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9 year old 1 gallon pico reef, last full tank shot before cleaning


brandon429

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on pests in the pico reef: act first strike decisive when dealing with algae

 

this was my preemptive strike against valonia down mid page below, a dreaded obligate hitchhiker that can take over a tank if the keeper leaves it in the system, after seeing some. take that reef apart and kill it, see mid page

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/page-11

 

and that's the same if its any algae we have in reefing, green hair algae, gelidium, don't attack the water, hit the algae. again we don't leave algae in a system we are hoping to preserve, and then do something different to the water or nutrients. you remove the algae first, all other actions second.

 

For the vermetids someone holler if im wrong but from what I can see they have to be poisoned with anti gastropod meds which ill have to consider soon, they are my current challenge.

 

Flatworms I did have one time but got lucky with the physicality of the reefbowl, the way the air currents work it funnels/herds all flatworms up top right at the bend of the vase and they can be wiped out with a towel, no treatment needed. for some reason in the mornings they congregate up there, possibly o2 changes diurnally, and are easy lift out targets off the glass at that point, none stayed below. lucky on flatworms. hydroids just the same, I have some but they aren't stinging and I already tested with 35% peroxide its harmless to them. I think they have to be medicated out too but am open to suggestions team

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natalia_la_loca

Thanks for the info :) I'm looking forward to being able to easily do 200%+ water changes allowing for easy spot treatment with peroxide.

 

Do you have any leads on anti-gastropod meds for vermetids? I wonder if any of the commercially available pesticides for garden slugs and snails would be coral-safe as a dip. There are lots of them out there, and given people's level of frustration with vermetids, a dip-style solution would be most welcome.

 

For now, I'm planning to saw and chisel the parts of the live rock that have zoas on them, crush the vermetids, superglue the hydroids, and Bayer dip for flatworms.

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natalia_la_loca

I'll drink to that


oh! I do have a question- Brandon - where do you get the 35% H2O2?

 

I got mine in the refrigerated section at a health food store.

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I'll drink to that

 

I got mine in the refrigerated section at a health food store.

really? I'll look for it there... also don't mix up which hand is your drink and which is the 35% haha

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Thank you much and we both use the same light now dont they rock

I'm hoping the Kessil works well on the cylinder. Its not adjustable like your A160, so I won't be able to turn the intensity down. Given how quickly the light spreads I can only have the light a few inches above the water before I have major light spillage. Did you say you have yours cranked up to full intensity? If so I might have nothing to worry about since the 160 puts out a bit more light than the 150.

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I sure do have it up all the way but it's a foot over the tank

 

Your tank is taller than mine and I still think that'll compensate when I saw your pic it looked perfect balance

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  • 6 months later...

 

update, ten yrs approaching 11 ~ pico went on diet and trimmed up, that brain coral has advanced since last years cleaning too quite a bit. eats rods feed and cyclopeeze.

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Great stuff. Looks so clean and healthy.

 

Isn't that heater a little overpowered for 1 gallon?

 

And I suggest changing the thread title. It's been over a decade of peroxide powered picoreefing! :D

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The pico needs a peroxide tat that is correct I will find a way to edit one in ha! Since these heaters are thermostat controlled it's ok but I wish someone would invent a two inch glass one for micro setups, cheap. It's too dang big

 

Poster .Newman (concerned I have not seen ya two years??) reminded me once to change out my heater preemptively before it ruins w age, and that neo was amazons best deal

 

