Jason's reef bowl

[natalia_la_loca]

8 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

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

I only have maybe half an inch of sand in my reefbowl as I’m trying to avoid a lot of detritus accumulation. OTOH the Maritza vase reef has a deep sand bed last I knew, and it’s like 11 years old and still thriving, so I’d say go with whichever option you prefer. I’ve never kept a plate coral but it would be cool to see how they do in a reefbowl.

 

8 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

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?

 

Omg you’re right 😅 I had to look at the first page of my thread to confirm. I did have a cyphastrea in there, very early on. From what I can recall, it never thrived but I don’t remember what it died from. But cyphastrea is growing steadily in my Evo, that thread is here.

 

[Bluelobstor]

2 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

I only have maybe half an inch of sand in my reefbowl as I’m trying to avoid a lot of detritus accumulation. OTOH the Maritza vase reef has a deep sand bed last I knew, and it’s like 11 years old and still thriving, so I’d say go with whichever option you prefer. I’ve never kept a plate coral but it would be cool to see how they do in a reefbowl.

 

 

Omg you’re right 😅 I had to look at the first page of my thread to confirm. I did have a cyphastrea in there, very early on. From what I can recall, it never thrived but I don’t remember what it died from. But cyphastrea is growing steadily in my Evo, that thread is here.

 

Thanks for posting link to your EVO thread. I think I'm going to add just enough sand to where I have room to add the plate corals

[Bluelobstor]

I have a question about air pumps. I have a 20g pump and a 40g pump. I was planning on using the 40g pump but it has 2 outlets. I also thought about using both outlets to create a more varied flow pattern but wondering if I should combine the 2 outlets into 1 using a y.

Thoughts?

[natalia_la_loca]

1 hour ago, Bluelobstor said:

I have a question about air pumps. I have a 20g pump and a 40g pump. I was planning on using the 40g pump but it has 2 outlets. I also thought about using both outlets to create a more varied flow pattern but wondering if I should combine the 2 outlets into 1 using a y.

Thoughts?

 

Hmm…my knee jerk reaction is that seems like massive overkill for your likely water volume. however, if the pumps are older, they may not push as much air as they’re rated for. Also, the ocean generally has a lot of current.

 

Having two outlets might create a good flow pattern, but you’ll want to make a judgment call about whether it will make enough of a difference to merit having an extra airline going into the bowl, having an extra piece of equipment to clean (the exit point of the airline gradually gets clogged with gunk and needs to be cleaned once every couple of months) and possibly interfering aesthetically. 

 

All that said, you have the pumps in hand so it doesn’t hurt to try them out! I’d do the same.

[Bluelobstor]

2 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

Hmm…my knee jerk reaction is that seems like massive overkill for your likely water volume. however, if the pumps are older, they may not push as much air as they’re rated for. Also, the ocean generally has a lot of current.

 

Having two outlets might create a good flow pattern, but you’ll want to make a judgment call about whether it will make enough of a difference to merit having an extra airline going into the bowl, having an extra piece of equipment to clean (the exit point of the airline gradually gets clogged with gunk and needs to be cleaned once every couple of months) and possibly interfering aesthetically. 

 

All that said, you have the pumps in hand so it doesn’t hurt to try them out! I’d do the same.

I was kind of thinking the same thing. They are older pumps so may not be pushing out as much air. I'm thinking it will have a little over 2 gallons of water but won't know for sure until I fill it up.

[Bluelobstor]

With a little luck I'll hopefully have a future reef bowl cycling later today. I have some saltwater premixing and I think the rock is cured where I put the super glue and will stay together. I have the sand ready to go as well.

 

I need to recalibrate the hydrometers for salinity as one of them reads higher than the other so I'll take some distilled water and check the salinity which should read 0.

 

So let's hope everything goes as planned and Happy Valentine's Day to everyone that has someone to share it with.

[Bluelobstor]

So I use the distilled water and both refractometers showed zero. However, with salt water one is slightly higher than the other. I'm wondering if I should get some calibration fluid that's a known salinity and see how they measure?

[Bluelobstor]

@natalia_la_loca I was reading your EVO thread and I noticed you said your hammer didn't really care for the higher flow of the reef bowl? That may be a problem as I was looking at a couple bubble corals and a torch. 

Now I may have to re consider using a smaller air pump but then I wonder if there will be enough flow for everything else I was looking at getting, including some gonipora. Interested to hear your thoughts as related to your past experiences.

[Bluelobstor]

I'm about ready to finally get this bowl wet. I have the rock and sand in but the water I made up got heated a little too hot. The heater is supposed to be regulated at 78 but the water feels closer to 90+ so I'm just waiting for water to cool some. This is not the same heater I'm going to use but one I had laying around. 

Meanwhile I would like some opinions on the rockscape. There is one loose rock I can leave out or move around and 1 that is glued down but should be able to break apart. I moved the loose rock to 2 different spots and left it out. I am also open to other ideas.

 

Just keep in mind that I want a long and short tentacle plate coral so I need some sand space. 

