2 Gallon “Cookie Jar” Pico Reef by ReefJar

[ReefJar]

Month 6 - Picture June, 2016

 

Hello everyone!

 

I’m ReefJar, aka Justin, and I’ve been without a tank for 7+ years due to traveling and moving around frequently. I’ve never stopped wanting to fire up a new tank but it just wasn’t in the cards. Now I’m ready to keep something small and mobile. I love corals but I really love to see the life in the tank that I never knew existed. There’s always something crawling along or growing that fascinates me.

 

I got inspired by Brandon429 and Maritza the Vase Reef to tackle a pico reef of my own. I have previous experience running a 20g for a few years, but I’m very open to the unorthodox methods of the pico vase reef and looking forward to its challenges.

 

One day I decided to go for it and went on a crazy shopping spree. I ended up buying more stuff than I needed instead of just following a proven method.

 

Anyway, I think there is a lot we could learn from these tiny setups. Some gems of knowledge may end up expanding to the way we handle larger reef tanks, reefs in the ocean, or possibly helping save endangered species of coral. There are endless possibilities at this point!

 

As some of you know, a lot of information about pico reefs is either non-existent or stops just when things start to get good. Aside from posting here, I will also try to keep things documented on my own blog, but it will be some time before that’s up and going.

 

Last Updated: June. 3, 2016

 

Goals:

• Creative a thriving pico reef
• Grow LPS, SPS, Zoos and Palys. Not adding red mushrooms *wink Brandon*, GSP, or the “pest” softies (xenia, kenya trees, etc) I may not add any softies.
• I plan on adding some inverts at some point, probably no shrimp.
• Monitor the process and progress of the lifeless base rock to live rock
• Push and test the limits of the tank once it has become thriving and very stable
• Do as much as possible without a water test kit. Learn the signs of nature.
• Document biological assessments online for me personally and the reefing community. Who knows, we may stumble upon something ground breaking for reefs and reef keeping around the world.

Equipment:

• 2 gallon cookie Jar – Thick Glass with a small neck
• Plastic plant saucer (will need to find something better fitting for the neck to help prevent evaporation)
• Air pump (Marina 75), flow valve, check valve, no stone
• 50w Hydor Theo Heater
• Zoomed Digital Probe Thermometer (Those floating ones are cheap, but it’s hard to get an accurate temperature.)
• Chinese PAR38 12w LED (12x1 watt LEDs. Blue 450-470nm, White 20000K, 8:4)
• Tertial Work style clamp light to attach to my computer desk (@IKEA #203.703.83 - $9.99)
• 5 Gallon bucket for mixing saltwater
• 10ft Vinyl tubing for water change siphoning
• Extra 50w heater to heat water change water
• RIO Plus 180 for mixing new saltwater
• 18.9L refillable water jug for RO water
• ATC Refractometer
• 10" Aqua Tweezers

Rocks / Sand / Salt / Water:

• 3-4lbsLive rock (From LFS and fellow reefer). LFS has the worst LR here.
• 1.3lbs Base rock (removed some base rock)
• 2.5lbs of Carib Sea Ocean Direct Live Sand – Fine Oolite
• Coralife Marine Salt Mix (I’d prefer Instant Ocean but no one had any during my shopping spree)
• Kent Marine Hydrometer (It's tiny!)
• RO Water from Safeway (Will keep an eye on this)

Corals

• Candy Cane
• Teal Birdsnest
• Warcoral
• Various Zoas & Palys
• Montipora Spongodes
• Montipora Confusa
• Ricordia Floridas
• Acans
• Red Planet ORA (Acropora)
• Purple Stylophora
• Montipora Capricornis (Red and Green frags)

Planned Maintenance:

