Jason's reef bowl

[natalia_la_loca]

On 2/9/2024 at 1:07 AM, Bluelobstor said:

 I wonder if the rock I have is ok to use? It's been dry for awhile but I wonder if spores can survive?

your old rock is fine to use, just cycle it well.

 

7 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

I bought a lid today at a thrift store. I attached a picture of how it sits on the bowl and wondering if anyone's sees a problem with it? Ignore the black tape it was just a way to mount the tube to lid temporarily.

 

Looks great! Where is the inner rim/lip of the lid sitting? Best if it’s a smaller diameter than the opening of the bowl because if it is, then condensation or splashes from the air pump  will drip back into the water.

[Bluelobstor]

9 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

your old rock is fine to use, just cycle it well.

 

 

Looks great! Where is the inner rim/lip of the lid sitting? Best if it’s a smaller diameter than the opening of the bowl because if it is, then condensation or splashes from the air pump  will drip back into the water.

The lip of the lid would sit on the flat surface of the bowl if no tubing was used. As it is now, the lip is raised off the surface  due to the tubing and instead of the tubing sitting on the surface it sits perfectly on the corner where the flat starts to curve, if that makes sense? 

That's why I'm asking if it would would.

I think I'm going to try as is and still be on lookout for something else.

As for cycling it should have a long cycle due to me leaving for a little over a week in March

 

The more I think about it when the water drips down the lid it may drip in between bowl and tube instead of inside bowl.

[natalia_la_loca]

16 minutes ago, Bluelobstor said:

The more I think about it when the water drips down the lid it may drip in between bowl and tube instead of inside bowl.

yup, that was my concern, you definitely don’t want that. It might still work though, and you can always keep an eye out for a better solution. 

[Bluelobstor]

2 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

yup, that was my concern, you definitely don’t want that. It might still work though, and you can always keep an eye out for a better solution. 

Yeah I may try it for future use just to see how that works, but I might actually have a better solution that I had already dismissed. 

I have a smaller lid that the whole lid is essentially the same size as the opening. I thought it was too small but when I put the tube on the tube sits on the inner half of the flat surface so maybe ideal?

[natalia_la_loca]

2 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

Yeah I may try it for future use just to see how that works, but I might actually have a better solution that I had already dismissed. 

I have a smaller lid that the whole lid is essentially the same size as the opening. I thought it was too small but when I put the tube on the tube sits on the inner half of the flat surface so maybe ideal?

yeah that sounds like it should work!

[Bluelobstor]

So I picked up another bowl that I think I like better. They both are 12" in diameter however the opening is bigger. I believe I got a solution for the lid for both which means if 1 is successful then I will setup the 2nd one. Below is picture of the new bowl and the lid on it. I did have one last question about lid. In 1 spot there is about a paper thin slot between the lid and bowl edge. Does anyone think it would be an issue? I think it will be ok and I have a second question. Look at the second pick and see how the glass is rippled, I guess, near the handle I'm wondering if that will cause an issue with the light shining through?

 

 

[Bluelobstor]

@natalia_la_loca How do you have the temp probe mounted in the bowl? Also the airline? I believe you said you use a rigid airline in side the bowl?

[natalia_la_loca]

Nice!! That bigger opening will make maintenance easier.

 

54 minutes ago, Bluelobstor said:

 In 1 spot there is about a paper thin slot between the lid and bowl edge. Does anyone think it would be an issue? I think it will be ok and I have a second question. Look at the second pick and see how the glass is rippled, I guess, near the handle I'm wondering if that will cause an issue with the light shining through?

 

That opening shouldn’t cause a problem unless it’s directly adjacent to where bubbles are coming up from your airline, which could cause salt creep.

 

The rippled glass probably won’t be a problem. The only real potential problem with a lid is if you don’t keep it clean, it’ll start to block the light over time. I clean the lid as part of the maintenance routine every week, so it’s super easy and doesn’t allow any salt film or gunk to build up.

 

40 minutes ago, Bluelobstor said:

@natalia_la_loca How do you have the temp probe mounted in the bowl? Also the airline? I believe you said you use a rigid airline in side the bowl?

 

The temp probe is mounted with a Mag-clip. For the airline, I cut a small piece of rigid airline tubing from the LFS and used a heat gun at a low temperature (or I may have actually used a toaster, i don’t remember) to gently heat it and bend it in the approximate shape of the edge of the bowl. This allowed me to put the airline where I wanted it, hugging the contour of the back of the bowl, so that it’s less visible. I can take a pic for you tomorrow, I need to pull out the airline and clean it anyway.

[Bluelobstor]

11 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

Nice!! That bigger opening will make maintenance easier.

