Dustins reef bowl

[Dtackett]

ok folks ive been talking about it for a while but its officially starting on Friday (I think) heres what im looking at.

1 gallon fish bowl with a lid that will seal. I will drill holes in the lid for the wire for the heater and the airlines.
25 watt heater
duel outlet air pump rated for a 60 gallon on a gang valve. 1 will feed into an airstone, the other into a piece of rigid airline. this will provide a decent amount of flow in such a small tank. the airstone will help with gas exchange, the open tube will move more water. the 2 together will be situated at different points in the tank which should result in a bit of a random flow.
a par30 from 21ledusa. its a great little light that I will be doing a review on soon. its got uv, duel spectrum blues (425nm and 445nm) and 10k-15k whites. also has a built in fan.
that's it for equipment.

livestock.
im going to start this off with a frag of duncans, and several frags of zoas. the duncans will sit in the center and the zoas will make a carpet on the rock rubble that will fill the bottom of the tank.
im looking at 3 sexy shrimp and possibly a pom pom crab.

this little tank wont take long to look full so ill be fragging often.
maintenance will be as follows.
100% water change every sunday
every 6 months I will flush the system with upwards of 10-15 gallons of clean saltwater. this will remove any built up nutrients and molts that I wasn't able to pull out.
feeding will be 1-2 hours before the weekly water change. I will be feeding heavily.

I will update this post as I go.

 

[nmohr6]

Sounds cool if it works out. I'll be watching this for sure.

 

[MrDJeep123]

Why will you be feeding heavy?

 

[Dtackett]

Why will you be feeding heavy?

as ill only be feeding once a week, I want to make sure the coral, shrimp and crab get all they can eat. then with the 100% water change ill be able to pull out almost all of the excess but enough will be left behind for the shrimp and crab to pick at through the week. im not saying im going to flood the tank with food, but im definitely going to be feeding more than you would think for a 1 gallon tank lol

 

[Dtackett]

Sounds cool if it works out. I'll be watching this for sure.

the only trick is maintaining temp. im sure I will swap heaters repeatedly over the next couple months until I find one im satisfied with. it doesn't need much of a heater considering its essentially a sealed system which will hold heat, but I keep my house at 68 so its gotta be 8-10 degrees warmer than my house. if youre interested in a micro tank like this look up @brandon429 he has the oldest micro reef at 9 years old. I did an interview with him, if you would like to read it I can send you a post.

 

[brandon429]

~this is a neat combo setup once temp is ready it'll be rock solid. I'd also holler at Maritza the vase reef but she doesn't have an ID on here I'll zip her an email to join up

Small tanks are fun and a challenge. I've always wanted the roundest looking tank I could get, and never did try a fishbowl. For sure it will work, and I bet google images won't turn up many done as picos

Actual 1960s or 80s classic goldfish bowl either config, never seen one. Didn't bother checking google images but might have to just to see it that's off or not

People make picos in jars all the time and post them, but from just thread watching for 16 yrs I've never seen one on a forum w detailed build in a regular ole fish bowl where it was matured. I'm sure people have assembled any number of attempts but your planning was exceptional.

 

[Dtackett]

yeah I found 1, but it was a 7 gallon fish bowl lol this seems to be the only one made out of a 1 gallon glass fishbowl. now I just gotta find a lid. but did figure out how to seal it. something you may find interesting. you can mold a silicone seal using vasoline on the edge of the tank, put your silicone on your lid and press it down over the vasoline. couple days later pull the lid off and clean off the vasoline. at this point the silicone will slide down over the edges of the tank and seal without looking disgusting

 

[Brian Kim]

Are you planning on adding any biological filtration? live rock or live sand?

 

[brandon429]

D yes that could be handy to me for sure. I have a tiny sphere bought at plant shop where it would be perfect micro reef but it isn't inner diameter style lid so it sits unused

it's fun to watch all the adjustments the resourceful can do on something already so limited

 

[Brian Kim]

yeah I found 1, but it was a 7 gallon fish bowl lol this seems to be the only one made out of a 1 gallon glass fishbowl. now I just gotta find a lid. but did figure out how to seal it. something you may find interesting. you can mold a silicone seal using vasoline on the edge of the tank, put your silicone on your lid and press it down over the vasoline. couple days later pull the lid off and clean off the vasoline. at this point the silicone will slide down over the edges of the tank and seal without looking disgusting

I have a fluval specV 5 gallon and it's not as maintenance heavy as I expected it to be. Good luck with that 1 gallon fishbowl, just make sure you top it off everyday with ro/di water

 

[Dtackett]

it will be live rock rubble but with a weekly 100% water change and a low bioload the rest of the week I don't need much. but in the end I figure ill have somewhere between 1 and 2 pounds of rock rubble in the bottom. eventually I may ad a small powerhead that will push the water through the bottom of the tank but I haven't decided yet. im sure this fishbowl wont be up for long. I have a crazy idea to make the setup overly complicated and drill the bottom of a bowl and have everything hidden lol

I have a fluval specV 5 gallon and it's not as maintenance heavy as I expected it to be. Good luck with that 1 gallon fishbowl, just make sure you top it off everyday with ro/di water

this will likely never be topped off. that's the perk of a sealed system.