• Weekly 100% water changes from the start.
• Weekly feeding 2-3 hours before water change (Will spot feed in the beginning with pump off) I want the frags to fatten up and grow fast.
• Dosing at some point.
• Lighting schedule 9.5hrs/day during winter, 11hrs during summer.
• Tank temperature: 79F previous 80f
• Jar flush in the sink to help clean up sand bed. (20 gallons of SW “forcefully” in to the jar and let it over flow in the sink carrying the detritus and other unwanted stuff out of the jar – Brandon’s method) I may do that at or just after year 1.
• Take care of any algae as soon as it’s noticed. Spot treating with 35% Hydrogen Peroxide

Lessons Learned So Far:

• Plan ahead and be patient when buying/ordering supplies and equipment to avoid buying unnecessary stuff.
• Powerheads generate too much heat for such a small volume of water. *Rio Plus 50 added 2f
• Wash sand thoroughly before adding it to the jar to remove as much silt as possible. Otherwise, the tank becomes very cloudy after water changes or any movement in the tank. The silt is not needed and could irritate corals.
• K.I.S.S.

Notes:

• Will need to adjust light height to avoid baking corals. Will start at 9” above the water and see how they respond and adjust accordingly. Now at 9.5" With The Chinese Par 38 bulb.
• I bought a lot more stuff than listed above, but I figured I'd list the stuff need versus the stuff I don't.

I'll keep updating this first post with important bits of information or updates as they come. I'm looking forward to sharing my adventure and chatting with you! If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback don't hesitate to reply or send me a message.

 

Cheers!

[NinjaReefer]

Sweet. I look forward to seeing it in action.

[CoolGuy77]

I'm looking forward to seeing it set up as well. I've always failed with keeping a cookie jar full

[ReefJar]

Hey Everyone!

 

Today I finally got corals in the tank. Before this there were a few issues along the way such as stabilizing the jar's temperature, finding a lamp to hold my led bulb, and taking care of a dreaded coral pest! (more on this below).

 

Most notably as I write this, my jar sounds like a pot of boiling water. I was dreading this but there might be some things I can do to help minimize the noise while maintaining the flow in the jar.

 

I updated the first post's picture with the date of the photo. I think I'll do that from now on aside from new replies to this thread. That way it's easy to see where the jar is at instead of having to filter through replies.

 

 

Quick Recap

 

Removed:

• Rio 50 power head - causing too much heat.

 

Added:

• Air pump with valve control and check valve - no air stone to keep the water currents really moving
• 1.3lb live rock with some life to it (coraline, pods, etc etc)
• 2 Corals - 1 Bushy Acropora and 1 Montipora (Not sure of the name yet)
• LED bulb and desk lamp

 

Other:

• Monitor the montipora closely and the tank in general over the next week.
• Brainstorm some new ways to seal the top of the jar. Current method is not too bad but it could be a lot better.

 

Big Issue - Monti Eating Nudibranch!

 

I bought two frags of coral from my local shop. The first s a Green Bushy Acropora and the other is a Green Montipora (I'm sure of the exact name yet). Today was just a green day for me, I'll be adding other colours in the future.

 

The acro is about 3 inches long by 2 inches high, I picked it up for $20. I thought that was a good deal especially since there aren't a lot reefers selling frags in my city.

 

The Monti is about 1.5 inches long and an inch wide at it's thickest. So here's what happened....

 

I brought everything home and got the temperature of the bag and the tank the same, and placed the acro in the jar. I did the same with the montipora.

 

I didn't dip these corals before placing them.

 

When I looked to see how the monti was placed, I saw one! A monti eating nudibranch. I quickly removed the frag and checked the surrounding rock to see if another had crawled off.

 

I placed it in a small container with some jar water and found another one. I panicked and starting calling around town for some coral dip, no one had any. I decided to use H202 (hydrogen peroxide) despite the potential for me harming the coral. I diluted it down with jar water and placed the coral in it. Another small nudi came off.

 

I noticed there was a nice pocket for them under the monti between it and the plug and there appeared to be eggs there as well. I used a tooth brush and my "dip" to rid of them visually. By this time, the monti had been in cold water for quite some time.

