Teenyreef's Teenycookie Jar - Retired! ☠️

[JBM]

Late to the party, but a super cereal congratulations.

 

also so happy to hear that my two favorite jars are gonna continue on, and not be filled with coffee and cookies. 

[teenyreef]

1 hour ago, JBM said:

Late to the party, but a super cereal congratulations.

 

also so happy to hear that my two favorite jars are gonna continue on, and not be filled with coffee and cookies. 

Ha ha thanks! I'm growing colorful cookies in this jar

[JBM]

55 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Ha ha thanks! I'm growing colorful cookies in this jar

 

Your cookies taste salty. 

[teenyreef]

I just realized I took a top down shot a week or two ago and never posted it. Better late than never!

 

The jar is doing fine. The corals are starting to recover from the mild bleaching they got when the photoperiod got too long. I think it's about right now, at two hours less. Once they recover, I'll try slowly ramping it back up.

 

 

[Nelson]

Your jar looks so clean and so many teeny tiny frags waiting for their growth spurt, a recipe for something beautiful in the coming months when al those gaps are filled up. Just amazing to see how everything colors up so nice in something so simple, not only in your jar but so many in the contest, while others are spending huge amounts into complicated systems and maybe get half of the result. What I really like is your take on sps and let “them” see it can thrive in your jar, which also opens up a world for people starting with the hobby, not willing to spend a lot of money and just try this out with the very basics of reefing.

[teenyreef]

4 hours ago, Nelson said:

Your jar looks so clean and so many teeny tiny frags waiting for their growth spurt, a recipe for something beautiful in the coming months when al those gaps are filled up. Just amazing to see how everything colors up so nice in something so simple, not only in your jar but so many in the contest, while others are spending huge amounts into complicated systems and maybe get half of the result. What I really like is your take on sps and let “them” see it can thrive in your jar, which also opens up a world for people starting with the hobby, not willing to spend a lot of money and just try this out with the very basics of reefing.

Well said! And thank you

[teenyreef]

It's been a busy month, and the jar has had some ups and downs.

 

Earlier this month, just out of curiosity, I checked alkalinity for the first time ever, about a week after a 100% water change. I was surprised to see it was about 5.5! After doing some partial water changes every other day, I checkrf again and found the jar loses about .5 dKh every day. I think probably because I have lots of sps in the jar.

 

So now I'm still doing 100% water changes, but I'm doing them at least twice a week to try to reduce the huge swing in alkalinity that seems to happen with every water change.

 

Some of the sps are looking a little bleached, maybe from the alk swings, or maybe because the PAR38 bulb is just too bright. I reduced the lighting cycle from five hours a day to four hours a day, and I'll watch to see what happens over the next month.

 

I'm still struggling with algae, constantly plucking stands out with tweezers and applying peroxide drops where I can. I hope I can eventually beat it because in the long run, keeping it under control is taking more effort than I'm will to spend.

 

On the bright side, nothing has died and it still looks pretty good 🙂

 

On another bright note, I played around with the more complicated white balance settings in Photoshop and got much better results than I was getting with Lightroom. These pictures are pretty close to what I see with my own eyes when I look at the jar.

 

FJS:

 

 

Top Down:

 

[Christopher Marks]

Good to see the pico jar is holding up, it sure looks great from here! 👍

 

Nice discovery with the Alk swings, stabilizing that should keep all the SPS happy. Dosing this little jar would probably be just about as much trouble as a water change, huh? Is the jar lid missing just for the photos, or do you run it open now?

[teenyreef]

On 5/25/2018 at 12:43 AM, Christopher Marks said:

Good to see the pico jar is holding up, it sure looks great from here! 👍

 

Nice discovery with the Alk swings, stabilizing that should keep all the SPS happy. Dosing this little jar would probably be just about as much trouble as a water change, huh? Is the jar lid missing just for the photos, or do you run it open now?

Yes, it will be interesting to see how the sps do with Alk swings as they get bigger and consume alk more quickly. 

