A sugar jar, 850mL pico

[ocean_at_home]

Hi! This is a journal for my pico experiment now on its 2nd month.

 

It's a 850mL capacity sugar jar modified to have a filter chamber at the back.

 

Set up began towards end of June and has been pretty much running since then. Everything in this miniature tank was taken from my 10 year old reef tank.

[ocean_at_home]

The sugar jar measures 10x10x10cm but only holds 850mL due to its curved corners. Light and pump were bought online from China and seems to be working well for corals like a ricordea, zoas and paly. The plating montipora and the gorgonian appear to retain their color.

 

Issue remains to be with the high temperature as we're in a tropical region so the work around is to drop an ice cube daily. But other than that, everything is behaving quite well.

 

FIngers crossed!

[ocean_at_home]

Of course pics from its early days in June.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

wow!! this is incredible!

[fenderchamp]

it looks to be well maintained and thriving to me!  

 

nice job!!

 

what is your maintenance  routine?

[Tired]

Oh, look how cute! Is that an intentional bubble algae frag there in the foreground? 

 

I love that it's small enough for "exactly 1 ice cube" to be a valid substitute for a chiller. 

[ocean_at_home]

Here's today. I appreciate how quick maintenance is for this size.

[ocean_at_home]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

Oh, look how cute! Is that an intentional bubble algae frag there in the foreground? 

 

I love that it's small enough for "exactly 1 ice cube" to be a valid substitute for a chiller. 

Thank you. The ice cube a day is pretty neat. 😁

 

The bubble algae is quite intentional as way for absorbing nutrients. I thought it's tidier to look at than hair algae. But it started purely out of fascination.

[ocean_at_home]

18 hours ago, fenderchamp said:

it looks to be well maintained and thriving to me!  

 

nice job!!

 

what is your maintenance  routine?

Thanks! 50% water change every week and an ice cube a day is the routine.

 

On a whim, I feed this with crushed pellets for the gorgonian. But I do it a day before a scheduled water change.

[Tired]

I like the lil bubble algae garden. Nice pop of green. 

[aclman88]

Do you have a link to the light and pump?  I am guessing they were from aliexpress/ebay?

[ocean_at_home]

9 hours ago, aclman88 said:

Do you have a link to the light and pump?  I am guessing they were from aliexpress/ebay?

I don't think we use the same platform for online purchases but for the light, I'm sharing this image you may use to image search a similar product.

 

For the pump, it's a pump used for a cat watering bowl. I realised some cats won't drink from still water.

[ocean_at_home]

Resurrecting this for the sake of journaling!

 

Sooo, after a hot summer meltdown and a looong hiatus, I gathered the courage to re-start the sugar jar pico since the climate is again pretty chill.

 

Here's how it looks like right now. Pretty bare as it looks like the light cannot support a plating monti and even some shrooms - which is quite a setback in terms of aesthetics. I was able to make it work with a birdsnest coral before but haven't had the courage to risk mortality worries during transport.

 

I really love GSP. They make this impossible setup look like it's working! 😅

[debbeach13]

Welcome back.

[Staticmoves]

Nice.

I see your trying some substrate this time around.

wonder if that will allow some 75 - 100% water changes.

may have to try a Pico some time down the road.

[ocean_at_home]

On 10/21/2024 at 11:36 PM, Staticmoves said:

Nice.

I see your trying some substrate this time around.

wonder if that will allow some 75 - 100% water changes.

may have to try a Pico some time down the road.

I try to keep water changes to around 25%. Anything more than 50% and the corals begin to not like it.

 

But the plot twist is that I haven't done a WC for almost 2mos now because there's no fish poop to deteriorate the water. However, that does mean that minerals and nutrients remain unreplenished which usually happens with a new batch of saltwater.

[ocean_at_home]

A week has passed and the GSP is starting to spread.

 

I wonder though if the Knopia polyps are alright. They don't spread in mine, contrary to what I've read that they spread quickly. Does anyone have a tip?

[ocean_at_home]

Stuck a gorgonian frag to balance the look.

 

[TheCoffeeReef]

As a fellow gorgonian appreciator, good choice 👌

 

I've been making casual observations that they're quite capable chem warfare agents, with each one added resulting in a coincidence of other corals sulking, be interested to hear how you get on with yours. 

[ocean_at_home]

Hey @TheCoffeeReef! I didn't know about that with gorgonians. Thanks for your observation and especially in a system this small, dilution would be a real challenge.

 

Let's see how this goes and will insert a few pellets of activated carbon if needed.

[TheCoffeeReef]

I have a 6ltr reef jar as well, mention it as when needed, large water changes are tolerated so well- its a mix of zoa, ricordia (Yuma and Florida), Kenya tree, coleastrea and anacropor, with a pendersons shrimp and rock clam in there. Another option if you do find yourself having to deal with chem warfare 👌

 

Spotted the earlier reply saying over 50% change the corals don't like it; used to feel that way with mine, but witnessed otherwise, their rebound improved each time.

[ocean_at_home]

Thanks @TheCoffeeReef for the reco. Love the diversity that can fit in such dimensions!

 

On the water changes, I guess it depends on the individual temperament of the corals we keep. 🙂 I was doing 100% water in the first few months too but realized too late that my corals liked their water slightly dirty. They've gone pale and died eventually.

[TheCoffeeReef]

Ahhh, sorry to hear that about those corals; as others have said and I can attest, you'd be surprised how some stoney corals can regenerate if given improved conditions post a RTN/STN occurrence. Ill see if I can find pics of my stylo and cyphastrea which came back from the dead.

 

Montiporas are also very resilient at recovery if improved conditions are met.

[ocean_at_home]

Oh yes, I agree with montis. They are surprisingly more resilient than what I had expected. The beauty of this hobby is witnessing this kind of wonder.

[ocean_at_home]

9 months old now!

 

Yay!