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Orangutran's 2g Cube - Non-contest pico. :(


Orangutran

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7 hours ago, Orangutran said:

Happy New Year!

 

Here's my official FTS from December:

 

39452511292_17a3006615_b.jpg

I got lucky, and found my pom pom crab right at the top when I turned on the light to take the pic!! Woohoo! He's so cool looking, just wish he was out more often. 

 

And just for fun, this is the photo before I edited it to remove the blue tint. Another plug for the app "Snapseed".

38774365334_f7dd6fd44a_b.jpg

 

January Update:

So I'm back at work now, and I don't know if I'll be bringing the pic back. It may stay in my basement at home. It's too much of a distraction at work! lol Also at home, I can feed the critters anything I want (including frozen food). 

 

QUESTION TO ALL THE ANCHOR HOCKING JAR OWNERS: How the heck do you clean/scrape the glass? All my recent shots are top down because the sides are so dirty. The hard algae/coralline is tough to get off, when I can't get a scraper in there. I will probably transfer to a square pico tank when this contest is over. :)

I am transfering mine to a 5.5 AGA aquarium when the contest is finished.  When my glass on the side needs cleaned well, I remove the entire scape with the coral and all into a 5 gallon salt bucket with saltwater in it.  My scape is all 1 piece just for that very reason.

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21 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

That thing is sweet

I know eh! Best looking crab in the hobby!

18 hours ago, vlangel said:

I am transfering mine to a 5.5 AGA aquarium when the contest is finished.  When my glass on the side needs cleaned well, I remove the entire scape with the coral and all into a 5 gallon salt bucket with saltwater in it.  My scape is all 1 piece just for that very reason.

Smart! I guess I should not have left the algae to this point. I thought your jar was replacing the 5.5, guess you changed your mind? ;) 

18 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Yeah I don't like the distortion of the round walls so I plan to transfer to a rectangular tank too lol.

lol At least I'm not the only one! I would keep the jar if there's a better way to clean it. Maybe we shoulda picked a square cookie jar instead!

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57 minutes ago, Orangutran said:

I know eh! Best looking crab in the hobby!

Smart! I guess I should not have left the algae to this point. I thought your jar was replacing the 5.5, guess you changed your mind? ;) 

lol At least I'm not the only one! I would keep the jar if there's a better way to clean it. Maybe we shoulda picked a square cookie jar instead!

No, actually you are right.  I started the jar to get away from the utilitarian look of the 5.5 aquarium.  However, sometime during this contest I realized that the 5.5 aquarium did not look utilitarian because it was an aquaium, it was because I would not invest in anything to make it nice. Now that I have a Pico scape full of coral I decided to turn the 5.5 into a clean looking aio with floss and carbon but feed and clean it like a reef jar.  It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right?

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18 hours ago, vlangel said:

No, actually you are right.  I started the jar to get away from the utilitarian look of the 5.5 aquarium.  However, sometime during this contest I realized that the 5.5 aquarium did not look utilitarian because it was an aquaium, it was because I would not invest in anything to make it nice. Now that I have a Pico scape full of coral I decided to turn the 5.5 into a clean looking aio with floss and carbon but feed and clean it like a reef jar.  It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right?

LOL! Fair enough! I guess a few of us will have another new build to look forward to when this contest is over.

 

But having said that, I still want to focus on my jar as it's still very enjoyable to me. I may go back to my original mangrove idea, since I am growing 4 of them in my sump and just waiting for their roots to get long enough to support itself in the jar. :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/10/2018 at 7:07 PM, debbeach13 said:

The jars with mangroves and the ones with air plants are some of my favorites. Soothing. So do it!

Yeah, beauty below AND above water! 

On 1/10/2018 at 8:39 PM, Christopher Marks said:

Have you been missing your jar at work @Orangutran? How about your coworkers :lol: ?

Yeah definitely miss it! But like I said, it's too distracting! LOL a few coworkers ask about it, but they don't appreciate it like we (nano-reefers) do. I was secretly hoping someone would ask about setting up their own tank, so I can convert them. ;) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jan FTS:

 

28246942439_d35eeff12f_b.jpg

 

So I added a new mangrove (my original plan), which was growing in my sump. Is that cheating? I'm not sure if I like it though, I love mangroves, but it's taking away space for corals in my jar. Who knows, it may not be here for my Feb FTS. :unsure: I did add a few $10 frags! 2 zoas and 1 blue ric. My other ric let go of the rock, so I had to remove him. Never have good luck with them, is the lighting too strong for them? 

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My vote is your jar does not need the mangrove.  You already have an attractive vertical element in your scape with the drift wood and airplants.  It seems to me that now the mangrove is competing for attention and the viewer's eye is not sure where to look.  Thats just my opinion however and you should do what appeals most to you.

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20 minutes ago, vlangel said:

My vote is your jar does not need the mangrove.  You already have an attractive vertical element in your scape with the drift wood and airplants.  It seems to me that now the mangrove is competing for attention and the viewer's eye is not sure where to look.  Thats just my opinion however and you should do what appeals most to you.