The top rock that creates the cave is the one I said was glued down but I might take out. 

 

[natalia_la_loca]

11 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

So I use the distilled water and both refractometers showed zero. However, with salt water one is slightly higher than the other. I'm wondering if I should get some calibration fluid that's a known salinity and see how they measure?

Seems like a good move. I’m not the one to ask though as i don’t actually own a refractometer! I figured I didn’t really need one because I buy my saltwater premixed from the LFS and change all the water in the reefbowl every week.

 

9 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

@natalia_la_loca I was reading your EVO thread and I noticed you said your hammer didn't really care for the higher flow of the reef bowl? That may be a problem as I was looking at a couple bubble corals and a torch. 

Now I may have to re consider using a smaller air pump but then I wonder if there will be enough flow for everything else I was looking at getting, including some gonipora. Interested to hear your thoughts as related to your past experiences.

 

That hammer didn’t like the particular place I had it in my second reefbowl, right next to the airline. You should be okay with a torch as long as the airline isn’t right by it, I had euphyllia in the OG reefbowl for years. 

 

The scape looks great! You may want to revise it after you fill up the bowl as the refraction dramatically changes appearance, but it looks like you have some good spots for coral placement and haven’t built it up too high. I think the cave looks nice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bluelobstor]

11 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

Seems like a good move. I’m not the one to ask though as i don’t actually own a refractometer! I figured I didn’t really need one because I buy my saltwater premixed from the LFS and change all the water in the reefbowl every week.

 

 

That hammer didn’t like the particular place I had it in my second reefbowl, right next to the airline. You should be okay with a torch as long as the airline isn’t right by it, I had euphyllia in the OG reefbowl for years. 

 

The scape looks great! You may want to revise it after you fill up the bowl as the refraction dramatically changes appearance, but it looks like you have some good spots for coral placement and haven’t built it up too high. I think the cave looks nice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What corals did good near airline? I know you had zoas growing on it but what about any others?

[Staticmoves]

19 hours ago, Bluelobstor said:

I'm about ready to finally get this bowl wet. I have the rock and sand in but the water I made up got heated a little too hot. The heater is supposed to be regulated at 78 but the water feels closer to 90+ so I'm just waiting for water to cool some. This is not the same heater I'm going to use but one I had laying around. 

Meanwhile I would like some opinions on the rockscape. There is one loose rock I can leave out or move around and 1 that is glued down but should be able to break apart. I moved the loose rock to 2 different spots and left it out. I am also open to other ideas.

 

Just keep in mind that I want a long and short tentacle plate coral so I need some sand space. 

The top rock that creates the cave is the one I said was glued down but I might take out. 

 

that is an awesome piece of rock.......

[natalia_la_loca]

1 hour ago, Bluelobstor said:

What corals did good near airline? I know you had zoas growing on it but what about any others?

 

In addition to zoas, nephthea or sinularia tolerate proximity to the airline really well. Montis and acros seem to handle it just fine too. Really the only corals I would suggest not putting right next to an airline output are long-polyped LPS like torches and gonis.

[Bluelobstor]

1 hour ago, Staticmoves said:

that is an awesome piece of rock.......

Thanks Staticmoves, there are five different rocks in there all together. Four of them are glued together to look like that main rock and then I have a loose one that I just have sitting right next beside it that honestly you can't tell it's not part of it. I wasn't sure if I liked the cave or not but several of y'all like it and my wife likes it so I'm going to keep it and I might actually have a future use for it.

[Bluelobstor]

41 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

In addition to zoas, nephthea or sinularia tolerate proximity to the airline really well. Montis and acros seem to handle it just fine too. Really the only corals I would suggest not putting right next to an airline output are long-polyped LPS like torches and gonis.

Cool! The bubbles are in the back and I probably want the torch/bubble coral and goni up front anyways. I'll just have to be careful of what I place on back side of rock

[Bluelobstor]

I don't have a pic right now but is it normal to have water on the lid? It just looks like a bunch of larger water droplets probably from condensation.

 

On a side note I was looking to stock up on some coral food and wondering what I should get. What is everyone's favorite coral food? This is probably going to be a predominantly LPS tank with a few encrusting SPS, maybe a colorful acro, zoas, palys, and a mushroom or 2.

[natalia_la_loca]

24 minutes ago, Bluelobstor said:

I don't have a pic right now but is it normal to have water on the lid? It just looks like a bunch of larger water droplets probably from condensation.

 

On a side note I was looking to stock up on some coral food and wondering what I should get. What is everyone's favorite coral food? This is probably going to be a predominantly LPS tank with a few encrusting SPS, maybe a colorful acro, zoas, palys, and a mushroom or 2.

 

totally normal! that would be a combo of condensation (doing the important work of returning fresh water back to the bowl so that you rarely, if ever, have to top off) and backsplash from the airline bubbles, if you’ve installed the airline, and it will prevent most salt creep.

