Natalia's Reefbowlocalypse (almost)

[natalia_la_loca]

I'm using a single thread to document all three of my bowls.

 

Central concept: Simplicity.

 

Reefbowl, 4 January 2017

 

Reefbowl, 27 June 2016

 

Opae'ula Brackish Shrimpbowl, 26 March 2016:

 

 

Reefbowl 25 March 2016:

 

Quick specs (updated 20 March 2017):

 

Mossbowl (land picosphere)

Tank: 1 gallon hand-blown glass bowl from Amazon.com ~$15 shipped

Substrate: Random rocks and ceramic baby heads (now entombed by moss)

Moss: Random moss from the backyard and from the pots my carnivorous plants grow in

Inputs: RODI water once every week or so

Light: East window + old Skyye LED fixture

 

Shrimpbowl (brackish picosphere)

Tank: 1 gallon hand-blown glass bowl from Amazon.com

Substrate: White silica sand

Rocks: Dry Marco Rock

Water: Brackish SG 1.012

Evaporation control: Repurposed glass jar lid

Light: East window + old Skyye LED fixture

Stock: 12 captive-bred opae'ula (Hawaiian volcano shrimp, halocaridina rubra), 1 horned nerite snail, 1 brackish moss ball

 

Reefbowl (ocean picosphere)

Tank: 1.75 gallon hand-blown glass bowl from Amazon.com

Substrate: Aragonite flakes

Rocks: Dry Marco Rock

Circulation: Airline, no airstone

Heat: Betta Stik 7.5 watts with Finnex digital temperature controller

Light: ABI 12W 50/50 blue & white Tuna Blue par38 LED from Amazon.com

Fixture: Black architect table lamp from Amazon.com

Light cycle: 11am-7pm with time switch; intermittent sunlight from east & south windows and LED light from shrimpbowl

Filtration: None

Dosing: None

Skimmer: None

Auto top-off: None

Credit card debt: None

Evaporation control: Repurposed terrarium lid; vinyl tubing added around rim to control salt creep

Water change: Weekly 100%

Feeding: Weekly before WC. Combo of:

Reef Roids

Coral Frenzy

Rods Food Coral Blend

Phyto Feast

Fauna Marin Ultra Ricordea & Zoanthus + Ultra Min D

Stock as of 27 January 2017:

Pink goniopora

Green/yellow gonipora

Orange Rainbow goniopora

Red Planet acropora

Green slimer acropora

ORA tricolor acropora valida

Neon green nephthea

Purple/green frogspawn

Bubblegum montipora digitata

Red montipora digitata

Tyree sunset montipora

Orange leptoseris

JF jack o' lantern leptoseris

Mr. Freeze leptoseris

2 misc. acan lordhowensis

Witches' wheel acan lordhowensis

Blastomussa merletti

Duncanopsammia

Captain America palythoa

Meteor shower cyphastrea Traded in at LFS

Mountain dew chalice Traded in at LFS

Zoas:

Petroglyphs (or something very similar)

Utter chaos

Blondies

Supergirls

Raspberry limes

Solar flares

Fruit loops

Pink & golds

Rastas

Rings of fire

Glitches

Unique Corals fire hornets Gifted to Teenyreef

Vamps in drag

Ultra searchlights

Morphed watermelons

No-name green, purple and blue zoas

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

So, this is my new project

 

After several years of reefing, I wanted something extremely simple, minimal and low-maintenance so that I could have more time to do other things, like travel and painting. I learned about volcano shrimp or opae ula (halocaridina rubra) while listening to the Reef Threads podcast; Christine has a little opae ula tank and loves it.

 

Volcano shrimp live in pools of oxygen-poor water in Hawaii. So this isn't technically a reef tank, in fact it's not a reef tank in the slightest, but it's brackish water and it has Marco Rock in it, and Nano-reef is fun, so...yeah

 

Equipment list:

 

-Hand blown glass 1-gallon bowl from Amazon

-Leftover white sand from planted tank

-Dry Marco Rock

-Gorg skeleton

-Brackish water from LFS

-Old Skyye LED that I use to light my moss bowl

 

All ready to get started (I was going to use that red pumice too but ended up wanting all white stone and sand)

 

Gluing together the rockscape

 

Aaaaaand it's wet! I have it in the studio next to the moss bowl. I like the contrast between the two.

