Reef Jar Project *Breaking down and moving to rimless*

[brandon429]

plenty of setups do need to cycle but in the case above, moving live rocks from one tank to another (pet store to home) wont cause a cycle. since they drove an hour, im assuming the rocks were transported in water but even if it was in a sealed plastic bag that didn't let them dry out the process would still just move tanks seamlessly.

 

the coloration and coating of live coralline on the rocks indicate they've been submerged and cycled elsewhere. I recommend transporting live rock home in a bag or small bucket of water for a seamless transition.

[A.Berry]

Yep, they were triple bagged in water! 

 

Heres today, water is looking way clearer! 

any ideas on these growths? Maybe some macro algae? 

 

got a little hitchhiker! Neat looking little dude

[A.Berry]

Got critters! Went today and picked up a new lamp to hold my 50/50 bulb which is surprisingly good looking! And excitingly, I picked up my first livestock! I got a bumble bee snail and a red leg Cortez hermit crab. Once I had acclimated them, the both came right out of their shells and started exploring!

 

I'm so excited and they are already fun to watch! I also noticed this sandy colored thing hanging onto the branched rock I have. Any idea what it is? Sorry to keep asking that but I am really flabbergasted by the variety of stuff!

[A.Berry]

Sat down this afternoon and had a good watch and realized that I have made it in life! I have a cool job (we're going to the moon!!!), awesome family, and now I can sit and watch marine life from my chair. 

 

Ive noticed my jar seems to hover between 79 and 82 degrees. Probably too warm? Ideas on how to cool it? The polyp that was a hitchhiker is opening more and it's definitly starting to grow. It's a cool purple with green tips. Any ideas?

 

Here are some new pics!

 

Here is the polyp... any ideas?

 

awesome little snail seems to really like that dead coral! Seems to just move around it for the most part.

 

And last but not least, my diligent decapod. This little dude has been all over the jar and has successfully wedged itself into every little cave it can find!

[brandon429]

That's good detail to notice and document! Those animals are the sole exact reason we do not dose live rocks with ammonia, we do not stress micro life with the most dangerous metabolite in reefing

 

I believe that one above is a coral, clavularia I believe could be anthelia

 

It is an octocoral, eight tentacles are apparent I think it's a clove polyp

 

The other sandy tube looks like a sponge species

[A.Berry]

Thats awesome info! I'm really glad this has survived. I'm googling that species now

[Weetabix7]

You're making exciting progress!!

[natalia_la_loca]

81-82 is the maximum temp my reefbowl gets to in the height of summer. No ill effects, but it's best if it doesn't get much/any higher.

 

You don't have a heater in there, right? Assuming you don't, you could lower the temp by directing a small fan toward it. Also, how high is your light over the waterline?

[A.Berry]

1 hour ago, natalia_la_loca said:

81-82 is the maximum temp my reefbowl gets to in the height of summer. No ill effects, but it's best if it doesn't get much/any higher.

 

You don't have a heater in there, right? Assuming you don't, you could lower the temp by directing a small fan toward it. Also, how high is your light over the waterline?

I do have a heater. I'm thinking about unplugging it to see where it sits. The light is about 4 or 5 inches above the waterline and the jar is lidded. The bulbs doesn't seem to be getting very warm though.

 

thank you Weetabix! The admin for my local fish club is bringing me some leather and toad stool frags on Friday so that'll be exciting!

[natalia_la_loca]

10 minutes ago, A.Berry said:

I do have a heater. I'm thinking about unplugging it to see where it sits. The light is about 4 or 5 inches above the waterline and the jar is lidded. The bulbs doesn't seem to be getting very warm though.

 

What brand, wattage of heater is it?  And what brand/wattage light?

[A.Berry]

It's an aqueon 10w and the bulb is an aqueon 10w 50/50 cfl

[natalia_la_loca]

14 minutes ago, A.Berry said:

It's an aqueon 10w and the bulb is an aqueon 10w 50/50 cfl

 

There are a lot of bad Amazon reviews on that heater. It probably either has a bad thermostat or none at all.

 

You have a few options: get a heater that has a better thermostat but will look big and ugly in a reef jar, or get a temp controller that will keep your Aqueon in check and only add a tiny temp probe to your display. Or as you noted, you could just remove the heater if the room has a stable temp. My 37 gallon tank had no heater and kept a steady temp of 72-74F. The fish and corals were fine.

[Weetabix7]

For what it's worth, I haven't had a heater in my little countertop 4g Pico and it has been fine for a year. 

