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I'm using a single thread to document all three of my bowls. Central concept: Simplicity. Reefbowl, 4 January 2017 Reefbowl, 27 June 2016 Opae'ula Brackish Shrimpbowl, 26 March 2016: Reefbowl 25 March 2016: Quick specs (updated 20 March 2017): Mossbowl (land picosphere) Tank: 1 gallon hand-blown glass bowl from Amazon.com ~$15 shipped Substrate: Random rocks and ceramic baby heads (now entombed by moss) Moss: Random moss from the backyard and from the pots my carnivorous plants grow in Inputs: RODI water once every week or so Light: East window + old Skyye LED fixture Shrimpbowl (brackish picosphere) Tank: 1 gallon hand-blown glass bowl from Amazon.com Substrate: White silica sand Rocks: Dry Marco Rock Water: Brackish SG 1.012 Evaporation control: Repurposed glass jar lid Light: East window + old Skyye LED fixture Stock: 12 captive-bred opae'ula (Hawaiian volcano shrimp, halocaridina rubra), 1 horned nerite snail, 1 brackish moss ball Reefbowl (ocean picosphere) Tank: 1.75 gallon hand-blown glass bowl from Amazon.com Substrate: Aragonite flakes Rocks: Dry Marco Rock Circulation: Airline, no airstone Heat: Betta Stik 7.5 watts with Finnex digital temperature controller Light: ABI 12W 50/50 blue & white Tuna Blue par38 LED from Amazon.com Fixture: Black architect table lamp from Amazon.com Light cycle: 11am-7pm with time switch; intermittent sunlight from east & south windows and LED light from shrimpbowl Filtration: None Dosing: None Skimmer: None Auto top-off: None Credit card debt: None Evaporation control: Repurposed terrarium lid; vinyl tubing added around rim to control salt creep Water change: Weekly 100% Feeding: Weekly before WC. Combo of: Reef Roids Coral Frenzy Rods Food Coral Blend Phyto Feast Fauna Marin Ultra Ricordea & Zoanthus + Ultra Min D Stock as of 27 January 2017: Pink goniopora Green/yellow gonipora Orange Rainbow goniopora Red Planet acropora Green slimer acropora ORA tricolor acropora valida Neon green nephthea Purple/green frogspawn Bubblegum montipora digitata Red montipora digitata Tyree sunset montipora Orange leptoseris JF jack o' lantern leptoseris Mr. Freeze leptoseris 2 misc. acan lordhowensis Witches' wheel acan lordhowensis Blastomussa merletti Duncanopsammia Captain America palythoa Meteor shower cyphastrea Traded in at LFS Mountain dew chalice Traded in at LFS Zoas: Petroglyphs (or something very similar) Utter chaos Blondies Supergirls Raspberry limes Solar flares Fruit loops Pink & golds Rastas Rings of fire Glitches Unique Corals fire hornets Gifted to Teenyreef Vamps in drag Ultra searchlights Morphed watermelons No-name green, purple and blue zoas ----------------------------------------------------------- So, this is my new project After several years of reefing, I wanted something extremely simple, minimal and low-maintenance so that I could have more time to do other things, like travel and painting. I learned about volcano shrimp or opae ula (halocaridina rubra) while listening to the Reef Threads podcast; Christine has a little opae ula tank and loves it. Volcano shrimp live in pools of oxygen-poor water in Hawaii. So this isn't technically a reef tank, in fact it's not a reef tank in the slightest, but it's brackish water and it has Marco Rock in it, and Nano-reef is fun, so...yeah Equipment list: -Hand blown glass 1-gallon bowl from Amazon -Leftover white sand from planted tank -Dry Marco Rock -Gorg skeleton -Brackish water from LFS -Old Skyye LED that I use to light my moss bowl All ready to get started (I was going to use that red pumice too but ended up wanting all white stone and sand) Gluing together the rockscape Aaaaaand it's wet! I have it in the studio next to the moss bowl. I like the contrast between the two. Try not to pay attention to the metal bars, that's an old tomato cage I'll figure out a more stylish solution eventually. I added a drop of Zeobak and the cycle is well underway. As soon as the cycle is done and I start to see some algae growth, I'll order the shrimp, captive bred from Petshrimp.com. I love my shrimp bowl already and it doesn't even have shrimp in it yet.

Almost eight months ago, I closed down a Red Sea Reefer 525 XL. I'm planning to build a new tank later this year, about 120-150l in size. But right now I couldn't stay away from the hobby, I had to start something and it became a vase on 8l / 2g. It's supposed to hold only zoa's and other soft corals. Maybe an euphyllia if I get the flow and light right, with only an air pump and cheap China LED. I don't know if 2g is maybe too small for sexy shrimps or a porcelain crab? Here's a video from when I set it all up a week ago. Please feel free to give tips and suggestions on corals and inhabitants for this pico! 🙂

Hello! So, I've been interested in biology in general from a pretty young age, I've had and still have various freshwater tanks since before middle school or so, and I'm going into my senior year of college now in San Diego(pretty moderate climate). A half a year ago or so I got the saltwater bug, and have been lurking on a bunch of forums and such learning about corals specifically. The final straw was when my boss, who has a 300 gallon reef tank at my work, told me that he would give me frags for free from pretty much any coral in his tank. So, I decided to make a reef tank, with the goal in mind that I'm a broke ass college student and so I'm going to spend as little money as possible. I've read all over the place about how the bigger the saltwater the tank, the easier it is to maintain, but that's obviously not 100% true as evidenced by everyone's experiences here. I decided to go for a challenge for my first saltwater tank by using a 2.5 gallon vase, and Maritza the Vase Reef was some of my primary inspiration. The only equipment running in it are an airline and a heater(and a battery powered thermometer to check the heaters not fritzing), as well as the light which is a I think 10watt compact flourescent 50/50 bulb. My phone's super crappy right now, so I'm going to try and borrow someone else's for a little and then I will upload pictures. It has been running for probably four months or so now. The first month was rough but I attribute that to the fact that I used an old heater, it malfunctioned and basically turned everything to soup. Since then though I've been steadily adding more and more corals, sometimes 3 a week, sometimes I won't add any for a month. The only not coral livestock I put in there that didn't come with the live rock is a small hermit crab and a bumpy red crab I took from the tidepools(sshhhhhhh). The only coral deaths I've had have been mushrooms which weren't able to attach high enough and were pulled into the bumpy crabs lair and eaten, and a small stock of pulsing Xenia which shriveled up over the course of a month or so. All the corals I have now are growing or at least static in their growth and don't seem unhealthy. I've heard that pulsing Xenia actually like slightly higher nitrate and phosphate levels, and so that's why I think they died, because my maintenance consists of weekly 90-100% water changes/glass scrubbing as well as taking the main rock out and scrubbing algae and detritus off with a toothbrush. I do the huge water changes because the tank is so small, and I also put quite a bit of reef roids into the tank the day before I clean it and change the water. Another thing which is fairly unconventional, but I haven't tested my water in any way since starting the tank. I rely on the fact that I buy premixed water from a reputable store and change basically all my water out with fresh water with the right parameters. Yes I still top off with RO/DI water from evaporation, I just keep the water level consistent though instead of using a refractometer. Only reason I don't test is because I'm on a tight budget. I have a feather worm in there and I've heard that they are VERY sensitive to water conditions and so I just make sure he's doing good and all is well. I'll try and upload pictures later today!