 

Try not to pay attention to the metal bars, that's an old tomato cage I'll figure out a more stylish solution eventually.

 

I added a drop of Zeobak and the cycle is well underway. As soon as the cycle is done and I start to see some algae growth, I'll order the shrimp, captive bred from Petshrimp.com.

 

I love my shrimp bowl already and it doesn't even have shrimp in it yet.

[Langer6]

Cool. Like a homemade ecosphere!

[Pinner Reef]

What a fun concept. Excited to see how this goes

[natalia_la_loca]

Cool. Like a homemade ecosphere!

 

Exactly. Except a lot cheaper. And unlike the ecosphere, this system has at least some gas exchange and allows for (extremely minimal) feeding. I'll keep a glass lid on it to minimize evaporation; people have reported success breeding opae ula even in systems with close-fitting (but not completely airtight) lids. In ecospheres, the shrimp slowly shrink and die off over a matter of years.

 

If I do this right, an individual shrimp could live 20 years or more.

 

What a fun concept. Excited to see how this goes

 

Me too

[ReefWeeds]

FUN! I'm following. I like your moss terrarium as well

[natalia_la_loca]

FUN! I'm following. I like your moss terrarium as well

 

Yay moss is the bestest.

[ReefWeeds]

 

Yay moss is the bestest.

 

I love moss! I have a moss terrarium growing in a candy jar thing. But I always forget about it, go and look and it is like a moss jungle

[natalia_la_loca]

I love moss! I have a moss terrarium growing in a candy jar thing. But I always forget about it, go and look and it is like a moss jungle

 

That is the one and only problem with moss gardens. My moss bowl has a carefully designed rockscape that's buried like 3" deep now. I should probably give it a trim, but I really kind of like the uninterrupted green.

[ReefWeeds]

 

That is the one and only problem with moss gardens. My moss bowl has a carefully designed rockscape that's buried like 3" deep now. I should probably give it a trim, but I really kind of like the uninterrupted green.

 

ha! So did mine! It has some petoskey stones I put in there to go with the moss. They disappeared a long time ago

[BulkRate]

The Shrimp Pit on my desk was set up along much the same lines - leftover pasta container, sand & base rock and a starter pack of halocaridina rubra shrimp. It's been going for over 2 years & counting with VERY little maintenance.

 

 

Also skirts the "no pets/fish tank" rule at work since there's no pump, heater or filter plugged in. I classify it as an ornamental vase when asked.

 

Looking good, there - I really like the bowl you picked. Might want to consider an acrylic cap to control evaporation, but very nice.

[natalia_la_loca]

The Shrimp Pit on my desk was set up along much the same lines - leftover pasta container, sand & base rock and a starter pack of halocaridina rubra shrimp. It's been going for over 2 years & counting with VERY little maintenance.

 

Also skirts the "no pets/fish tank" rule at work since there's no pump, heater or filter plugged in. I classify it as an ornamental vase when asked.

 

Looking good, there - I really like the bowl you picked. Might want to consider an acrylic cap to control evaporation, but very nice.

 

Ooooh, that is awesome!!! So nice to hear yours is still doing well after over two years! What's the approximate water volume of your pasta container? Are the shrimp reproducing?

 

One other question, is that a majano in there???

 

I actually have a square piece of glass that I keep on there, and remove to take photos Eventually I'd like to find a glass blower to fabricate a matching lid for it.

[supernip]

more terrarium pics

[JR!]

more terrarium pics

yes

[BulkRate]

About 1/2 gallon. I'm looking for a similarly-shaped but larger container with the same kind of lid as I'm not seeing any breeding in the shrimp, just a stable population.

 

And yes, that is a majano - it's attractively pigmented under <7000K light and can tolerate the lower salinity the shrimp are kept at. I also have a single tan asterina starfish and a blue-leg hermit crab in residence.

[holy carp]

I used to have one of those little eco balls. It was super cool, but the shrimp only lived 13 months and the warranty is 12 months... Go figure. I think I like your DIY version better... but are you sure that bowl is hand blown?

[lallen_74]

Love it! Can't wait to see how it comes together.

