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Reef Vase - "Blue Crevice"


Rogles

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Well, I'm starting my second reef pico now. This time it's a reef vase and it's what I really wanted to do since the beginning. I put more effort into setting up this one. It's based off Brandon's specs. Holes have been drilled for the heater cable and airstone tube and I picked out some grommets that fit them real snug so evaporation won't be much of an issue at all.

 

It's filled pretty tight with live rock as I wanted to go for the crevice/cave look. At the moment, it's lit with ecoxotic's royal blue par38 light which is a bit overpowered for a pico but I'll make it work for now. The corals I picked looked great in it - it's got almost a full spectrum of neon colors already (the pics don't do them justice, unfortunately). I'm not sure how well the birdsnest is going to do in it. We'll see.

 

Current stock:

 

blue ricordea

orange/green ricordea

pink birdsnest

green birdsnest

frogspawn

armor of god

red rhodactis

purple death palys

blue snowflake cloves

orange cloves

star polyps

various zoa frags

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I thought about doing a vase

After buying it I hated how everything look bent and distorted behind the curved glass

This looks nice though

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wow that looks sharp can't wait to see how the LED works have never seen LED on a vase before that looks like a 20K setup really sharp!!

 

Mark K (Warlion) did the first drilling of a vase I haven't seen it done since then it truly does make the evaporation less than even a 180 gallon tank. nice job!!

 

I cannot recommend dosing this vase strongly enough, its a huge huge design factor that reduces algae, increases coralline, maintains pH and affects coral growth in a huge way. its more critical as the tank ages a few months, when new it seems bulletproof.

the correct dosing is ~1/3 capfull of each c balance component, three times a week, added 20 mins apart in the morning before lights on never after lights on. something like a mon wed fri dosing then a full water change on the weekends with a heavy blast feeding of cyclopeeze just before the water change and never midweek

 

theres other ways that work this is just one way, that works for sure. pack that baby to the hilt with corals it will be neat to see what you do with it

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Mr. Microscope

How long has this been going? Looks nice. Maybe take a shot with a flash, just so we can see what's going on in there. Or, if you shine a white light on it with the blues on, it should help with saturation for the photograph.

 

:welcome: to nano-reef!

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needs pics of regular display lights IMO. actinics make it look very nice, but i cant really see the vase well with those lights. nor the stuff in it.

 

EDIT: wait you dont have any sort of white light, so this thing just looks blue all the time? what kind of camera are you using, maybe i can help you with settings so that you can take pics of the true color of the tank?

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needs pics of regular display lights IMO. actinics make it look very nice, but i cant really see the vase well with those lights. nor the stuff in it.

 

EDIT: wait you dont have any sort of white light, so this thing just looks blue all the time? what kind of camera are you using, maybe i can help you with settings so that you can take pics of the true color of the tank?

 

Yeah, it's lit by an all blue par38 light right now. I'll make sure I swap it out with my white light for the next batch of pics. As far as the camera goes, it's a Digital Rebel XTI. It's extremely blue on all the white settings (ie. day, cloudy, shade, indoor, etc). I'll have to mess with them more in Photoshop and see if I can correct them. I shot them in RAW format.

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wow that looks sharp can't wait to see how the LED works have never seen LED on a vase before that looks like a 20K setup really sharp!!

 

Mark K (Warlion) did the first drilling of a vase I haven't seen it done since then it truly does make the evaporation less than even a 180 gallon tank. nice job!!

 

I cannot recommend dosing this vase strongly enough, its a huge huge design factor that reduces algae, increases coralline, maintains pH and affects coral growth in a huge way. its more critical as the tank ages a few months, when new it seems bulletproof.

the correct dosing is ~1/3 capfull of each c balance component, three times a week, added 20 mins apart in the morning before lights on never after lights on. something like a mon wed fri dosing then a full water change on the weekends with a heavy blast feeding of cyclopeeze just before the water change and never midweek

 

theres other ways that work this is just one way, that works for sure. pack that baby to the hilt with corals it will be neat to see what you do with it

 

Will do! Thanks again for all of your help and advice on youtube.

 

Now I need to figure out what other corals to get. I might replace that pink birdsnest with a green one since the pink doesn't stand out too well.

 

Oh, and one thing I learned very quickly is how difficult it can be with a vase reef to place corals in the right spot. I might need another set of long tweezers so I can use two!

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nice to meet you thanks for stopping in. You know I combed the web for those tweezers, they are required for convenience!!!

 

 

dallasbonsai.com

 

that took me a long time to find. shipped immediately, its a small shop that can be phoned in local Dallas, the only place I'll shop for longtongs now

 

birdsnest stylos are the hardest sps in my opinion, I think they are best used after other sps show growth. I still wouldn't keep one, they don't like emersive water changes much I think.

