2g Reef Jar

Yahtzee170 · Aug 30, 2019

Decided to start a 2 gallon reef tank in my apartment. It has been cycling for the past month and I'm hoping to start adding coral soon.

Equipment:
2 gallon cookie jar from Target
ABI 12W Tuna Blue PAR38
Marina C10 heater (preset at 78 F)
Uniclife UL40 air pump
CaribSea Super Naturals sand
~2-3 pounds rock

Front:

Side:

Top:

Hoping the small size will make maintenance easier. Planning for weekly 90% water changes with manual removal of algae.

Any ideas for stocking? I was considering rock flower anemones but I'm open to any ideas. For inverts maybe a few sexy shrimp or a pom pom crab.

Peach02 · Aug 30, 2019

You might be able to keep a coral goby in there I'm not too experienced with them though, it looks to be a great tank though

DelRayTank · Sep 3, 2019

Following. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for my office desk.

toxicshark · Sep 8, 2019

I've been considering rock flower anemones too! I have some Sexy Shrimp and they're great for adding some action/movement to the tank.

Jake_the_reefer · Sep 8, 2019

Interesting I'll be following this for sure. What do you plan for your primary water circulation? The air pump?

BranchingHammer · Sep 8, 2019

That light is amazing for the price. It grows everything including Acros with great colors. Nice job with this little setup!

Yahtzee170 · Sep 9, 2019

Jake_the_reefer said:
Interesting I'll be following this for sure. What do you plan for your primary water circulation? The air pump?

Hoping the air pump will work for circulation. It can move 4 lpm which seems to move the water pretty well but we’ll see.

I have a 90 gph pump I could use, but I worry about the heat it generates. When I use it to mix new water the bucket hangs around 80 without any heater.

Yahtzee170 · Sep 12, 2019

Added some rock flower anemones and pom pom (gracilaria hayi) macroalgae. A couple of the anemones have moved slightly, but overall I think everything looks good. Still figuring out taking photos and post-processing under blue lighting.

Peach02 · Sep 12, 2019

I wish I could suggest putting clownfish in there but it would be too small if they didn’t host a anemone IMO

Katrina71 · Sep 12, 2019

That looks beautiful! @brandon429 take a look!

Jake_the_reefer · Sep 12, 2019

Love this! Great idea.

Ento-Reefer · Sep 13, 2019

Very nice!

Grape_City_Reefer · Sep 19, 2019

How are the RFA doing?

Jake_the_reefer · Sep 19, 2019

Grape_City_Reefer said:
How are the RFA doing?

I could use an update too!!

brandon429 · Sep 19, 2019

I missed the update Kat somehow and just saw this, i agree so jealous of those anemones I'd take one in a heartbeat!!!

Yahtzee170 · Sep 19, 2019

So far so good! They’ve mostly stayed where I placed them although one moved onto the side of the rock. I moved the light up another 2” and they seem to be opening more.

Still dealing with fairly high phosphate (~0.5 ppm) but that’s improving with water changes and no algae issues so far.

I am a little concerned the light might be too strong. Currently using some boxes to raise it about 8” more. Any thoughts on if I will be able to acclimate the RFA to this light? Don’t have a PAR meter but I’m guessing it’s around 200-300 based on another post with the same bulb.

Jake_the_reefer · Sep 19, 2019

Yahtzee170 said:
So far so good! They’ve mostly stayed where I placed them although one moved onto the side of the rock. I moved the light up another 2” and they seem to be opening more.

Still dealing with fairly high phosphate (~0.5 ppm) but that’s improving with water changes and no algae issues so far.

I am a little concerned the light might be too strong. Currently using some boxes to raise it about 8” more. Any thoughts on if I will be able to acclimate the RFA to this light? Don’t have a PAR meter but I’m guessing it’s around 200-300 based on another post with the same bulb.

Got any pictures of the build recently? Also can you get a dimmer for the light?

Yahtzee170 · Sep 19, 2019

Jake_the_reefer said:
Got any pictures of the build recently? Also can you get a dimmer for the light?

It’s a 12W ABI tuna blue PAR38 bulb. I don’t think it’s dimmable. Will try to take some pictures tomorrow.

Yahtzee170 · Sep 20, 2019

Yahtzee170 · Sep 26, 2019

Phosphates are improving, even with feeding the anemones. I've noticed small bubbles on the macro algae while the light is on. I'm assuming they're oxygen bubbles? Pretty cool to see.

Sorry that was the best focus I could get. Flow seems to be enough that the bubbles are releasing and moving around the tank fairly often.

Here's the phosphate trend with water changes: