Target terrarium reef jar

[Squidfish66]

Tired of the annoying aspects of a Fluval edge and wanting to do a jar reef to simplify maintenance I always look around while shopping looking at containers and ask “can I do a reef in that?” At target I found this terrarium that is almost perfect for the look I wanted. 

 

Tank: Target terrarium 2-3 gallons 

Light: Fluval led 

Flow: Air pump 

Heater: Top fin 20 watt beta heater 

live stock: Randall’s goby, Candycane pastor shrimp

Plans: Add temp controller, lid, mount light.

 

[Ratvan]

Gorgeous reef jar, how long have you been running it?

[TerraMagnus]

Oh I definitely want to follow this. I'm curious about the long-term viability of such a setup.

[MainelyReefer]

1 hour ago, TerraMagnus said:

Oh I definitely want to follow this. I'm curious about the long-term viability of such a setup.

Very viable with weekly 100% WC’s

[WV Reefer]

7 hours ago, Squidfish66 said:

Tired of the annoying aspects of a Fluval edge and wanting to do a jar reef to simplify maintenance I always look around while shopping looking at containers and ask “can I do a reef in that?” At target I found this terrarium that is almost perfect for the look I wanted. 

 

Tank: Target terrarium 2-3 gallons 

Light: Fluval led 

Flow: Air pump 

Heater: Top fin 20 watt beta heater 

live stock: Randall’s goby, Candycane pastor shrimp

Plans: Add temp controller, lid, mount light.

 

 

I love the shape of that jar. Looks nice. 😊

[Squidfish66]

19 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Gorgeous reef jar, how long have you been running it?

That was day one in the jar, livestock was in a Fluval edge 6 gallon for a year or so. 

[Squidfish66]

Corals are puffed up and happy, flow is soft but constant and random. Fed with rods food and everything was eating. Pistol shrimp made his burrow right in front ^_^ 

[Ratvan]

That Goby and Shrimp pair are so cute, the jar looks awesome with the set up. 

I really like your display in the Edge as well, but yes it is a royal pain to work in that opening

[YaBoyLaj]

I can vouch that edges are by far one of the worst tanks in terms of maintenance, they are pretty tho lol. Dope jar my guy, will definitely be following along.

[Wonderboy]

Very nice little setup - great work getting all that coral in there - tagging along  :]

[Squidfish66]

long due update. Sad news had a heater go runaway and headed the tank to 90 degrees lost the goby and a third of the coral and what survived were looking pretty bad, this picture is some time after the crash. 

[Squidfish66]

Here is the tank today 12/03/19 most coral Bounced back and are happy except my Xenia but that might be due Low nutrients and running only blue leds to fight algae that took over from the crash. This is why temp controllers are a must! 

[Squidfish66]

Thoughts on low tech pico. 
 

low maintenance. Just algae magnet the front glass, 1-2 gallon water change a week and feed the coral arctic pods 1-2x a week. No top off needed which surprised me, the 60-90% water changes have kept it stable. 

 

low cost. I spend on average $4.00 a month on water and food. The light was $70, air pump was $15, tank was around $40.(soon to add $35 temp controller with $15 heat pad) So anyone with $300-400 and willing to do weekly water changes can have a lovely reef tank. 

[Squidfish66]

[Squidfish66]

Help me figure this out, so when the tank gets up to 80-83 my corals are pissed off but until the temp controller gets here I’m not risking it, so the tank got down to 68 degrees at night a few times (I don’t have central heating in my place) and the coral look better than they ever had.. it got me thinking when I go diving reefs around here water temps are around 70 degrees So I wonder how important is maintaining 78 degrees...

[WV Reefer]

10 minutes ago, Squidfish66 said:

Help me figure this out, so when the tank gets up to 80-83 my corals are pissed off but until the temp controller gets here I’m not risking it, so the tank got down to 68 degrees at night a few times (I don’t have central heating in my place) and the coral look better than they ever had.. it got me thinking when I go diving reefs around here water temps are around 70 degrees So I wonder how important is maintaining 78 degrees...

My temps stay closer to 75 in both of my tanks. 

[Ratvan]

I found with my Pico consistent temp was more important than the actual temp itself.... to a certain degree

[RedCrow]

I dropped my tanks down to 75 after I went scuba diving for the first time. 78-80 is great if I’m trying to breed something, but otherwise I keep it lower. 

[Lula_Mae]

Sorry to hear about the crash, crashes always stink. Heaters are a major cause of issues in aquariums. Hopefully using the temp controller will keep it from happening again! I had a Hydor Theo once that ran about 10 degrees above what it was set on and the poor tank was always like 85 degrees and nothing did well. When I replaced it I chucked it altogether, didn't even keep it for my water change bucket. I was that mad at it lol. Tank is looking gorgeous! I had a jar and really liked it but hated how un-clear the jar was (Anchor Hocking). I went and bought one of these from Target online to use as a terrarium so thanks for introducing me to it lol.

[kurnn]

I wish i could get my temp at 78, now i run my tanks at 80-83 (27-29 celcius)

[Ratvan]

19 minutes ago, kurnn said:

I wish i could get my temp at 78, now i run my tanks at 80-83 (27-29 celcius)

Same as me I can keep the tank stable at 82

[Squidfish66]

23 hours ago, kurnn said:

I wish i could get my temp at 78, now i run my tanks at 80-83 (27-29 celcius)

What temp is your house at? If you have led lights your tank should be 2 degrees above room temp. Have you tried evaporative cooling? 

[kurnn]

Our room temp is around 29-33 celcius (84-90 F).

I have a low power peltier chiller running on each tank to lower the temp up to 4 degrees below ambient, depending the water volume.

This way, i count the evaporation rate is around 25 ml per day for the smaller tanks and 50 ml for my bigger tank.

[kurnn]

12 hours ago, Squidfish66 said:

What temp is your house at? If you have led lights your tank should be 2 degrees above room temp. Have you tried evaporative cooling? 

Yes, I had tried evaporative cooling in the past. It could lower the temp up to 1 - 2 degrees below ambient with the light on (cfl lamp). But as a trade off, the evaporation was driven me crazy.