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Cultivated Reef

Kessil Kitchen Reef Bowl


Gunner24

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Hey everyone 😁

 

Been stalking the forums for plenty of years and decided to give this latest project a proper good ol' fashioned journal 😅

 

Alright so for the specs I am using a kessil A80 Tuna blue. I really love the light from a kessil but have ran AI on all my other systems. Being a pico tank, im trying to be budget minded and was surprised how cheap they run without any controller. Ive been spoiled by having all the AI adjustability, especially the scheduled control, so i used a cheap smart plug that is controlled on a Google home schedule. Plus I can now tell Google to turn the reef bowl on or off 😎😅. Live rock, live sand, and a ZooMed nano 10 provide filtration. Bowl is covered with a piece of acrylic and water level marked at water change for evaporation control. Finally temperature is controlled with an inkbird and cheap amazon betta 25w heater. Oh yeah, bowl itself was found at the local craft store and holds about 3gal empty and 2½ish stocked. I added Dr. Tims all-in-one to help start a healthy cycle and will dose vibrant after weekly 90% (water left in filter) water changes. Feeding will also happen once a week 1-2 hrs before water change. Also plan to turn off filter during feeding to help keep filter clean of this weekly, temporary mess. Filter can finish after water change 😉

 

I have put 4 hermits, some asterina stars from the main tank, and a piece of donor GSP from main tank.  GSP Most likely won't stay, just want to see some life in there dangit 😅. Bowl will have no fish, only various snails, shrimps, and crabs. Any ideas are welcome. Have a nice little pom pom with both anemones thats gotta be 3 yrs old but never see him lol. So I think a whole 2½ gallons will give this one much less hiding opportunity 😁. Also like the idea of sexy shrimp. For corals, I think a nice hammer will be front and center and let various encrusters work the rest of rock. I have another tank that is overfilled with zoas so im pretty burnt out there. Maybe cut a frag of rastas but thats it! Eventually if things end up working successfully, the very top will get some monti digitata for the iconic, branching stony coral look 😊

 

Alright that about sums it all up! I look forward to sharing my progress and having a place to look back on it. My nuvo10 is about 4yrs old and I have no easy way to see the evolution of it 😒. So lesson learned there and wish me luck!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Break said:

That's a cool little set-up!

Thanks! I'm liking these picos! Just hoping for an algae free environment 🤞

 

Also love your pico and those rastas really pop 😁 

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So today was first feeding 😁

Have some new residents and figured a little food will be appreciated and ammonia for the dr. Tims. So mixed up my systems-wide Sunday feeding and added a bit to the Reef Bowl. Probably a a few tablespoons worth of reef frenzy nano and reef roids (<--- very important: mixed according to directions, not over!). Heater and Filter were turned of so water flow too. I Need to add an air line for added water flow. Pump works well enough but some extra couldnt hurt Plus I've read itll give me a bit of cheap skimming 🤷‍♂️

So anyways,  water was pulled out after about and hour with me using a coral syringe thingy to stir everything up. New water was added (which was at 78° already) to the fill line and everything was turned back on. Vibrant was dosed at a few drops (¼ ml). Overallall this took about 5 mins, so I'd say mission success and pretty easy! 😅

 

There was a tiny bit of leftover reef frenzy shrimp but couple hours later I watched the various inhabitants take a good scavenge 🤞

 

Continuing no lights for a few months or so. No corals added and GSP was moved to main tank. I picked up a pom pom crab, and gold coral banded shrimp from WWC. Then a sexy shrimp from Top Shelf Aquatics. So that is in addition to the 3x Hermits (1x died) from Top Shelf. 

 

So far everything is looking happy. No algae yet, really hoping the no lights and bacteria seeding mixed with live rock does the trick 🤞😁😁

I turn the lights on for meals so maybe an hour a day and its very mesmerizing. The shape of the globe really draws my eyes to it and the sexy shrimp is finally front and center in a tank lol. I will definitely be adding more. They are ridiculously expensive ($25 or more) so cheap options are very welcome. 