 

Re: coral food, there are a lot of good options. I use a combo of Reef Roids, Goniopower, Coral Frenzy, Tropic Marin Ultra Ricordea and Zoanthus + Ultra Min D, and Rod’s “Polyp Popper” frozen fish roe. This is almost certainly overkill IMO…you’d probably be fine with just one or two different coral feeds because each one is usually a combo of different organisms.

 

I’ve also heard people say good things about Benepets.

[Bluelobstor]

3 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

totally normal! that would be a combo of condensation (doing the important work of returning fresh water back to the bowl so that you rarely, if ever, have to top off) and backsplash from the airline bubbles, if you’ve installed the airline, and it will prevent most salt creep.

 

Re: coral food, there are a lot of good options. I use a combo of Reef Roids, Goniopower, Coral Frenzy, Tropic Marin Ultra Ricordea and Zoanthus + Ultra Min D, and Rod’s “Polyp Popper” frozen fish roe. This is almost certainly overkill IMO…you’d probably be fine with just one or two different coral feeds because each one is usually a combo of different organisms.

 

I’ve also heard people say good things about Benepets.

There are some micro bubbles attached to the glass on the top half. Not sure why they are there or if I should be concerned? 

 

For food i was looking for the fauna Marin stuff you mentioned but haven't been able to locate it. I was wanting to look at it but wonder if they still make it.

[natalia_la_loca]

1 hour ago, Bluelobstor said:

There are some micro bubbles attached to the glass on the top half. Not sure why they are there or if I should be concerned? 

 

For food i was looking for the fauna Marin stuff you mentioned but haven't been able to locate it. I was wanting to look at it but wonder if they still make it.

 

Not a problem, I have micro bubbles on the glass in the reefbowl all the time.

 

Not surprised you couldn’t find the Fauna Marin stuff, I got it when I still had my old Nuvo 8 which was like 8 years ago. (takes a while to use up coral food when you run nanos and picos!) It’s probably been discontinued. Really no need for it IMO, with the other great options available.

[Bluelobstor]

I thought I would post a picture of the rock now that it is wet. I love how the bowl magnifies what is inside it. 

I think I have some ammonia in a bottle. Is that what everyone is using to cycle their bowls? If so, how much should I add? I haven't done anything since adding the live sand and rock, I still don't have the light going yet. I probably should work on that. 

[natalia_la_loca]

looking good!! I cycled with bottled bacteria (I used Aquavitro Seed but there are other good options like Dr Tim’s) and a little ammonia. Idk how much ammonia I used, but  I probably googled for a formula online. How much is your water volume after rocks and sand?

[Bluelobstor]

37 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

looking good!! I cycled with bottled bacteria (I used Aquavitro Seed but there are other good options like Dr Tim’s) and a little ammonia. Idk how much ammonia I used, but  I probably googled for a formula online. How much is your water volume after rocks and sand?

It holds about 2.5 gallons after sand and rock. The sand I used is arag alive so it has bacteria that will jump start the cycle and I did buy a bottle of bacteria I haven't added yet, I think it is by Seachem but I need to add a food source to it. I can Google that as well, didn't even occur to me and I usually look everything up 😂.

[Bluelobstor]

So I don't really like the way the lid sits so I'm thinking of trying something like Sammy33 did by slicing the tube length wise and placing it on rim of bowl to act as a seal and then rest lid on that. I tried that once and it didn't work out because it wasn't enough gap for me to put the airline and cords height wise, but I'm going to try it with a larger size tube. The lid sits fine but it bubbles up near the opening and I want to see if I can maybe make it better. Here's a video and you can see what I'm talking about.

 

 

[natalia_la_loca]

1 hour ago, Bluelobstor said:

So I don't really like the way the lid sits so I'm thinking of trying something like Sammy33 did by slicing the tube length wise and placing it on rim of bowl to act as a seal and then rest lid on that. I tried that once and it didn't work out because it wasn't enough gap for me to put the airline and cords height wise, but I'm going to try it with a larger size tube. The lid sits fine but it bubbles up near the opening and I want to see if I can maybe make it better. Here's a video and you can see what I'm talking about.

 

 

Definitely a good idea to slice the tubing. Adding rigid airline that’s bent to fit the rim of the bowl may help for fitting the airline through that small opening without needing a higher diameter of tubing.

 

Doing the above will help with all that splash out the opening, but it also looks like you have a ton of current in there, maybe more than you really need.

[Bluelobstor]

59 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

Definitely a good idea to slice the tubing. Adding rigid airline that’s bent to fit the rim of the bowl may help for fitting the airline through that small opening without needing a higher diameter of tubing.

 

Doing the above will help with all that splash out the opening, but it also looks like you have a ton of current in there, maybe more than you really need.

Yea I couldn't find the rigid tubing I had. The current setup is only temporary. Instead of bending a rigid airline I bought some airline 90's that are able to adjust flow so I can dial it down if necessary. I may still add a piece of rigid tubing off of that and clip it at the bottom. I could just clip the flexible air line as well. 

 

As for flow I'm not sure how much I actually have and if it's too much but I will be able to dial it down.