 

I finally ended up placing the monti in the sand since I don't have a quarantine tank or the supplies to make one. So I'm taking a bit of a gamble, I definitely don't want these suckers in my jar!

 

For now it's wait and see. I might skip tomorrow's water change and the day after the corals look like they have adapted to the jar.

 

 

Here are some pictures so far.

 

It's hard to see by the picture because of the curvature of the glass, but top rock covered with coraline has a wide flat area and does the rock below it. Perfect for placing a bunch of frags. I'll have to work on taking pictures during this project

 

Here is the lamp I bought at IKEA. I love it! Fits my massive LED bulb with room to spare. I've used halides and compacts in the past, so this was quite a surprise at how direct and focused the light is. I don't need any type of hood to prevent light from bleeding in to my face while I'm at my desk.

 

I've got the light about 11" above the jar today to give these corals a break while they adjust. Newer ones won't be so lucky. I'll be moving the frags up after a few days and gradually the light down to the jar to 9" above.

 

 

 

New corals.... Oh snap!

 

 

Dislike:

 

This isn't the way I was hoping to start official Day 1 of my cookie jar pico reef, but it will be interesting from here on out!

[ReefJar]

Jar Specs

Temperature: 80.4f - 80.8f (this is the max and min temps as observed when the heater kicks on and off. The heater comes on about once an hour.)

Salinity: 1.025

 

Microbubbles: I was getting a lot of small bubbles building up around the top-bend of the jar, but they've stopped collecting there. There are still bubbles flying around in the jar but it's not too bad and I'm not bothered by them.

 

Here is a photo of how they were collecting before. The sharpie pen line was my original water line before I removed the old power head. I'll be raising the water level back up after the next 100% water change.

 

 

 

I forgot how much mucus some acros can spew out when bothered or stressed. So I'm thinking about water changes. Probably after every water change, this slimer is going to make a small mess of things for a minute or two. And I believe the mucus can be irritating to other corals. Perhaps this wasn't the wisest choice. I can probably trade it for some other corals this week. This jar will still be SPS/LPS dominate. Should I get rid of it? What do you think?

 

Here is a photo after i accidentally bumped it when changing the position of another piece of rock. The only other time it did this was when I introduced it to the tank. But still, it could be a potential problem despite my willingness to pack corals in the jar. And of course this frag hasn't had a chance to settle, but it's pretty well known that they are prone to doing this.

 

 

I have been monitoring the jar closely checking for any signs of monti-eating nudibranchs. Nothing so far, but it will be some time before I'm completely sure of their eradication. That's all for now

[AquaEstaVita]

Great detail and pictures. Learning a lot.

[ReefJar]

Daily Update:

 

I figured out that the montipora that I got is a "Green Chip" monti, Montipora Spongodes. I think my peroxide dip (that accidentally got all over it) combined with the nudibranchs and my LEDS did some damage to it. I put a sponge on the top of the jar to act as shade until it starts recovering. The polyps are active now so I think it will be fine, it's just going to need to be babied for a while.

 

In the morning I saw about 2 inches of bristle worm crawling on a rock. I don't know how long it actually is, but I enjoyed seeing that. I also noticed a baby on the glass! There's quite a bit of life in my jar from the LR I got. It's nice to actually see some of it. As the jar progresses I know there will be more hints of life within.

 

There aren't a lot of options to buy coral in my city, but I found on Kijiji (Craig's list clone? It's popular here in Canada) a bunch of people who are shutting their tanks down and selling corals. I'm trying to get in touch with them and see what I can get. If I can get some good deals, I'm going to load this jar heavily. It's always been "add 1 or 2, wait.. wait.. wait some more... But I want to see if I can load this up quickly. I'll have to make sure I have enough space near the bottom of the jar and raise the light up a bit, so I don't bake the new inmates.

 

I made a new lid today!

 

It's not much but it is much better than the previous lid I was using.

