Lorekeeper's 3 Gallon "Shallows" Macro Tank!

[Lorekeeper]

Okay, so this is my fourth or fifth time attempting to get a long-term system running in this jar. It's either been torn down due upgrades, equipment failure, or death, so I'm hoping to have a better run this time around.

The "tank" is a jar from Walmart that holds about 3 gallons. If you lurk around Nano-Reef, a lot of people use variations of this jar for their picos. This one might be a little bigger than those. With rock, it only holds about 2 gallons.

I'm using an internal filter seeded with some cycled media from my 10 gallon to start this tank off. During every water change, I'll remove a bit of media until it's no longer needed. At that point, I'll switch over to a small powerhead. I'm using a small heater that's set to 76F, since some of the things I'll be keeping like it slightly cooler than normal.

The idea for this tank is to create a patch reef, or a random splotch of coral, macros, and other reef-dwelling creatures in an otherwise bare part of the ocean floor. That's the general idea, anyway. I'll twist it to fit my wants and needs, but it's a good start

As the title suggests, this tank will be a macro display. No corals. Since you also sorta have to choose a certain color of macroalgae to focus on (due to lighting requirements), I've decided to focus in on green macros, which are found in shallow water. Therefore, the tank is lit by a 6000K LED bulb, putting out about 1100 lumens. I might eventually go for a slightly dimmer bulb, since 1100 lumens might be a bit much. But, I'm not sure. The Caulerpa Prolifera I have in here seems to love it, but we'll see once I get more species.

I took the opportunity to get a fish that I've wanted for a long time. A Yellow Clown Goby! The little guy made it through a rather harsh round of QT meds without an issue, and has been in the tank for over a week. Eating well, putting on weight, and looking pretty great. I'll also be doing a snail-only CUC.

TL;DR, this is a 3 gallon macro display tank. Here's the equipment I'm using:

Top Fin Internal Filter
Amazon Heater, set at 76F
GE LED bulb at 6000K

Here's the livestock (current, and planned)

Yellow Clown Goby
10 Dwarf Ceriths
2-3 Florida Ceriths

Cactus Caulerpa
Caulerpa Mexicana
Caulerpa Prolifera
Codium
Fern Caulerpa
Flame Algae
Flamingo Feather Algae
Pink Galaxy
Blue Scroll
Mermaid's Wine Glass (super excited about this one!)

Not all of that will be going into this tank, but that's everything I just ordered from reefcleaners. Whatever doesn't go in here will go into my 10 gallon.

Thanks for reading! I'll be updating next week when the macros get here.

 

[WV Reefer]

Okay, so this is my fourth or fifth time attempting to get a long-term system running in this jar. It's either been torn down due upgrades, equipment failure, or death, so I'm hoping to have a better run this time around.

The "tank" is a jar from Walmart that holds about 3 gallons. If you lurk around Nano-Reef, a lot of people use variations of this jar for their picos. This one might be a little bigger than those. With rock, it only holds about 2 gallons.

I'm using an internal filter seeded with some cycled media from my 10 gallon to start this tank off. During every water change, I'll remove a bit of media until it's no longer needed. At that point, I'll switch over to a small powerhead. I'm using a small heater that's set to 76F, since some of the things I'll be keeping like it slightly cooler than normal.

The idea for this tank is to create a patch reef, or a random splotch of coral, macros, and other reef-dwelling creatures in an otherwise bare part of the ocean floor. That's the general idea, anyway. I'll twist it to fit my wants and needs, but it's a good start

As the title suggests, this tank will be a macro display. No corals. Since you also sorta have to choose a certain color of macroalgae to focus on (due to lighting requirements), I've decided to focus in on green macros, which are found in shallow water. Therefore, the tank is lit by a 6000K LED bulb, putting out about 1100 lumens. I might eventually go for a slightly dimmer bulb, since 1100 lumens might be a bit much. But, I'm not sure. The Caulerpa Prolifera I have in here seems to love it, but we'll see once I get more species.

I took the opportunity to get a fish that I've wanted for a long time. A Yellow Clown Goby! The little guy made it through a rather harsh round of QT meds without an issue, and has been in the tank for over a week. Eating well, putting on weight, and looking pretty great. I'll also be doing a snail-only CUC.

