Stocking 0.2g Fowlr

[Nosferatu]

My 0.2g (I measured out 750ml/20oz when I poured it out and then I think converted it properly) FOWLR is all set up and ready to go. I was wondering what you guys thought I could put in it. I was thinking maybe a pair of sexy shrimp? I REALLY want this tiny little yellow clown goby I saw at the LFS the other day, he's pretty small so he might work. They are fairly inactive, do you think it would be way too small for him? Probably huh? I'll post pics of it in a bit.

 

Curently there are (as far as I have found) about 2 or 3 Stomas, 2 HUGE bristleworms (I'll try and get pics), a couple of mini brittle stars, and an electric blue hermit as cleanup. Everything but the hermit was in the LR. There's also a decent amount of green and red macro algae (I took the pieces out of somone's fuge).

[ebin]

when did you set this up?

 

how successful have you been keeping the params stable?

 

any pics?

 

what equipment are you using?

 

 

 

 

drats,

 

ebin

[Nosferatu]

I'm building this as a little present for my wife to put on her desk at work as a neat little conversation piece. She works in an HR company so it might be a cool thing to help newcomers break the ice.

 

It's been stable for a couple of days and had no cycle. Everything came straight from a LONG established fuge (sand, rocks, water, etc). There are already lots of pods because of the source so I figured that would work as a great, pollution minimizing food source for the tiny goby. He's probably no more than a third of an inch.

 

Sorry if my photography skills are lacking. The camera is just a basic digital. I put the Dr. Pepper can for a size comparison. The bulb is a 7W 6500K PC and the tank is a deco art model from Red Sea.

Anyways, pics:

[ebin]

i would skip the fish.obviously it is you and not your wife that maintain the home tank. I doubt her reef skills could keep that tank stable without the fish in there let alone with it. (are you gonna go to her work to maintain this tank) but hey I could be wrong. plus without the fish it would make it much easier to take care of. a cool crab and a few zoos and mushroom would be a nice desk addition that would be relatively easy.

 

 

and just for reference how long is "Everything came straight from a LONG established fuge"

 

 

 

not trying to knock you just trying to understand.

[debbeach13]

That is just too cute. I hope it all works out.

I think it is a little too small for a fish. JMO

She will have people stopping by to visit all the time.

[tinyreef]

i'd tend to agree with deb/ebin that that's a bit small for fish for your wife. maybe you could do it but i doubt a newcomer (your wife) could maintain the parameters needed.

 

what are you using for water movement? i didn't see anything and imo you'll need something to help gas exchange and/or O2 production. you could use macroalgae (red would be pretty) but you'll still need a little movement imo.

 

evaporation will likely be the main problem for your wife.

[Nosferatu]

Yeah, I figured with such a small tank that evaporation would probably require daily FW topoffs and that exchange alone would provide sufficient oxygenation when combined with macroalgae doing its thing.

The fuge it came from is somebody else's, but it's been running for at least 3 years as far as I know so I would consider that plenty established.

And that maintenance issue was my main concern with the fish. I want it to require as little maintenance as possible (she can handle adding a little Dasani or what not in the mornings). Her office is literally a 5 minute walk from my house so keeping it up is not a huge problem, but I would still like to keep it at a minimum.

Thus, since the fish seems to have been ruled out, how does a pair of sexy shrimp sound?

[Ricky@3rdshift]

In my opinion that tank is WAY too small to keep anything other than a small species of corals like zoos or shrooms.

[Angelman23]

I hope it works out for you. Keep us updated

 

I hope it works out for you. Keep us updated

[hectordc9]

Where did you buy the light fixture? I need a small light fixture for my AC fudge.

[v13tpR0t0t1p3]

I WAS WONDERING WHERE YOU BOUGHT THE LIGHT AT

[Lynden]

The tank is too small for anything but pods

 

Would you be happy living in a closet?