 

The problem with the cookie jar is that it has a short neck and the neck is very vertical so it's difficult to emulate what vase reefs use. The previous lid was made using a plant saucer that was cut for the airline and heater cable. The plastic was a bit bigger than the opening so it held itself in place when forced in the hole. It looked pretty ugly.

 

My new idea was to have a piece of acrylic in the shape of a circle to fit as air tight as possible. To make this possible I thought that a thick bead of silicone attached to the underside of the lid in a ring, just inside the circumference of the jar's opening would be the easiest way. The lid would need to be pressed firmly to "lock" in place.

 

The problem is that there aren't a lot of options of silicone's or adhesives that could do this. Most silicone's won't stick very well to acrylic and most adhesives are too firm once cured which would prevent the lid from making an air tight seal.

 

For now, I just have a circle cut with 1 hole drilled for the air line and a slot for the heater cable. It seals the top of the jar better than the plastic saucer did. As always, it's a work in progress

 

I have a lot of tools, just not the ones I needed. I ended up using a math compass with a sharpie to make a circle and a cheap hack saw to cut the acrylic. I spent quite a while going back to try and round the edges of the acrylic. Perhaps Home Depot or a small shop could have cut the perfect circle for me, I didn't call around. I think I did a pretty good job considering... haha

 

Old Lid:

 

Construction:

 

 

And then I spent more time rounding up the edges.

 

 

New Lid:

 

 

In person the rough edges aren't too noticeable. It's literally a hack job, but it works.

[NinjaReefer]

what if you stretched a rubber band around the circumference of the lid so it acts like an O-ring?

[ReefJar]

what if you stretched a rubber band around the circumference of the lid so it acts like an O-ring?

 

 

That's an idea right there!!!

 

I was also thinking of making a thick bead of silicone, let it cure, peel it off and then superglue it to the acrylic.

 

[Gil2Gil]

Hey ReedJar. Can I ask you how you're writing up your posts and uploading pictures?

 

Trying to follow a similar format like yours. Tried using pages on my iPhone 6s+

[ReefJar]

Hey ReedJar. Can I ask you how you're writing up your posts and uploading pictures?

 

Trying to follow a similar format like yours. Tried using pages on my iPhone 6s+

 

*Reef

 

I do everything from my desktop computer. Usually I write everything up in Word then paste it in to the reply box. All the options such as bullets and fonts etc... are here by default on nano-reef above your reply box. Maybe they aren't when you are on mobile.

 

For adding images, I upload the images to Photobucket, copy the "direct link" from the photo on photobucket, come back here and click on the image button (3 icons left of the twitter button, it looks like a picture) and then paste the direct link in the popup box and presto! There is my picture.

 

Hope that helps

[ReefJar]

Update: Week 3

 

I didn’t capture as many pictures as I would have liked, but I’ll post some as soon as the jar settles down from all the work I did to it today. I've got to figure out how to take nicer pictures. They look horrible. I was thinking about making short videos of the jar each week so you can see what the state of the jar is at. What do you think?

 

I bought some new corals

• Zoanthids and Palys
• Montipora Confusa and Digitata
• Candy Canes
• Birdsnest
• Ricordias (despite my previous plan of “no mushrooms”)
• Warcoral

Feeding The Trumpet

 

I got a pretty good deal on everything from various people in my city.

 

A large portion of the Zoathids came from a neglected tank. I had to literally scrub the algae off crumbling rock, pluck aiptasia and super glue the area to hopefully prevent them from making an appearance in my reef jar. I tooth brushed the Zoas gently after a CoralRX dip and the following day they opened up just fine.

 

Green Rocks & Algae

 

There was a short diatom bloom on the sand and glass. It lasted 2 days and disappeared.

 

I noticed some algae, and hair algae, on a piece of LR. Long story short, I busted up the rock and kept the parts that weren’t “infected” It was just too much work for me to deal with it. The LR was a branch with long tight spaces that were just too tight for even a cue-tip to fit between. But I could see the algae growing in there and sticking out on one side.

