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Coral Vue Hydros

Reef in a Jar!


jacobsears

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As an end of the year project in one of my science classes, we were assigned to create an ecosystem in some type of closed container. The winner is the one whose ecosystem lives the longest (or dies the slowest). Most everyone is going the freshwater route, but I decided to do saltwater. My current plan is as follows-

- I've got a ~40 oz jar filled up to about the 2/3 mark

- A desk lamp with a 50/50 (daylight/acintic) compact fluorescent bulb

- No heater, room temperature should be a pretty stable 70-72 (I hope)

- I built a magnetic stirrer for water flow. I'm pretty excited about this part. It seems like most people who try to do this have a problem with water movement, and I'm thinking the stirrer will do a good job at solving this problem.

- Some live rock of course

- Not sure about corals. Any suggestions? I need something that can survive at cooler temperatures and less than ideal conditions. I was thinking zoanthids, mushrooms, and GSP. Maybe exclusively majano anemones? I've heard they're pretty much impossible to kill.

- As far as macro algae goes, I was planning on using cheatomorpha, unless anyone has a better idea.

- I'm still not sure about livestock, are there any inverts that'd be small enough? Snails, shrimp, etc. Don't worry, I'm not about to put a fish in this thing.

I'm starting this thread in the event that the jar survives more than a few days, as I'd like to have something to track it's progress.

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Above is the jar itself. Some carefully cut and siliconed eggcrate will hold the live rock above the magnet on the bottom. Also, the magnet on the bottom isn't nearly that big, the curved glass just magnifies it a little bit.

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Here's the stirrer that I made. It doesn't look great, but I'm pretty proud of it.

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Jellyingabout

Have you thought about coral that will aid the water movement, such as xenia. maybe even a cassiopeia jellyfish plus they are really hardy, not to mention the jellyfish is pretty darn cool.

 

 

A yellow tang should fit in there

 

You gotta keep hush with talk like that, the tang police are everywhere. even in the walls

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Andrew_Reef90g

I DIY alot of stuff, but I'm BLOWN away with your mag stirrer setup. That's AWESOME!!

Agreed. Following along!

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Stir bar is sick! If you keep it long term, you could even paint the section of the jar that the bar is visible for aesthetics :)

You're definitely winning this science project competition :P

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post-87344-0-40569700-1429064177_thumb.jpg

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You can see the eggcrate that I've added to keep the rock above the magnet. Tomorrow I'll be going to the lfs to get the remaining supplies that I need.

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Extremely awesome. I have some jars like this. For macro I use ulva sp and chaeto.

 

I also think majano, and a healthy population would work. Gsp or mushroom coral should be hardy enough too. Most important is good live, live rock. The tough part will be food given the closed tank. I assume you close it and leave it be? No food, no water changes? If so good pod life before you close is key. They will provide some ambient life and hopefully any algae growth will feed them keeping them strong. So get that gnarly rock huddled in the corner at the LFS or some you know's sump! Get your chaeto with pods living in it.

Tiny hermit maybe... With good quality live rock, a good clean salt water to kick it off, and some basic corals you should see much longer than a few days. Pro tip, add your corals to the live rock and leave in an established tank a week before you put it in if you can. Freshly fragged they have a hard time snapping back in the lower temp and constrained space - I know from exp. :(

Or just get rock with corals growing on it already.

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Extremely awesome. I have some jars like this. For macro I use ulva sp and chaeto.

 

I also think majano, and a healthy population would work. Gsp or mushroom coral should be hardy enough too. Most important is good live, live rock. The tough part will be food given the closed tank. I assume you close it and leave it be? No food, no water changes? If so good pod life before you close is key. They will provide some ambient life and hopefully any algae growth will feed them keeping them strong. So get that gnarly rock huddled in the corner at the LFS or some you know's sump! Get your chaeto with pods living in it.

Tiny hermit maybe... With good quality live rock, a good clean salt water to kick it off, and some basic corals you should see much longer than a few days. Pro tip, add your corals to the live rock and leave in an established tank a week before you put it in if you can. Freshly fragged they have a hard time snapping back in the lower temp and constrained space - I know from exp. :(

Or just get rock with corals growing on it already.

Thanks for the advice. Yes, the plan is to close it off completely- no water changes, top offs, gas exchange, or feedings. I don't think that a hermit would work because it would easily fall through the eggcrate and be unable to climb back out as it gets knocked around by the spinning magnet. Also, what's your success rate with keeping corals in these types of things? I've got some GSP and some zoas that I'm scared to use because I really like them and don't want to end up killing them.

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Hmm yes. In that case I'd probably steer clear of anemone too, they might detach and end up mushed by the magnet.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. However, if they're larger than a half inch square they'll be too big to fall through.

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Van Schwank

Snails will definitely eat the algae that grows in there... I would go as simple as possible, I would try to cover that egg crate up with some sort of mesh something finer that still allows flow, and there are some people that sell nano conchs in the livestock classifieds I would go with those. It's just so small... you know. Oxygen will be an issue at night when the plants stop producing and start consuming it. I would go as small as possible on the animal side and also try not to add too much macro algae as well... otherwise you might not make it through one night.... but hey this is just me guessing...

Have you thought of shrimp... I saw this a few years back and always thought it was rather neat... maybe it will inspire you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosphere_%28aquarium%29

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Snails will definitely eat the algae that grows in there... I would go as simple as possible, I would try to cover that egg crate up with some sort of mesh something finer that still allows flow, and there are some people that sell nano conchs in the livestock classifieds I would go with those. It's just so small... you know. Oxygen will be an issue at night when the plants stop producing and start consuming it. I would go as small as possible on the animal side and also try not to add too much macro algae as well... otherwise you might not make it through one night.... but hey this is just me guessing...

Have you thought of shrimp... I saw this a few years back and always thought it was rather neat... maybe it will inspire you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosphere_%28aquarium%29

I definitely agree, the simpler it is the longer it is likely to last. I wouldn't be adding any sort of livestock had it not been a requirement of the project. What exactly is the problem you see with adding too much macro algae though? I've never kept any sort of macro algae before so this part is new to me.

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Put some Aptasia in there, nothing seems to kill that stuff! Plus to the average person in may look cool, just call it a glass anemone or something cool sounding. That thing may out live us all in that jar. You would be a shoein for the win.

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yeah sure, they are animals arn't they? crustaceans to be precise

 

yup. Just tell them that they are nocturnal animals and show them with a red light.

Put some Aptasia in there, nothing seems to kill that stuff! Plus to the average person in may look cool, just call it a glass anemone or something cool sounding. That thing may out live us all in that jar. You would be a shoein for the win.

Anther good option. What do they even eat?

 

I think the big issue is gas exchange like others have said. That will be an issue for everyone though. With freshwater they may have the advantage since I believe freshwater holds more oxygen but I'm not sure.

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Jellyingabout

I would go keep the temp as low as possible going for low temperature tolerant organisms. Oxygen is much more diffusive/soluble at low temperatures.

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Would pods count as lifestock??

Yeah, I think that I'm going to try to get away with nothing but pods and whatever else comes in on the live rock. Does anyone have any thoughts about GSP? Could it handle the lower temperatures and reduced flow/light? What about Kenya tree coral? I've got two big pink ones in my display tank right now and they're by far my favorite coral.

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Jellyingabout

GSP will be happy at a minimum of around 72F the copedpods will be fine in cooler temps. kenya tree coral is found in the wild at temperatures as low as 68F

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