 

I keep the jar lid on to minimize evaporation, and just remove it for pictures. 

[teenyreef]

The jar is still struggling with algae, and the sps are not doing nearly as well as they were. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but I'm starting to seriously consider taking the jar down. Although the water changes are easy to do, it's kind of annoying when things aren't thriving. 

 

I think I would probably have better luck with softies, although even some of the zoas are deteriorating slowly. I'm not sure what kind of algae I'm struggling with, but it bounces right back even after being spot treated with peroxide. 

 

Sigh...it's just not that fun right now.

[seabass]

I think a lot of us have taken our picos down.  I know that I made most of my livestock choices figuring they would eventually get transferred into another tank.  It would be interesting to have a contest with a one year grow out period, to better explore long term care and territory disputes.

 

Anyway, I've enjoyed your little jar.  👍

[teenyreef]

58 minutes ago, seabass said:

I think a lot of us have taken our picos down.  I know that I made most of my livestock choices figuring they would eventually get transferred into another tank.  It would be interesting to have a contest with a one year grow out period, to better explore long term care and territory disputes.

 

Anyway, I've enjoyed your little jar.  👍

Thanks, that's good feedback 🙂

 

For what it's worth, I don't think the problems I'm facing are due to the jar itself. We have nuisance algae problems regardless of the size of the tank. And I know the "smart" timer I chose to control the lights has left the light on overnight more than once. I think if I didn't have three other tanks, I'd be much more likely to try and keep it going.

[seabass]

I agree.  There is nothing inherently wrong with picos, or even filterless systems.  These are issues that most new tanks have to deal with.  There are numerous examples of people with picos having long term success.  Plus, I believe that our contest was successful in showing the viability of these systems.

 

I just mean that you aren't alone.  Multiple Tank Syndrome has been the reason that many of the contest picos were (or will be) taken down.  Still, I think that it'd be interesting to watch them progress a bit longer.  Sadly, I'm not even going to watch mine develop.  I'll probably take a final pic this week.

[Lula_Mae]

 Technically mine just got transferred into a tank but if it weren't for the dinos it would be down already. 

[teenyreef]

On 6/9/2018 at 5:30 AM, seabass said:

I agree.  There is nothing inherently wrong with picos, or even filterless systems.  These are issues that most new tanks have to deal with.  There are numerous examples of people with picos having long term success.  Plus, I believe that our contest was successful in showing the viability of these systems.

 

I just mean that you aren't alone.  Multiple Tank Syndrome has been the reason that many of the contest picos were (or will be) taken down.  Still, I think that it'd be interesting to watch them progress a bit longer.  Sadly, I'm not even going to watch mine develop.  I'll probably take a final pic this week.

 

On 6/9/2018 at 10:12 AM, Lula_Mae said:

 Technically mine just got transferred into a tank but if it weren't for the dinos it would be down already. 

Multiple tank syndrome was the big factor for me. If I was only keeping a jar, I'd be much more willing to pull out rocks and scrub algae. 

 

I took the jar down tonight. The corals were doing worse, not better, so I decided not to wait any longer. Like everything else with the jar, breaking it down was ridiculously easy. I pulled out the rocks and broke them apart (I only used superglue to hold them together). I threw the rocks with corals in the frag tank, and the rocks without corals into the sump of the frag tank.

 

Another seven minutes to clean the jar and the heater, and I was done. Ten minutes total.

 

2018-06-13 TeenyCookie Jar FJS:

 

2018-06-13 TeenyCookie Jar Top Down:

 

Just a few final thoughts about things I'd do differently (in addition to what I posted before):
1. Make sure it's easy to get the rocks in and out even after corals start to grow on them. That means making them WAY smaller than you think they should be. Maintenance got a lot less fun when I couldn't just pull everything out and scrub out the jar. Algae magnets are a pain even in a little jar.