 

Alright! That will probably be it for awhile, this next few months will be rather boring. But greatness awaits! I included plenty of photos as a thanks for sticking through! 📚 😅

 

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1 hour ago, Break said:

Respect on your restraint with using the light and adding more livestock. I think letting the system really establish like that will pay off in the long run. 

Thanks and I certainly hope. Also ive got other tanks to play around with still so that's really the contributor of my control lol.

Admittedly I also bought and attempted to add a NSP Gorgonian to the bowl but changed my mind. Its now happy and fully open in the OG Nuvo 10 😁😅

Maybe it'll end up back in the bowl but for now, it can wait 😏20200912_142714_compress58.thumb.jpg.9514a12c1c880d06135ddacb1814398b.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

So far been keeping to the weekly, roughly 80% water changes after 2 hrs of food. Also no lights, other than my dinners. Everything seems to be doing well. Also moved the gorgonian out. Here's a video of the pom pom and various others. So far no algae and looking nice and clean 

 

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Whoohoo! Another reefbowl to join the forums! Welcome to the club.

 

Glad to see your level of restraint and waiting for things to naturally settle in.

 

One thing I wanted to ask - are you adding a shot of nitrifying bacteria to the water with every water change?

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23 minutes ago, Tempestas said:

Whoohoo! Another reefbowl to join the forums! Welcome to the club.

 

Glad to see your level of restraint and waiting for things to naturally settle in.

 

One thing I wanted to ask - are you adding a shot of nitrifying bacteria to the water with every water change?

 Glad to join the Crew!! ☺️

 

oh yes i have been adding Vibrant after each water change. I originally dosed Dr. Tims One-And-Only to get things started but yeah, regular dosing of .5 ml Vibrant at each change.

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  • 1 month later...

Alright so last few months have gone nice and quiet with no issues. Water changes weekly after feeding and last 3 weeks started running the light 5pm to 9pm. Found a little aiptasia on the live rock last week. So went down to lfs Saturday to support my local small business (Top Shelf Aquatics) to get some nubibranchs and couldn't pass up the $20 frag of Anacropora (that yellow ultra flourence will glow under a Kessil 😁)

so that started the new, 12pm-9pm schedule. Figure 9 hrs of light should be enough to at least not kill it. Let's see how this weekly 80-90% really stands! 🤞

P.S. Aiptasia successfully gone on today's water-change 😁😁

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I can't believe I'm only just finding this journal! I'm setting up a 2.5 gallon reef for a few sexy shrimp... using the exact same canister filter. How do you like it so far? I emptied all the media out to avoid nitrate buildup, but have you found the ceramic and sponge to be worth keeping in there? Are you also using the carbon that came with?

The bowl looks awesome! I've got one just like it laying around in a cabinet... now I'm in trouble!

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On 12/19/2020 at 8:24 PM, FishProblem said:

I can't believe I'm only just finding this journal! I'm setting up a 2.5 gallon reef for a few sexy shrimp... using the exact same canister filter. How do you like it so far? I emptied all the media out to avoid nitrate buildup, but have you found the ceramic and sponge to be worth keeping in there? Are you also using the carbon that came with?

The bowl looks awesome! I've got one just like it laying around in a cabinet... now I'm in trouble!

So far pretty good! I have been using the carbon, ceramic and sponge. I went by my local LFS and found some different ceramic that had been sitting in their live rock tank (precured) and am using that instead. I don't plan on changing that but i has developed some black color to it. I am thinking that is the bacteria or whatever eating the crap.

For the carbon,  I haven't changed it yet but will be doing so in the next few days because i noticed the water is a little discolored now. So ill update then with some pics too lol! I have added a few more pieces and they seem to be content so far. Finally, the lights have begun to grow a bit of algae on the rock, but nothing crazy at all. Im hoping that just means, this is the "ugly" phase i figured would happen eventually and isn't too severe. Fingers crossed!

 

Also thank you very much! Its quickly becoming my favorite system (as long as i can keep this algae under control 🤞) I hope you get the itch and get to see another example of these awesome tanks!

