The Fool's Reef (2 gallon reef)

[Dassem]

Hey everyone im new here, switched over here due to a friends recommendation, i post a heck of a lot of update videos and pictures so YOU WILL BE ENTERTAINED or not.

Here goes my presentation on ...
"The Fool's Reef"

Started on the 27th of august 2017



Equipment:

-Walmart 2 Gal Cookie jar ( as of may 12th it is now an 8 x 8 x 8 cube )

-Air pump 50 gal (with check valve and and flow regulator) * NO LONGER AIR PUMP DUE TO PERSONAL PREFERENCE* im currently using the Aquaclear without filter media (running some chaeto in there though)

-50 watt heater (Via aqua quartz with heater guard)

-par 38 tuna blue led by abi (12 watt)

-(13 watt) Ikea desk lamp, ive used it for over 8 months without problem, but i highly recommend you use a stand appropriate for the light, such as a reptile light stand and fixture without exceeding the fixtures wattage. Use the ikea stand with caution.

-Zoomed digital probe thermometer

-Abi Refractometer



Other:

-switched to bare bottom and loving it

-live rock (pre cycled at lfs) from indonesia

-started with aquaforest switched to RED SEA CORAL PRO (love this salt, mixes super well, never problems with parameters, corals accilmate instantly and do great with 1-3 100%water changes a week)



Current live stock:

-Porcelain crab (white) *rip my little 8 month resident mascot, has been replaced with a Skunk Cleaner who is ultra cool*

-3 blue leg dwarf hermits

-turbo snail

-other snails including 20million colonistas

-infinite feather dusters

-copious amounts bristle worms

-copious amounts of amphipods and copepods



Frags:

-Red acan

-"Christmas" favia

-Orange Rhodactis mushroom

-Pulsing xenia (also removed , they were growing thick stalks and branching onto everything, just didnt enjoy how they looked anymore either)

-Papaya cloves

-Duncans

-Various zoanthids

-Pink monti digitata

-Red monti digitata (sold)

-Green star polyp (through human force has become extinct)

-Hammer coral

-Yellow Jacket Frogspawn

-Green monti digitata (sold)

-Montipora spongodes

-Montipora setosa

-Meteor shower cyphastrea

-Yellow discosoma mushroom

-Red spotted marbled mushroom coral

*not coral but...Gracilaria macroalgae*



Maintenance:

-Water changes 1-2 times a week (depending on feeding and how the aquarium is doing)

-10 hours of lighting

-test specific gravity every other day

-top off with a drip system when necessary

-closely monitor heating (fluctuates between: 79.6-80.1)

-scrape and 3% peroxide any unwanted algae growth (do with caution and research before hand)

-remove bad hitchikers whenever i spot one (harmful nudibranches, flatworms, other worms. Important to see what is beneficial in your tank, but if ever youre not sure remove it anyways. If theres one theres more, so youre better off getting rid of it while you can)

-stare endlessly into 2 gallons of water because you cant help yourself.



I have an instagram: @fools_reef



August 28th ...the beginning:







nov 24th 2017





Dec 13th 2017





January 17th









April 21st











14th may
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiurSE5hpQk/

17th may
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi5dnO6hMh_/

 

[Dassem]

And some videos from my instagram page:


https://www.instagram.com/p/BicNJcrhl_V/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bine5ItFqNn/

This is under a white light

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiamkzJBv-J/

 

[revhtree]

Welcome and glad to have you!! Very cool nano you have there!!

 

[Dassem]

Welcome and glad to have you!! Very cool nano you have there!!

Thank you very much, i appreciate it! Im glad to be here on behalf of @brandon429 's recommendation, this site seems very well organized and i love the app layout, good work!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice pico! Welcome to R2R!

 

[TonyNguyen]

Well thought out little tank!

 

[Dassem]

Well thought out little tank!

I actually just changed it completely today, switched to a smaller space

https://www.instagram.com/p/BisqPJhBKEs/

 

[TonyNguyen]

What size is that cube? Looks like a lot of flow going on there!

 

[Dassem]

What size is that cube? Looks like a lot of flow going on there!

