Pico Jar help. Be nice.

[Chadfelixg]

Ok.
So I broke the rules and now I need to figure out a path to fix it.

Story: I decided to try to the reef in a jar with just some simple corals.

I used live sand, pacific ocean water, a small heater, an airstone for flow and a Lominie LED Aquarium Light, Saltwater Freshwater Fish Tank Light for Coral, Planted Nano Aquarium Tank (P30 Saltwater) (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07F5B5GRB/) I already had.

I read you can add things right away after adding live sand. I added two dry rocks and 1 live rock from the store and an aquarium statue.

I added a xenia, mushroom rock, a feather duster and a single zoa polyp with three blue leg crabs and three tiny snails.

I know.

Anyway, all the other YouTube videos of this made it look super simple. I tested for ammonia and nitrates and had zero.

So a week passed and then green algae popped up, then some red algae. I decided to add Microbe-Lift Special Blend and several water changes.

Its been two weeks total and everything is covered in bubbles and algae and now I realize I needed to let it sit with the sand and dry rock and bacteria stuff longer.

But now what do I do?
Its got life in it.

I thought about nuking it and starting fresh. But I have read it could stabilize on its own. Should I just wait it out?

I haven't tested this week because it's obviously in an algae stage, but with the bacteria dosing won't the algae eat up the nutrients then the bacteria eat up the leftovers? Or is it too far gone?

I am trying a different light linked below because I can't really keep this light stable. It might be too strong and the remote let's you increase or decrease but its hard to replicate.
Coralife Marine Aquarium Clip-On LED Light (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07DT6YY8D)

Anyway, what should I do from here to stabilize this little tank?

 

[brandon429]

You don’t need to do anything but deep clean it, it’s already cycled. nice job, it’s perfect, and fully cycled. Clean it up, add more stuff. It will live.


if you want to clean it live time and skip the recycle, we can, right here. Live time.

 

[brandon429]

We can easily disassemble the entire reef and rinse the sand


we can easily rinse the rocks in saltwater

work carefully around corals as it’s taken apart all the way

rinse the empty jar out with tap water, now it’s ready to put back.


re assemble cloudless rinsed sand, cloudless. rinse it a long time until cloudless

Stack back in cloudless rocks rinsed in saltwater, and the corals. Put in all new water, never add those dosers again to a pico, disassembly cleaning is what makes them run twenty years. You have simple advanced eutrophication in place above from the detritus loading and casting of dead target plants, growths etc. time to deep clean and it will look like you want, you’ve done nothing wrong and it’s a rock solid reef there.
b


if your reassembled tank has clouding, then redo. Assemble a cloudless reef and it will never recycle, these storm events prolong the life of a pico reef, and storing up waste compounds shortens the lifespan

 

[brandon429]

Half a million bucks of other people’s reefs doing exactly above:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

i rip clean my own 14 yr jar reef just to participate, five times there. Nothing was wrong with it, I do it preventatively. Jar reefs are the toughest captive reefs on the planet, which is both ironic and awesome.

 

[Chadfelixg]

Thank you!
Really. I appreciate it!

 

[brandon429]

Pls update with pics

we need to use this thread in other threads where we study cycle control patterns

didn’t mention anything about measuring params above because cloudless reassembly always means ammonia and nitrite is in control, though use of cheap testers sure might make an alarming read otherwise. Best leave them out, and focus on accurate surgical technique. False alarms cause doubt

It works great every time if that order of ops is met.

we won’t need any bottle bac boosting above, your rocks and sand are laden with filter bacteria. We are removing the accumulation coating that blocks them from contacting reef water. It’s called backflushing at zoo exhibits, this is how they clean filters that run massive shark tanks etc.

 

[Chadfelixg]

Update: I did the full clean.

I lost the corals but the hermit crabs, snails and Emerald crab all seem happy. Some red cyano is popping up, but the critters keep eating at it.

So far so good. Thank you for the advice. I will update as it progresses!

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Looks great! I think where you went wrong was the live sand. If you bought a bag off the shelf at the lfs then it's had dead rotting creatures sealed in it for a long time. I'm sure the rinse helped.

I've been shopping for a good plastic container to start my own pico lately, do you have a build thread where I can check out your progress?