Pico Reef Jar

[Drift Monkey]

Sweet jar, the cylindrical shape is interesting for sure!

[jdl]

updates?

[AnthonyPf]

Nothing has really changed much since my last post.

My wife is going to have a baby any day now so I do not want to add new things.

 

I will add some new stuff in a couple of weeks and let everyone have a look.

[.Newman.]

you do not have to add new things if you do not want to haha, it looks like all you need to do is to grow out what's already in there and it will look awesome

[Drift Monkey]

Forget the baby! Tank comes first!

 

Congrats on the kiddo! You must be excited!

[AnthonyPf]

Well I still have not added anything new but I did have a new baby girl!

 

Baby Josephine can not wait to make it into the office to see the pico. Of course she still has trouble focusing on anything as she is only 2 weeks old.

 

Some more good news is the tank made it two weeks while I was gone.

 

Here are some pictures:

 

 

Oh yeah and Jo too

[cincyJames]

congrats on the new baby and an awesome looking pico. following along

[johnmaloney]

really nice aquascape for such a small space.

[nate82]

Damn dude, awesome little set up. Can't believe it's thriving so well at your office none the less! Must look awesome sitting on your desk. Can't wait to see it fill in.

[brandon429]

Beautiful child! and the pico went two weeks untouched wow I would have lost money on that one. It looks as pristine as it did in the March pics.

[gulfsurfer101]

Congrats on the baby girl, betcha the lid helped out a lot in keeping things in check. I left my octopus's tank in my wife's hands for two weeks w/o a wc. She left my par30 bulb on the duration of the time I was gone. I came back to a gha filled tank and twice as many polyps. Funny how that worked.

[brandon429]

Of course its that way because if mine goes 3 days untouched it certainly would die, there has to be opposite luck forces in the universe heh

[AnthonyPf]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments!

 

The lid really did help. There was a really nice girl in my office that has taken an interest in the tank. She help me with fresh top offs.

 

I did loose a set of really little polyps that I just put in the tank but they were inexpensive.

 

**I JUST GOT MY FIRST SHIPMENT OF LEDs!!**

 

Going to do a 15 LED build for my nanocube DX12 at home. Can't wait for all the parts!

 

Congrats on the baby girl, betcha the lid helped out a lot in keeping things in check. I left my octopus's tank in my wife's hands for two weeks w/o a wc. She left my par30 bulb on the duration of the time I was gone. I came back to a gha filled tank and twice as many polyps. Funny how that worked.

 

I have heard that if you give coral a period without light they seem to benefit from it. I wonder if you give coral a 72 hour period of lights on all the time if that could benefit some coral also?

[brandon429]

I have specifically seen threads on here years ago where someone was preventing algae by doing that like every quarter or so. there are so many simple ways to tweak these nanos I don't think the combinations will ever end. it all experimental, and predictably I w be interested to see how that works, sounds good in theory.

[AnthonyPf]

So it has been more than a month without any updates. Babies like attention.

 

News from the pico jar:

The lights I originally bought are half as bright from when I originally purchased them.

I have switched to a RapidLED 7 LED PAR38 Bulb.

 

It is super fantastic!

I have added a torch from my tank at home (left), a duncan (middle) and an acro on top.

I have yet to loose anything and they love the new light.

 

 

 

I am going to have to start taking pictures with a camera. The new light does not work with my phone camera.

[brandon429]

Thats a perfect example of a modified sealing approach. you still get O2/CO2 exchange at the water surface yet the evaporation is restricted. I can tell its kept cracked because you don't have condensation drops on the lid, but any cover helps and all you have to do to refresh the internal environment is raise the lid a second.

 

Also amazed at how algae free its remained.

 

Looking at your tank and seeing how easy it is to run isn't it hard to imagine the thousands of internet threads from a decade ago where reef sages were fighting hard to keep this version of aquarium biology from growing> have you ever had a reef tank so simple to run> they said picos were unstable and prone to wild swings.

 

Its evident your tank is stable and they were wrong...

[andrewkw]

looks good but hard to tell, next time post bigger pictures please!

[AnthonyPf]

You are right it is the easiest tank I have ever maintained.

 

About three cups water change a week on different days

Daily top off of fresh water

&

Once a month cleaning of filter sponges

 

 

I think the trick is that I never feed the tank. There is only one hermit crab and some smaller snails. I think by not feeding the hermit gets used to eating what is available and the water parameters stay consistent.

 

Things also grow much slower with no feedings. That is not a bad thing with a pico.

 

*I know the pictures stink. I will work on that.

[Mr. Microscope]

Corals will not thrive on photosynthesis alone. You'll see especially in zoanthids they will get smaller and smaller and never put out new polyps without any nutrients in the water. I wrestled with this for a while before finding a good balance. Photosynthesis provides essentially only sugar. Animals need a protein source of some sort to grow. Even though plants primarily use photosynthesis, they can't thrive in soil that lacks nutrients. The same could be said for corals and water. That's also why you have no problems with algae.

 

The key is to give your corals plenty of nutrients to thrive on without polluting your tank. With that small jar you could do one heavy feeding/week followed by a huge water change (like 90%+) and maintain clean water with minimal algae issues.

 

Props to brandon429 for teaching me this technique!

 

Awesome tank BTW! Good luck!

[AnthonyPf]

Mr. Microscope I do see what you are saying and agree with the statement. Although there are certain types of plants that can grow with light and water alone. For example you can put a ficus tree in a cup of water near a window and the plant will perform just fine.

 

It is important to keep in mind that I am not running much if any filtration other than a sponge.

 

I think it depends on the type of coral you choose to populate an aquarium. Many nutrients are gathered from the salt water itself and frequent water changes can provide the "soil" necessary for slow steady grown in some coral species.

 

I do feed daily in my tank at home and notice different shapes and behaviors in the corals. Many of the coral in my Pico are frags from the home tank. Both seem to be thriving in different ways.

[.Newman.]

plant and animal that hosts algae are slightly different. i too agree that the coral ( species that you have in your tank right now) will do best with proper feeding of your tank. Tank looks great Might i suggest that you also post an updated FTS of the tank in the first post?

[AnthonyPf]

This is the same tank from the first post. I guess I do not understand?

[.Newman.]

haha, i mean post an updated FTS of this tank, in the first post of the thread Right now i only see older pictures of the tank in the first post of the thread.

[AnthonyPf]

Gotcha..I was using my phone for pics. The phone will not take good pics with the new light.

 

I will try to bring a camera in tomorrow.

[AnthonyPf]

So I just added the PAR38 lamp a couple of weeks ago. I do hope to see some better color in the coral soon.

I will post more pics when the color pirks up a bit.

 

Sleepy Star Polyps (They just woke up)

 

Torch (Started with two heads now has 5) & Birds Nest

 

Acoporas

 

Duncan

 

Torch

 

Full Shot

 

Let there be light