 

some tradeoffs have to be made in keeping the vase, but its all worth it for the evap control its really hard for anyone to say they can take a 5 day vacation from the pico, without an ato system. I do skiing and never bother checking in or having someone overdo this or that in tank care...

 

 

plus its transportable. The greatest goal for the reefbowl is classroom use, I have traveled with mine to several places. I'll take it to the marine biology dept of Texas Tech this year if the risk in travel is worth it lol

you just carry it out to the car unplugged but full, set it in the front seat with a large bedspread blanket wrapped continually around it. tape the lid on before the journey. Age this one out and then take it to your nearest college marine biology dept when its full of masses of coral and ask them to explain it :) you'll be addicted for life.

 

on the highway it will hold itself up. In the city a quick right hand can brace the top of the vase as it travels wrapped in that large blanket pressing up against the door and seat and dash. I know some high school teachers doing this so if it helps to know theres a traveler's option lol

 

when you get the reef out to a place where portable biospheres don't just show up everyday, you do something to yourself and to science as a whole. Thats the top reasons to keep a vase this is a great build. My vase is not drilled, yours and Marks are the only ones I know of and also cichlidmania if Im not mistaken.

 

mine has a slit cut in the lid, so that leaks evaporate more than your lid design does. its very tempting for me to take down my vase, change out the substrate and reset it all inside a drilled vase for another decade run lol like a transmission oil change in an old bmw

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Want to also add cichlidmania26's excellent design upgrade in using a small powerhead for 60% of the flow, rather than just a blasting airstone like what I use (and causes the most evaporate)

 

he's using about 40% airflow comparably, but he gets great movement by using a small fountain powerhead stashed among the rock. this is less air outflow from around the lid and a topoff interval of once every freakin 9 days it is unbelievable. 9 day topoff interval on a gallon reef that guy nailed it man.

 

mine only goes 3-4 max.

 

is your lid being pressed down in some way to affect the best possible seal around the vase? that is another 10% boost in evap control, the internal pressurized area will find an escape route.

 

conversely there is an upside to full airstone, something no other pico reef design currently uses- constant total CO2 degassing using the actual method of degassing in aquatic systems management, airstoning or surface agitation.

 

since a chief rule in reefkeeping is not to use airstones, constant pH readings are tough to attain in a pico reef as it ages. all picos run well when new and not accumulated. there's not a half pound of bacteria and waste and tons of animals wasting the substrate...its clean and new and a very low biological oxygen demand. but as the months pile on, like dog years to a large tanks metabolism, the balance of CO2 and oxygen starts to shift, that triggers a eutrphic state, then algae sets in.

 

Anyone making a year with a gallon reef is running a freakin marathon lol gotta love em.

 

with airstoning, pH is nearly constant on a 24 hour basis Ive tested it many times but only with colorimetric strips nothing laser accurate...

the lid design is what allows this, so while it may look a little different and be hard to aquascape you are getting some stability factors a 180 gallon reef wouldn't give you :)

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about those camera settings, you should have a setting for white balance that can manually select white balance based on a sample window that it gives you. it should be called custom white balance setting or something like that. to do it you must select the setting, get the sample window, then point it to a white area in your tank (ie. the sand) and take the sample pic. the camera will adjust your white balance correctly, so you wont ever need photoshop again. i use the same method to photograph my pico. it works for the true color under actinic lights, and much much more.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Unfortunately, I got some sand on my magnet cleaner and there are now scratches all over the glass :o . Is there anything you can get to help hide scratches on the inside of the glass (like a polish) that won't harm the corals?

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birdsnest stylos are the hardest sps in my opinion, I think they are best used after other sps show growth. I still wouldn't keep one, they don't like emersive water changes much I think.

 

Huh, I thought they were supposed to be one of the hardiest sps corals aside from montiporas. I heard they dry out very quickly though, so I'd need to immediately pour the replacement water to reduce the risk of damage. That said, if it starts showing any negative signs, I might just move it over to my larger pico.

 

I cannot recommend dosing this vase strongly enough, its a huge huge design factor that reduces algae, increases coralline, maintains pH and affects coral growth in a huge way. its more critical as the tank ages a few months, when new it seems bulletproof.

the correct dosing is ~1/3 capfull of each c balance component, three times a week, added 20 mins apart in the morning before lights on never after lights on. something like a mon wed fri dosing then a full water change on the weekends with a heavy blast feeding of cyclopeeze just before the water change and never midweek

 

I was wondering what the reasons are for dosing with the lights off. Do you have to do it in the morning? Or can you do it at night after the lights go out? I'm usually out the door to go to work about 15 minutes after I get up, so it would be better if I could do it at night as long as there are no ill effects. I don't think it mentions anything about it on the bottles.