 

 

That opening shouldn’t cause a problem unless it’s directly adjacent to where bubbles are coming up from your airline, which could cause salt creep.

 

The rippled glass probably won’t be a problem. The only real potential problem with a lid is if you don’t keep it clean, it’ll start to block the light over time. I clean the lid as part of the maintenance routine every week, so it’s super easy and doesn’t allow any salt film or gunk to build up.

 

 

The temp probe is mounted with a Mag-clip. For the airline, I cut a small piece of rigid airline tubing from the LFS and used a heat gun at a low temperature (or I may have actually used a toaster, i don’t remember) to gently heat it and bend it in the approximate shape of the edge of the bowl. This allowed me to put the airline where I wanted it, hugging the contour of the back of the bowl, so that it’s less visible. I can take a pic for you tomorrow, I need to pull out the airline and clean it anyway.

That would be fantastic if you could post a pic. I have a heat gun and a toaster so I should be able to do something similar. I also had some rigid airline but not sure where it's at.

 

The tiny opening won't be near the air bubbles. I was also able to go with a size smaller in tubing around the bowl so now the opening for cords is smaller and more compact. 

 

As for the temp probe I have an extra mag clip but I don't think it came with a clip small enough to use it. Also how close to the sand or how far into the bowls do you end the air line? 

Thanks for everyones input so far

[natalia_la_loca]

25 minutes ago, Bluelobstor said:

That would be fantastic if you could post a pic. I have a heat gun and a toaster so I should be able to do something similar. I also had some rigid airline but not sure where it's at.

 

The tiny opening won't be near the air bubbles. I was also able to go with a size smaller in tubing around the bowl so now the opening for cords is smaller and more compact. 

 

As for the temp probe I have an extra mag clip but I don't think it came with a clip small enough to use it. Also how close to the sand or how far into the bowls do you end the air line? 

Thanks for everyones input so far

heres a pic! Will post another pic of the whole airline tonight when I pull it out for cleaning. Definitely use the heat gun, that’ll give you way more control than a toaster lol. I extend the airline almost all the way to the sand bed.

 

I forgot to mention that I got the temp probe to fit the smallest mag-clip by taking a tiny piece (maybe 1” max) of flexible airline and slicing it lengthwise, then popping it onto the temp probe. This gives the probe just enough extra diameter to fit securely onto the clip. I’ll try to get a pic of that too, but I may not be able to as it’s completely covered with zoanthids.

 

[Bluelobstor]

Thanks Natalia, I'll look into mounting the airline on the temp probe. Do you really have zoas growing on it? That must be pretty cool to see.

[natalia_la_loca]

3 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

Thanks Natalia, I'll look into mounting the airline on the temp probe. Do you really have zoas growing on it? That must be pretty cool to see.

yeah, you can see them in the pic above! they’re growing on both the temp probe and the airline and even growing above the water a little, it’s wild.

[Bluelobstor]

I decided I was going to try some black sand instead of white however the sand I bought says it's for freshwater, I didn't notice this before. I'm wondering if it will be ok to use or if I should do something that's more aragonite in origin?

 

I also was working on some rockscape and trying to glue some rocks together but not having much luck getting the glue to stick them together. Any suggestions or a glue in particular that works best?

[sammy33]

I would suggest to use some sort of aragonite sand that will benefit your reef tank. You may encounter CAL and ALK issues with other sand. If it is silica based you will likely have major diatom issues.

 

I use super glue gel to build my reef. Helps to dab the rocks dry as possible with a paper towel at the attach points before gluing.

 

Your reef bowl is coming along great! 🐡

[Bluelobstor]

1 hour ago, sammy33 said:

I would suggest to use some sort of aragonite sand that will benefit your reef tank. You may encounter CAL and ALK issues with other sand. If it is silica based you will likely have major diatom issues.

 

I use super glue gel to build my reef. Helps to dab the rocks dry as possible with a paper towel at the attach points before gluing.

 

Your reef bowl is coming along great! 🐡

Thanks Sammy33, I think your are right. I really wanted black sand and I don't believe it's available in Aragonite. 

I thought I remembered curing super glued rocks in water but I think that made it worse. I'll get some more super glue.

[natalia_la_loca]

Yeah, definitely use aragonite. FYI this black aragonite is available, but not in reefbowl quantities unless you can find it available by the pound at an LFS (or want to set aside the excess for starting a bigger tank)

 

+1 to superglue gel, but it won’t bond live rock very quickly, so you may need to clamp or rubber band the pieces together while the glue cures. There are also various reef epoxies that people use, but I just stick with superglue gel.

 

And here’s the airline, with zoa hitchhikers.

