The Three Cup Reef

[MainelyReefer]

24 fluid ounces of capacity before equipment, rock and sand

You can see the water level in the measuring cup is right at 3 cups, this was the amount of water it took to fill the bowl empty to the brim

12 fluid ounce can for perspective

Next to 1.75g bowl

Plan for the tank is a Blasto specimen tank.  Blastos have proven to be reliable in my other reef bowl so when planning this bowl I wanted to stock the hardiest and best suited corals.  The first four frags will be from my other reef bowl so will be proven viable reef bowl citizens.  Longevity of the system is the ultimate goal.

Tank first started last night 10/5/19

will update this post with equipment/more Info later

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

24 fluid ounces of capacity before equipment, rock and sand

You can see the water level in the measuring cup is right at 3 cups, this was the amount of water it took to fill the bowl empty to the brim

12 fluid ounce can for perspective

Next to 1.75g bowl

Plan for the tank is a Blasto specimen tank.  Blastos have proven to be reliable in my other reef bowl so when planning this bowl I wanted to stock the hardiest and best suited corals.  The first four frags will be from my other reef bowl so will be proven viable reef bowl citizens.  Longevity of the system is the ultimate goal.

Tank first started last night 10/5/19

will update this post with equipment/more Info later

love it! 😃

[SeaFurn]

Very cool! 

[MainelyReefer]

I bought my buddies Ai Prime HD which came with a gooseneck but he couldn’t find the base that attaches it to a tanks rim, which was fine for me.  The wood that the bowl is slumped over isn’t super stable so my plan is to build a pedestal that will be screwed onto the wooden base to provide stability.  A hole will also be drilled in the pedestal that the goosenecks post will set in.  To test my plan I rough cut a piece of ply, the final product would likely be a finished sanded piece of high end plywood and more or less cut to size rather than a honking rectangle!

I know in all my other tanks when I added corals right off there were casualties, however the corals also let me know how the tank was progressing and some of them came out survivors.  So against better judgement I added corals!  They are micro frags made from my own blastos and the mothers are happily back in my other reef bowl so if they don’t make it I won’t feel a monetary loss.  

Cornbred PPE blasto merletti

Super Ultra Mega Awesome Wicked Cool Orange Blasto

Cornbred Arctic Blast Blasto Merlettis 

Undergravel filter visible with lift pipe

I also added a frag plug of a deceased Leptastrea frag that has since been well covered in coralline algae from my other tank to help seed good stuff.  I’ve also been dosing phyto from a local reefer. 

[Coldcloud]

Awesome base for the tank. I absolutely love the fact that you are using an AI Prime over this, I had to do a double take when I was scrolling thru the pictures. 

[kimdawg]

I love both of your bowls with the wood base.  Do you mind telling me where you found them?  I think I would like one with freshwater cherry shrimp in it.

[MainelyReefer]

@kimdawg

The first one was in a downtown store that sold hipster clothes and decor, it was called Ganesh in Exeter,NH perhaps there is a similar store near you.  Most high end garden centers have options but expect to pay big bucks there.  My local one had nice bowls but they were 150-200$ 😝.  My 1.75g from Ganesh was only $80 and the three cup reef was a 40$ find on eBay.  The issue with eBay is that I had no clue the actual size of the bowl, so while it is the cheapest it also is the least reliable source.  When choosing you will want a stable base, three cup reef is not stable damn you eBay!  Hence why I am fastening it to a piece of ply.  Make sure when the bowl sits on the wood the rim is as close to level as possible.  And the wood base should hold the bowl securely, some really nice specimens in the store were deemed unusable as if I pushed on one side of the bowl it would dislodge from the wooden base.  Beware of bubbles and impurities within the glass, most of these say handmade in Indonesia and I find their quality varies greatly.  On the interior of the bowl finding one with less variation between high spots and low spots will keep the depth of your sandbed down.  Make sure the hole ontop is relatively close to a perfect circle and well ground with no chips.  And lastly check the bottom of the bowl by tapping it, since the glass blower slumps these over the wood and gives them one final blow to seat into the wood I found some had thin glass on the bottom section.  Good luck!

[kimdawg]

1 hour ago, GraniteReefer said:

@kimdawg

bowl sits on the wood the rim is as close to level as possible.  And the wood base should hold the bowl securely, some really nice specimens in the store were deemed unusable as if I pushed on one side of the bowl it would dislodge from the wooden base.  Beware of bubbles and impurities within the glass, most of these say handmade in Indonesia and I find their quality varies greatly.  On the interior of the bowl finding one with less variation between high spots and low spots will keep the depth of your sandbed down.  Make sure the hole ontop is relatively close to a perfect circle and well ground with no chips.  And lastly check the bottom of the bowl by tapping it, since the glass blower slumps these over the wood and gives them one final blow to seat into the wood I found some had thin glass on the bottom section.  Good luck!

Thanks for the info and tips on getting a good one.  I will start looking for one on the next trip to Savannah.  They have a few stores like that on River Street.

[MainelyReefer]

One week in and the corals are looking happier by the day, I’ve got the AI Prime maxing out at 7w with a basic 15min ramp on start/finish.  I’m considering duplicating the exact spectrum of my other reef bowl and just throttling it down but I have yet to do that.

