Why its easier to grow sps in a fishbowl than in a normal reef tank

[Nevil]

@brandon429 Great thread, you inspired me to start my own reef bowl. I'm using the 2 gallon anchor Hocking jar and the reefsmart picopro light. I just set mine up o Friday. I hope my hate looks as good as you Pico tanks!

 

[brandon429]

Nevil nice to meet you please post pics! If I could offer what I think is the single most helpful way to start: by using real live rock already established with coralline from a currently running reef tank. Lfs often have primo rocks for sale with animals attached, those are better than dry rocks because they have all feed supports in place vs having to wait two years for dry rock to catch up

Although dry rock works it'll never grow corals as fast as starting with coralline live rock. 98% of the look is by selecting rock that is already old it makes things easier

 

[Nevil]

Nevil nice to meet you please post pics! If I could offer what I think is the single most helpful way to start: by using real live rock already established with coralline from a currently running reef tank. Lfs often have primo rocks for sale with animals attached, those are better than dry rocks because they have all feed supports in place vs having to wait two years for dry rock to catch up

Although dry rock works it'll never grow corals as fast as starting with coralline live rock. 98% of the look is by selecting rock that is already old it makes things easier

Thanks for the advice! I think I do need to get some new rock. In Oct I took down a 75 gallon reef and downsized to a 45 Gallon tank. I used some of my leftover rock but it's been dry for 3 months now. I seeded it with some filter floss I had in my sump.

I've been thinking I need new rocks since I set it up on Friday. The rocks turned white within a day and water doesn't smell right to me.

I can post some picks tonight, I'm at work now. But I'm really thinking I might start over next weekend with some live rock. Anyways I appreciate all the info you have provided on getting the reef bowl set up.

 

[b4tn]

Since I do 100% water changes weekly things stay pretty clean. But I still grow this very fine white colored hair algae. I’m thinking about throwing some dwarf Cerith snails in mine to help clean some of the stuff that grows on rocks and glass between the week. Anyone throw any snails or a crab in theirs?

 

[brandon429]

I've used them
Ceriths dive in the bed I hardly saw them but they do well and lid sealing keeps em in

 

[Nevil]

Here it is. No heater, not sure if I will run one. I have the inkbird wifi temp controller coming in the mail and will add a heater if needed.

 

[Nevil]

Ok so yesterday I took all the rock out and added 5.5lbs of live rock, did a 100% water change, and added a couple of snails and a hermit. I will post some picks when I get home I forgot to snap one last night after the water cleared up.

 

[brandon429]

Ok perfect yes that's a powerful start

 

[Nevil]

When you do water changes do you use newly mixed saltwater? I'm wondering if it would make more sense to just use water from my mixed reef? Would there be more nutrients available for the corals since it would have some fish poo in there?

 

[brandon429]

That might help nicely for dry rock brought up in the pico. once it’s live with coralline it won’t be required, the system produces its own waste compounding and appreciates the completely fresh flush.


bacteria self regulate just fine in a pico reef and don’t require supplementation when it’s mature. Coralline is a decent time stamp for rock assessment as it proves lengthy submersion time, ion balance which also supports sps coral growth + seeding and feeding of reef building life forms. You want to flush out excess bacterial growth produced by the life in a packed pico, they're not needing more bac they need to be helped shedding their own production, forever. As long as you maintain the in/out exchange the systems will live, no lifespan limit, no old tank syndrome.


if you are feeding very well and then using clean water to flush it out that too is good enough to provide feed webs so rock will mature nicely and corals won’t bleach

corals have to be acclimated slowly so the new focused light doesn’t bleach them

for the most coral mass, make use of the accessibility of a pico reef and CPR flush it with feed + water changes. Sustained, over time the corals will put on side growths and mass if you simply start the reef busily vs the long-standing practice to be hands off and feed sparingly. We aren’t allowing for tank invasion, slow growth or bleached corals in this approach.




problems rarely develop in a pico reef that uses live rock at the start. Most problems for dry rock setup are fixed by feed + water change habits, not via dosers or additives etc. bad rock growths are simply scraped off the rock, no chemistry alteration.


over time and with solid coral and coralline all the work stops

I barely do monthly changes now (fed at that time) and just top off occasionally, it’s the lowest work system possible.

