Mike’s Reef Jar

Milkmanskid · May 23, 2018

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share my reef jar that my wife and I set up. This will be her baby. By that I mean, picking out coral. I’ll be doing all the leg work [emoji12]. Anyway, this is a very simple setup with heater, air pump, ABI tuna blue light, and thermometer. The plans right now are for acans and other lps coral. However, it will probably turn to sps. What do you guys think? The light is 20” off the surface of the water. Is that ok or should I go lower?

hotashes · May 23, 2018

Welcome Mike, we all love a pico. Looks well placed

A.

Milkmanskid · May 23, 2018

hotashes said:
Welcome Mike, we all love a pico. Looks well placed

A.

Thank you. This is going to be our small project and have always loved nanos. Big tanks are nice but you can’t beat a nano.

hotashes · May 24, 2018

Milkmanskid said:
Thank you. This is going to be our small project and have always loved nanos. Big tanks are nice but you can’t beat a nano.

Yes my learning tank is a nano, great all round.

A.

Milkmanskid · May 25, 2018

Did some testing last night and Ammonia is spiking at 1.0 ppm so it’s well on its way. This is the worst part....waiting. I will update with pictures of the “scape” soon.

The only issue we’re having right now is telegram bubbles on top of the water. They hang around almost like skimmate bubbles. Could this be from the live sand? I never noticed this in my big tank.

hotashes · May 25, 2018

Milkmanskid said:
Did some testing last night and Ammonia is spiking at 1.0 ppm so it’s well on its way. This is the worst part....waiting. I will update with pictures of the “scape” soon.

The only issue we’re having right now is telegram bubbles on top of the water. They hang around almost like skimmate bubbles. Could this be from the live sand? I never noticed this in my big tank.

Great to see you are keeping us updated Mike, that is a spike in ammonia for sure. How did you influence this to happen? Did you transfer LR to the jar? Or was it a dose?

As for the bubbles, make the most of them as when you initiate 100% water changes there will be no place for bubbles [emoji23]

A.

Milkmanskid · May 25, 2018

hotashes said:
Great to see you are keeping us updated Mike, that is a spike in ammonia for sure. How did you influence this to happen? Did you transfer LR to the jar? Or was it a dose?

As for the bubbles, make the most of them as when you initiate 100% water changes there will be no place for bubbles [emoji23]

A.

I wasn’t expecting it to have any ammonia at all. I have done nothing. Set up last Saturday with live sand only and dry rock. I was shocked to see the spike in the first place[emoji23] I was sure I was going to have to do something to get it going. Guess not.

hotashes · May 25, 2018

Milkmanskid said:
I wasn’t expecting it to have any ammonia at all. I have done nothing. Set up last Saturday with live sand only and dry rock. I was shocked to see the spike in the first place[emoji23] I was sure I was going to have to do something to get it going. Guess not.

Nice going, did you use live sand from your own tank? I would guess you didn't, considering you've had such a spike (questionable that there must have been die back from the sand)
Dry rock! As in new unused dry rock, with no life?

Now just to wait for the bacteria to catch up, ammonia to back at 0 along with nitrites at 0 and we're good to go

A.

sprinklerdudes · May 25, 2018

sounds like a good project in the making.

Dennis McGrath · May 25, 2018

That's a really cool idea. Well done !

Milkmanskid · May 25, 2018

hotashes said:
Nice going, did you use live sand from your own tank? I would guess you didn't, considering you've had such a spike (questionable that there must have been die back from the sand)
Dry rock! As in new unused dry rock, with no life?

Now just to wait for the bacteria to catch up, ammonia to back at 0 along with nitrites at 0 and we're good to go

A.

No I used a new bag of caribbsea Fiji pink. Hence why I was worried there was no ammonia. The rock is dry caribbsea shapes rock. It’s an arch turned backwards. (See pics below without the washed out blue) My main tank has bubble algae that’s pretty subdued but, bubble algae nonetheless. I’m not taking a risk so we started fresh.

Fin · May 25, 2018

Pretty neat! And located right next to your Margaritaville Concoction Maker!

Following...

hotashes · May 25, 2018

Milkmanskid said:
No I used a new bag of caribbsea Fiji pink. Hence why I was worried there was no ammonia. The rock is dry caribbsea shapes rock. It’s an arch turned backwards. (See pics below without the washed out blue) My main tank has bubble algae that’s pretty subdued but, bubble algae nonetheless. I’m not taking a risk so we started fresh.

Did you pre rinse the sand? Either way if the sand/rock is true live then again we see the bacteria has survived the bashing and now the cycle is well under way...... You did say you didn't add an ammonia source right? Heh..

I'm sure, considering the pico is virtually air tight, if the ammonia had have come from natural progression (air transfer) entering the water column, this would have taken a far longer time to show any ammonia at all..

A.

hotashes · May 25, 2018

Fin said:
Pretty neat! Following. And located right next to your Margaritaville Concoction Maker! Following...

Well spotted, maybe that's how an ammonia source ended up in the pico this fast heh

[emoji23]

A.

Milkmanskid · May 25, 2018

hotashes said:
Well spotted, maybe that's how an ammonia source ended up in the pico this fast heh

[emoji23]

A.

That wasn’t planned [emoji6]

hotashes · May 25, 2018

Milkmanskid said:
That wasn’t planned [emoji6]

Ha ha, before we get too excited.... May I ask which test kits you are using? API?
Has water conditioner been added since set up?

A.

Milkmanskid · May 25, 2018

hotashes said:
Did you pre rinse the sand? Either way if the sand/rock is true live then again we see the bacteria has survived the bashing and now the cycle is well under way...... You did say you didn't add an ammonia source right? Heh..

I'm sure, considering the pico is virtually air tight, if the ammonia had have come from natural progression (air transfer) entering the water column, this would have taken a far longer time to show any ammonia at all..

A.

I kinda rinsed it. Scooped it into a cup and into a 1 gallon tea pitcher and rinsed it until the cloudiness mostly went away. Like you said, enough must have survived to get it going. I was counting on having to add an ammonia source. Thank you all for your replies!!

Something I forgot to add. My buddy at the LFS cut out the notch for me. Lid sits perfectly.

Milkmanskid · May 25, 2018

hotashes said:
Ha ha, before we get too excited.... May I ask which test kits you are using? API?
Has water conditioner been added since set up?

A.

Yes API for ammonia. No water conditioner. Straight ro/di water and reef crystals salt. I’ll do a test and post it in a little bit.

hotashes · May 25, 2018

Milkmanskid said:
Yes API for ammonia. No water conditioner. Straight ro/di water and reef crystals salt. I’ll do a test and post it in a little bit.

The trend we get with API, for sure it confuses me when offering reading at >1ppm I certainly would expect cloudy water...

Neat work on getting the notch crafted, minimal evaporation

The purple rock looks neat, all it's missing is the visible living organisms within its crevices to confirm its true live rock

Keep up the good effort, we got people interested... Oh and the wife will be happy at the pace.

A.

Milkmanskid · May 26, 2018

So here’s my ammonia results as of this morning. As you can see it’s hard to tell. It has to be between 0.50-1.0 is my guess. I’ve never liked the API kits anyways. BUT they do tell me that there is something there so it’s something I guess. Nitrates are the hardest to read for me.