 

Algae started growing on the glass pretty quickly. I’m not sure why. This started before all the recent coral additions. The only thing I can think of is that my last water change came from a different grocery store. This store didn’t seem well kept. I won’t be getting RO water from there in the future.

 

I also noticed lime green on some of LR. I tried to remove some of it with a toothbrush but it wouldn’t come off. I’m excited about it because I think coralline is on the rock and the other colours will follow soon.

 

 

Cleaning

 

Despite the need to take care of the algae, I wanted to rearrange the rocks. I wanted more places to put frags and also to use the rocks to hide the heater. Side note: I have too many small pieces of rock in my jar. I think it would be better to have 3 or 4 bigger pieces that can easily come in and out of the jar if needed.

 

I did a lot of water changes. I noted 150%, but it was definitely a lot more. If there was too much slime or random stuff floating around, I’d siphon it out with a hose or turkey baster and replaced the water with new day old SW.

 

I bought a BettaMag to help clean the inside of the glass. I only tested it for a few minutes, so I’ll have to update on this in the future.

 

Finally

 

I’m using the old lid again (flower pot saucer). I’m not giving up on making a custom lid, I just have to try some different options until I get things the way I want.

 

I noticed a lot of critters in the jar… stars, pods, worms etc. It’s nice to see!

 

I Messed Up!

 

I had some crazy things happen at the end of week 3, but I'll include them in my week 4 roundup since it will mesh in to week 4. It all started with re-arranging the rocks and cleaning the inside glass completely...

 

Stay tuned

[brandon429]

excellent documentation and pics~~

 

highlights:

unlimited water change potential, the more you do the longer the reef lives not the other way around. corals have adaptations for mucous exuding such that it wont kill them, they are simply eating more carbon and making more snot for 18 years from now lol. it seems stressful to them but its an illusion, heres something more stressful:

 

living in Fiji, being out in the baked sun for 9 hours a day as the tide flows out, then getting covered in silt when it comes back in and having to slime eject it all for about a thousand years

 

heh

 

I too have zero concerns about buying discounted rock with some algae. I don't think id play around with neomeris as a hitchhiker...but green hair algae or bryopsis? id have it peroxide burnt within a week it wouldn't be there.

 

anything you accidentally transmit to the tank can be parted out and burned, unlimited reset ability on all small pico reefs. if your glass is acting up due to recent cleanings, additions, nutrient upwellings, just take it all apart and blast clean the whole tank

 

just did such a thorough blast cleaning on my bowl, that I flipped a six inch sandbed top to bottom in one session and had no recycle. when I clean, im darn near mean about it and my tank just complies..going into second decade now

 

picos that have hands off as a care method wont make it to the 4th yr, el fabs thread at the top shows

 

 

lol

 

 

(put Andrews link up there take that one down its outdated practice.)

[Reefer69]

Looks like a small colony!!

 

 

 

I have been monitoring the jar closely checking for any signs of monti-eating nudibranchs. Nothing so far, but it will be some time before I'm completely sure of their eradication. That's all for now

[ReefJar]

 

Looks like a small colony!!

 

 

Yep! I ended up giving it away. I've got a lot of other corals in there now and things are rolling along nicely. Here's a sneak peek at some Zoas this morning (Sunny D's , Flaming Goblins? or Goblins on fire, and I believe Radioactive Dragons Eyes... the middle top I don't know.):

 

[brandon429]

once you fill this jar up with corals, and age it out a year or two, if you put it in docs time machine and went back to October 25th 1996 and asked the top three reef aquarium scientists of the day if it was possible to have grown that and sustained it in a jar, they'd say no because:

 

-coral allelopathy was supposed to be widespread preventative to small tanks, not so. with a devils hand pauci maybe, but nobody is using those in picos. a few strains of goni can get mean, but mostly 'no' per 2015 standards of reefing.