I had one in there at first, but it just got too warm, so I tried it without a heater and when I saw that it did fine, I left it that way. 

[A.Berry]

We keep the house pretty consistent for the temp and I've never run a heater in the freshwater tank and it stays between 75 and 79. I think I'll just watch how this runs without the heater a while

[A.Berry]

Got some corals! A gentleman in the Austin reef club was passing by my house while heading north and brought me a handful or frags to try in my jar! A few mushrooms, a neon green toadstool, and a few other things I can't remember the name of! Anyways, here are the pics 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

How exciting!!!

I saw a Hammer, a Ricordea, a Leather (the Toadstool, I presume), and a Mushroom. 

[A.Berry]

I came out this morning and the bright green one in the front and the orange and green along the side have opened up some. The toadstool fell down so next water change I'll move it back. The mushrooms are probably going to need to be rearranged as well.

 

i can't remember all he said they were, I'm going to need to email him and ask what exactly they all are. I think the ricordia is the orange and green correct? And the hammer is the green?

 

[natalia_la_loca]

The ricordea is the orange and green, the hammer is the green one. I'm curious about whether the toadstool will be compatible with the rest, they are supposed to have allelopathy issues. But the routine large water changes may take care of that.

[A.Berry]

12 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

The ricordea is the orange and green, the hammer is the green one. I'm curious about whether the toadstool will be compatible with the rest, they are supposed to have allelopathy issues. But the routine large water changes may take care of that.

I hadn't even checked on that. I'm hoping water changes should help. I need to grab a larger diameter hose so I can drain the jar faster. Using the 1/4" air hose took a while to siphon out! I'm also thinking about going with premixed water, mixing myself has me paranoid!

 

What coral food does everyone use?

[natalia_la_loca]

Mine is 3/8" diameter, it's just about right for a pico. 

 

Coral feeds vary a lot. Some just feed mysis for LPS and rotifers or oyster eggs for SPS, others (read: me) make it more complicated.

[A.Berry]

1 hour ago, natalia_la_loca said:

Mine is 3/8" diameter, it's just about right for a pico. 

 

Coral feeds vary a lot. Some just feed mysis for LPS and rotifers or oyster eggs for SPS, others (read: me) make it more complicated.

 Gotcha, I bought some frozen mysis I may see if they like those

[Weetabix7]

Just now, A.Berry said:

 Gotcha, I bought some frozen mysis I may see if they like those

 

That's what I'm feeding my Corals and Nems right now. 

It's working well for most of them, but I have one Favia frag that is having a hard time digesting the size of the Mysis pieces, so I'm still experimenting a bit with that one. 

[brandon429]

Top three lifespan increasing care habits for pico reefs 

 

1 the more water you change using a consistent method the more stable the system runs because you feed only before water changes, not as interim daily feeding which accumulates in the system. By pairing feeding with water changes you never poison the system as it stores up excess feed. That's removed in water changes 

 

anytime you want to do a massive water change, do. They're not destabilizing. To not do them is to expose tank to accumulating risks 

 

2 farm no algae. When you see it, search out how we act early and kill it in the disease and pest forum here. Use the full water change method to access and kill the algae, diatom or cyano

 

3. The most important rule:

water changes are good not bad, you can't do too many as you can feed alongside them, and the second you see algae lift out the rocks, kill it, then make strides towards reefing in a way that saves you from having to do that. 

 

Practical applications include what to do if water gets cloudy #1

 

what to do when algae comes

 

what to do if you overfed or if the tank smells bad 

 

you can simply take apart the tank and rinse it all out anytime a refreshment is required. 

 

 

[brandon429]

If anyone wanted to take time to do a 100% water change and feeding daily with their picos, it would cause the fastest coral growth possible. We were told large changes were destabilizing by large tankers who thought filthy sandbeds were the measure for all systems. 

 

We do weekly work because it's a decent tradeoff between busy and return on work effort for an easy to run system. 

[A.Berry]

So the preset heater went kaput (predictably). It didn't fry anything, just shut off. I kept a space heater pointed vaguely at the jar over the last 18 hours and have been able to keep the tank at roughly 78 degrees, but the leather is not a happy camper. Went to the big box store to grab an adjustable heater. The smallest they had was an aqueon 50 watt. It barely fits in the jar and I'm sure it's too powerful, so I'll be ordering a smaller one soon. Hopefully this one should stabilize my tank though until I can get a better one ordered. 

 

On another note, I discovered premixed water at the big box comes out to roughly 8 cents a gallon less and keeps me from getting neurotic about mixing the water.