8 x 8 x 8, and yup , lot of flow up top for the sps not so bad down low i have it on max right now but theres 3 settings in the cascade 170 , otll probably end up on medium, was worried about not having enough flow due to the shape, but it looks sufficient

 

[TonyNguyen]

Cool, look forward to what gonna happen later! Love cube tank, especially pico!

 

[Dassem]

Day 2 in the cube
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiurSE5hpQk/

 

[brandon429]

Ive been privileged to watch this reef mature via messages

this tank demonstrates both a neat way to run a small tank and it also demonstrates a method for restoration for larger tanks too who may be invaded, ideal

Hey how much do you have to work on algae now Im curious if it was like it used to be Dec time or gotten better/more tuned

-whats the #1 thing or combo of settings that is reducing your algae work we want to know that for sure. upscale it for larger tanks, and use it for invasion challenges in smaller tanks

 

[Dassem]

Ive been privileged to watch this reef mature via messages

this laser clean reef one was opted in clean/maintained clean, corals are the mass taking over. Secretly, this tank demonstrates both a neat way to run a small tank and it also demonstrates a method for restoration for larger tanks too who may be invaded, ideal

Hey how much do you have to work on algae now Im curious if it was like it used to be Dec time or gotten better/more tuned

Honestly i havent pulled out the peroxide in months (approximately 3 months, the tank is 9 months old), once i got it under control the manual way (with continuous scraping and burning) the natural way has taken over and kept it stable. My 3 little dwarf blue hermits and my singular large snail as well as my infinite mini colonista night shift workers do the saily maintenance for me. I really only have to clean the glass and equipment. No more rock scraping, frag scraping etc.
... 100% automated (other than the water changes.

 

[Dassem]

Though my #1 thing has to be manual removal and waterchanges. Im constantly picking, and often even using my crabs as lawnmowers. Ex: one of my frags is having some little bit of algae growth. Ill grab a hermit and place him on. Hell feed for a while and if its up to my standard ill leave it, if not peroxide and scrape. Basically only 2 options in this tank. Either my crabs do it (surprisingly well since theres so little at this point) or my more safe solution is peroxide/scrape. 2 very simple and applicable methodes. And im 100% sure that this method will work on larger scale as well (depending on how much ammonia is being chucked into the tank due to fish and whatnot). But throughout the early stages of the tank, i did not have crabs. The fist big algae blooms (werent so big but still annoying) were all done by yours truly. The crabs came in much later to solidify my work and keep it at a stable level, so if i would neglect the tank for a couple of days or a week i would not have to peroxide my whole rock [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

[brandon429]

I still get localized growth of algae in my reef too, here's a pic of it billowing off the side of the yellow sps frag

ive been a bit lazy in direct cleaning lately but not concerned, its only on this single frag plug. ive been using fingernail to scrape it off, now that its back w go ahead and peroxide it too agreed, knock it back good for a while

some algae grows naturally and finds a way through most indirect defenses, that's how grazers eat agreed

but with a little cheat, and then no particularly bad proportions from the invader anyway, nothing gets a foothold. here's my gha growth due to the lazies/being gone all the time:

 

[Dassem]

Yup! Thats the same same species of algae that i get once in a while, quick brush and off it goes for the crabs to clean up later or gone in the waterchange

 

[brandon429]

It's that wavy brownish not sure of ID

That glass is so scratched it's the clearest I could get for visuals, it would be handier if I didn't have to touch it and a snail would. Yes it's that common gha type brown strands other than being unsightly it's fairly reef common given no animals to mow

One of these days I'd like to try ceriths again they're able to click sometimes on the glass with their shells it is the strangest sound sometimes

 

[Dassem]

It's that wavy brownish not sure of ID

That glass is so scratched it's the clearest I could get for visuals, it would be handier if I didn't have to touch it and a snail would. Yes it's that common gha type brown strands other than being unsightly it's fairly reef common given no animals to mow

One of these days I'd like to try ceriths again they're able to click sometimes on the glass with their shells it is the strangest sound sometimes

Yeah i wish i could find ceriths but my toothbrush will have to do i just ordered my two final corals hopefully they come in safely and hopefully they look good in my tank!

 

[Dassem]

Took another video for day 4 in the cube, every single coral polyp in the tank was open i kid you not ....


https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi0aZkahYBN/

 

[Dassem]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi0aZkahYBN/