Myka's 10L Pico Reef

[Myka]

One of the local Facebook pages started up a "jar reef challenge". We're all taking our jar reefs to the local frag swap in April to show them off. I've wanted to do a pico reef for probably 10 years, and I figured why not now?

Of course I am always up for a good challenge, and the first thing was finding a "jar" I liked the look of. I wanted something that was clear to look through, not wavy and distorted. I also really like how the 12-gallon IM Cylinder tank looks - the convex acrylic makes the livestock look a lot bigger than it is.

My inspiration is from floating flower bowls:

 

[Myka]

POST FROM JAN 27th:

*** EDIT: 3L Bubble Vase was swapped with 10L Bubble Vase on Feb 6th. ***

This is what I came up with, and I'm sure it will take some tweaking to get it right.

- exactly 3 liters actual water volume, filled using water from my reef
- 14 ounces (0.5 lb) live rock from my reef's sump
- 1 1/4 cups coarse dry sand
- 8 watt reptile mat for heat, not adjustable
- Cobalt heater controller
- air pump for water movement, no stone (figuring out ideas to replace this)
- AI Prime HD lighting

So far temp fluctuates between 74.0 to 74.2 F. A little cool, but should be ok. I ordered a tiny DC water pump, not sure if it will be SW safe, but I'm hoping it will help add some heat to the tank, and replace the airline which makes messy salt creep.

Light is AI Prime. I ordered a white one through Bayside Corals (they only have black in stock right now), but don't have it yet.

Honestly, this pico may prove to be too small. I just like the shape. I haven't worked on aesthetics around the tank yet - just set it up an hour ago.

Livestock: Wait and see!

The Pico Reef is now lovingly referred to as "The Bubble".

 

[Myka]

POST FROM JAN 29th:

I picked up a Fluval 106 canister filter for The Bubble so I can run an in-line heater, and also to increase water volume. The volume of the canister is actually 3.8L, so it more than doubles The Bubble's volume.

 

[drawman]

Are you going SPS

 

[Myka]

Are you going SPS

Is there really any other option?

I plan to add a few Zoas for some pops of color, and maybe a rainbow Acan. I have some photosynthetic gorgonians for movement. Then SPS.

 

[Myka]

I was cleaning the glass today with a mini magnet cleaner (Innovative Marine FTW!) and kept thinking I was going to hit the rock, but the magnet makes it all the way around.

The magnification of the bubble shape is pretty awesome.

I found out that you can get these bubble cases up to almost 2 feet across! They get quite pricey though. I managed to find a 12" bubble vase for a reasonable price through Amazon.ca which should be about 3 gallons volume. As much as I like the challenge of a 3L Pico, I'd like to add a few small fish, and I don't think any fish belong in 3 liters. That's just not fair.

I took some pics last night. I stole the light off the Betta tank so I could pretend the bubble was awesome. The light is super yellow though, so it wasn't awesome. Haha!

UPGRADES COMING:

AI Prime HD lighting
Cobalt ETH in-line heater
Cobalt Neo-Stat heater controller (the smallest in-line heater is 200 watts lol)
12" bubble vase to replace the current 8" one
Glass lily pipe R-style

I put a little test frag of Blow Pop Zoas in there and Scarlet is checking it out. Scarlet gets 1 fish pellet a day. She's onto the routine pretty fast. Haha

Obviously I don't like the look of the big black hoses coming off the Fluval canister so I ordered a glass lily pipe. The design of the R-type lily pipe pushes the water out to both sides rather than just straight forward so this should provide some nice flow patterns, and the shape of the stem should allow it to sit nicely against the curved inside edge of The Bubble. I'm going to use a piece of 1/2" acrylic to make an intake siphon for the canister - I'll be able to bend it to follow The Bubble's curves for a nice fit.