 

-large water changes was supposed to imbalance and upset a reef, that alone was the reason small reefs didn't exist till early 00s we found out that was not the case. microbiology specifics came into micro reefing right about 2001 heh

 

-salinity was supposedly exclusively hard to control in tiny reefs, another real big obstacle.

 

but we like beat that challenge with jars and stuff and they still haven't acknowledged it in version IV of the great reef books lol. denial denial

[ReefJar]

excellent documentation and pics~~

 

Thanks

 

highlights:

unlimited water change potential, the more you do the longer the reef lives not the other way around. corals have adaptations for mucous exuding such that it wont kill them, they are simply eating more carbon and making more snot for 18 years from now lol. it seems stressful to them but its an illusion, heres something more stressful:

 

living in Fiji, being out in the baked sun for 9 hours a day as the tide flows out, then getting covered in silt when it comes back in and having to slime eject it all for about a thousand years

 

You definitely have a point, I can't argue with that haha. I'm constantly reminding myself that corals are more resilient and adaptive than I've given them credit for in the past. I'm making progress on the change of mindset.

 

heh

 

I too have zero concerns about buying discounted rock with some algae. I don't think id play around with neomeris as a hitchhiker...but green hair algae or bryopsis? id have it peroxide burnt within a week it wouldn't be there.

 

anything you accidentally transmit to the tank can be parted out and burned, unlimited reset ability on all small pico reefs. if your glass is acting up due to recent cleanings, additions, nutrient upwellings, just take it all apart and blast clean the whole tank

 

Yep, I took the whole thing apart and gave it a good clean! The first rock I lifted up had 4 sizable bristle worms underneath it, I was a bit surprised. I made sure to save all the critters that were floating around. The longest part for me was putting the rock work back together because I wasn't happy with the way it was previously. I'm not much of a designer, more of technical guy...

 

just did such a thorough blast cleaning on my bowl, that I flipped a six inch sandbed top to bottom in one session and had no recycle. when I clean, im darn near mean about it and my tank just complies..going into second decade now

 

picos that have hands off as a care method wont make it to the 4th yr, el fabs thread at the top shows

 

 

lol

 

 

(put Andrews link up there take that one down its outdated practice.)

 

Haha yeah... What's Andrews link? I've probably seen it but I'm not sure. Edit: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/240866-my-first-pico-dymax-iq3-now-5-years-old/

 

Another pic zoomed in using my phone (a little bit of algae being taken care of asap ) I got these two frags for $20 total! :

 

[brandon429]

yep one drop of peroxide on that spec of algae while either the water is all drained out, or the rock is lifted out, let it sit cooking about 2 mins in the air and put back in tank, spot dead in 36 hours lol. who cares if it comes back next mo, its a thimble spot just zap it

 

itll comply eventually and might not even come back, it doesn't look well seated in from that pic.

[Dtackett]

why hello there friends! so yeah I figured if im following in the footsteps of the great Brandon, I should probably make an account here. Reefjar, youre well on your way and learning quickly. my tank will be started on Friday and I will start a build thread on it then. keep it up bud.

[ReefJar]

why hello there friends! so yeah I figured if im following in the footsteps of the great Brandon, I should probably make an account here. Reefjar, youre well on your way and learning quickly. my tank will be started on Friday and I will start a build thread on it then. keep it up bud.

 

 

Thanks!

 

I'm looking forward to your progress

[ReefJar]

Week 4 – I Messed Up

 

 

First I wanted to mention that I’ve started my own site to document my progress, but still plan to write a summarized version and share pictures here on NR. This week’s post can be seen here: http://www.reefjar.com/i-messed-up-week-4/ (The site still needs a lot of work)

 

I’ve updated the 1^st post in this thread to reflect where the jar is at (changes are in red).

Okay, so let’s talk about week 4!

