2g Pico Jar of Futility reboot

[frootbat]

Updated jar pic:

 

 

I saw @Christopher Marks thread on his jar, I learned a lot and thought it would be a great pandemic tank to attempt since it would be cheaper, and with less evaporation and a smaller volume I wouldn't have to hunt down jugs of RO, just a gallon or two of distilled from the grocery store and a 4 gallon of saltwater delivered each month.

 

Here is the jar:

 

 

The bottle of scotch is to show scale, and drink heavily from in the event this works out as poorly as all my other attempts at reefing 🙃

 

The Stuff:

2 gallon jar (https://bit.ly/3hNaYFs)

Real Reef rock, about 3.5#

Reefsmart PicoPro LED (https://bit.ly/39JwjNb)

Inkbird ITC-308S with Aqueon 10w heater

Caribsea Fiji Pink sand

2.5w pump (https://amzn.to/314nfi1) and some airline

Lazy Susan turntable thingie (https://amzn.to/30gM8b1)

 

Stocking:

Nothing yet obviously, but I hear rumors that masses of dinoflagellates and hair algae are booking tickets to San Antonio.

 

[frootbat]

I'm a bit crap at aquascaping so I sloppily glued the Real Reef rock into a pile that I think looks kinda like this (I think the space ship is visiting from planet Bryopsis):

 

 

Anyways...here is the supposedly cured rock in a bucket of saltwater with an airstone. 

 

 

I have tested for ammonia and nitrates, both came up zero, or at least best I can tell. I've never been good at the color-matching thing. Tomorrow the turntable thingie arrives, and the LED lid comes Monday. I'll probably throw everything in a jar tomorrow (praying the glue holds).

 

[Christopher Marks]

It's great to see another PicoPro reef jar coming online! I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with yours @frootbat! One of these days I'll get my journal updated too...

[banasophia]

Could be an interesting thread to follow, only a couple posts so far and already has several things I love: reefing, sci fi, and alcohol. 😁 Glad you made the scape out of Real Reef not mashed potatoes... looking forward to some close encounters of the coral kind. 🤗

[frootbat]

Welp, my super glue job wasn't the best...I seem to have misjudged the contact points so when I pulled the rock out of the bucket it fell apart 😞 I ended up just using the base piece and chiseling off a portion from another part that I like and stuck it on top. Probably would have been to close too the light for zoas and mushrooms anyway. Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

Also, got one of these in the mail today, hopefully it will work to hold the airline and temperature probe. It's a bit bigger than I'd like, but oh well:

 

[debbeach13]

Looks like fun! Good luck with your jar.

[frootbat]

Tested my water again this morning, now I’m getting .8 ammonia, 10-20 nitrate, and .2 nitrite. I’m guessing that the rock was decent, but my having to mess with the rock caused some die-off, so now I’m cycling again. 

[frootbat]

Tested the water again today. Nitrite and ammonia are a bit higher. Probably not going to test again until the end of the week, it'll just stress me out and there isn't really anything I can do about it anyway. Got the light and the rest of my stuff in, so here's a picture of my empty jar:

 

[frootbat]

Still cycling...

 

For anyone interested in heat, I live in Texas, the room temp is 76-77, and after 4.5 hours (I am doing 5 on 5 off 5 on with the lights) the temp is just under 81 degrees, usually like 80.7 or so. I guess it beats an old cube with CFLs that got into the mid 80s...

 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, frootbat said:

Still cycling...

 

For anyone interested in heat, I live in Texas, the room temp is 76-77, and after 4.5 hours (I am doing 5 on 5 off 5 on with the lights) the temp is just under 81 degrees, usually like 80.7 or so. I guess it beats an old cube with CFLs that got into the mid 80s...

 

Wow! If I don’t have my heaters in in the heat of summer my tanks are at 68!! ( room temp 72, basement is colder )

[frootbat]

Welp....

 

it looks like this jar might be living up to its name. The cycle is kinda crazy. My ammonia is about .8, and nitrites are over 1, the max the Red Sea test will show. I was always under the impression that ammonia would go down before the nitrites went through the roof. I used that “Real Reef” rock that the lfs said was cured, so I kinda thought the cycle would be short and predictable.

 

Not giving up on this jar yet, but I will be starting a second, this time with some clean dry rock and a piece of live rock ordered ordered from KP aquatics as suggested in another thread. I have some sand left, and a spare pump as well as a second Reefsmart light. I was drunk when I ordered so I screwed up and got two. Was going to return the extra when I got the chance, but now I guess I will start a second jar.

 

I’ll test again mid week, maybe by then it will be a WMD, who knows?

[frootbat]

Looks like I panicked a little too soon.

 

A few days ago I ordered a piece of live rock from KP Aquatics for a new jar to replace what I thought was a disaster and some chaeto. I threw chaeto in both jars and left it for a few days, and now both jars are showing zero ammonia and nitrites.

 

 

So now I have 2 jars. I'll make one zoanthids and the other mushrooms/softies. I have snails en route from ReefCleaners and corals from Legendary Corals in 2 weeks. 

 

Not sure whether to put both jars in this thread or what.

[frootbat]

Here's the new mushroom jar:

 

[frootbat]

Well, decided to go ahead and redo things a bit and lose most of the real reef rock. I'm using 3 little dry rocks, a piece of live rock, and a little fragment of the real reef rock. To fill things out and give it some depth, I've got some pico rocks on order from @NanoRox. I also have an order in for some small frags, 4 zoas, 2 shrooms, and a lil kenya tree frag. I also took out the chaeto, because I'm afraid it might be sucking out nutrients that the softies might want. All traces of ammonia/nitrite are gone, but I'm not reading any nitrates either. Maybe that will change now that I've pulled the chaeto.

 

[NanoRox]

cool.  I am making yours now as we speak.  I'm assuming they are yours at least.  lol.  

[aclman88]

Cool thread! How did you order just a piece of live rock? 

[frootbat]

1 hour ago, aclman88 said:

Cool thread! How did you order just a piece of live rock? 

KP Aquatics lets you do an add-on for a 1# piece to an order. Pricey, but I thought it was worth it.

 

https://www.kpaquatics.com/product/aquacultured-live-rock/