 

[Myka]

The bigger Bubble arrived today, so I upgraded the 8" Bubble to a 12" Bubble. I added 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of actual water volume to the tank (plus another 3.8L in the canister filter). I added another 200 mL of sand, and another 14 ounces (0.5 lb) of live rock.

So the current stats are:

2.6 gallon Bubble Vase (3.6 gallons net system volume)
Fluval 106 canister filter
1 lb cured live rock
2 cups of sand
Temporary Betta light

1 Scarlet Hermit Crab
Frag of Blow Pop Zoas

 

[Myka]

The light showed up yesterday! So I finally got to add some real stock to the tank!

ORA Chip's Acro
RR Orange Passion Acro
CM Blue Polyp Nasuta
Monti setosa
ORA Long Polyp Toadstool
Purple Candelabra Gorgonian
Frogspawn
Blow Pop Zoas
Sunny D Zoas
Solar Flare Zoas

More to come!!!

 

[greeslimer]

very nice.
do you really enjoy a tank like this?

 

[don_chuwish]

This looks way fun. If only dollars and hours were more plentiful!

 

[Myka]

This looks way fun. If only dollars and hours were more plentiful!

It is! My hours are certainly not plentiful, but so far so good.

very nice. do you really enjoy a tank like this?

You know, this is my 25th year of reef keeping. Not only do I have my own (larger) reef, I also operate an aquarium service company. This pico tank is a really nice change. I think once it grows in it may be a pain in the butt needing trimming all the time, but for now it is very enjoyable.

 

[Myka]

Today was the first water change. I changed about 95% and vacuumed the sand. I also added 250 mL Siporax and a few pieces of live rock rubble from my reef tank into the canister filter. I also have a filter pad in there.

Cleaning the canister is a giant PITA, so I may skip out on the filter pad and just let it run with the rock and Siporax. Then I could clean it out quarterly instead. I'd probably have to do twice weekly water changes though because I'd be doing less than 50% water changes if I'm only draining the display and not the canister. That would likely be better for the SPS anyway... hmm...

Here are some before WC pics and during. Some diatoms on the glass now. Yippee, that's a good sign.

 

[Myka]

Significant diatoms growth on the rocks and sand now. I added a Ring Cowrie that I stole from my reef.

I have some goodies coming for the pico in the next week. Can't wait. This tank has made reefing exciting for me again.

 

[chefjpaul]

Soo cool!
Very nicely done

 

[drawman]

That acro PE signifies a good start nice work!

 

[Myka]

I added 2 Panda Gobies today. I took some photos before adding hem for two reasons. One being I may never see them again, and the other so i could show you guys how tiny they are!

I also added a few frags today:

Orange Oxide Zoas
Dragon Eyes Zoas
Pink Pocci (for the Pandas to possibly hang in)

I'll get pics later when they open up.

 

[Myka]

So the gobies have been pretty awesome. They aren't as cryptic as expected. I can usually locate one or both of them when I look at the tank. The smaller one likes to hang out on the sand, and the "less small" (haha) one likes to hang out under the Long Polyp Toadstool. The Toadstool was just supposed to be for filler and I planned to remove it once everything else grows in a bit, but now I'm torn. Trouble is, I already promised it to someone. Dangit.

When I first added the gobies, the bigger one went right into the rocks, but the smaller one dove face first into the Sunny D palys. One of the Palys was closing up on him, so I used a skewer to pull him out. For the rest of the evening he sat an inch away from the polyps looking dazed and confused, so I was thinking he was a goner. Today he's perky though, so I have hope!

 

[Myka]

New goodies...

 

[Myka]

I added a couple more zoa frags, added a Poccilopora frag for the Panda gobies (I might remove it, not a fan of Poccis and the gobies like the rocks better anyway), removed the Toadstool Leather, and added a few Rock Flower Anemones. I still need to put something right in the middle where the Toadstool was. Hmm...what to add??

 

[daelie]

This is well done, so much so I almost wanna try something neat like it myself haha