REEF VASE: Have you ever consider keeping a reef in a vase, jar, bowl etc? Check these out!

[revhtree]

I'm a sucker for little pico and nano reefs and I'm really a sucker for them in unique vessels like a vase, cookie jar, bowl etc. Let's talk about these tiny, amazing reefs today!

1. Would you ever set up a little reef in a vase or very small container?

2. Have you ever set up a little reef like one of these and what was your experience?

PLEASE share any photos of your most favorite "small vessel" reefs!

Image via @pongpit

Image via @pongpit

image via @ReefJar

image via @brandon429

image via @TheFool

 

[725196]

1. Would you ever set up a little reef in a vase or very small container?

As my R2R screen name suggests, YES! I would consider this!

2. Have you ever set up a little reef like one of these and what was your experience?

I have set up many nano tanks under 5 gallons, the smallest being about a .75 gallon. (Pics are gone forever due to a divorce). I would love to have one now but my new wife is still learning to accept one tank. Not a fight I want to have. Still I would love to do a small 3 gallon with sexy shrimp and panda gobies. Maybe some other things too.

 

[brandon429]

First reason to reef in a pico with matched fitted lid: have the tightest salinity control in reefing, no ato required. vases need topoff 2-3 x a week max, air can be dialed down temporarily to get ten days no topoff/vacation


any one of the pico reefs above has inherent salinity control better than large reefs, irony.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Beautiful reef jars!

 

[Chrisfish]

My first SW tank was a 3 gal. Cookie jar, unfortunately the pictures got deleted

 

[92Miata]

If I could figure out how to get decent water movement in one without an air pump, I'd be all over it.

 

[brandon429]

fifteen years ago on nano-reef.com experimenters used to buy used eBay lab stirrers with the magnetic ceramic spinning mixers, and build a false bottom pico circulated from bottom up

build a wooden base that conceals the stirrer, adjustment knob on outside. Then set any shape false bottom pico + lid on it, it will circulate and look normal and we had one that stirred for like three years nonstop lol I lost track of the updates over time

 

[92Miata]

fifteen years ago on nano-reef.com experimenters used to buy used eBay lab stirrers with the magnetic ceramic spinning mixers, and build a false bottom pico circulated from bottom up

build a wooden base that conceals the stirrer, adjustment knob on outside. Then set any shape false bottom pico + lid on it, it will circulate and look normal and we had one that stirred for like three years nonstop lol I lost track of the updates over time

That's an interesting idea. Stirrer and 3d printed impellar might be a pretty good combo. No fish m and I don't even need to be safe about it.

 

[Rybren]

I ran a 2.5G cookie jar for about 5 years. No heater, a MJ400 for flow, and a DIY LED fixture. Evaporation was minimal.

I'd do a WC every few months (or whenever I thought about it) Critters included snails, hermits, Sexy shrimp. I tried a variety of corals ranging from softies to SPS.

Even at it's best, it never looked as nice as the other tanks in this thread.

 

[Peace River]

My smallest reef tank has been a 10g, however I have two 1g cube tanks that I have thought about using as a DT and sump complete with drilling the tank for an overflow and return. I will probably have to make the overflow and should be able to use a small Sicce .5 with 1/2" PVC plumbing as well an an ATO. I haven't spent much time researching the light yet, so I am curious what are the best/most common/recommended lights for a pico reef.

 

[Andy Macro]

If I could figure out how to get decent water movement in one without an air pump, I'd be all over it.

Maybe a small canister filter will do the trick

 

[Mical]

The coolest pico I've seen was a guy at BRS made one out of a GoPro case

 

[brandon429]

thats tiny lol and looks aged, like a maturing reef tank that's so cool.


also from the realm of pico reefs: 100% sealed, non evaporating reef tanks. It turns out we do not have to have active gas exchange with the outside air (very often) in order to have a reef that doesnt need any topoff, ever, and still handles its gas exchange internally. Here's how:

those reefs above if not using air/positive pressure venting can be fitted with a 100% contact lid, that stops evaporation.

there is an air gap above the water line and below the lid, in each example. during light phasing 02 is building up, and rides through the dark phase until it gets out of whack up under the lid in the mini environment. But by then, youve already raised the lid for service/move a frag/right a snail/ feed the tank/ water change, and that brief exchange is your gas exchange lol



*further: plumb a refugium into the mix, sealed just the same, counterlight it, and the reef will run a very very long time in balance but we're still cheating when we open the lid for service-but the lid isn't staying open long enough to evaporate anything.


Pico reefs do not even have to evaporate at all. my sealed sps reef ran about three years at .023 and had acros in it

this was when new

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Id totaly do it in a clear storage container. Its kinda like an evolved easy QT setup

 

[mzaslove]

In my impatience for my custom 100 gallon next year, I started a 2 gallon jar. Put in the live rock yesterday (couple of nice gorgonians and a rose coral on one piece). I'm am super-excited about it because, other than water changes (which are so easy at that size), minimum muss and fuss. (Same size as my Jura espresso-maker!)

 

[Zoe’s Reef]

Currently setting up a pico reef actually! Not in a vase or bowl, but this cool little 5g AIO I found the other day (which seems smaller than 5g). It has a sump in the drawer, how could I resist?!

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I build an arduino powered reef jar that used magnetic stirrers to generate random flow and an electronic heating pad to maintain temp. Worked great until I went on vacation and my motor died on me. I will try again after I finish moving in this month.

 

[brandon429]

that was about 3/4 gallon in volume, but we're dealing in scalable biology here plus we all have cool running led's nowadays

look how much fan it took to offset powercompacts.


with today's cool-running led's someone can build a sealed full sized reef, and that someone should indeed do that. make the first non-evaporating reef tank with fish in it

not only is it possible to make a 100 gallon reef that doesnt evaporate, its bordering easy. there's the 1/100th scale pumping away nicely.

*the lid would not rest on top like the common approach. I'd pay glass cutters to professionally size the glass lid to the inner diameter of the square tank, not the top lip as usual.

tiny support pegs would be affixed inside so the lid sits on these, and presses into a seal on the inner diameter of the tank not the top lip.

recessed sealed fit= no salt creep running down the sides during the evaporation that will fill the inside lid 100% with condensation droplets. when you shine lights through that it disperses into the tank nbd, blast some light in nowadays you wont overheat like we did. strong handles attached to the thick glass for raising. could be split easily into two sections independently/heavy weight reduction

with a very simple air pump in auto on/ auto off, you could make a refreshing environment, still sealed, that doesnt require plants to perform the conversion. a one way air outlet valve could handle outflow and we pump it in occasionally. it still would not evaporate freshwater in this arrangment but would outgas co2 and import 02, there's many ways to make reefs stop evaporating. the heat was zapping us back then

 

[Leah Ryan]

No, the closest I have ever come to that is using a large bowl for an emergency QT. That was only for a few hours. It might be cool to have a small desk reef at work, but I get real busy sometimes and I fear I would neglect it.

 

[Pistol Peet]

No I've never thought about having one and something that small they all look amazing from the pictures above though kind of gets me thinking the only problem I have is I've been thinking about putting reefs in a 500 gallon tank live by the model bigger is better go big or go home.