. In the freshwater jar, add some of the fairy shrimp, if you haven't yet. And regarding an idea for a coral in the saltwater jar, I'd say a mushroom coral, if any, as they are very hardy. Still, I'd be very careful with that.

[Sunstar]

go aptasia because they can nearly survive anything.

[dgphelps]

I've already added the fairy shrimp and clam shrimp eggs - should start to see some of those in the next week or so. We have a local clam shrimp that popped up on its own in our other jar so I expect I will get some of those already.

 

Yes, I'd also not feel bad about a few aiptasia if they did die - the only issue is I only have one in my reef tank, I will have to chisel the frag it came in on since it is deep inside a crevice and I just saw it last night. I checked everything else and no signs of any others which I hope remains true.

 

Excited to see if anything has changed on Monday when I get back in to check on the jars. I'l grab a photo or a short video of the more established pond jar we have at home tomorrow to show what I am hoping to achieve in the one at work.

[VW_TDI_02]

From what I'm getting, you're making a Walstad Tank. I have a 10 gallon Walstad tank if you want more information. By Walstad I'm referring to Diana Walstad and her book (can't remember the name but I have it somewhere as a .pdf). Pretty much you have enough plants in there sucking up nutrients in order to offset the added nutrients from feeding. Often CO2 is the limiting factor when it comes to plant growth but that is why floating plants are so important. The take advantage of the "aerial advantage" in which they can pull CO2 from the air as opposed to from the water like most plants.

[dgphelps]

Interesting, I will look that and your tank up to learn more. I read a bit about diminishing return of CO2 from plants in an enclosed system; essentially while plants produce oxygen, they do also produce CO2 just at a much lower rate which leads to slowing of growth and eventual decline. I have the lids placed on but not shut, they just sit on top to allow some transfer while reducing evaporation which is likely more important for the marine jar as any evaporation would cause larger salinity changes. That is also why I wanted life in each to produce a bit of CO2 and waste.

 

The marine jar doesn't have any plant life ABOVE the waterline, but the freshwater one does. I added the leaf not only to provide slowly decomposing nutrients for the bacteria to live on, but also as a carbon source. I also read that by being unsealed there would still be some CO2 input, albeit low. Time will certainly tell and I will modify as things progress if needed. I am relatively sure I can keep the freshwater jar going for a while but am less confident about the marine jar and chaeto - temperature is low and there is less of a full circle but then again I do plan to do water changes in that one leaving the sediment, or most of it and not really planning any water changes for the freshwater jar.

[VW_TDI_02]

Yea, I'm less.familiar with the saltwater jar than what is going on with the freshwater one. As long as you have some sort of nutrient source, the duckweed will adapt. You will get some co2 from regular gas exchange at the surface but not a lot. That's the benefit of the floating plants. The whole walstad idea is very light stocking, nutritious substrate, and a lot of plants.

[dgphelps]

The Wheaton jars were wrong for this, the opening was so small it made it tough to feed and add substantial rock in the marine jar. So i switched to another jar type that holds 800ml water and moved the inhabitants and water over. I added a small live rock to the marine jar and took some small frags of star polyps and anthelia though they haven't seemed too happy since I hacked them.

 

I have been feeding both jars 2-3 times a week; the marine jar gets a small drop of Photo and Reef Energy A&B, and the Freshwater jar gets a small scoop or two of yeast, first bites, spirulina powder mixture.

 

Both tanks have tons of "pod" life - copepods, isopods, and amphipods in the marine jar and mostly clam and fairy shrimp along with a fat planaria in the freshwater jar.