 

-Lynden

[acdraindrps]

If you put any type of living creature in that "tank" and put it on a desk of someone who has no aquatic knowledge whatsoever would be cruelty to animals. You are basically signing the death certificate of anything you stock in this poor excuse of a home for a living creature.

 

Sorry to flame on this thread but I think everyone in this hobby is here to preserve the life of everything put into our tanks, and having a setup of less than a gallon makes this pretty close to impossible.

 

Make it fresh water and put a beta in it. Also make sure your wife changes half the volume of water every week preferably twice.

[brandon429]

brandon429:

 

 

I've kept many sub gallon systems and can attest for sure they will grow everything from SPS to LPS provided control measures are in place during the design and build phase. Only as a helpful suggestion I'd like to predict for you what will happen to that pico--it will die of cyano bacteria overrun within two months. The only way to have an uncirculated marine system is to start with non-living 'rock' that didn't originate from a circulated system. See the ecosphere line of sealed systems, they aren't really reefs. They are 'nonliving' substrate systems with only algae and shrimp that can survive on the small pocket of air sealed into the system (provides a buffer for day/night CO2 phases).

 

In a fed and circulated system your rock becomes teeming with benthic life and this will die off in cycles when the circulation is lost. Your water changes will export the waste probably enough to prevent an ammonia crash, but it will still emit ammonia between changes and this will fuel a cyano spike very soon which will remove the nice looks it has now while the organisms live on adaptive skills until they die out. Either circulate the system with a micro jet pump, it's only one additional wire to deal with (but hard to regulate in a system that small) or don't make it a reef. You might could get away with one small shrimp, some solid rock that is not marine and therefore won't dieoff, and regular changes to remove wastes. No reef matter will survive past it's conferred adaptive limits in a non circulated tank.

[brandon429]

I bet the bristle worms would live though, they are near bullet proof in a stable salinity. You will have trouble keeping the overall balance of the system in tact, not the higher organisms that can 1. fit into the environment and 2. respire successfully when pitted against day and night oxygen levels and temp swings and waste levels from dying rock.

 

If you've ever chipped open some live rock you see it's muddy inside sometimes...if you let this get anoxic due to non circulation it forms a rotting internal mush that will simply wreck the system in no time (based on the longevity you want from this reef, no doubt it will run for a month or so because these systems are actually tougher than we think)

 

You can get away with it maybe with one sexy shrimp if you'll get some non metallic/ low surface area (non pourous) rock meant for freshwater use and do maybe even twice weekly changes. The lower surface area will be tough to nitrify the wastes of even one shrimp, so I'd change water often or you will get ammonia buildup due to wastes and feeding.

 

Make no mistake, non circulated tanks can and do work. I have 3 planted freshwater systems working right now that look as good as any planted tank you've seen, but doing it in a marine system with no nitrate consumers is really tough. Oxidizing bacteria, by natural habit, will seed any habitable aquatic environment they happen upon. Your little tank will actually hold decent oxygen levels due to shallow depth, so you don't want that competed against with heavy bacterial loads (high surface areas) and rotting tank waste/life/feed/animal respiration. You won't have a problem getting a little cycle going in there, you'll just have a problem handling the organic loads you've already put into the small system. Less organics...don't use reef stuff in there except for the worms and shrimp.

[ExoticReefer]

what about a small piece of sun coral..just feed it. but i dont knowl about the water movement issue. if people in the office see that thing eat some mysis. pretty cool if you know nothing about sw tanks.

[ChrisS]

I'd think a sun coral would gernerate way too much waste in a tiny system like this. Each head on my suncoral will eat 2-3 mysis a feeding, 3x a week. That's alot of waste.

 

What about threading a small airline down one side of the tank. Dial it way down so it's just generating a few bubbles. This will give a bit of movement in the tank and will help with oxygen exchange. A small clear airline will be almost invisible and woun't clutter up this tiny tank.

 

I'd get rid of the bristle worm. That thing is just scarry in a tiny tank. It may end up eating anything you but in there.