Seabass I'm highly devastated to report cannot access

 

~~~ dang my rip cleanings. I feared if he let go one evening to traverse and I didn't see he may have been exported. Now there was one time in 2013 I was sure I killed him too, only to resurface in 15 lol but this time am concerned. Not seen anywhere

 

That was to date the only reef organism I've ever traded by mail

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Deleted User 9

Peace Brandon,

 

AWESOME!!!!

It's looking fantastic and I like the open look.

Really glad you stayed on top of your Vase Reef.

Maritza is much happier today.

As per the heater issue, you can use the Betta Stik Heater, with the Finnex Digital Controller.

That's the one that Natalia is using on her Jar Reef.

 

This will eliminate the big heater and the tiny Betta Stik will not obscure the view.

She said that the controller works well. Love the Video..So happy you took some time to put this together

for us all.

 

Much Success and Happiness ..

 

Blessings All.

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+1 @ Maritza

 

I was also going to suggest a little betta heater - I used to have a flat one that sat on the bottom under the sand. It could easily be connected to a temp controller if you don't want to risk overheating.

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Congratulations on ten years, Brandon! I've learned so much from your posts and from this little vase reef. Thanks to you, I'm a firm believer in peroxide, especially on my zoas :)

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Thanks much for stopping by Teenyreef and crew

Am looking at the heater setups off Amazon for the controller etc that was good referral MVR I'd like the space back in the bowl for sure

So glad you asked about the updates and for the original prompt to fix up the red mushrooms nice teamwork Maritza

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natalia_la_loca

Congratulations Brandon, and many thanks for documenting your experiences in vase reefing :)

 

Per MVR's comment, I highly recommend the Betta Stik heater + temp controller combo. Small, simple and reliable (at least thus far).

 

In addition to the Finnex temp controller, I've gotten one from Inkbird but haven't gotten around to testing it yet. The advantage of the Inkbird controller is that the temp probe is removable. The temp probe on the Finnex cannot be removed (at least not without taking the whole thing apart and probably voiding the warranty).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Brandon, I absolutely love this vase. I have a couple of questions that I hope you can answer please.

 

  • What is you opinion on LR or corals touching the "back" wall
    • I ask because I wonder which is better, to have a center coral scape OR LR pushed to the "back" to offer more space in the front
  • Do you take everything (corals, LR) out with every water change
  • During your WC do you still turkey blast the corals (perhaps before removing them onto the plate) and blast/stir sand
  • Is there a link on the current maintenance schedule you keep

My thinking is if I could replicate what you do I have a much better chance at being successful with a pico.

 

Thanks again for all your time and help for the reefing community

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thanks for stopping in!

good discussions for sure

this is my opinion on the matter of rip cleaning... harshing a tank within the rules:

 

that vid above has a short segment in the middle detailing the rip cleaning water change + full sandbed rinse. corals on a dinner plate, in the air, for 20 mins or so, 30 at other times, this system is tested like that to condition it to unpredicted things that happen to picos

 

This thread from the start is about running a vase literally filled up side to side with corals, and ripping it out and skipping the cycle on the most set-in of conditions.

 

its prep, resistance training-- all biology responds to that.

big water changes and some air esposure culls the benthic growths on the live rock (deposited animals) to the ideal conditions for pico reefing--which in turn affects your dieoff chain of events during nearly certain challenges per decade

 

Being able to respond to literally any insult or mistake with a 100% water change is the CPR secret for pico reefs. that they can take it repeatedly and without loss to bac, is modeled by the longest living systems in direct contrast to hands off, detritus storing systems of any design at this volume range.

 

 

 

due to that access allowance it doesn't matter where the corals or the LR are stacked... they are disassembly-cleaned for full access.

 

Stacking them in a tank makes cleaning harder, if things aren't parted out. ive reduced my live rock # by half, because live rock produces detritus not consumes it (the term = -live-) and I want to cut down on export work, I went minimal for this decade.

 

blast cleaning is indeed cheating... and against the grain, but it wastes less coral, produces more and for longer, and it requires less pumps/reactors/fail points in the system so that factors into long term living.

 