 

[Dtackett]

D yes that could be handy to me for sure. I have a tiny sphere bought at plant shop where it would be perfect micro reef but it isn't inner diameter style lid so it sits unused

it's fun to watch all the adjustments the resourceful can do on something already so limited

got that right lol the best inventions come about out of desperation lol

 

[drstratton]

the only trick is maintaining temp. im sure I will swap heaters repeatedly over the next couple months until I find one im satisfied with. it doesn't need much of a heater considering its essentially a sealed system which will hold heat, but I keep my house at 68 so its gotta be 8-10 degrees warmer than my house. if youre interested in a micro tank like this look up @brandon429 he has the oldest micro reef at 9 years old. I did an interview with him, if you would like to read it I can send you a post.

Following! This would be fun to do. I would love to see the interview!

 

[Dtackett]

pm sent.

 

[Dtackett]

so quick update.

I got the rock rubble from a local buddy. its been in his sump for about 2 years so its well cycled, but no coralline to be found.
I bought the wrong type of plastic to make the lid with... thought it was acrylic but when I got home I found it very quickly that it wasn't. its the glare resistant plastic lol not ideal but it will work for now. I picked up a small zoa frag as the test until I get everything worked out and the maintenance taken care of. they opened a bit the first day but they switched from t5 to led so it might take a few days for them to open up completely.

currently im talking to a local glass shop who is going to custom make me a lid that will fit the bowl. they are also going to drill a second bowl for me. the second bowl will be the final product. this is just trial and error. the second reef bowl will have 3 holes drilled. 2 that will have airline bulkheads with a 1 way valve. I know they make this but im not sure if I will use that or just a barbed bulkhead fitting and a check valve. it will have a 3rd hole drilled that will fit a stain relief valve. this is essentially a bulkhead designed for wires. it allows me to run a wire through the glass while preventing water from leaking back out. this will give the tank a clean look and will allow me to run a sump in the future if I so wish. I mean, come on, imagine a 1 gallon reefbowl with a 1 gallon sump. that's just cool. but who knows. right now im just ready for them to finish my lid.

in the end I may not even need a heater as it keep this in my upstairs hall where the temp maintains around 80 because I only have a baseboard heater to heat the entire upstairs. tank sits at 76-77 at all times right now. not sure about summertime with ac on.

this is definitely a work in progress. @brandon429 and a few others have perfected the micro reef and used what I like to call the K.I.S.S. method. (keep it simple, stupid). im complicating things but putting my own twist on it. the vast majority of what im going to do will follow their basic guidelines with a few of my own twists tossed in here and there.

 

[Dtackett]

quick update. i found an old end table that is perfect for this little tank. and drilled a couple holes in it. now the air pump is in the table and cant even hear it. still gonna be a little while before i get the lid so im currently stuck with the plastic but i may have an idea that i will try in the next couple days. the zoas are starting top open but its still gonna be a few days. these zoas went from t5 lights under mostly blues (basic shop display setup) to led with a proper spectrum. though i do think im going to add more blue to the setup. im going to build a housing for the light that will look like a floating canopy. i think im going to get some adjustable blue strips to add to the canopy to give more blue. not sure yet. gotta get the rest right first.

so far i haven't added any top off water and my SG is unchanged. i will be doing my first water change on Friday. i think i may pull the rock out and crush most of it so its smaller. the rubble is just too big for such a small tank. i only need 1 or 2 bigger pieces of rubble for the center. i have no plans of adding more coral until i get the lid but i am going to my lfs for some other business on Tuesday and i may end up leaving with some coral... ya know... its difficult to go in and not leave with anything when they are handing you a handful of cash... heres some pics. first pic looks insanely bright but its just my phone. its a very bright light (that's why its so far above the tank) but its not that bright.

 

[NHreefguy]

Very interesting. Definitely following, I'm in the process of doing the same. I got a 2.5 gallon cylinder jar with a 40 gph powerhead

 

[Dtackett]

i probably shouldn't have started with zoas. its the one coral ive never been able to grow lol but if i can get them to grow for me finally, then i will cover this tank with them. if not, ill figure something else out.

i may put a pump in the tank but not sure yet. i would have to find a very small one that i can hide. as i said in a previous post this is just the temp setup and trial and error tank. lots of things will change until i have my own method down. once i get it all figured out i will have a new bowl that i will have drilled so i can hide the airlines. i may even buy an acrylic one to ensure viewing quality. these fishbowls are cheap and have a lot of imperfections in the glass. its not really smooth.

 

[NHreefguy]

Look on Amazon. That's where I got mine. It's made by anchor hopkins, great quality. I got the pump from a fluval spec 2. The thing is tiny. Good luck dude!

 

[Dtackett]

yeah that's the same brand as my bowl. but you can see the seamed line in one of the pics then some spots have flat spots on the inside. acrylic would just look so much better, look cleaner, and showcase the coral a lot better.