Teto the 2 gallon cookie jar pico reef-new peacock anemone shrimps + experiment on fountain pump

[HammerLover]

Some photos

Here's my new green star polyps plus my feather duster. This beauty is being choked by the anthelia so I moved it. Its actually a hitchhiker in my jar around 2 months ago. I didnt pay much attention to it though

My first sps!! Its a 1 inch red montipora digitata hope it loves jar life

[HammerLover]

Here's a top shot. I love snapseed app. Ill flood some pics soon, cant do it now since im busy in exams

[HammerLover]

I recently reset this setup last week

Its now a barebottom reef, and I cleansed my rocks once again in h2o2 (3%)

 

The anthelia and xenia didnt like the dips, I think its a 50/50 chance they will live

 

My ricordea,zoas and other corals are fine and the digitata frag has encrusted well in the magnet. They are currently living in another tank while my jar had a mini cycle since I

-dipped the rocks with 3% h202

-smeared the entire jar with conc. h202

-removed all the sandbed

-sundried the jar, washed it with tapwater and started a cycle using my dipped rocks. The baby ricordeas cant be pried out of the rocks since they are too small... Hope they'll survive though

[HammerLover]

Another reason why I did the major reset was due to my sundial snail outbreak

 

I thought my zoas and palys were just being temperamnental. I was wrong

 

Half of my implosion palys were eaten, my captain america paly was gone as well as my sunflower and pink zoas

 

Fortunately my other zoas and palys are opening now. My implosions opened yesterday, after being closed for 2 weeks due to the sundials.

[natalia_la_loca]

I think your jar will pull through. The reset potential of small systems like yours is infinite.

[HammerLover]

Thanks Nathalie. Im gonna post a couple of update pics. So far everyone wasn't shocked with the reset. And Ive got a new little frogspawn!

[HammerLover]

Here's a topview shot of my zoas and palys that survived the outbreak as well as my lone orange ricordea. The zoas and palys that survived are:

-metallic baypackers zoa

-radioactive dragon eyes

-half of the implosion palys

-blowpop zoas

-watermelon zoa frag

-orange pokerchips zoa

-weird watermelon zoa that

-red people eater + green people eater

-new VDM paly frag

-orange pokerchips zoa

doesnt have a green skirt

-orange zoas that looks like flashlights (oxide zoas I think)

Some of them werent seen in the pic, I'll try taking pics of each one of them soon.

 

Here's my new frogspawn, it was added after the reset. It was a baby frogspawn and its not that common in our LFS so I snagged it. Damn Nathalie, your frogspawn made me drool and grab one for my own jar haha. The bubblegum monti frag was below the frogspawn but the flow pulls the tentacles away so Im quite sure they will grow well together

 

 

And a full jar shot, top view

Everyone seems happy, even the zoas and palys. My baby LTPs are very tough I'll say. Most forums regard them as sensitive to gonioporas, but they seem to be living quite well here in my jar reef. Ive also added a small cabbage coral, since I cant find a nephthea. A toadstool is nice but they get way too big and I dont think they will look proportioned in these small setups. Also I took this shot in the afternoon so the blues seems wash out, but it make the tank look natural for me

[Lula_Mae]

Don't give up! It's a huge bummer when something like that happens and you lose a lot. I remember one of my earliest tanks, I crashed it hard and everything melted and died. I was SO disappointed and couldn't replace anything for a while due to money issues. But the good thing is that if you learn from the situations that caused it, you can do your best to prevent it from happening in the future. I think the tank will pull through and you may find you like barebottom more than sand.

[brandon429]

Hammer

 

On your coral dips, remember theres never a reason to contact peroxide to corals, not ever. Every instance in a nano where you need peroxide can be applied precisely to the location not including the coral flesh, this w cut down on stress massively. I know that's late info now, but in the future it'll help. I use 35% all in my bowl in this way, contacted to the corals it would melt some of them but with a precision dropper and a metal scraping tool, I do surgery around new frag plugs in the tank and never lose stuff

 

the tank is drained of water so that each area is accessed in the air. then a partial fill to catch all the runoff, then a drain, then refill with clean water. some corals do come in brief contact down below but its nominal dilution and quickly removed.

[valiantjared]

I feel like im gonna have to retire in philippines so i can have a giant reef tank

[HammerLover]

Lula_mae, thanks for the reply. Fortunately Im quite confident that there isnt any sundial left since my implosions have been opening throughout after being closed for 2 weeks due to irritation. I also fragged it since some polyps were half eaten and may rot in the tank, so I only had half of the colony left at most.

 

Brandon, its my mistake I dipped the entire rock of my xenia and anthelia that's why they perished. Nathalie suggeted to use a paintbrush in spot treating rocks or frag disks. Your tip is also nice, will try it when I'll get new frags.

 

Valiantjared, corals here in our country are fairly cheap but imported palys and zoas like my captain america frag is pricey. I cried and cringed when my sundials ate that particular single polyp paly but they left my weedy, cheap and fast growing dragon eyes.

 

As of now, the jar is back to normal. i gotta agree Brandon that resetting these systems wont be much harm. When I removed my sand I found a 7 inch bobbit worm making random tunnels causing detritus to settle inside the jar and produce black pockets. The pockets became nitrate factories soon. And since I'll be regularly moving due to my quite frequent dorm transfers (thrice or twice a year at most) I decided to make my setup travel friendly so I can bring it wherever I go.

 

Despite the bad news, the good news are:

-RPE paly had more babies, from a single polyp frag Ive got 5 now

-Bubblegum monti has 0.5 cm growth lol, and it has started to encrust its magnet

-my baby LTPs had 2 babies. i dont even know if my LTPs are babies since a baby cant produce a baby lol. But they seem to love weekly feedings and 100% wc.

[DrDeGuzman]

pre saan ka nakabili ung mga coral mo? noon nagaral ako sa pinas tumigil ako sa fish keeping hehe. ung alam ko lang cartimar pero malayo sa amin noon.

[HammerLover]

Hey guys some quick updates!

 

-new green monti frags!

-new RPE and VDM palys

-some new ultra eagle eye zoas

-copepod bloom

 

however I also did the following:

-added slowly a shallow sand bed

-traded my frogspawn to a small golden torch

 

aside from that nothing new haha  Im looking forward to get the golden torch, it would look very very lovely inside the jar,

I found a strategic place where I can set it hehe

 

post coming this weekend

 

 

[fishfreak0114]

Very nice jar!  Looking forward to pics  

[Lula_Mae]

Pics! Pics! Pics!

[HammerLover]

Hi guys sorry for the delay, will post some update pics

 

i starte with a single polyp RPE that soon became 7. During my sundial outbreak I had a new frag of RPE with around 5 heads to go with my existing ones, they seem to love each other lol and even spread more making it 20+ polyps at the top of the rock. My implosions were also moved uptop and they are being engulfed by my RPEs (since they have reduced numbers from the sundial outbreak). My LFS had a sale and it was a small colony of RPE for a VERY VERY cheap price. A price of a colony versus a the price of 2 frag disks with 3 heads, which will you get lol. So Ive got an insane amount of RPE now in the jar and im not complaining

 

my RPEs closeup

 

Here's my new ultra eagle eyes or sunflowers or whatever plus the new open brain underneath 

 

New golden torch uptop! it is resting on a bed of RPEs and implosion palys. Interesting note, my palys necks are stretching away from the torch. Hmm someone's scared lol

 

 

and here's an FJS (full jar shot). I cant post a front shot since it always comes out dark and crappy. You can see how the RPEs on top has spread and the implosions as well. Underneath these palys is a neon green cabbage coral that Ive got when I made my jar barebottom. The green monti isnt green at all, looks more pinkish brown with greenish white polyps. The RPEs on the sandbed may stay or be traded, if someone ever wants to trade hehe.

 

btw this pic is taken during the afternoon so the sunlight makes the corals look washed

[HammerLover]

Oop I also rescued a bleached ricordea since its free when I bought some corals last week. its not seen in the pic clearly as well as my lone orange ricordea but it has a nice hint of pink in its tentacles. It opened immediately upon adding and I'll take that as a good sign!