 

[Bluelobstor]

41 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

Yeah, definitely use aragonite. FYI this black aragonite is available, but not in reefbowl quantities unless you can find it available by the pound at an LFS (or want to set aside the excess for starting a bigger tank)

 

+1 to superglue gel, but it won’t bond live rock very quickly, so you may need to clamp or rubber band the pieces together while the glue cures. There are also various reef epoxies that people use, but I just stick with superglue gel.

 

And here’s the airline, with zoa hitchhikers.

 

Thanks for pic that looks pretty cool with the zoas on there. They really are incredible animals. How did they get on there? I'm going to an lfs tomorrow and will see what kind of sand they have and pick up some more glue for the rocks.

 

If the sand is dry I don't mind getting extra as I will need some more eventually.

[natalia_la_loca]

21 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

Thanks for pic that looks pretty cool with the zoas on there. They really are incredible animals. How did they get on there? I'm going to an lfs tomorrow and will see what kind of sand they have and pick up some more glue for the rocks.

 

If the sand is dry I don't mind getting extra as I will need some more eventually.

 

I had a frag of zoas on a little magnetic frag rack because I ran out of room on the rocks, and the zoas grew onto the surface of the glass and moved on to the equipment. That frag went to the LFS months ago but the zoas are still on the glass! Btw Oceanbox Designs has mini frag racks that are perfect for reefbowls and other picos.

[Bluelobstor]

29 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

I had a frag of zoas on a little magnetic frag rack because I ran out of room on the rocks, and the zoas grew onto the surface of the glass and moved on to the equipment. That frag went to the LFS months ago but the zoas are still on the glass! Btw Oceanbox Designs has mini frag racks that are perfect for reefbowls and other picos.

Thanks for update and info. I was going to ask you about frag racks so I will look into them. 

You touched on another subject I was going to ask about. What is the best way to get frags to encrust on the glass. I think it would be cool to have the glass at the back of the bowl to have coral encrusted on it.

[natalia_la_loca]

1 hour ago, Bluelobstor said:

You touched on another subject I was going to ask about. What is the best way to get frags to encrust on the glass. I think it would be cool to have the glass at the back of the bowl to have coral encrusted on it.

If you have any encrusting coral adjacent to the glass, it should start to encrust on the glass sooner or later. The corals that have spread most prolifically on the glass in my reefbowl have been zoas. Leptoseris has spread onto the glass several times but doesn’t seem to stick…like it’ll grow onto the glass but get dislodged when I do maintenance and stuff. If you want an encrusting coral to grow there, you could probably just glue a piece of it right onto the glass. Cyphastrea seems to spread pretty easily onto glass. 

[Bluelobstor]

11 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

If you have any encrusting coral adjacent to the glass, it should start to encrust on the glass sooner or later. The corals that have spread most prolifically on the glass in my reefbowl have been zoas. Leptoseris has spread onto the glass several times but doesn’t seem to stick…like it’ll grow onto the glass but get dislodged when I do maintenance and stuff. If you want an encrusting coral to grow there, you could probably just glue a piece of it right onto the glass. Cyphastrea seems to spread pretty easily onto glass. 

Thanks for your insight. Ok so now you left me with one more question, hope you don't mind. 

Why did you end up trading the Cyphastrea? I think some of them look nice.

[Bluelobstor]

1 hour ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

 

[natalia_la_loca]

57 minutes ago, Bluelobstor said:

Thanks for your insight. Ok so now you left me with one more question, hope you don't mind. 

Why did you end up trading the Cyphastrea? I think some of them look nice.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t had cyphastrea in the reefbowl. I have some in my Evo and it’s really nice! One thing i’ve heard about it is that it can be invasive to other corals, but I haven’t had personal experience of that.

[Bluelobstor]

I did buy some Bihimi pink sand today but haven't had the chance to add yet due to my work schedule. I also made up a gallon of saltwater and will makeup some more when I get home. Not sure how much it will take once sand and rock are placed inside.

I'm also not sure how much sand I want to add. I want to try and keep a long tentacle and short tentacle plate coral that requires open sand. If I add enough to cover about an inch then there won't be any room for the plate corals. If I add enough to get to the wider part of the bowl then sand might be 4-6" in the middle

[Bluelobstor]

18 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

I’m pretty sure I haven’t had cyphastrea in the reefbowl. I have some in my Evo and it’s really nice! One thing i’ve heard about it is that it can be invasive to other corals, but I haven’t had personal experience of that.

I thought you had some in the beginning that was in the front of the bowl but you would know more than me. I've seen a couple that I've liked so I may try to grow some on the back glass. I'm thinking just prop the frag up against the glass and see if it will start to encrust. I'll have to check out your evo. I'm assuming you have a thread for it?