my super low tech reef jarquarium (with diy pj reef)

[Popcqrn]

How did you set up your diy pj reef? Is there a filter? How often do you do water changes?

[new-b-reefer]

The only filter lies in the live  rock, biological. Also the macro algae. There is no filter or pump for water movement. I used fully cured live rock and macro from my 50 gallon tank and water from that tank for start up. I choose only hardy corals that can depend on photosynthetic feeding and don't need flow. I have found that one hermit works great at algae control as well as creating some minor movement and more interest. I am planning on partial water changes once a month or so. This one is fairly newly set up but in the past I have run them almost a year on water changes once every couple months or so. That one i only took down for moving purposes. The over all goal is simplicity based on a somewhat complex thought process

[Popcqrn]

20 hours ago, new-b-reefer said:

The only filter lies in the live  rock, biological. Also the macro algae. There is no filter or pump for water movement. I used fully cured live rock and macro from my 50 gallon tank and water from that tank for start up. I choose only hardy corals that can depend on photosynthetic feeding and don't need flow. I have found that one hermit works great at algae control as well as creating some minor movement and more interest. I am planning on partial water changes once a month or so. This one is fairly newly set up but in the past I have run them almost a year on water changes once every couple months or so. That one i only took down for moving purposes. The over all goal is simplicity based on a somewhat complex thought process

Wow thanks! So to get this right, you put live rock and macro algae for a natural filter and use a hermit crab to help with algae control. What corals do you suggest?

[new-b-reefer]

Yeah, live rock and macro for bio filtration, the macro also plays a role in providing oxygen to the water. And technically the hermits movements create very minimal but some water movement. I'm my experience, various zoas, mushrooms, and star polyps do well in this setup, I have had palys do well also. I have seen others use pulsing xenia to provide water movement, I have never tried that, but seen it done.

Update on reef jar. I'm back to work after the weekend. All still going strong however seem my hermit fry have all disappeared as expected. Im sure the starfish and hermit made meals of the die off. I will say my pod population has grown. They were all over the glass when the light came on so that's good

[new-b-reefer]

Hermit close-up. There is a pod on the macro up and to the right a bit. And some tiny ones on the glass toward the top. Things are going great and the micro life is thriving

[new-b-reefer]

Pic update this macro is thriving versus others I have used in the past. Things are establishing well

[new-b-reefer]

Added some new macro and a small frag of gsp.

[new-b-reefer]

Woot!!! Reef jar is a month old today

[Christopher Marks]

It's coming along really well @new-b-reefer! I can't wait to see those 4 tiny green star polyps grow into a colony!

[new-b-reefer]

Some new pics. Going strong

[brandon429]

there is a phenomena in pico reef observation called impulsive jar turners with very little to no permission

 

 I see you have some

[new-b-reefer]

Huh? Lol. What exactly did you mean lol?

[new-b-reefer]

Reef jar update. My ebay led started flickering and going out randomly. I have since replaced it with a 5 watt color change led with remote. And it is one large 5 watt led rather than multiple smd leds. Wanted to try this out since I can vary the color spectrums as I see fit and it has the memory function so it work with the light timer and won't reset to party mode when it kicks back on. And ot was amazon prime so i could get it fast. My corals were without light for 3 days before I got a replacement, been installed for 4 days now and the corals are slowly re opening. I had to come up with some ideas on the light spread as the led optic is a 45 degree and was so directional I was getting a color swirl or red, green, white, etc when set on white mode. Tried different idea, the best turned out to be, remove the optic and put some semi transparent tape over the optic and reinstall to blend the colors and give a more 10-12k white look and elevate/tilt the light a bit. But for the high price of 8-9 bucks... I'm happy with it. Here are some shots of some different colors, the first is the white setting.

 

 

[new-b-reefer]

[new-b-reefer]

[brandon429]

by jar rotators I mean people would literally come up to my reefbowl when it was on display, grab it, and rotate it 180 so they could see the back. I thought it must be the psychology of being 8 yrs old, and then when multiple adults took the same liberty I became amazed and po'd lol. you have a sign no touchy. I literally had to sit there, along with a no touch sign, and intercept rotators it was amazing what humans do

 

your work environment is probably less cra lol

[new-b-reefer]

Oh hahaha. Yes I get exactly what you mean. I'm an engineering  technician, drafter/Designer so I work with alot of drafters, engineers and similar minds so they all immediately want to study and understand it all so..... out come the hands haha. Hence the "no touchy" sign lol. Original sign was a bit more I depth, something like "please do not touch. Aquarium orientation is intentional  to provide the inhabitants with adequate lighting for photosynthesis." Hahaha

[Thunder Goose]

Do you do anything to manage temperature?

[new-b-reefer]

During the week the building ac is set around 73 ambient temp. On the weekends the office ac is off and it's been hot so I point my desk fan at the jar for the weekend and I hope haha

[Thunder Goose]

The reason I'm asking is that I just set up a Femto tank - about 0.75 gallons - and I want to add a hermit crab and a hardy coral but I wasn't sure of temperature tolerances. Thanks!

 

[new-b-reefer]

4 hours ago, Thunder Goose said:

The reason I'm asking is that I just set up a Femto tank - about 0.75 gallons - and I want to add a hermit crab and a hardy coral but I wasn't sure of temperature tolerances. Thanks!

 

No problem. Yeah the hermit should do just fine. They are very resilient to temp swings. And most zoas, and I think especially mushies are tough enough to stand it also. Although I find zoas dont like heat. I have found I have lost a few I'm the jar after a couple of our heat wave weekends when the office ac is off. However the small mushroom coral I have is doing better each day.

[new-b-reefer]

Re-scape and coral addition

 

By re scape I mean I added small rock and rotated the jar percs of 360 view, small rotation shows a new scape haha. And I added a couple small frags I acquired from a buddy. 2 small red mushies

 

[new-b-reefer]

The reef jar is 3 months old today and going strong

 

[new-b-reefer]

[new-b-reefer]

New pics 

Added a large green mushroom, still adjusting/attaching itself