1 Gallon Reef Experiment

[sbash]

Well, I bit the bullet and started a jar aquarium. I know, I know, I'm not one for fads, but life threw me a reefless curve ball so I needed something to look at.

You see, my wife took a well paying contract 700 km away from home; and apparently she wanted her family with her. So, leaving all my toys behind, I was trapped in a Luddite town with not a whole lot to do.

So, I shopped around, found a nice 8" jar. Then transported everything else on a (just under) 12 hour journey across the province. Around July 18th, I put 15 lbs of live rock in a small bucket, with enough water to fill the jar. A small container of sand, the light, bubbler, some supplies and 6 frags (only 5 made it, but the monti plate was looking rough to begin with). After 4 hours on a train a three hour layover, plus over 4 hours on bus, everything transported just fine.

The buttons adapted easily and were nice and full by the first light cycle, two days after setting it up. The Xenia started pulsing the next day, just as the GSP started coming out. My phone camera does not pick up the GSP luminescence very well, and really, I should have glued it down a little lower. The candycanes were purchased from a local reefer right before I left home, and they did not look as full and fleshy as they do now. Every day they seem to look better and better. I would however, like to move them up on the rocks (but the dollar store superglue I have takes 5 minutes to harden, unlike the brand-name stuff which hardens in seconds under water). There are two red mushrooms as well (at the very bottom, hard to see), and they are starting to look more full, although I might try to move them 'out' more...

The light I designed myself for my first 20 gallon frag tank, it was an Aliexpress E27 reef special, but only had one warmness of white and one spectrum of blue, so I ripped the design apart and made it more reef friendly. The problem with it on the frag tank was the coverage; the lenses did not provide enough spread. But, it is perfect for a 8" diameter reef-jar

This is what I started with:

 

[Typical_Tim]

This looks great, how do you plan on keeping the salinity stable?

 

[Bronc]

I like it!! Any fish?

 

[Dsnakes]

I find these little pico tanks fascinating. Very cool.

 

[sbash]

This looks great, how do you plan on keeping the salinity stable?

Thanks! I put a piece of clear plastic on it as a lid, so the evap is low. I also do a 75% water change every two weeks.

I like it!! Any fish?

Not at that point, but yes, I did add fish... I found some Pseudomugil (Pacific Blue-Eyes) locally, funny enough. But I had to take them back home, as I was leaving for over a week and the fish would have needed to be fed. That said, I am going to start breeding these fish and will add some more soon!

I find these little pico tanks fascinating. Very cool.

Thanks, I am in over two months now and things are stable, I might just be able to keep this guy long term

 

[trevormass7]

Love this thread and the idea. I'll definetly be following since I'm thinking of starting my own reef jar

 

[Typical_Tim]

Thanks! I put a piece of clear plastic on it as a lid, so the evap is low. I also do a 75% water change every two weeks.

Nice, I'm excited to see what this reef jar develops into.

 

[Katrina71]

More pics please

 

[sbash]

Love this thread and the idea. I'll definetly be following since I'm thinking of starting my own reef jar

It has been pretty neat, a whole new set of challenges.

Flow, for example, I started with a small air pump and an airstone. Then upgrade to a larger pump, which helped a bit. Then I found a 'bubble wall' accessory, heated it up to bend it to conform to the jar and it is working alright.

Because of that, the Xenia and GSP I tried (twice) did not survive either time. The flow is highest at the top of the jar, but they need lower light, so it is just not a perfect balance. One day, I will figure it out!

My choice of rock is also not idea. I figured one rock to fill the jar would be best, but I am going to have to try another one with a few small rocks and see how that works

Frag sizes is also an interesting problem. I picked up a single headed duncan and a 'small' goni, they looked nice and small at the store. But The goni is way to big for the jar, and the duncan is borderline too large...

Nice, I'm excited to see what this reef jar develops into.

Thanks! It has been fun so far. Getting the livestock right is tricky.

So far, I added a new red plate monti is alive, but it is not growing yet. It was a tad bleached, and the colour is returning, so I still have hope.

I have pale green polyps, I added two small zoa rocks, but have since found two other zoas.

For LPS, my candycane is doing alright, not quite a meaty as I would like to see, but I started out with all sickly looking pieces, and it looks better than it first did. The hammer is doing well, and I just added a duncan, which I am not sure about. I accidentally damaged my fox coral while cleaning the jar, so it does not look as nice as it does in the picture below.

I also put a goni in, but I need to remove it and put it into my travelling frag tank. It is not extending as much as it should and I do not want it to start to die back.

I have two turban snails in it, a single blue hermit (I imagine I will want to remove the snails soon). I also started to get some hair algae, I was able to clean most of it up with peroxide and a tooth brush, but there are still some nooks and crannies I could not get into; so I added an emerald crab (which I will remove when he is done).

More pics please

Here you go:

 

[sbash]

This is from a couple weeks ago, after adding a couple zoas, a duncan and a goni. I also removed the xenai and gsp, as they were not doing so well. The duncan is doing great (and I am a tad surprised), but I removed the goni shortly after adding it; it was not happy...

Two weeks later, after I swapped the goni for a kenya tree. The monti plate looks like it might be growing, there are two new heads growing out on the duncan, the fox is starting to puff back out and the zoas are looking nice and full now (no signs of new heads/polyps yet though). Although on the backside of the paly rock, there are a few hitchhiking zoas that are having a hard time opening up. I might pull the rock and cut them out (destroying the rock).

The glass is also getting super dirty, a downside to the jar is the lack of usable magnetic cleaner. With this week's water change, I will attempt to scrape it down with a razor.