Reef in a Jar!

[jacobsears]

You've definitely inspired me. I ordered one of those bulbs and when I buy the seed rock for my 70 I'll pick out some good pieces for one of these.

Awesome. I was lucky enough to find one of those bulbs at the lfs, so I didn't have to order it. It's not very bright, but it seems to do the job well enough. I was actually a little bit impressed with how blue it was. I'd imagine it would help if your lamp has a good reflector, which mine does not. Also, the photoperiod is still set at the original one hour on, two hours off cycle. However, a recent increase in the growth of hair algae may convince me to lower it to one hour on, three hours off.

[VW_TDI_02]

Now that I think about it, I think you could have made this a sealed system but still managed to have some sort of gas exchange. Some fish shippers uses bags that allow for oxygen to pass into the bag for shipping. It would technically be sealed but there would be the permeable bag allowing for gas exchange. Could have stretched some of the material over the top and held it down with a rubber band or something like that. I'm not sure how effective they are but I can only imagine that they would be better than nothing.

[untilthen]

Any way we can get a look at your competition as well?

 

Im kinda curious to see what everything looks like including an update on yours

[jacobsears]

Now that I think about it, I think you could have made this a sealed system but still managed to have some sort of gas exchange. Some fish shippers uses bags that allow for oxygen to pass into the bag for shipping. It would technically be sealed but there would be the permeable bag allowing for gas exchange. Could have stretched some of the material over the top and held it down with a rubber band or something like that. I'm not sure how effective they are but I can only imagine that they would be better than nothing.

I wouldn't consider it sealed if any matter is able to move into or out of the jar. Only energy can enter and leave. The point is to try to create a system that works like the earth, without any input from the outside. A jar with a permeable seal would probably last longer, but I would think that it sort of defeats the purpose.

Any way we can get a look at your competition as well?

 

Im kinda curious to see what everything looks like including an update on yours

I did take some pictures of other people's jars/bottles. I'll try to post those sometime today. I'll probably also post a pic of mine, but very little has changed since the last update with pictures.

[gulfsurfer101]

Awesome! The best jar I've ever seen. I'd love to see a vid of the magnet as well. Too bad it's getting sealed. I would have put a nimble nano or tiny magfloat to scrape off algea since there's no way of getting in there and cleaning off the surface.

[jacobsears]

Awesome! The best jar I've ever seen. I'd love to see a vid of the magnet as well. Too bad it's getting sealed. I would have put a nimble nano or tiny magfloat to scrape off algea since there's no way of getting in there and cleaning off the surface.

I was originally planning on sealing a magfloat on the inside, but the piece of liverock that I used rests against the side of the glass in several places, so it wouldn't really be of much help. I'm designing the second one that I plan on setting up in such a way that this could be done.

[VW_TDI_02]

I wouldn't consider it sealed if any matter is able to move into or out of the jar. Only energy can enter and leave. The point is to try to create a system that works like the earth, without any input from the outside. A jar with a permeable seal would probably last longer, but I would think that it sort of defeats the purpose.

I did take some pictures of other people's jars/bottles. I'll try to post those sometime today. I'll probably also post a pic of mine, but very little has changed since the last update with pictures.

Well the Earth isn't sealed either since we are receiving material from space constantly. Not to mention we are sending stuff into space so it isn't a completely closed system.

[jacobsears]

Well the Earth isn't sealed either since we are receiving material from space constantly. Not to mention we are sending stuff into space so it isn't a completely closed system.

I feel like the amount of stuff that enters or leaves the earth from space is negligible when compared to the amount of stuff that comprises the earth itself.

[skibum513]

I'm interested to see how this turns out! I tried this with some Xeina and it died.. (or so i thought i put the rock in a larger tanks and what do you know its alive!) Be sure to keep the updates coming.

[jacobsears]

Some things to note-

- The macro algae has continued to fall apart, although not nearly as rapidly. I suspect it will recover and start growing again soon.