I kinda agree, which is why I had my doubts. Thanks for your honest opinion! :) 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The contest is coming to a close!  March 31st will be the official end of the competition and then the voting will begin.  In order to help the community decide what tanks to vote for, each remaining contestant will need to do the following:

  1. PM me three (3) final photos that you think summarize your container reef.  The composition for two of these is up to you, but one of them should be a final FTS taken sometime during the month of March.
  2. PM me a written summary of your container reef build and experiences throughout the competition.  This should be no more than 250 words.
  3. These items must be private messaged to me by midnight (Pacific Standard Time) on March 31st.
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On 2/26/2018 at 9:44 AM, Felicia said:

Hi!  Just a reminder to please pm me your February FTS by this Friday 3/2/18.

Sorry Felicia, looks like I didn't make it to the end of this contest, so close! Thanks again for your time in organizing it! And that's the thing I did not have, time to invest in the jar to the end... My monthly jar FTS would not be any different from Jan/Feb/Mar, except more algae on the glass which I can not reach to clean. Can't wait to vote for the other contestants! :) 

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1 hour ago, Orangutran said:

Sorry Felicia, looks like I didn't make it to the end of this contest, so close! Thanks again for your time in organizing it! And that's the thing I did not have, time to invest in the jar to the end... My monthly jar FTS would not be any different from Jan/Feb/Mar, except more algae on the glass which I can not reach to clean. Can't wait to vote for the other contestants! :) 

I am sorry to hear that you didn't make it to the end.  Having a young family is a game changer, I imagine.  I hope it was a fun experience anyway.

 

My cheap bulb blew out last week and I was going to drop out too.  Dave, my hubby talked me out of it but there are so many really awesome jars that I doubt  I have any chance.  I entered figuring that from the start and my jar turned out way better than I expected which is cool.  I learned a lot, the biggest thing is not to make the rockwork too complicated or too big so maintenance is easy.  I plan on hanging onto to the jar for a possible dwarf seahorses jar some day.

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4 hours ago, Orangutran said:

Sorry Felicia, looks like I didn't make it to the end of this contest, so close! Thanks again for your time in organizing it! And that's the thing I did not have, time to invest in the jar to the end... My monthly jar FTS would not be any different from Jan/Feb/Mar, except more algae on the glass which I can not reach to clean. Can't wait to vote for the other contestants! :) 

I'm sorry to hear this!  Totally understandable though!  Investing time into additional aquariums is always a lot of commitment.  Thank you for participating and definitely please vote!  :D

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  • 11 months later...

It's alive! A year later, my former contest jar is still chugging along, but very neglected... I never took it down because it's self sustaining--just need to top off twice a week. I do a water change once every 3 months or so, it's full of salt creep and coraline algae I can't scrape off because of the rounded sides. Still living in the jar are some zoas and a hermit, with tons of bristle worms... 

 

One of the reasons I never took down the jar is because it's more "successful" than my bigger tank, since it's got no cyano or dinos!! At times, it was the only thing keeping me sane in this hobby.

 

Here's a pic of it.

47230916012_d5d4dfdf5c_c.jpg

 

So yesterday, I went to a LFS to grab some fish food, but walked out with an 8" cube (roughly 2 gallons) under my arms!! LOL Gonna transfer the jar into this, and use a spare A80 for lighting. At least I will be able to clean the (flat) glass!

 

47282969171_bf68144a8b_c.jpg

 

 

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Christopher Marks

Wow @Orangutran, I'm so glad to see it's still up and running! These little coral only pico reef jars so are resilient. Interesting to see a large bristle worm population in yours too, that seems to happen a lot in these picos. Do you notice a lot of large amphipods as well?

 

The tank remodel sounds fun, looking forward to seeing how it all settles in. Will you have a glass lid on your new tank or are you planning to set up an ATO of some sort? Having a lid seems to make a big difference in stability.

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21 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Wow @Orangutran, I'm so glad to see it's still up and running! These little coral only pico reef jars so are resilient. Interesting to see a large bristle worm population in yours too, that seems to happen a lot in these picos. Do you notice a lot of large amphipods as well?

 

The tank remodel sounds fun, looking forward to seeing how it all settles in. Will you have a glass lid on your new tank or are you planning to set up an ATO of some sort? Having a lid seems to make a big difference in stability.

 

I don't see anymore pods, hopefully I can fit a new piece of LR in to reseed the population... I'll put a lid on if I go away, otherwise will keep it topless to maintain the sexiness of the rimless pico! 😄 

 

20 hours ago, vlangel said:

Way to go Orangutran.  I know I was very happy to move mine into the 5.5 gallon to get away from the round sides.

It only took me a year to figure that out... lol

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  • 3 weeks later...
Christopher Marks

Insane coralline algae buildup! I'm going to have to be careful with keeping my pico jar glass clean!

 

What do you have planned first for the new system? Any additions in mind?

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3 hours ago, Orangutran said:

Here's the transfer all done... much better compared to the encrusted jar beside it! You mean I'm supposed to look thru the glass?!?

 

46647418524_27916f625c_c.jpg

 

 

It had a good run! What a wonderful little cube. 

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