TL;DR, this is a 3 gallon macro display tank. Here's the equipment I'm using:

Top Fin Internal Filter
Amazon Heater, set at 76F
GE LED bulb at 6000K

Here's the livestock (current, and planned)

Yellow Clown Goby
10 Dwarf Ceriths
2-3 Florida Ceriths

Cactus Caulerpa
Caulerpa Mexicana
Caulerpa Prolifera
Codium
Fern Caulerpa
Flame Algae
Flamingo Feather Algae
Pink Galaxy
Blue Scroll
Mermaid's Wine Glass (super excited about this one!)

Not all of that will be going into this tank, but that's everything I just ordered from reefcleaners. Whatever doesn't go in here will go into my 10 gallon.

Thanks for reading! I'll be updating next week when the macros get here.

Good luck this time around. That Goby is super cute!

 

[Lorekeeper]

Good luck this time around. That Goby is super cute!

Thanks bud! Always happy to see you in threads

 

[Lorekeeper]

We've got pearling macroalgae! And microalgae... but that's fine.

The little clown goby (named Honeydew by my nephew) has been doing pretty good. He'll eat 1 or 2 mysid shrimp a day. Doesn't seem like much, until you compare all of that to his body. He still won't accept any dried foods, and refuses my homemade blend (table shrimp, oysters, mysis, spirulina, little chunks of Nori, garlic juice, and a few other ingredients). But, he'll go after the frozen mysis. Kinda weird. But, he's been more active lately (especially at night), and I'm really hoping he spends more time out once I get more macros in here. More places to perch. Some of the more calcerous algaes I ordered even resemble SPS, so I'm really hoping he takes to them.

My order shipped from Reef Cleaners this afternoon, and should be here Wednesday. It shouldn't be too hot on the way here, so I'm really hoping for the best.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Okay, so I've had a fairly mixed Reef Cleaners experience. Some good, some bad, and some very bad.

My order came in today. All was well, until I realized that I only got 7 macroalgae. I ordered 12. I've not received any emails on delayed shipments or anything like that, and the macros I ordered are STILL up on their site, so I assume that they aren't out of stock. This is what really bothers me. I sent a message to John Maloney on his Nano-Reef account explaining everything, and we'll see what happens.

The other (very) bad thing is that 3 out of the 7 macros had virtually no water in the bag. I understand that most don't need much, just enough to keep them damp. But these had NONE. The macros had dried up and started to get crispy in certain places. I had to cut off a huge portion of all three of those macros. The remaining bits look healthy, but this just isn't okay.

Luckily, the rest of the order was pretty good. All of the snails seem to have made the trip, although I won't know for a few days how many died. But, there was no smell of death in any of the snail bags, so I'm hopeful.

The macros came in varying conditions. Some, like the Flame Algae, look amazing. No problems whatsoever. Others, like my Fern Caulerpa came in half-dead due to the lack of water during shipping. My Blue Scroll Algae came in healthy, and in large portions, but is covered in what I think to be GHA. Most of it should recover, but then again, I'm kinda wondering where all their hype comes from.

Here's a pic of the tank, pre-WC and pre-scape. I have no idea where a lot of these algaes are going, so I just got them into the tank and decided to deal with it later. Suggestions are welcome!

 

[Lorekeeper]

After a quick conversation with Reef Cleaners, the macros that I didn't receive were refunded. Pretty quick process. It shouldn't have happened in the first place, but mistakes happen. There were just a few too many in this order, and I can't say that I'll be using this vendor again.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Little guy was out and about this morning. Seems like he's coming around now that there's so many places to perch and hide!

 

[Lorekeeper]

Tank got a quick "re-scape" this morning. I put re-scape in quotations because I just removed some rock to free up room for macroalgae. Nothing too complex.

I moved over some Pink Galaxy into this tank, and you can really see that it didn't fare well in shipping. Incidentally, the part I had to cut back on was the part that had no water... hm.

I also trimmed back the Blue Scroll to try and get rid of the hair algae, with advice from a member here.

Here's the new look:

Tank's messy, but you get the idea.