- Some hair algae has taken hold around the upper regions of the rock. I'm guessing this is due to excess nutrients being released as dead macro algae breaks down. When the macro algae starts coming back, I'd imagine the amount of hair algae will begin to decrease.

- I haven't seen any copepods as of yet. I think I'll likely soon see a sudden appearance similar to the way they suddenly appear in a newly set up tank as it goes through the cycling process.

- The water and glass are still clear, and the mag stirrer is still stirring- those are both very good things.

 

 

[RJWalters]

^{Is this high school or college? Either way it is a very cool project. Good luck}

[jacobsears]

^{Is this high school or college? Either way it is a very cool project. Good luck}

High School, I'm a sophomore.

[jacobsears]

Well, it's been two weeks now. I've had so much going on that I forgot to do an update when I checked on it this morning. I'll post some pictures sometime tomorrow, most likely in the evening- there have been some significant changes.

[jacobsears]

I guess it's been three weeks now... I never got around to posting last week unfortunately. I've been too lazy. Anyways, everything still seems to be going ok, however almost all of the macro algae is gone- replaced by hair algae. The hair algae is pretty short and it isn't engulfing anything, so it's not too much of a problem. It's also isolated to the upper regions of the jar. The lights are still on the five hours a day interval schedule that they've been on for a week or two (one hour periods scattered five times throughout the day).

 

All of the zoanthids are doing good. So is the anemone (I think I mentioned it in an earlier post). I've definitely seen some copepods and fan-worm type things in there as well from time to time.

 

You can see the small piece of macro algae that remains. It looks fairly healthy, I'm not sure why so much of it died off.

 

I'll have to bring in my good camera to get some decent pictures. My iphone just doesn't seem to be cutting it.

 

[thecoralbeauty]

Three weeks! That is so cool!!

[jacobsears]

Three weeks! That is so cool!!

It's still holding on, but I feel like it might be on it's way downhill. If it hasn't improved by the time school gets out at the end of the month I think I might open it up, do a water change, add some GSP and a different type of macro algae, and then re-seal it. I think that when the macro algae decayed it released a bunch of nutrients which caused all of the hair algae to grow. It'll probably still be able to survive for quite a while, but it doesn't look as nice as I want it to.

[DurocShark]

I would think increasing the light would help the macro recover. Should be something you can test.

 

How are you doing in relation to the rest of the class?

[lobster876]

xenia is a good water filter

I use it in my lightbulb jarquarium to keep my water clean

[jacobsears]

I would think increasing the light would help the macro recover. Should be something you can test.

 

How are you doing in relation to the rest of the class?

I can move the light much closer to the jar, right now it's about six inches above it. I'm afraid though that this will cause the hair algae to grow too much. As for the rest of the class, I think someone's jar still has a goldfish twitching around in the bottom of it. I meant to post a picture of them awhile ago but I couldn't find it.

[jacobsears]

xenia is a good water filter

I use it in my lightbulb jarquarium to keep my water clean

I've read a lot about xenia but I've never kept it. I hear that some people use it in their sumps instead of macro algae. The only reason that I'm using GSP instead is because I have quite a bit of extra and the lfs charges a ridiculous amount of $ for frags. I saw a few small pieces of xenia last time I was there for $30 each. It just wasn't worth it. The nearby Petco is pretty cheap but they rarely have anything that I'd even consider buying as far as corals go. I did however get a really big kenya tree there for half as much as the lfs would normally charge. They had just gotten a new shipment in and it didn't appear to have been in their tanks for too long.

[righttirefire]

I have some pulsing xenia...

[jacobsears]

It's been a little over four weeks now. Not much has changed, besides some diatom growth and the complete disappearance of what macro algae was left. It I was looking back through the thread- the thing looked way better a month ago. My guess is that the inhabitants of the jar could survive quite well for a long time if it was left sealed- after all there is still algae photosynthesizing in the jar, just not the species that I'd prefer. However, in aesthetics it is certainly lacking, which is why I am planning on opening it up and trying to make it work for a second time as soon as school gets out (or maybe sooner). Of course if some miracle comes up and I decide it looks pretty enough, I'll let it be.