1 Gallon Reef Jar (Tank o' P)

[Ratvan]

So since an old knackered Fluval Spec 3 and Covid robbed me of my office tanks I set up the 5g as a Boredom Breaker. There is something about me that loves the set up stage of a tank and I did it again. I plan to have this on my desk at work. I might even build a little tabletop stand for it, who knows

 

1 Gallon Reef Jar, set up 13/06/2020. 

@debbeach13

Figure I can run my tap water test with this. 

Very basic and think that I might be able to just run this with lights and air stone. I do have a heater avaliable as per the photo

 

100G Live Sand

500g Cycled Rock

5L Kilner Drinks Dispenser (1.25 Gallon Jar)

Air stone rated for 25L tanks (5 Gallon Tanks)

Asta 20 LED. Will add once at office

60g Salt per 3.5Litres (1 Gallon-ish, more like 0.85) of water for 1.025 salinity. 

 

Actually surprised how quickly everything cleared up. Some bubbles have formed under the curve and I used some floss to skim the surface muck it doesn't look too bad. Had a play around in my dry rock and dead coral selection so think I can hide the air line. Seriatopa skeleton from the RSM crash

 

[Ratvan]

First occupant is this little guy, sleeps on the glass so was easy to transfer across

 

Hi Derek

 

[Ratvan]

So I did this for photos only, its growing on me though

 

[Tamberav]

Really nice looking. I love the set-up/start of of tanks too....and just planning a build in general.... probably why I keep changing my tanks.

[WV Reefer]

8 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

So I did this for photos only, its growing on me though

 

I ain’t mad at it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Ratvan]

So worked a little on the hardscape today, dug through my collection of mistakes and crashes and battered and reassembled one of the Seriatopa that i got back in October/November

I wanted to have height but also space to allow for feeders and such, depending on which route i go with stocking

Cable ties are so that I can rotate the pieces before attaching with milliput

The heater that I aim to hide, also i plan to cable tie the airstone to the bottom of this and try to not have equipment showing, the curve of the glass may help me here

Final piece that I will add once it has been in the jar for a while, this whole piece i want o have removable to assist with water changes and maintenance 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

So worked a little on the hardscape today, dug through my collection of mistakes and crashes and battered and reassembled one of the Seriatopa that i got back in October/November

I wanted to have height but also space to allow for feeders and such, depending on which route i go with stocking

Cable ties are so that I can rotate the pieces before attaching with milliput

The heater that I aim to hide, also i plan to cable tie the airstone to the bottom of this and try to not have equipment showing, the curve of the glass may help me here

Final piece that I will add once it has been in the jar for a while, this whole piece i want o have removable to assist with water changes and maintenance 

I think it looks great. 🙂 

[Ratvan]

9 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I think it looks great. 🙂 

Thanks, i'm not sold on it

I have time and space, so plan on messing around with a few other ideas as well

[Ratvan]

That looks interesting and the flow isn't too bad either. I do need the heater

 

[Rob Francis]

Nice, very nice

You beat me to it lol

Mines getting there, Ive treated myself to one of the pico reef lids form the US and am waiting for that and my Dr Tims to arrive to start the cycle.

Im not to sure if I have enough flow/bubbles atm though so will do some searching tonight.

Im also going to do a 1 gallon like your next to it for a bit of a qt set up or to grow nice macros in, not 100% yet.

Anyway, enough taking over you thread, keep the info and pics coming mate, so much inspiration on this site compared to 'the other'

Cheers,

Rob

[Rob Francis]

here come the questions,

Can the gooseneck from the Asta20 be removed so it can sit on the lid like the Kessil in the pics? I really like it like that

Does the Kilner have a tap (faucet lol)

Are you using tap water? I was thinking of trying the water from the cooler machine in work

Cheers,

Rob

[Ratvan]

18 minutes ago, Rob Francis said:

here come the questions,

Can the gooseneck from the Asta20 be removed so it can sit on the lid like the Kessil in the pics? I really like it like that

Does the Kilner have a tap (faucet lol)

Are you using tap water? I was thinking of trying the water from the cooler machine in work

Cheers,

Rob

I don't have the Asta in front of me, but I think that the cabling is inside the gooseneck? I think I remember that correctly. Worst case I'll need a block of wood behind the "tank" to mount the Asta to the same height. 

 

It's a working drinks Dispenser so yes I have a tap, I have also tested that turning on and off the tap helps with water changes. I blocked off the rear of this with craft mesh to not lose any small critters. 

 

Yes, today my tap water was 76ppm after last night's heavy rain. Two weeks ago it was 13ppm so I treated about 50 litres worth back then. 

 

I need a Sacrificial Zoa 

[Rob Francis]

sacrificial zoa lol

I really like the look of the Kessil how you have it, I think your right about the asta20. I might look at the TMC mini led unit (cant remember name) for my 1 gallon when I get it.

Or try and diy a little unit.

Keep us updated mate.