 

Cleaning & Problems

 

I was getting algae growth all over the place and a small test using 3% H202 wasn’t really doing much. So I decided to do a full jar cleaning at the end of week 3. The whole process took less than 2 hours and could have been much quicker but I spent a lot of time aquascaping. I wasn't happy with the rock work in the past.

 

 

Where I messed up was with the new saltwater. I don’t know what happened but the salinity was way off and I didn’t realize for almost 24 hours. I ended up lowering it slightly with straight RO and did a full water change the following morning back to 1.025.

 

Unfortunately, the corals really took a beating. I lost a montipora and the candy cane looked like a skeleton with a little green left on the polyp area.

 

This was when everything was still in shock. You can see the forest fire monti in the middle, all white...

 

I usually check my new saltwater many times to make sure that it’s perfect. After all, saltwater is one of the biggest factors in keeping these small pico reefs in check. I bought a refractometer to help cross check my results in the future. Gosh.

 

Purchased

 

This week I bought more salt (coralife marine salt mix), refractometer (ATC) and calibration fluid, 35% hydrogen peroxide and 10” tweezers for moving frags around. I bought my salt mix from an online vendor (Doctors Foster And Smith) and literally paid 1/3 the price including shipping compared to my local petshop. Unreal!

 

Observations

 

I did a test using 35% H202. It’s a little dangerous but it’s my new favourite chemical! I’m really excited about the results I saw. I’ll do a bigger write up on it soon.

 

By the end of the week everything was doing well again. The trumpet was almost a skeleton, but after 5 days I see tentacles and polyps coming back. It’s neat how it shed some skeletal chips in the polyp area. I also fed a few of the polyps making sure that the food was pretty much over the mouth.

 

Here is a picture of the lower half of the jar after things had a chance to recover a bit. The candy cane looks so much better.

 

 

The only coral that didn’t survive was a forest fire montipora. I miss its bright red polyps.

 

Here's a couple more pictures from this week:

 

I didn't realize it, but there are 3 heads on this blasto! I thought there was just one when I got it.

 

 

Piece of a warcoral that i accidentally busted off of the main frag.

Top inside view of the jar before some H202 cleaning

I hope to capture some nice pictures this coming week once everything has really gotten a chance to relax. That's all for now. Cheers!

[ReefJar]

35% Hydrogen Peroxide Results

 

I've seen a lot of talk about killing algae with hydrogen peroxide, but I haven't seen any before and after pictures.

A Little Disclaimer: Most people probably shouldn't use 35% H202. This stuff is extremely corrosive. It will burn you badly and cause you to go blind if you get it in your eyes. It's very easy to splash or get tiny drops here and there. One needs to read the MSDS and follow the handling instructions and safety requirements that comes your purchase. If you don't know what an MSDS is, you shouldn't be using this product. It can and will kill your corals, livestock, pets, etc etc... Keep away from children and everyone else.

 

Since I was dealing with some algae in my reef jar, I decided to treat it with peroxide and take some pictures! I also wrote a long article about how to kill algae with H202 with more pictures. It's hard to make it out in the following picture but there is some hair algae growing on the right side of the rock.

 

Here is the result of a 5 minute treatment using 35% Hydrogen Peroxide. The after picture is about 48 hours after the treatment. I moved the pink blasto in the after picture.

 

 

The Basic Steps:

1. Wear Personal Protection - Goggles, Gloves, Long Sleeves, etc etc. Make sure no one else is around including children and pets. Make sure the work area is organized and free of clutter.
2. Siphon water out of jar
3. Move corals out of the way if possible
4. Apply H202 to a small area, careful not to get any on corals or other areas
5. Let it work its magic for 5-10 minutes
6. Fill jar with new saltwater
7. Siphon out the the water and discard. Don't let your kids or pets drink this.
8. Fill the jar with new saltwater
9. Watch the algae disappear over the next couple of days

I love this stuff!