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i do the dosing at night, because like you i have to be somewhere early in the morning. i have not seen any adverse effects.

 

This thing looks very cool. is that SPS on the left bottom side or just a type of branching LR/skeleton?

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you can try it at night if you want, but its the highest pH period of the daily cycle and the morning is the lowest and the blue bottle is pH9+ the effect is less pronounced in larger tanks where dilution saves the day.

 

 

Once, before I knew of the effect at the small gallon range, I dosed my half gal in my avatar at 3 pm.

 

skinned every sps in the tank white before I could figure out what happened

:)

 

I say dose in the morning at all costs.

 

. nobody at c balance would recommend using their product in a pico lol so nothing on the side! plus, if you took their directions on the bottle and scaled it down it would be one drop or less, we are doing things against the grain thats for sure.

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its a great question the vase looks sharp with that color substrate I totally prefer it to white. this reefbowl is a corvette. the vessel is easily a multi year pico reef.

 

Mark K (Warlion) is totally credited with the first drilled design which makes for stellar topoff control mine has the cabling looped over the edge is not anywhere as clean. this reef above is among the cleanest vase builds Ive ever seen.

 

Mark let me use his pics in my writeup for the construction phase. I would estimate you are only topping off every 4-5 days right>? I have to run every 3 with a little more than a quarter inch drop in water line.

 

when you drilled it, did it work first pass or did it take a practice vase?

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:0

so my SPS will die if I continue to dose at night? you know what? I'll just start dosing in the morning regardless when the lights are on then, because in my pico they turn on very early. Either that or i will just change my pico's photo period back to normal single 8 hours period instead of two 4 hour periods.

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no I think they are just fine its a fast effect when its a problem, your gallonage and careful measurement of dosing is why its ok. for sure if you ever want to hyperdrive the system and run lots of sps it needs to be dosed in the am though, its the most chemically receptive time for a high pH solution.

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i do the dosing at night, because like you i have to be somewhere early in the morning. i have not seen any adverse effects.

 

This thing looks very cool. is that SPS on the left bottom side or just a type of branching LR/skeleton?

 

 

It's a branched LR/skeleton.

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Very cool vase. Sorry for the stupid question, but what's the lighting you're using? Is it led? What kind and where did you get it?

 

The main light I'm using is a royal blue Ecoxotic Par38 light. I ordered it from thatfishplace.com and it's the one used in the first batch of pics. The light is the most recent pics is a par30 light from Rapid LED http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-100/5-...R30-Bulb/Detail. This one looks better in the pics than in person and the blue Ecoxotic looks better in person than in the pics.

 

There's something about the blue par38 that puzzles me. I have another par38 (3 white and 2 blue leds) from Ecoxotic that turned out to be way too strong for my 3G pico. Many of my corals closed up and the live rock was bleaching until I moved it 3 feet above the tank. Right now my blue par38 is only a few inches above the lid of my vase and the corals don't seem to mind it (so far at least). It was to my knowledge that the blue LEDs were just as strong as the white LEDs, so I find it a bit odd. Perhaps the lid and all the bubbles on the surface disperse the light more? I'll have to run some experiments...

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I looks like I'm getting a break out of dinos. I think it's dinos at least - sort of stringy and brownish. It must have been from the feedings. I haven't been feeding the corals much as the live rock didn't come with a lot of hitchhikers (barely any at all in fact - just a couple of amphipods). A few hours before doing a full water change, I grind about 1/6 of a packet of cyclopeeze and swish it around in the water. And although I do a full water change, I'm sure a lot of the uneaten food gets stuck in the rocks. Speaking of water changes, I was wondering what I could do about getting closer to the sand without sucking it up. I might have to glue some netting from a fish net on the end of the syphon, as long as it does't slow the syphon down too much - gotta be quick with that birdsnest in there!

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airline tubing for water changes?

also if this thing is fairly new, i think you should go easy on feedings. just bare necessities until you know that your tank will not be sprouting any bad algae/protists lol

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agreed totally we should stop feeding the tank until we see what this is. there are posts in the general forum under "the plague" regarding string diatoms, these are pests that propagate in fish stores and are transmitted to the home aquarium, thats why you remove any algal growth whatsoever immediately, so nothing can wreck your tank.

 

what you have is probably normal flat diatoms on the rocks just siphon them up and get them out of the tank with a full water change. remove the rocks and clean off in separate container if needed. the new nutrient restrictions after that water change will help starve them. if they come back just take them up again its new reef cycling nothing abnormal.

 

are you using dry cyclopeeze? blenderized frozen mysis is a good stand in but there are no dried feeds I would add to this tank. it has enough nutrient reserve to be ok with a stop feeding while you control the algae balance and tame it.

 

also are you dosing c balance?

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