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58 minutes ago, Gunner24 said:

So far pretty good! I have been using the carbon, ceramic and sponge. I went by my local LFS and found some different ceramic that had been sitting in their live rock tank (precured) and am using that instead. I don't plan on changing that but i has developed some black color to it. I am thinking that is the bacteria or whatever eating the crap.

For the carbon,  I haven't changed it yet but will be doing so in the next few days because i noticed the water is a little discolored now. So ill update then with some pics too lol! I have added a few more pieces and they seem to be content so far. Finally, the lights have begun to grow a bit of algae on the rock, but nothing crazy at all. Im hoping that just means, this is the "ugly" phase i figured would happen eventually and isn't too severe. Fingers crossed!

 

Also thank you very much! Its quickly becoming my favorite system (as long as i can keep this algae under control 🤞) I hope you get the itch and get to see another example of these awesome tanks!

And to think I gave away the media to a friend lol. I'll be interested - and encouraged - to see how the filtration works long term! I got a lot of (friendly) heat on my other forum for using a canister filter at all, so I've been second guessing a bit.

 

🤞Good luck with the ugly phase!  Excited to see your updates! I'll probably end up taking a bit of inspiration from you, if that's ok.

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2 minutes ago, FishProblem said:

And to think I gave away the media to a friend lol. I'll be interested - and encouraged - to see how the filtration works long term! I got a lot of (friendly) heat on my other forum for using a canister filter at all, so I've been second guessing a bit.

 

🤞Good luck with the ugly phase!  Excited to see your updates! I'll probably end up taking a bit of inspiration from you, if that's ok.

lol yeah sometimes these forums can be a little too "knowledgeable". If it works then i wont be too worried on if i should or not lol, not gonna get wrapped up in whether its right or not. I myself got inspiration for this from a Reef Builders article where the individual ran a very similar setup with the canister filter. But yeah,  I'll keep you posted and update this journal i promise! Oh and i almost forgot; another huge source of inspiration comes from is Maritza's Reef Bowl! look her up on facebook. She has a very long running reef bowl and can give you some more info 😁 

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4 hours ago, Gunner24 said:

lol yeah sometimes these forums can be a little too "knowledgeable". If it works then i wont be too worried on if i should or not lol, not gonna get wrapped up in whether its right or not. I myself got inspiration for this from a Reef Builders article where the individual ran a very similar setup with the canister filter. But yeah,  I'll keep you posted and update this journal i promise! Oh and i almost forgot; another huge source of inspiration comes from is Maritza's Reef Bowl! look her up on facebook. She has a very long running reef bowl and can give you some more info 😁 

You're totally right - if it works, it works!

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8 hours ago, FishProblem said:

And to think I gave away the media to a friend lol. I'll be interested - and encouraged - to see how the filtration works long term! I got a lot of (friendly) heat on my other forum for using a canister filter at all, so I've been second guessing a bit.

 

🤞Good luck with the ugly phase!  Excited to see your updates! I'll probably end up taking a bit of inspiration from you, if that's ok.

Nothing wrong with canister filters if you clean them

 

Or use them as self powered reactors

 

Their bad rep comes from running them, as filters, for 6 months at a time

 

If I did a bowl, jar, or pico I would definitely use a canister filter.  But they don't make the canister filter I like, so I don't(it's going for $300 on ebay)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Super cool mate, looks like you're off to a great start. The Kessil looks good there too. As a fellow pico'er my two tips would be a) watch the detritus in the sandbed - not a clue where so much crap comes from in these small fishless tanks, but it does build up! And b) throw a little bit of macro in there, it'll help outcompete the pest stuff 🙂

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16 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

Super cool mate, looks like you're off to a great start. The Kessil looks good there too. As a fellow pico'er my two tips would be a) watch the detritus in the sandbed - not a clue where so much crap comes from in these small fishless tanks, but it does build up! And b) throw a little bit of macro in there, it'll help outcompete the pest stuff 🙂

Very good point! I haven't put any pics up lately because of its current "ugly phase". Hoping it's just an initial spike but yeah, maybe a bit of macro wouldn't be a bad idea 😁

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