[ReefJar]

Week 5 & 6

 

 

I decided to combine the last 2 weeks since not much has really happened. I wrote more about it under "I Want More Corals". Here is a quick recap of what I've done:

 

Oganization

 

I rearranged some corals and made a lot of space to add new corals. Things have been going pretty good so I think I can add 4 or 5 more. I'm hoping to add more colours to the mix. In particular I'm thinking "blue" "yellow" "bright red" and "purple". We'll see what I can find this week.

 

Lighting

 

 

I thought lowering the light down to about 5" would be more beneficial to the SPS, but I think I was already at the perfect height beforehand. After lowering it, the following day I realized the corals, specifically teal birdsnest, was losing colour. I since moved the light back up and they appear to be recovering.

 

But by doing this I also realized some other corals needed more light, such as the this one particular paly.

 

 

Observations

 

 

 

In week 3, I mentioned the candy canes took a beating. They have since recovered, looking healthy, and splitting!

 

Here is what I've observed overall:

• Coral growth and self-propagation (birdsnest, Paly, Candy Cane)
• Pods, Worms, and Snails are thriving.
• Water is evaporating faster than usual, most likely due to the lid openings by the airline and poor cutting job. I recently cut a new lid but it wasn't so good. Still working on a better lid.
• Feeding corals 2 hours before doing a jar drain/H202 treatment seems to make them regurgitate food (candy canes and blastos). I'm going to try to allow more time after feeding before maintenance.

 

Algae

 

Algae seems to be under control for the most part. Keeping on top of it is key.

 

 

That's about it for now. I'm excited to purchase some more corals in the coming weeks.

[brandon429]

Your tank shows the simplest form of forced reefing there is, required tank compliance. if you scan the forums of the world, you will see people purposely not dong that and losing multi thousand dollar reefs, all day long, every day, such that you could easily set up a whole other round of peroxide guided threads and never take 1/100th of the need market.

 

sometimes people gloss over reefs in a jar as novelty, and then they go back to a giant tank that has command over them, makes em make excuses to every person who walks in the door (my ATS is just warming up, one day, kapow~ clean reef!)

 

but these little novelties are whispering and if the big tanks w bend down to hear it, they'll be fixed. some of them at least. most will look past the obvious. its not that this is the only, or best way to fight algae. it only says that algae is optional, opt for it greatly and justify in any way required, or don't. that which was whited w purple again, cycle of the reef.

B

[ReefJar]

Recently I've been thinking about going bare bottom.

 

2 Reasons:

 

Jar has a large base foot print and can be difficult to siphon out detritus completely after a heavy feeding. I try to tilt the jar to help things flow in to a concentrated area but things end up falling over and just making everything more difficult. And usually there is still quite a bit of detritus remaining on top of the sand in various areas.

 

Recently I've been doing 200% water change at once to help remove as much as possible. This almost always includes a little sand.

 

I could forgo feeding, but I want things to grow as quickly as possible. It's important to note that it's not all excess food that is in the jar. Other stuff accumulates such as coral slime, molting's from pods, death of organisms, waste excreted from various lifeforms, and "dust" from rocks, "burnt" algae, and even dust from air that makes it way in to the jar all contribute.

 

Other The Other Hand:

 

I like the look of sand. I like the critters that use the sand as their home.

 

If I were to go bare bottom, it would give me an excuse to find another jar that has a more clear/crisp glass and possibly a better lid option.

 

I could spray paint the outside bottom of a new jar with that sand-like spray paint that someone else in the forums has done to their tank. That would still give some sort of sand effect.

 

Everything is working fine as is, these are just some random thoughts I had...

 

... as Brandon has taught, it's one of the benefits of a small reef... you can literally change the whole thing in less than an hour with a completely new look, setup, or clean it entirely.

 

 

PS: I found an aiptasia in a somewhat hidden location. I dosed it with H202 at my last water change... that thing foamed and sizzled like crazy, there was literally steam coming off it. Great stuff!