Tatius Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Been keeping planted tanks for a few years now before I stumbled snorted some strange coral dust peddled by a kind gentleman named brandon429 . This thing inexplicably appeared on my aquarium stand over the course of a few weeks. It's just full of live rock for now. Going to go back to grab some sacrificial Zoas from the shop tomorrow. Only hitchikers of note are some purple sponges. The shop kept the LR stewing in 1.030 SW so I think everything else is pretty much RIP. Main vase: Full assembly with DIY LED fixture on top. Assembling my LEDs - Thanks to LEDBloke for the advice and great deal on parts! Specs (as they are) Tank: 4L Hurricane vase from eBay, cover is a styrene bowl Hardscape: 1kg live rock and 1 handful sand Lighting: DIY 12W (2x6W CREE arrays - 2CW, 2RB, 1UV, 1PR) Heater: 50W Superfish Nano Heater Airpump: Interpet Nano Water volume: 3L SG: 1.025 (shop-bought) Total spent so far: GBP80.00 (excluding the pump which was recycled from another project) Link to comment
brandon429 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 So glad to see your setup! That amnt of sand is easy easy to clean and still provides extra surface area for bioload management. I'm very interested to know how long does that bowl go in between topoff of any reasonable range When home, I top mine off every three days a few oz back to the set point dot. Link to comment
Tatius Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Updates, now with corals Last week, added some "canaries" to the vase to see if everything is working - One blue mushroom, small GSP frag and a couple of Zoas. As they lived for a week, I dropped a 3-headed Duncan in (I only wanted one, but there was a fragging... "accident" All corals opening up nicely, and feeding well. Edit: Also I found a bristleworm hiding in one of the live rock branches. It's escaped the tweezers, for now. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I bet there are a few bug pods hiding too, these guys are proof indicators your tank is skip cycle instant start pico reef number 4230 these micro inverts are the first to die when true free ammonia hits .25 to .5 guess which ideal reef pico creature will hunt down bristle worms, pull them out of the rock, pummel and eat them find a boxer crab score a good contributor for the pico the Duncan is an ideal coral for your tank they tend to change their shape and look mad sometimes even extended for 2 weeks and nothing is really wrong so don't fret when that occurs judge the tank off the other corals Link to comment
Tatius Posted September 6, 2015 Author Share Posted September 6, 2015 Weekly update - my mushroom uprooted itself and vanished into the depths of the jar. After I fished it out during the water change, it uprooted itself again and disappeared. Starting to get annoying by the damned thing. Maybe it likes to stay curled up and closed under a bunch of rockwork! Edit - Didn't have to top off the vase the entire week! The system is effectively sealed. Getting some fine fibres popping up on the glass - wonder if this is algae, or worse. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 You know that camera trick where a large object is placed back and a small similar object is placed fwd and when photographed they look the same ? Imagine your reefbowl and this guys doing that trick Heh http://reef2reef.com/threads/id-say-this-is-pretty-unique.213891/ Link to comment
Tatius Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Right, weekly update, with photos! Added more corals - 1 Torch and a whole bunch of zoas. Despite suffering the worst of Royal Mail, everything opened up after 24hours in the vase. Things are doing well, quite an achievement considering I have no way of measuring any parameters in this vase! All I have is a jerry can of ready mixed saltwater and in an emergency, everything gets changed. The GSPs are starting to reproduce now. They'll probably become a headache in the near future. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 You have just broken the 23rd and 14th rule of contemporary reefkeeping and for that I applaud you Merely owning a pico reef with stony corals as first go broke rule 1 so your trend is ok for this crew and clearly working Setting new rules is funner than following old ones If the lighting you used can be located in a thread where frags were grown under them, then no more variables exist to prevent those corals living twenty years in that vase. Link to comment
gkarris Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 You have just broken the 23rd and 14th rule of contemporary reefkeeping and for that I applaud you Merely owning a pico reef with stony corals as first go broke rule 1 so your trend is ok for this crew and clearly working Setting new rules is funner than following old ones What rules? Link to comment
brandon429 Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 This whole forum has trounced, disobeyed and disavowed too many reef rules to list heh We all need to get some kind of commemorative tattoo for having traded in this back alley type of reefkeeping Putting some coral in a fishbowl and making it live longer than someones $5000 full size reef is illegal in practice somewhere, somehow for sure. Things are just not supposed to work like that in a world where larger tanks are by rule better. Per established reef rules, Tatius can't even feed that bowl enough to sustain that coral without poisoning the system with excess waste. Were there not serious reef noncompliance going on here, those corals might indeed starve. From one back alley reefer to another, I'd say you are up to 30% max coral capacity there Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 I'm in for a tattoo! Link to comment
gkarris Posted September 20, 2015 Share Posted September 20, 2015 This whole forum has trounced, disobeyed and disavowed too many reef rules to list heh We all need to get some kind of commemorative tattoo for having traded in this back alley type of reefkeeping Putting some coral in a fishbowl and making it live longer than someones $5000 full size reef is illegal in practice somewhere, somehow for sure. Things are just not supposed to work like that in a world where larger tanks are by rule better. Per established reef rules, Tatius can't even feed that bowl enough to sustain that coral without poisoning the system with excess waste. Were there not serious reef noncompliance going on here, those corals might indeed starve. From one back alley reefer to another, I'd say you are up to 30% max coral capacity there I don't use fishbowls. I use jars and I recently got a food serving bowl from Target... Link to comment
Anden Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Damm it now i need a vase pico reef to, so DSB in a vase? Link to comment
strich Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 @Tatius - Can you drop some knowledge on UK-based suppliers you're using? I'm currently investigating and there doesn't appear to be much down here in the south. Link to comment
Tatius Posted June 19, 2016 Author Share Posted June 19, 2016 Quick update 6 months down the line. The vase still lives, and the lovely (not) British summer is doing it wonders. In the past 6 months, I've... 1. Finally gotten on top of the horrible algae overgrowth - things now stay under control with a quick wipe of H2O2 during water changes. 2. Killed a small Monti and Hytirix frag 3. Had my Duncan bud 3 times(!!!) 4. Had an overgrowth of GSP 5. Added in some Acro which is now starting to encrust very nicely. 6. Managed to go up to 3 weeks in between water changes with no obvious detriment. All in all, it's amazing that when I first started this 9 months ago I knew absolutely nothing about reefkeeping (and I still don't!). I've run without any testing kits or fancy gear, and all I need to do I change the water every once in a while. The guys at the local reef shop I frequent still can't believe what I have managed to grow. Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words: Current stock list: Acropora GSP Duncan (6 heads) Assorted Zoas on rock Limpets Amphipods 2 Asterina Many bristleworms When it comes to keeping corals, go brandon429 or go home. Edit: Just realised that with experience, my vase is only about 2.5L of water, so closer to 0.5g than 0.75g!. I wonder if I'm in the running for smallest reef ever. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Your pictures=rock and roll A reef vase is all I ever had too Once I had a nineteen gallon but it wasn't any good lol, relegated to vasing hasn't hurt a thing and quite possibly was cheaper looking back lol what great updates! Link to comment
Deleted User 9 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Peace Tatius, Great to see that you're still keeping up with the Vase Reef. Looks awesome!! Nice pic. Proud of you. You've probed into the "unseen", and now we can see your masterpiece. Much Success and Happiness.. Blessings All. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Awesome! good work All these cute vases are inspiring. Link to comment
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