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

[Blitz7737]

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

Tight, I'll look into it. Be sure to check out Mr. Bubbles. Advice is always appreciated and I try to update the thread every few weeks. Thanks for all the great info too! Your pico energy is fantastic.

 

[brandon429]

Want to show something modeled in the reefbowl, it turns sixteen soon

I caused a starved mass loss condition causing lps to recede by traveling too much and leaving the bubbling vase nearly on its own the last twenty months

Barely topoff and feeding, hadn't rip cleaned it recently and waste built up in the sand

After a deep cleaning in August, I've been sustaining solid 1-2x weekly water changes plus feeding. My number one favorite mix of feed is roti feast and roe eggs as a one mil pipette input

My lfs has none in stock so I'm currently on rods and reef energy, but the point is clean nutrient cycling.


Exactly like human exercise impacts, reefs can exhibit negative positive and neutral mass states and those can be modulated by CPR pico reef action: sustained feed+ water change 'reps' held above a previous steady- state

Something busier than normal sustained two months will pump up both a human and a reef. The steady state is your constant small feeds designed to barely sustain while not causing too much algae


If we feed as heavily without follow up water change, we sink up our systems

But to put on sps mass, or lps mass, simply target feed and sustain an increase in reef exercise two months. Post your new muscles you caused.


Background big pic is my brain coral now showing two months to overgrowing the former receded skeletal areas. Inset small picture was the receded reef lps losing mass

I'm a quarter inch back over and the whole tank is adding mass. I did a rip cleaning to prepare the sand for open pores ready to take on aggressive feeding vs just blast feed on top of an aged bed

See how the reef is handled, exercised and fed heavily in the clean condition? Reef body building

This is the brain grown into a full colony inside the pico, it has never seen a full sized reef. It's half gone on the rear side due to shading and neglect. I bought a new kessil addition solely to remedy that.

This blasto below is an F2 colony from a single head frag from reefbowl 1 2001

This entire mass has been produced in the vase and has never existed outside the vase. I believe this to be the first true full f2 colony growout from a pico vase. This could be transplanted onto a full reef

 

[Asp762]

I am thinking about starting a sps reef jar as a rehab/growth tank for my 165 gallon reef tank to get sps frags to grow in a better controlled environment before transferring to my larger system. I have a 160 watt kessil but I think that would be overkill.

 

[brandon429]

This one runs two! The rationale is that by passing water through the system with weekly or twice a week feed+ water change we can drive growth quickly


I do think it will help pump up frags for sure.

 

[92Miata]

How are you handling coralline in that thing? Just fully empty it and fill it with vinegar? Scraping seems like it would be tough.

 

[brandon429]

I can't get it to grow anymore with these lights, and I miss it

this vase is very scratched up at the top due to prior years under power compacts for sure.

would take a razor blade and curve it, then use long forceps to position it and scrape off the coralline in huge chunks lem

once used a coat hanger to hammer off all the coralline. this vase is nearing twenty years old its very scratched up but can't be seen too badly from cell phone at distance thankfully. Im kind of worried about how hobby glass integrity holds up over time/photobombing of light but lucky so far

thanks for posting!

 

[brandon429]

Maritza the vase reef

Final update of 2020

This picture has rather stunning hidden details ~ that's Maritzas vase reef from the coral magazine edition about the fishbowl reef behind the actual bowl as it sits four minutes ago


Signed on the mag is Wade and Brett from Tanked. smiles

 

[brandon429]

It's the nicest pico reef on earth.


the miniature aquarium approaching nine years running has never cleaned its sandbed, only gets regular partial water changes. It self balances with utter top shelf sps in it

 

[blueridgereef]

It’s ok to try square tanks but the lids resting on a rim inner diameter typically won’t seal like round fluted vase necks. It means more evap but with a custom fitted full plastic lid you can try it, salt creep is also a challenge in square tanks so bubbling isn’t used, powerhead still work but change dynamics vs positive pressure air exchange, pick one and assemble mainly water changes keep anything alive

For a square tank, do you think taking some aquarium lid clips, like these, and siliconing them to a sheet of acrylic, then creating a seal with silicone around the edge of the acrylic + clip top would work? Any modifications to the idea you would suggest?

 

[brandon429]

Thanks tons for posting! The easiest trick is doing the seal inner diameter vs pressing down from the top

somehow that changes capillary action and wicking of saltwater around the edges

don’t forget water level also matters

you can build a cheat hood which hides the lowered water level and makes the tank look full


this gets your water level meniscus away from the lid because that bridge allows saltwater to flow into the joint between lid and seal and it’ll make salt creep that actually lowers the salinity in the small display over time

this reef totally sealed did that trick. It was 3/4 of an inch low, would look dumb if no hood:

 

[blueridgereef]

Thanks tons for posting! The easiest trick is doing the seal inner diameter vs pressing down from the top

somehow that changes capillary action and wicking of saltwater around the edges

don’t forget water level also matters

you can build a cheat hood which hides the lowered water level and makes the tank look full


this gets your water level meniscus away from the lid

this reef totally sealed did that trick. It was 3/4 of an inch low, would look dumb if no hood:

Interesting! The gravity fed ATOs seem like they could be another answer to the constant salinity challenge, but I wonder if these small tanks could support something like that on the rim...

 

[brandon429]

Who did some pico reefs lately

 

[brandon429]

Look at Maritzas update. Vases like this have an added value due to age of system, among tight circles, beyond that of the corals and lighting have in sum pricing. Maturity costs. Bio art costs and antlering out a fishbowl in absolute top shelf sps coral costs:

 

[brandon429]

Yr ten

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Dude your the man!

 

[brandon429]

these vases have trouble gaining buy in from the masses due to not large enough for fish, but they do something a little bit better than large tanks: live decades without invasion. the tradeoff is accessibility, too small for fish but also too small to have any excuses to let any form of invasion from gha to dinos takeover. its easy to just fully completely clean out a vase if needed and make it truck right along into the next year. I routinely rip clean mine roughly every two years, but that one above from Maritza has never been taken apart for cleaning.

vases actually make fine first reefs, it's not true they're unstable due to being roughly a gallon in volume. they're physically unstable, can be unseated by an errant basketball played in the house, but chemically they're solid and any new keeper can just follow simple weekly feeding and water changes and it runs because of the self control inherent. when they're ready for fish, can upgrade size.

somehow Maritza is able to literally make the reef run the ideal way we all want-hands off and no takedown cleaning required on 10th year. a perfectly self-balancing sandbed, Maritza is the man ~ that's true self balance there. the salinity control is one of the lifespan-lending designs, if someone wants to go on vacation just turn the air down and it'll evaporate even less such that no topoff for ten days is possible.

Maritza uses a kessil a 160 tuna sun and that's what I use too.

 

[Little c big D]

I agree, the hold back is lack of fish which so many love. I noticed you covered the issue of coraline. I can see that being one of the biggest pains in the butt. Other wise the ability to quickly change 100% of the water is nice. Considering coral usually can handle it better than gradual changes [drip vs temp acclimation] and you can put it anywhere.

Is it possible to move them around and use the sun to light the bowls?

 

[brandon429]

yes I wish I could remember the post but somewhere on thereeftank.com a gentleman has been keeping one in the windowsill. he gets more algae on glass to clean/expected but its free lighting and for sure grows corals.