Cheers,

Rob

[Ratvan]

So tested the water today and seems that all is cycled, could have been done on day one but whatever

Threw in my poorly Hammer, the one remaining head from my experience with brown Jelly Disease and Euphyllia

It does look better, not seen any jelly substance in 72 hours now, so am hopeful that it can make a recovery hoping that this doesn't get too hot. 

[East1]

13ppm tap water what? that's like gold! it's 287 here 😞 

[Ratvan]

Just now, East1 said:

13ppm tap water what? that's like gold! it's 287 here 😞 

I know i tested it about 7 times to make sure the first time it happened. When its that low I literally fill up anything that can hold water because it wont likely be that low again anytime soon

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just remember to add extra dechlorinator on rainy days. Not sure how the situation is in UK, but down here, our local water dept. adds extra chlorine into our tap after it rains heavily, or when they 'clean' the local river. 

 

I've seen many local fishkeepers lose entire tanks (FW) of fish because they WCed after it rained, and added too little antichlorine. 

 

Incidently, all my tanks, both freshwater and reef run on tap (including the pico). My house has a giant distiller in the porch though, which filters any water leading into the main pipes supplying the house. 

 

Have never checked the TDS, but the nitrates are 25 ppm and phosphates are 0 ppm in my tap. Figured that's good enough for me. 👍

 

I just double the dosage of dechlorinator (Nutrafin) for all the SW tanks. And don't WC on days which rain heavily. 

[Ratvan]

One interesting thing about the jar set up that i did notice was that the inside of the lid was absolutely caked in a foamy crud, from the air bubbles. So this function is kind of like a protein skimmer?

2 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Just remember to add extra dechlorinator on rainy days. Not sure how the situation is in UK, but down here, our local water dept. adds extra chlorine into our tap after it rains heavily, or when they 'clean' the local river. 

 

I've seen many local fishkeepers lose entire tanks (FW) of fish because they WCed after it rained, and added too little antichlorine. 

 

Incidently, all my tanks, both freshwater and reef run on tap (including the pico). My house has a giant distiller in the porch though, which filters any water leading into the main pipes supplying the house. 

 

Have never checked the TDS, but the nitrates are 25 ppm and phosphates are 0 ppm in my tap. Figured that's good enough for me. 👍

 

I just double the dosage of dechlorinator (Nutrafin) for all the SW tanks. And don't WC on days which rain heavily. 

Low TDS days I let it sit for a few days for the Chlorine to evaporate, then add a dechlorinator to remove the additional heavy metals

[Snow_Phoenix]

16 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

One interesting thing about the jar set up that i did notice was that the inside of the lid was absolutely caked in a foamy crud, from the air bubbles. So this function is kind of like a protein skimmer?

Low TDS days I let it sit for a few days for the Chlorine to evaporate, then add a dechlorinator to remove the additional heavy metals

Keep Prime in hand too (just in case). 

[Ratvan]

6 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Keep Prime in hand too (just in case). 

Not a fan of the brand to be honest, or additives really in general

i'd rather water change 

[Snow_Phoenix]

38 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Not a fan of the brand to be honest, or additives really in general

i'd rather water change 

I understand. But Prime simply detoxifies ammonia - it comes in handy with new tanks or tanks that have an ammonia spike for whatever reason. 

 

I try my best to minimize additives as well - but honestly, after a while I ended up buying various buffers to make sure my kH, Mg and Ca levels remain steady (this is in reference to the big tank). I guess it depends on what sort of corals you keep, but unless the WC is extremely large, I find it difficult to maintain all 3 of those levels at a consistent range for 3 weeks (I stretch out WCs due to health reasons). 

 

A pico should be much easier to maintain. And 1G is very little volume, so a WC should be quick. What are your stocking plans though?

[SaltyGallon]

Welcome to the 1G club mate! I bet that little tap is dead handy for water changes haha!

[Ratvan]

55 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I understand. But Prime simply detoxifies ammonia - it comes in handy with new tanks or tanks that have an ammonia spike for whatever reason. 

 

I try my best to minimize additives as well - but honestly, after a while I ended up buying various buffers to make sure my kH, Mg and Ca levels remain steady (this is in reference to the big tank). I guess it depends on what sort of corals you keep, but unless the WC is extremely large, I find it difficult to maintain all 3 of those levels at a consistent range for 3 weeks (I stretch out WCs due to health reasons). 

 

A pico should be much easier to maintain. And 1G is very little volume, so a WC should be quick. What are your stocking plans though?

Stocking plans, yeah good question. I am leaning one of two ways with this. Either move the SPS that I have remaining from the little 5G and use this to grow out the boogers, or use the jar to have a really colourful Zoa display, or could do that in the 5G

51 minutes ago, SaltyGallon said:

Welcome to the 1G club mate! I bet that little tap is dead handy for water changes haha!

Cheers, it does indeed mate

[yoshii]

Nice little tank! Sooo are you going to keep the Asta like that? 😂

[Ratvan]

25 minutes ago, yoshii said:

Nice little tank! Sooo are you going to keep the Asta like that? 😂

That Asta is a Kessil A360WE, and maybe