ccr's Office Cookie Jar Reef

[ccr]

I am launching a half-gallon cookie jar reef. I had a 75 reef in the '80's and a 30 gallon in the aughts. Travel and long work hours eventually caught up with both systems, maintenance fell behind; yard sales followed.

Equipment:
Anchor Hocking half gallon cookie jar ($5)
Uniclife air pump with air stone ($18)
Finnex aquarium LED base with 2 4-watt LEDs ($50)

Hydor 15-watt mini heater ($16)
Nature's ocean nutri seawater ($24 bought locally. Outrageously expensive online.)

I will keep the system at work. I won't be able to mix saltwater, so I am buying 4-gallons bottles of natural seawater. I plan on 100% water changes every week. I may go more frequently during the start up phase. I will change the water at the slightest scent of funk.

I read many of the threads on vase reefs, particularly from brandon429. I am going for a simple reef, with one signature rock. I asked a LFS to glue two smaller pieces of live rock rubble, creating something about 5" tall with one attached Pulsing Xenia frag. The rock sits on a 1" sand bed. I considered going bare bottom, but I like the look of sand, expect it will help create a more stable base and I may get a bit more bio diversity.

My maintenance plan is to remove the life rock each week during the water change. I will baster blast the sand and pour out all water, replacing with fresh. The rock will then go back in the jar. I hope to maintain this regimen for a couple of months without adding additional coral load. This will give the jar time to mature and see what hitchhikers emerge.

[brandon429]

hey! nice setup that is clean and looks like great rock

 

 

did you skip cycle this bad boy? meaning that rock looks good...coralline...goodies, was it drop n go? those are fun little rule breakers~

[natalia_la_loca]

Nice little jar! I look forward to seeing how it evolves.

[ccr]

hey! nice setup that is clean and looks like great rock. did you skip cycle this bad boy? meaning that rock looks good...coralline...goodies, was it drop n go? those are fun little rule breakers~

The rock has been in a large LFS tank for some time. I have no space to cycle it on my own. I will watch the jar and do 100% water changes if anything looks suspicious. In any case I will do 100% changes at least once a week. With I that said, I am at least a bit worried about my jar cycle.

[brandon429]

Knowing that I'll call good to go

The coralline indicates full bacteria as I know you didn't dose any meds to knock them back, it takes longer for coralline to establish than it does nitrifiers so we know one from the other even without testing

 

since the coral is open that means no dying animals from the transfer or free ammonia, and there's no reason for them to die being back situated again that is the classic skip cycle. That is the only way I do picos and the rocks don't even come from my house

 

I buy the nicest aged purple rock the lfs has, bring it home wet packed, and begin reefing. If it helps any this entire thread covers the process

 

You and I are using group b rocks from this read

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-cycling-tank-bacteria-and-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

[ccr]

If it helps any this entire thread covers the process. You and I are using group b rocks from this read

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-cycling-tank-bacteria-and-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

Brandon, this is the best thread on cycling I have read. Thank you for sharing it.

[brandon429]

Thank you! All our posting buddies were giving feedback and we keep editing based on inputs thanks so much for reading and posting. Your pico is going to work well, space will be your only constraints not biology ~ great start on the new pico

[ccr]

Monday morning temp is 61 degrees at 7:00AM. New York is having a bit of a cold spell and office buildings don't turn up the hear over the weekend, particularly in the spring. Xenia retracted. Turned on lights early to warm the tank. Room temperature increased to 70 degrees through the morning. Xenia alternated between open and closed during the day.

 

100% water change at 8PM; four days after the last change. Immediately following the water change, the Xenia looked a bit more perky. I will observe in the morning when the temperature drops overnight.

 

Could the Xenia roller coaster be related to temperature, water quality or something else? Heater is on order and should arrive later in the week.

[brandon429]

The tank must not get lower than 76 to leave safe margin, what's your tank temp when room is sixties

 

So far I think it's temp related

[ccr]

The tank must not get lower than 76 to leave safe margin, what's your tank temp when room is sixties

 

So far I think it's temp related

I expected temperate conditions, but not cold. Jar temp dropped into the sixties. My heater is floating somewhere at a UPS facility. I hope it gets back on track soon.

[brandon429]

All part of tank tuning. It will be hard to contain the heater but it's necessary so I just get used to seeing it. Glue corals to it if you like lol I have

[ccr]

7 month update. I upgraded from 0.5 gallons to a 1.0 gallon cookie jar. The extra water volume has helped. I also added a few new Zoas, and a tiny sunset Montipora frag. In total, I have

 

4 Zoanthid colonies

1 Green Star Polyp

1 Green Ricordia

1 Green Montipora.

 

The corals open every day, but I can't say they are thriving yet. The problem is keeping hair algae under control. I will post some pictures over the weekend, but I have a decent amount of algae on my two rocks.

 

I do 100% water changes, roughly every 5 days. I had limited circulation generated by one air stone; there was some water movement, but only minimal circulation.

 

Today, I added an external canister filter - a ZooMed 10 Nano. I made some mods to fit it to the tank. I will post those separately. The filter has a sponge that I will clean regularly and probably replace with floss. I also added a nano-sized bag of Chemi-Pure Blue (carbon + phosphate). The filter creates a lot of linear flow. Too much, I think to keep on 100% of the time. For now, I will run it for 15 minutes every hour at night and 15 minutes every two hours during the day. I am working to keep a balance of water flow and beating up the corals with too much turbulence. I also cut the photoperiod from 8 hours to 4 hours. I will see if that has an impact on algae.

 

The corals responded positively to the change. In particular, the monti showed nice polyp extension. I also noticed several small feather dusters that were not apparent before activating the filter. Perhaps stirring everything up allowed them to feed more effectively.

[brandon429]

http://www.reefjar.com/how-to-kill-algae-with-h202/

 

CCR

In pico reefs we remain 100% algae free like that, no need to measure or react to tank nutrients