13 gallon reef tank bowl advise needed

[Rex113]

I have been fascinated with reef ecosystems for quite some time and I am currently experimenting with a 13 gallon glass bowl with no heater filter or artificial lighting. The tank has been set up and running for 2 months now. I have a 3” sand bed ( not live sand) and a few pieces of live rock from other reef tanks that have been running for over a year. I have it in front of a window that gets direct sunlight at least 4 hours a day. I have pulsing zenia, green star polyps, and a gonipora. 3 emerald crabs and 3 astrea  snails. The pulsing zenia causes some water movement.The clean up crew survives on hair algae growing on rocks and glass, I don’t add any fish food. All my corals are thriving but every 2 weeks I need to drop in a mini U.V. Sterilizer because the water becomes the color of pea soup. After 10 days the water is crystal clear again. The temperature is a an average of 72 degrees and I only use Rodi water for top offs.Will this green water go away permanently once the tank is mature or am I doomed to dropping in U.V. Sterilizer every 2 weeks. I have heard of some tanks that thrive with natural lighting. Any advice would be appreciated please try and be civil because I am very thin skinned 😆 

[brandon429]

great job so far but there's a rule governing your tank that is inflexible, told to me by Eric Borneman in 2002 during a reefcentral private chat

 

home reefs are not self-sustaining. they're on slow continual decline unless you're inputting protein and other vitamins

 

live rock alone though has potentially years of storage as they leak small compounds that support the micro food web, and corals get a lot of energy by light (but not complete requirements or they'd be classed as autotrophs which they aren't, they must feed, all corals)

 

so the truth is if you feed the tank occasionally it could run years/indefinitely 

 

but if its feed restricted it's on a slow path to total death, however long that takes. the rule cannot be changed or broken. it might be delayed years and years though based on variables

 

plants, algae and mat scums will likely never leave the system as long as water is kept, but that's total eutrophication modeling at the very end. you're wanting the opposite: reef modeling

 

being motionless isn't necessarily bad, pjreefs made a whole microindustry selling stilled tanks/the idea came from the biotope forum on this site.

 

but the no feed/can't win that one/feed input and new protein is required.  if your tank currently carried corals for 5 more years that would be neat agreed, and it sure might, live rock has LOTS of sustenance

 

but knowing its on a decline path I would simply feed it occasionally then it'll run forever, don't know how long it'll carry corals but 2 mos is good start. 

[Rex113]

48 minutes ago, brandon429 said:

great job so far but there's a rule governing your tank that is inflexible, told to me by Eric Borneman in 2002 during a reefcentral private chat

 

home reefs are not self-sustaining. they're on slow continual decline unless you're inputting protein and other vitamins

 

live rock alone though has potentially years of storage as they leak small compounds that support the micro food web, and corals get a lot of energy by light (but not complete requirements or they'd be classed as autotrophs which they aren't, they must feed, all corals)

 

so the truth is if you feed the tank occasionally it could run years/indefinitely 

 

but if its feed restricted it's on a slow path to total death, however long that takes. the rule cannot be changed or broken. it might be delayed years and years though based on variables

 

plants, algae and mat scums will likely never leave the system as long as water is kept, but that's total eutrophication modeling at the very end. you're wanting the opposite: reef modeling

 

being motionless isn't necessarily bad, pjreefs made a whole microindustry selling stilled tanks/the idea came from the biotope forum on this site.

 

but the no feed/can't win that one/feed input and new protein is required.  if your tank currently carried corals for 5 more years that would be neat agreed, and it sure might, live rock has LOTS of sustenance

 

but knowing its on a decline path I would simply feed it occasionally then it'll run forever, don't know how long it'll carry corals but 2 mos is good start. 

Thanks for your very informative reply. I was under the impression that the nutrients in the salt water and the sunlight were all that the tank needed to survive. Do you think that if I target feed my corals some reef roids once a week, it would be enough food to help sustain a healthy tank? 

[brandon429]

that or any other feed. anything intended for reefing fulfills the rule

 

*and there's no rule that says you can't experiment with taking things to the very final edge of loss then bringing them back with feed/ going longer in between feed intervals and still keeping corals would be a neat extreme to inspect, there's lots of room for pressing the boundaries. I'm sitting here trying to think of other universal limiting rules for nano and picos and that's about the only firm one I know, everyone is testing max and minimum sizes for home reefs, we have already made sealed ones that don't evaporate and others that work on lid fits that reduce evaporation (thereby lessening topoff needs + stability) and what is kept in the tanks / delicate life forms is always being pressed for new boundaries

 

but protein cycling is truly finite 

 

even the ecospheres from 1997 / glass eggs with a dead gorg and 3-4 hawaiian opulae shrimp last ~5 years at best with no protein cycling, with light-driven algae production

 

there are no first gen ecospheres still running with the same shrimp for that same reason, and opulae shrimp kept in fed tanks live longer than the oldest ecosphere ever got to, about eight years if I'm not wrong.  even the algae cycling will eventually stop in them and everything will just be detritus... years after an unfed system has used all its resource.

 

with hq feed we are now out to sixteen years lifespan/ nine years and beyond and no sign of decline in the oldest pico reefs.  ageless no lifespan reefs are created by rip cleaning occasionally and feed input in observance of the base rule of protein cycling. 

[Rex113]

1 hour ago, brandon429 said:

that or any other feed. anything intended for reefing fulfills the rule

 

*and there's no rule that says you can't experiment with taking things to the very final edge of loss then bringing them back with feed/ going longer in between feed intervals and still keeping corals would be a neat extreme to inspect, there's lots of room for pressing the boundaries. I'm sitting here trying to think of other universal limiting rules for nano and picos and that's about the only firm one I know, everyone is testing max and minimum sizes for home reefs, we have already made sealed ones that don't evaporate and others that work on lid fits that reduce evaporation (thereby lessening topoff needs + stability) and what is kept in the tanks / delicate life forms is always being pressed for new boundaries

 

but protein cycling is truly finite 

 

even the ecospheres from 1997 / glass eggs with a dead gorg and 3-4 hawaiian opulae shrimp last ~5 years at best with no protein cycling, with light-driven algae production

 

there are no first gen ecospheres still running with the same shrimp for that same reason, and opulae shrimp kept in fed tanks live longer than the oldest ecosphere ever got to, about eight years if I'm not wrong.  even the algae cycling will eventually stop in them and everything will just be detritus... years after an unfed system has used all its resource.

 

with hq feed we are now out to sixteen years lifespan/ nine years and beyond and no sign of decline in the oldest pico reefs.  ageless no lifespan reefs are created by rip cleaning occasionally and feed input in observance of the base rule of protein 

Thanks again Brandon. Funny that you mentioned Opae Ula shrimp because I have over a thousand of them in a 60 gallon tank. Brackish water live rocks with no filtration. That tank has been running smoothly for over 3 years with no green water problems. It doesn’t get any sunlight but I have a led light to create the algae that they eat. I only drop a couple of sinking shrimp pellets in it about once a month. I also have some ( alpha opae ula ) metabetaeus lohena in the same tank, the alphas have babies but they never survived more than a week.