 

2. The "smart" wifi-controlled power strip was a fail. It worked, but not reliably. In particular, it seems that after the house wifi router resets, the power bar stops running scheduled on/off actions, and just leaves everything in whatever state it was in. I know of at least three times the light stayed on overnight, cooking the corals. 

 

I can't help wondering...technically all I have to do to set it back up is plug in the heater and light, throw the rocks and corals back in, and add water. Is it really a total breakdown, or just taking a break? Either way, I've had a lot of fun with the jar and learned a lot, even as a seasoned reefer. Thanks to everyone for coming along for the ride! 

[JBM]

Well put 

[MrsK]

@teenyreef Do those gorgeous blue green zoa's in the middle of the tank have a name? I'd love to have some more blue in my tank.

[teenyreef]

17 hours ago, MrsK said:

@teenyreef Do those gorgeous blue green zoa's in the middle of the tank have a name? I'd love to have some more blue in my tank.

They are "Ultra Searchlights" from Aquascapers. Unfortunately, Aquascapers isn't selling corals any more. Even back when they were, it was only for a few months at a time. Their web site is still open but nothing listed for sale.

 

I'm hoping to grow some out in the frag tank over the summer.

[teenyreef]

20 hours ago, JBM said:

Well put 

Thanks!

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, teenyreef said:

They are "Ultra Searchlights" from Aquascapers. Unfortunately, Aquascapers isn't selling corals any more. Even back when they were, it was only for a few months at a time. Their web site is still open but nothing listed for sale.

 

I'm hoping to grow some out in the frag tank over the summer.

I used to have some amazing ricordea from them when they were still Coral Morphologic. Wish I still did!

[ChristopherDido]

Agreed on the rocks being able to easily be taken out. If mine had been our jar would still be going, instead it was"upgraded" to a 2 gal cube... Still going filterless. Plus side if you ever get a cubicle job and need some sanity you know what you can set up in a small space! Glad I got to enjoy watching this little tank. Hope all the corals rebound well.

[teenyreef]

49 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

I used to have some amazing ricordea from them when they were still Coral Morphologic. Wish I still did!

Yes, they had awesome stuff. If I had known they wouldn't be around any more, I would have taken out a loan to buy everything they had 

3 minutes ago, ChristopherDido said:

Agreed on the rocks being able to easily be taken out. If mine had been our jar would still be going, instead it was"upgraded" to a 2 gal cube... Still going filterless. Plus side if you ever get a cubicle job and need some sanity you know what you can set up in a small space! Glad I got to enjoy watching this little tank. Hope all the corals rebound well.

Thanks! They're already looking better in the frag tank, and the algae already seems to be dying back. Seems like a lot to happen in 24 hours, but my fingers are crossed.

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Yes, they had awesome stuff. If I had known they wouldn't be around any more, I would have taken out a loan to buy everything they had 

Thanks! They're already looking better in the frag tank, and the algae already seems to be dying back. Seems like a lot to happen in 24 hours, but my fingers are crossed.

 For real lol.  I remember they once had this incredible St. Thomas mushroom, it was bright yellow and had blotches of all different rainbow colors. Too bad I was a broke college student back then lol. 

[Christopher Marks]

On 6/13/2018 at 8:16 PM, teenyreef said:

I can't help wondering...technically all I have to do to set it back up is plug in the heater and light, throw the rocks and corals back in, and add water. Is it really a total breakdown, or just taking a break?

Sage wisdom.

 

I hate to see another jar come down, but I can understand why. If you set it up again without the constraints of the contest, assuming you still used the cookie jar, what would you change as far as equipment goes?

[teenyreef]

6 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Sage wisdom.

 

I hate to see another jar come down, but I can understand why. If you set it up again without the constraints of the contest, assuming you still used the cookie jar, what would you change as far as equipment goes?

The only change I'd make is to avoid the wifi controlled power bar. It was super convenient to just say "Alexa, turn off the TeenyCookie light", but you need 100% reliability to turn the light on and off on schedule. Everything else worked great.