its not that we don't have myriad offsets for the hands-off approach-> (ATS, carbon dosing, skimmers, marine pure blocks, GFO, all manner of refugia) but in the end the operator simply has the option to physically disallow ANY detritus long term storage, then all those bandaids above go away. all the plumbing links for them aren't required, and the extra spaces that retain detritus are foregone

 

* easier in tiny tanks like these* the larger tanks require them, who wants to do 150 gallons rip cleaning lol id be using a bandaid there too.

 

No method in pico is wrong or right... they are all fair based on what the keeper wants and the work they agree to do to simply produce coral mass...the entire point of the hobby IMO

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algae wrecks tanks of all sizes

 

 

you can make a reef immune to any invader, be it red mushrooms or any form of algae or cyano or diatoms or dinoflagellates, simply by blast cleaning them out. To have any invaded condition is a purposeful choice from the keeper not knowing the alternative (action/access/skip cycle)

 

All the cheats listed above are not what we do to a tank reactively that has algae, they are preventatives.

 

when you see algae, you kill it/remove it, resetting the uninvaded condition, then you install a cheat if needed. Cheats don't remove algae, your hands do. Grazers and cheats are only for prevention, that mode alone makes my reefbowl literally immune to all invasions while other tanks are invaded on a constant basis and use only nutrient controls to both prevent, and remove. The masses have tank longevity backwards

 

The oldest running home reef you can find is Paul B's, takeaway comparisons between old tanks for research/contrasting:

-what does he do to his sandbed regarding detritus during the life of the tank

-how is that sandbed set up reverse from a typical sinking bed, and what does that design difference do to detritus?

-what are his big access intervals like/how deep does he clean? is he doing 20% only for 40 years, or are there times he runs a fringing reef high energy model?

 

he'll get longer in between servicing due to volume, and assistants plumbed into the tank...but I assure anyone he's not stored 40 years of detritus in that bed and then tasked a plant arrangement to fix it all up. that tank is HANDS ON :) :)

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Thanks again Brandon for clearing this up,

 

This thread from the start is about running a vase literally filled up side to side with corals, and ripping it out and skipping the cycle on the most set-in of conditions.

 

due to that access allowance it doesn't matter where the corals or the LR are stacked... they are disassembly-cleaned for full access.

 

Stacking them in a tank makes cleaning harder, if things aren't parted out. ive reduced my live rock # by half, because live rock produces detritus not consumes it (the term = -live-) and I want to cut down on export work, I went minimal for this decade.

 

 

So just to confirm that I understand this. There is no right or wrong way. We can load this vase wall to wall OR use a more minimalist approach. You current approach, a minimalist style for it's easiness, efficient and better water flow.

 

 

its prep, resistance training-- all biology responds to that.

big water changes and some air esposure culls the benthic growths on the live rock (deposited animals) to the ideal conditions for pico reefing--which in turn affects your dieoff chain of events during nearly certain challenges per decade

 

Being able to respond to literally any insult or mistake with a 100% water change is the CPR secret for pico reefs. that they can take it repeatedly and without loss to bac, is modeled by the longest living systems in direct contrast to hands off, detritus storing systems of any design at this volume range.

 

 

 

due to that access allowance it doesn't matter where the corals or the LR are stacked... they are disassembly-cleaned for full access.

 

Stacking them in a tank makes cleaning harder, if things aren't parted out. ive reduced my live rock # by half, because live rock produces detritus not consumes it (the term = -live-) and I want to cut down on export work, I went minimal for this decade.

 

 

So during the weekly WC you DO recommend striping the tank down. Perhaps remove any algae w/ H2O2. While the corals and rocks are removed what do you do to the sand bed?

 

 

blast cleaning is indeed cheating... and against the grain, but it wastes less coral, produces more and for longer, and it requires less pumps/reactors/fail points in the system so that factors into long term living.

 

 

You do recommend blast cleaning the corals and the sand bed.

 

If I have misunderstood anything please correct me.

 

Again thanks for your help.

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my weekly water changes are just water, I do the tank stripping every few mos, based on feeding it doesn't have to be exact. the intent is to make it fully free of waste a few times a year, then just easy 100% water changes in between

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