REEF VASE BUILD FOR MY 10 YEAR OLD GRANDSON

[Brad Miller]

For a permanent solution to what will hold the light for him, my wife and I did some digging around in the man cave for a forgotten about heat lamp stand for one of my sons old Bearded Dragon tanks.

I can’t believe how perfect this was for the vase, completely adjustable in height too;

 

[JustinSmi86]

Nice. My oldest two boys want tanks after I set mine up... something like this could be perfect for their rooms!

 

[Mayerlyn A]

This is what Joey and I came up with.
(used play sand for him to get a feel for how the rock will sit in the vase)
Three pieces of rock cemented together and able to be lifted out as one piece through the top.
(Trying to make it easy for him to take care of once he takes it home)
I’m now going to put this rock in my tank to cycle it for a while.

I am loving this.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I love it. Looking good.

I never really thought about the equipment it takes to run it. Imagine an Apex Mini and a Trident Mini rated 5 gallons and less

I’m sorry, but I did have to chuckle a bit about filling it with water for a leak test.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool!!

 

[tweeter]

I love it! I can't wait to see it grow, and see what you put in it!! I have an 8 year old grandson that I'm raising, he loves the tanks to. We got him a 29 long with glow fish for his birthday last year, but he is still interested in the reefing. I might have to do one of these for him.

 

[Brad Miller]

I’m so glad we’re doing this together.
He’s been coming over every week and taking care of it since I’m keeping it at my house, to make sure things go well as it matures.

He absolutely loves it and is excited to come over and take care of it with me as I teach him about things and what to look for.

We started with some Xenia in a small clam shell, then put a 8 head Acan and recently a small multi polyp Hercules Zoa.

Pic below is taken through my new R2R UV swag glasses

 

[brandon429]

I was just wondering about this, this week nice timing and you really did mature that rock nicely. This system can last so, so long well done teamwork!

 

[Brad Miller]

I still can’t believe how easy this vase is to take care of and the coral we’re putting in love it

 

[brandon429]

ideal goal you get to educate him on it then when the time is right he takes it, runs it through high school, wins some science meets and then takes it to college and shows his prof his ten yr vase

boys=nerf balls and rockets and cracks n stuff, I’m thinking redundancy. I thought it would be handy to brainstorm contact offenses ha

i keep mix salt handy in case in my closet.

Should any bumping untoward happen, the insides can be moved to any holding tank- lemonade pitcher, that emergency gallon of sw in the pantry is deployed, a trip to wal mart continues the cycle.

somehow, at least bi annually I have to file an internal incidents proximity report lol including:
-child bumps an iPad sitting on the counter next to reefbowl. iPad shoots back, bounces off the bottom and shoots sideways. If there wasn’t a rubber iPad guard
- open cabinet above the reefbowl to get pepper shaker which is glass. Pepper shaker drops, bounces at 25mph just to the side of the reef vase
-drops cup while washing dishes. 25 full bubbles of soap waft and land
-any home that has a large dog inside the inevitable
-nerf, banned
still happens

 

[C. Eymann]

Yep start them young! That's what go me into reefkeeping, my dad had a 110gal reef aquarium that I sat infront of for hours, when I turned 12, I got a nano reef of my own.

 

[Malifry97]

Following! This is amazing! Longer down the road, if possible some acros would be SO cool!

 

[brandon429]

Brad
Hey! Was wondering how it’s coming along, how are feedings and water changes going

 

[MERKEY]

This is great!!!

 

[Malifry97]

Update?

 

[Brad Miller]

I'm feeding the acan on the bottom some small frenzy chunks twice a week when I feed my main tank.

When Joey comes over once a week, he uses a turkey baster to blow the rock work off and stir the sand up a bit before doing the 100% water change of new salt water (not from the display water changes)

We will remove the entire piece of rock work (built to get it out in one piece) and really stir things up once in a while before the weekly water change.

We will be starting to do some reef chilli about 1 hr before the weekly water change after we get some more coral in there.

The acan keeps sprouting new heads.
Since we put it in there about two months or so ago, there are 6 new heads on the bottom front and 4 on the back side, it looks super healthy and is growing better than the ones in my main tank .

The Hercules zoa that never did well in my main or frag tank, took just over 1 week to completely open up and look like it’s supposed to.

 

[brandon429]

its just perfect my gosh so happy for you guys. youre a natural pico maestro dang great job

 

[Malifry97]

THIS. IS. AWESOME! Keep The Updates Coming!

 

[Brad Miller]

I owe it all to Brandon,
After I read his article in the Coral magazine and found him here, I was hooked.

 

[brandon429]

Your closeup pics reveal details that remark upon the next several predictable months/likely years for your vase

You have found a tune, there's no crud lines where sand contacts glass. And where rocks sit on sand, not accumulated, whatever cam that is sure does great closeups and we can see your export balances at work, only clean reef materials. At times/vacations or busy periods some buildup might occur, no problem. It's the rarity not the norm for the system, so plants won't get to dominate calcifying organisms we like.

your rock details show pigmented coralline it's not got a glazing of light compact hair algae all over rocks (no wait time to enjoy in future, you opted out of uglies phasing)

you are simply not going to have cyano or hair algae issues predictably. The lead in you used to select or cure that particular rock was spot on, you won't have to purchase bottle bac dosers to boost up bacteria in that system

it'll run without having to add supplement bacteria because: quality of live rock, periodic refreshment cleaning which is like how a zoo backflushes a tank filter as maintenance. It prevents buildup of crud associated bacteria that imbalance, reduces surface area

the good bacteria will always remain adhered as you occasionally simulate a reef storm. Your varied feed input -is- feed for those various bacteria that always accompany purple aged rocks so buying more bac/not required and also not harmful if you ever want to experiment for fun in case they invent new strains in the future that reduce water change work



Coral disease, no. You have them in positive mass phase due to clean and varied protein in, and out, before rot. That's the most disease resistant you can make corals- proof will be the coming new polyps and heavier base growth over years. Reduced organic accumulation is specifically tied to no coral disease problems like rtn for example in sps... montis work really well in these for some reason.

Sps will grow in it for sure
Next few months can evaluate predictions off your awesome pics ha nice work both of you!
B