 

I think I could also do a little "no more tanks" skirting with something like this...or set up something similar in the weird useless niche the builders left in my main hallway. I've often thought of having someone build a tank in there, but it'd be a big job; something like this, along with some more houseplants and better lights, might do nicely.

[natalia_la_loca]

And yes, that is a majano - it's attractively pigmented under <7000K light and can tolerate the lower salinity the shrimp are kept at. I also have a single tan asterina starfish and a blue-leg hermit crab in residence.

 

Wow, that really opens up some possibilities. I was just thinking I might reduce the salinity to the lower end of brackish and throw in a marimo ball or two, but I love the idea of raising the salinity a little and adding a majano, asterina or blue-leg hermit. I bet a majano would look good under this light. Do you feed this tank? How long have you had the hermit in there?

 

but are you sure that bowl is hand blown?

 

oh yes, it's got loads of bubbles, irregularities consistent with hand blown glass (and not as skillfully done as my moss bowl container was).

Love it! Can't wait to see how it comes together.

 

I think I could also do a little "no more tanks" skirting with something like this...or set up something similar in the weird useless niche the builders left in my main hallway. I've often thought of having someone build a tank in there, but it'd be a big job; something like this, along with some more houseplants and better lights, might do nicely.

 

thanks If this tank goes well, I might set one up at the office. Because of the minimal requirements of a system like this, it could be very versatile. The main thing it needs is decent light. It could be put in a window as long as it doesn't receive hours of direct sunlight, which would probably cook the shrimp.

more terrarium pics

 

yes

 

here you go...

 

[vlangel]

Very interesting bowls. Are the volcano shrimp the same as Ocean Rider sends with their seahorses for a 1st meal?

[supernip]

i need stats on it. what are those mosses what kind of substrate. whats your watering regime. are you hot. etc.

[natalia_la_loca]

Very interesting bowls. Are the volcano shrimp the same as Ocean Rider sends with their seahorses for a 1st meal?

I believe so.

i need stats on it. what are those mosses what kind of substrate. whats your watering regime. are you hot. etc.

The mosses are from my backyard, the substrate is rocks, the watering regime is I water it, and I am super hot.

[BulkRate]

 

Wow, that really opens up some possibilities. I was just thinking I might reduce the salinity to the lower end of brackish and throw in a marimo ball or two, but I love the idea of raising the salinity a little and adding a majano, asterina or blue-leg hermit. I bet a majano would look good under this light. Do you feed this tank? How long have you had the hermit in there?

 

 

I've had a hermit in there for over 18 months, the asterina for maybe 6-8 and the majano for about 3. Tank is maintained at an SG of 1.018 but the shrimp can do well at just about anything from barely salty to well beyond seawater strength.

 

It's a little dicey acclimating reef livestock to this between the room-temperature and the lower salinity - I only attempt it with attractive "pest" species or ones that commonly live in lagoons where the parameters can swing a great deal. Even so I'm only batting about a 25% success rate. Proceed off beaten path at your own risk.

 

http://www.petshrimp.com has a pretty active subforum of people's experiences with running a tank of these. Definitely a great place to get some ideas from.

[ReefWeeds]

I believe so.

 

The mosses are from my backyard, the substrate is rocks, the watering regime is I water it, and I am super hot.

 

 

You're on fire lately.

[natalia_la_loca]

 

I've had a hermit in there for over 18 months, the asterina for maybe 6-8 and the majano for about 3. Tank is maintained at an SG of 1.018 but the shrimp can do well at just about anything from barely salty to well beyond seawater strength.

 

It's a little dicey acclimating reef livestock to this between the room-temperature and the lower salinity - I only attempt it with attractive "pest" species or ones that commonly live in lagoons where the parameters can swing a great deal. Even so I'm only batting about a 25% success rate. Proceed off beaten path at your own risk.

 

http://www.petshrimp.com has a pretty active subforum of people's experiences with running a tank of these. Definitely a great place to get some ideas from.

Thank you for the info. I won't try adding any unusual livestock anytime soon, but it's a really interesting idea. Yes, I've been lurking at the petshrimp.com forum I've only scratched the surface though. One subculture at a time!

 

 

You're on fire lately.

[holy carp]

Will you have an ATO on that bowl to control the salinity?

[natalia_la_loca]

Nope. Glass lid and manual top off. Opae ula don't need much gas exchange.