 

here's a pic

there's also a green rhodactis shroom there that is not seen but its the greenish blob on the rock lol

[HammerLover]

On 3/3/2017 at 11:38 PM, DrDeGuzman said:

pre saan ka nakabili ung mga coral mo? noon nagaral ako sa pinas tumigil ako sa fish keeping hehe. ung alam ko lang cartimar pero malayo sa amin noon.

Hey, I bought most of my corals from cartimar or from sir Glenn. San ka sa Pinas?

[Lula_Mae]

A brain, nice!  I think brains are so cool.  Maybe someday.   Jar looks great!

[fishfreak0114]

Those RPE's are killer!

[natalia_la_loca]

Your jar is looking great  

[HammerLover]

On March 14, 2017 at 0:26 PM, Lula_Mae said:

A brain, nice!  I think brains are so cool.  Maybe someday.   Jar looks great!

Thanks! I was opting for a purple blasto but I liked the brain more. Plus brains are super peaceful corals they are so harmless they can touch the RPEs with no issues. Im planning on fragging my watermelons and dragon eyes on the sandbed to make room for a couple candy canes. Another amazing lps Im missing!

23 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Those RPE's are killer!

IKR! RPEs are just the best. But I got way too much and Im not complaining  I will plan to trade them soon for a couple more other zoanthid frags. 

22 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

Your jar is looking great  

Thanks! My jar is still far from yours!! Your corals are so insanely pretty mine looks like turds lol

[HammerLover]

Some updates and lessons learned from my previous mistakes and minor resets episodes:

 

-be more vigilant to avoid sundial snail outbreaks and other pest related problems

 

-although barebottom has lots of pros, the pros of a sandbed is what I really like plus it makes the jar more natural and pretty. I decided to stick halfway of the barebottom and dsb so I had a 1 inch sand bed that I regularly clean weekly

 

-do light acclimation! When I switched lights I badly burned corals luckily my orange lone ricordea has been very tough. It has seen resets, barebottom, sundial outbreaks and yet there it was still orange and fluffy. Amazing how tough that yuma is.

 

-avoid buying corals that is aggresive or can get way too large. Though my torch is aggresive the flow pulls away the tentacles towards the glass. Sometimes its just strategy. But I know elegance are just short term corals in the jar, they can get huge and are very very aggresive. certain aggresive acans like acan echinata can also pack a punch. Hammers as well. 

 

-lastly dip and remove any visible pests you can. A 7-inch bobbit worm tunneled in my dsb allowing detritus to seep inside turning my jar into a wonderful nitrate factory. Also the detritus turned to the deadly black soot, hydrogen sulfide. Yikes, that's why I had a minor reset because of my sundial outbreak + sandbed issues caused by stupid worm

 

So there haha. Lots of lesson learned. Im confident I will not reset after learning alot from those episodes and mistakes. My copepod bloom has finished and they started dwindling down but Ive got a new problem...

 

Hair algae. A strand grows in my bubblegum digitata and a strand grows in my new pinkish monti. A couple strand also appeared on the watermelons and on the rock. Time to zap with peroxide!

 

The best thing to do is treat the algae immediately and never let it settle down and multiply. It will save you alot of headaches later on lol. If some persists (maybe its bryopsis not gha) then I will start doing some treatments like fluconazole. Will post more updates this weekend! I also got a new purple paly frag hehe. damn Aaron stop shopping corals lol! I will also place back my gsp in the tank. I really miss those. I finally found a nice glue to firmly glue it on the wall  

wall of gsp here I come!

 

[Rain24]

Pics look good. I'm glad your jar is recovering.

 

Could you post a full jar shot sometime? I'd love to see how the scape looks now.

[Weetabix7]

I love that you didn't let all of those setbacks stop you, that you learned from them and kept moving forward. 

Lots of people choose not to do that. 

It helps that you are documenting it as well, cause that way both you and everyone can learn as well!!

Glad you are a part of this community and sharing your journey with us.