Our Pico Jar Finally Cycled!! First Tank Eveeeeeerrrrrr!!! :D

Blitz7737

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Hi all!

Joined the forum as my gf and I had a tumultuous journey in trying to get our little jar to cycle. We have been watching it diligently for months now, we started it at the beginning of April. Had a first spike and then let our ammonia get too high as well as a few swings in parameters, but our impatience ran out and we dunked half a small bottle of BioSpira at the end of last week. Finally, beautiful colors. We named our tank Mr. Bubbles, it seems to be tracking well after months of impatiently being excited! We just got our first nitrites last Friday and are staging for a major water change tonight to maybe get our first little CUC critter next weekend.

This little jar was started with live sand and dry rock, a bit of home mixed saltwater from DI, and way too large of a shrimp to decay. After going through an initial bloom, stagnant, Seachem Pristine, diatom bloom, stagnant, Seachem Stability, stagnant unknown, we finally dropped a healthy dose of BioSpira and that night we had nitrites. The next night, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 ppm nitrates.

Throughout it's lifetime, we have added live rock, both in the display and a side canister filter with a DIY pump mechanism. Upgraded the heater to keep it more stable. Couple water changes and sand bed vacuums. Lots of glass scrubbing with a DIY glass magnet. And all the testing of water params!

Going to do an almost full water change to bring those nitrates down a tiny bit. Hopefully that should set us for a visit to the LFS this weekend to look at a potential invert friend. Thinking either an Emerald Crab, pistol shrimp, peppermint shrimp, or whatever is available that is in the smaller range. We would love to house a goby/pistol pair, but still are on the fence of if our little ocean is big enough to support a fishy.

Only big worry is that we originally had brass fittings on the live rock canister filter. Might have introduced a small amount of Cu. We got a test kit and our eyes are seeing 0.1ppm. Can't remember the style of test kit, but could ask the local shop as they have been rooting for our cycle the whole way. They are great and dedicated to saltwater, so actually a local biz and not run of the mill big corp. They care and are so sweet (Southwest Reef Co shout out, you rock)!

We also built a separate canister for a ball of chaeto we got shipped in from Ebay (since we expected the cycle to finish like 2 months ago, lol). We named him Mr. Moss Ball and he has been living by himself happily. We haven't wanted to link him into the main tank until we got through the cycle and gave the bacteria time to get to a healthy culture. Will probably wait a few weeks after our first invert survives to bring him into the system.

Current plan is the water change tonight to complete and level the cycle. Get a little CUC critter to start feeding on our diatom/brown algae a few days later. Wait a while to let things settle and evolve. Maybe a first coral (zoa or gsp?). And then as time continues safely, a few more to the CUC team and corals.

I have added a few pictures of near current state. The chem test and DIY lights on shows it a few days ago when we had the glory of nitrates. The one with the live rock filter canister and Mr. Moss Ball are probably a week or two back.

More details on setup:
- 1 gallon jar with LFS dry rock/live rock and aragonite sand
- live rock canister (rock from LFS)
- chaeto canister (not yet in the system, running with a 5g fish pump bubbler)
- lots of 3d printed madness (thanks to a buddy at work)
- Hydor Theo 25 Watt heater
- reefpi thermometer
- 10g fish pump with DIY pump action for rock canister (now with plastic fittings and top, sealed with gel superglue)
- testing with API test kit (high pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium - yet to use)
- Cu testing with a small test kit (75 uses? 2 drops of reagent and some dust in a little dish)
- refractometer
- instant ocean salts and DI water (reef crystals awaiting our first coral)
- DIY LED light ring (occasional use, not yet consistent, will probably start soon)
- ABI tuna blue 12W light (not yet using, was waiting for cycle to finally finish)
- lots of odds and ends of small things, because tiny pico jars are cute af

I am probably still missing a couple things, but please give us any suggestions! Learning and culturing a tiny ocean has been a beautiful addition in my life. Help me and this cute chica smile with good advice. :D

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BighohoReef

A reefer in need is a friend indeed!
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Welcome to R2R! I love the jar ecosystems!!! For our anniversary this year my wife and I are planning on returning to the place we got engaged on the pacific coast and fill a jar with seawater. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!

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