 

[brandon429]

Reefbowl year 14

 

[brandon429]

bunp

anyone start a pico/any updates team

 

[brandon429]

Look at what maritza updated WOW





I consider that the nicest pico reef in the world

I bet it's two grand min in corals all top shelf, one gallon.

 

[12gallonsofhex]

summaries of the threads

-be creative with evap control/the lid. use an inner diameter pressing lid, not a top rester. the strongest designs don't use ato, they beat any other tank in salinity stability

5 day topoffs, no ato, every other sps reef eats gallons a day of freshwater. ours is an ounce a week depending, its literally more stable in a bowl save for elbow incidents to the container.

-get a good qual but affordable sps par light, like the one Maritza the vase reef uses


Expensive lights not required


-the systems want heavy feeding before a large flushing water change, some stress in that way, if at least occasionally and any can handle weekly. they aren't hands off, ultra calm setups, they're toughened compared to how we'd think a tiny pico would require

-use vol% water change in place of dosing and tedious testing.. accomplishes flushing, oxygenation, nutrient upwelling, current, slime removal, redox balancing including removal of acid-generating compounds pre-microbial breakdown, all things sps like. you can pack in hq feeding to every polyp before these storm changes


-no matter what you read about algae in the reef tank ignore it and do this:
When you see it, take the tank apart and kill it in overly done ways. Never hesitate nor take an impartial action. Change nothing about your feed, nutrients, lighting, just kill it and it will eventually stop if you aren't importing it on frags still. We burn the algae with fire from wind proof lighters, or 35% peroxide, nothing is allowed to take over. How many of these pico reefs we are seeing have a single strand of invaded algae?


-we don't care what the brand name of the salt is, you're free. Sandbed brand, grain size, doesn't matter. they all work in this type of high turnover setup... imagine all the threads on dosing, salt brand and type, testing kit brand and type, we're free of them all and that sps is as orange as one could want, plating extra mass beside itself for fragging.

an airstone is good enough to grow any sps you want, they already do supporting work for this in Cruz's microbubble threads.

we have first time reefers in the pico club, documented

its not exclusive to cost and practice, theres a repeating formula that works, always.

whether his fish is controversial or not doesn't apply, im talking about the ecosystem as a whole. I know some ten gallon setups that cardinal wouldn't be happier in...I personally recommend pico works wo the fish but reefers will always add their own touches.

when this all started, keeping the sps in the bowl was way more offensive... guaranteed via allelopathy not to work. currently a redacted claim

I gotta put one of these together! My nano reef started with average corals. I could see doing a handful of high impact colorful corals in a glass bowl

 

[brandon429]

12: a funny pico reef hint governs everything I like to have large tanks do to fight dinos and cyano and hair algae

we are running pico reef method on large tanks when I’m having them disassembly clean the whole thing all at once to blast out invaders


the going thought is one can easily fix their tank if they’ll approach it as a whole unit, all at once, no hesitation, like a tiny fishbowl.
lots of work to take apart, scrape, rinse, skip cycle reassemble? Large tanker‘s problems— let me get my pico violin. If we treat a misbehaving large reef like a perfectly behaving pico bowl the big one will act right.
scalable biology.

 

[brandon429]

Second hidden feature of solely being a pico reefer in a world of all large tank reefers:

Volumists




do you even reef bro? Thats a silly fishbowl. That has nothing to do with my 120 acting up it’s not even the same.


from Miriam-Webster:

Volumism: automatically thinking someone ‘doesn’t even reef’ just because they maintain one gallon among the status quo of ~100 gallons. Volumism.

 

[Blitz7737]

+1 +1 to your thread. Following for good learnings for Mr. Bubbles. #teampico

 

[brandon429]

Viva team New Mexico

tonite after work I pack into Lincoln National forest to live like a caveman for a few days Lubbock to glencoe or ruidoso only 4 hours to change from cotton fields to pine trees that’s my fav weekly vacation. I check on the reef bowl from my fish cam lol

added new kessil to hit my brain coral from the side it had receded due to shading. It will take about two years to fill the rock back over with new growth.

 

[Blitz7737]

Awesome! Be safe out there! #NMTrue

Your little reef is awesome too. What do you use for fish cam? I'm starting to research a similar option. Debating getting Mr. Bubbles a live stream on twitch for whenever I wanna check on it at work and that way my partner always has a way to enjoy it too. Lol.

 

[brandon429]

I like the wyze cam off amazon no monthly fees works great