No Filter

with Orange Filter

I have also added a frag of standard blasto merlettis these have a darker red rim with a green mouth whereas my arctic blast have a lighter red rim with an aqua mouth, but very similar none the less.  Also the standard merlettis are in the big bowl but I didn’t want to frag them there so this frag came from my reefer 250, I made it a microfrag to limit pest introduction as I have aiptasia in that tank😫

Standard Merlettis 

Arctic Blast looking way happier than a few days ago!

My hairy Frag of WWC rainbow blasto, funny it wasn’t this hairy in the big bowl, which likely means the algae is present in that bowl but just suppressed from the wrong growth conditions(or something else is outcompeting it for nutrients)as you see one head was cut through the mouth, this has me concerned, the other lost a considerable amount of one wall but the mouth is intact.  I have more frags but figured this one wouldn’t be the worst to lose in the event it doesn’t make it.  Both heads open and close normally so perhaps there is hope.

even the micro frag of PPE blastos is looking great, the angle of the bowl makes it hard to capture them accurately in a photo, so here’s a topdown with them in it.  It’s the green one on the left.

Thermostat on left, heater on right, liftpipe with 90 elbow in the center.  The 90 elbow helps direct the bubbles so they don’t cause salt creep and make a more circular flow within the tank, now if only I could find a clear 90 elbow.  You can even see exposed undergravel filter to the left, I have covered this with rubble but given the slight angle and the turbulence from bubble the light rubble keeps moving off the UGF.

I had to top off twice over the week, about an ounce of water each time but that was enough to raise salinity to 1.028 from 1.026.  That’s manageable but I plan on further designing a new lid to reduce evaporation even more. Also a more permanent base is in the works, I’ve been looking at nice local handmade cutting boards as an option but need to get the funds first, in the meantime the ugly unfinished ply will suffice.

[SeaFurn]

Love it.

 

How about modifying something like this to get your clear elbow and circular flow? 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MS7LIPG/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[MainelyReefer]

12 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Love it.

 

How about modifying something like this to get your clear elbow and circular flow? 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MS7LIPG/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Awesome find!  Thanks!

[MainelyReefer]

Did my first WC last night, in order to accurately measure how much each WC would be I started the siphon by mouth rather than precharging the siphon tube with RO. I drained into a 4 cup measuring cup.

16oz or 2 cups is all it took to hit the sandbed! I’ll be doing “100%” water changes like this weekly if not more often. Just starting to see the GHA from my plug spread and getting a nice film algae to build up on the glass. I’m going to let them help me process waste throughout the beginning of the tanks life as they are easy to get rid of down the line

[MainelyReefer]

My wife went to the Christmas fairs this past weekend and scored a custom cutting board to replace the plywood I have been using as a base(it’s the 35$ one)

using a gooseneck on the Prime didn’t fit the look quite right, so I tried my Kessil a80, this gooseneck looked silly too but it came with a 90 bracket, so I built into the stand 

Waiting for lights on.

Final product soon

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, GraniteReefer said:

My wife went to the Christmas fairs this past weekend and scored a custom cutting board to replace the plywood I have been using as a base(it’s the 35$ one)

using a gooseneck on the Prime didn’t fit the look quite right, so I tried my Kessil a80, this gooseneck looked silly too but it came with a 90 bracket, so I built into the stand 

Waiting for lights on.

Final product soon

I like that platform a lot! 😀

 

 

 

 

and those were some nice cutting boards!

[Ratvan]

44 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

My wife went to the Christmas fairs this past weekend and scored a custom cutting board to replace the plywood I have been using as a base(it’s the 35$ one)

using a gooseneck on the Prime didn’t fit the look quite right, so I tried my Kessil a80, this gooseneck looked silly too but it came with a 90 bracket, so I built into the stand 

Waiting for lights on.

Final product soon

Very nice stand, really good idea as well. Never would have thought of doing that

42 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

I like that platform a lot! 😀

 

 

 

 

and those were some nice cutting boards!

I know right, love that $50 one (on the rhs)

[Elizabeth94]

Very neat! Those cutting boards are beautiful. I know I wouldn't be able to use a knife on one. Looks like something I could hang on a wall for decoration haha! 

[MainelyReefer]

Overdue update!

Tank has been running smoothly for awhile now, the biggest hurdles have been evaporation and lighting intensity. To combat evaporation I reached out to @This guy is extra salty even though I have slacked at getting him actual measurements!  The hope is of getting a small disk made with acrylic hinges attached that have magnets on the swinging part so I can place magnets on the outside of the tank to keep tension on the lid as the weight of the current tiny acrylic lid isn’t sufficient to push down power cords and the airline. To combat the lighting intensity which even at a kessil a80’s lowest setting is too high I have been using the backing from a sticker to soften/disperse the light. When the acrylic lid with hinges is made it will hopefully be with a frosted piece so it will kill two birds with one stone. Beyond that the WWC blasto has added three heads, the cornbred PPE’s reacted the worst to the lighting intensity but now that it is more subdued they have settled in. The arctic Blast have been the most steady in the tank and show great PE. The newest cornbred blue eyed, and Cabernet have been great too but may have introduced some algae. The standard blasto merletti is also doing ok but no growth and lost color during the break in of the tank. No losses yet though has me confident this will be a successful tank in time.

Thanks for reading!

[Christopher Marks]

I always love your tiny tank creations @GraniteReefer! I love love love this tiny lil bowl, great to see it's working out and the corals are starting to grow new heads. Hopefully your custom lid project comes together to help optimize everything.

[Ishtar]

Even the cutting board is a cool addition!