 

You might try a couple of volcano shrimp in here. These tiny little guys are the most interesting shrimp I've seen. They're active all the time and swim freely around the tank (instead of just crawling on the rock like most shrimp). They live in lava pools in Hawaii that range from full salinity to brackish depending upon rainfall. So these little shrimp can tolerate a fair amount in so far as swinging salinity (which as you pointed out may be a problem due to evaportaion). They eat microscopic algea so they don't need to be feed much (I give mine a bit of spirulina powder to supplement thier natural food once a week). They can tolerate a range of temps and room temp is fine so no need to heat. They're not aggressive so you can easily keep several in a small tank. They're long lived 5+ years and they'll breed even in tiny tanks like this.

[compulou]

I'd think a sun coral would gernerate way too much waste in a tiny system like this. Each head on my suncoral will eat 2-3 mysis a feeding, 3x a week. That's alot of waste.

 

What about threading a small airline down one side of the tank. Dial it way down so it's just generating a few bubbles. This will give a bit of movement in the tank and will help with oxygen exchange. A small clear airline will be almost invisible and woun't clutter up this tiny tank.

 

I'd get rid of the bristle worm. That thing is just scarry in a tiny tank. It may end up eating anything you but in there.

 

You might try a couple of volcano shrimp in here. These tiny little guys are the most interesting shrimp I've seen. They're active all the time and swim freely around the tank (instead of just crawling on the rock like most shrimp). They live in lava pools in Hawaii that range from full salinity to brackish depending upon rainfall. So these little shrimp can tolerate a fair amount in so far as swinging salinity (which as you pointed out may be a problem due to evaportaion). They eat microscopic algea so they don't need to be feed much (I give mine a bit of spirulina powder to supplement thier natural food once a week). They can tolerate a range of temps and room temp is fine so no need to heat. They're not aggressive so you can easily keep several in a small tank. They're long lived 5+ years and they'll breed even in tiny tanks like this.

 

 

Can you please post a link to these volcano shrimp? I've never heard of them and can't find them on LiveAquaria.com

 

Thanks

[ChrisS]

Can you please post a link to these volcano shrimp? I've never heard of them and can't find them on LiveAquaria.com

 

Thanks

 

These guys don't seem to be common in the aquarium trade and they can be a bit expensive. They're slow breeders which may be part of the problem. They're actually sold by Ocean Rider as a live food for seahorses but they only sell them in bulk (100 or more). Inland aquatics is the only place I'm aware of that sells them individually. They have them for 2.99 each right now. These are the same shrimp you see in those enclosed ecosystem that sell on ebay. While they can survive in these systems they typically don't do very well and slowly starve over a year or so.

 

Here's a website with lots of info on them. They call them micro-lobsters. They sell them as pets with small pico aquariums set up just for them. They state that they won't sell them as food so they generally don't sell them individually. Might be worth contacting them though and see if they'll sell them to someone setting up a pico for them. My guess is that they make thier money selling the habitat tanks which is why they won't sell them individually...but I could be wrong.

 

There are quite a few seahorse keepers who have these shrimp, both as a food source and a peaceful tankmate for dwarf seahorses. There's quite a bit of info on the on seahorse.org. Here's one of the most informative links . If you search for either volcano shrimp or red shrimp (people seem to use both names) you'll find lots of info.

[hedonist222]

Wow thats tiny!

Love it!

Skip the fish for the sake of humanity

[FUGU!!!]

A tang should fit.Maby a yellow tang,there perdy.

 

 

Pistol shimp.

[AcroporaLokani]

Any updates?

[nanu-nanu]

+1 on the tang.

[Ryan_H]

i'd use an aqualifter pump for circulation. at 3.5 gph, you'll have over 17x turnover. you may be able to keep a tiny sexy shrimp, if you let it subsist on pods, algae, detritus, etc and only feed it once a week.