ReefBowl

[Bubafat]

What do you use as water flow? I ask this as corals produce some nasty slime on them that has to be removed. I would immagine that this would be especially problematic with so many corals so close to each other.

Buba

 

[brandon4291]

It seems these corals do not mind the extremely close proximity as long as they are not directly touching. The corals do produce slime, but for some reason its not too much for the system. A few mechanisms are at work to reduce this and export the slime--
1. There is a very serious amount of copepods in the bowl because of regular feedings of FrogBites and no predation on them. I suspect they reduce a large portion of it--surely mucous has some if only a little nutritive value.
2. An overdriven airstone powers the system in terms of current. A pump made for a 75g tank with two outs is T'd into one going into the top of the vase. That makes for significant current and slimes are quickly stripped off the corals and delivered to the rock surfaces.
3. The upward/circular flow of the water column takes much of the slime from the euphyllia and the SPS and delivers it to the top of the water column, where bubble splashes take it further outside the water column to the sides of the glass. Discarded shells from pod molts and Dt's particles also get sent here and are removed with bi-weekly wiping. Its a natural protein skimmer effect, and if I had to guess Id say it exports roughly 20 percent of wastes generated.

 

[M.E.Milz]

Hopefully we could evolve the next generation of reef tank design by experimenting with sealed or incompletely-sealed designs. Hopefully as progressions are made, we can start to get away from having to make daily top-offs as well as reduce or eliminate other maintenance concerns. It will take a group effort to work out all the kinks so I say why not start building ones to hang on your wall--that will eliminate the need for a reduced-footprint nano.

Then they will rate them in wall-print

Mike,

I have found some pros and cons to using custom containers for reef aquariums. First, certain shapes will influence dynamics in the tank in one way or another. The restricted diameter of the reefbowl vase along with the incompletely-sealed lid greatly reduce evaporation. However, I have increased the circulation to make up for this lack of surface area at the neck of the vase so maybe its more in the lid...

one way the neck design has helped for sure is in fitting the lid. In the earlier pic where another bowl was inverted, this sat on the upper lip of the vase but still allowed for saltcreep between the edges where the seal wasnt perfect. Thats why I had a black headband around the vase, it wasnt to plug nike! I found that making a lid that sits in the inner-diameter of the vase sealed better, and whatever did seep through was kept up on top of the ridge rather than running down the bowl.

A potential con of using glass decorative structures:

Just thought of this last week, hope Im not right. Its possible that the glass is not made to take this amount of very bright light constantly... Im hoping there wont be any weakening of the structure or photo-oxidation of any elements of the glass. Im going to quit transporting it just to be safe. No more trips to schools or anywhere else, they'll have to come hang out with me to see the odd reef vase! Thats where the femtoreef steps in, its plastic made and easily transportable...

The only other place Ive seen a decorative bowl I REALLY want for a reef bowl is a flower shop. They have this absolutely HUGE glass vase for $75 that holds about 15 gallons and its the same shape, only five times as big. Plenty of room for a clown or goby....hmmmm can't wait until payday. Id say the safe side though is going with glass structures made for our reef applications. On the other hand, this cheapo vase has help up for a year and hopefully more--knock on all the wood around me!

brandon429

Thanks for the tips. I will have to check out the flower shops for the larger glass vases.

 

[brandon4291]

How to make a custom 3mm spotlight for your reef tank if you need that sort of thing:


1. Buy a 3 volt 500mA power supply from RadioShack, some heat-shrink tubing, and their biggest Blue L.E.D.
2. Find a small suction cup and drill a tiny hole right through the middle of it.
3. Insert the led into the hole from the back side with some superglue around it to reseal the suction cup
4. Slide the heat shrink tubing over the power cord, and take the two leads from the led and insert them right into the output base plug of your power supply.
5. Slide the heat shrink tubing back over the connection and seal it.
6. Stick this contraption behind your reef wall and aim it through a hole in your rock structure. You'd be suprised how bright it is even with just one LED. Its visible during the day, but most fun at night after the lights go out. You could use red for night copepod viewing, or blue for a moonlight effect, or a combo of both set apart with a small switch between them

Im sure you could put an array in parallel on one of these pwr supplies--LEDs dont draw very much current. Your local RS guy can tell you the upper limits based on your PS voltage.

 

[brandon4291]

up close

 

[M.E.Milz]

Brandon, I have a quick question.

Your posts emphasize the importance of a close-fitting or partially sealed lid. Why? Is the only purpose to limit evaporation, and thereby limit the need for top-offs? Is there some other benefit? If daily top-offs are not an issue for me, is there any reason to attempt to seal the top of the tank?

Thanks in advance, Mike

 

[brandon4291]

The partially sealed lid may not be best approach for all systems, but IMO it really helps here to reduce the need for topoffs. Salt creep was eliminated after wrapping the edges of the lid in teflon tape, and when you push down lightly on the top of the lid it flexes slowly, you can feel the pressure slightly. Also there was concern for keeping contaminants from the room from getting into the bowl--I didnt want to have to wonder every time room DO was sprayed. The pump for it is 8 feet of tubing away hidden under my 75g tank and not exposed to the open room. The partial positive pressure under the lid, and the single air vent, keeps any suspended air particles from getting in.
Sealed lids are also working well in the betta-hex reef. It is running for quite some time in between top-offs and becoming a very low maintenance system. It is delicate though, temp stability needs to be consistent in the room or the corals will be stressed. It would be a perfect little pico reef if I could just get that temp control down pat...

 

[brandon4291]

Here is a pic I haven't posted before. imagine how many of those betta-hex reefs could fit into this planted 75 gallon aquarium...

 

[brandon4291]

this is a good side angle of the two reefs. The montipora in each has been relocated, changing they layout from time to time...

 

[brandon4291]

----

 

[brandon4291]

reducing or eliminating evaporation is crucial for a low-maintenance pico system. in this picture, I had tried wrapping the blue rubber bands you get off a bunch of broccoli at the store around the femtoreef to hold the lid on tight--lined in teflon tape. It was still very hard to control salt creep at the rear where the fan was... the reefbowl doesn't have the benefit of a refugium so it can't be completely sealed.

 

[brandon4291]

this is a picture of the reefbowl, drained, at water change time. I like to do 100% changes on the bowl, none of the inhabitants seem to mind. I match water parameters each time the water is changed (temp, SG, buffering)

 

[brandon4291]

may have already posted this pic--can't remember. When tools are a hassle to use, depending on the shape or required positioning of a coral I may glove my hand and try to fit it in for an adjustment.

 

[brandon4291]

Here is an updated picture as of 12/22/02

The brown acropora seen in the plastic plug in the above pictures has been traded off. In its place Ive installed about 10 more heads of caulastrea, which does very well in all properly lit and serviced nanos.

 

[brandon4291]

up close same day


I think adding specimens slowly has given the system time to adjust to each new member. I wonder if these various species fire their nematocysts regularly, or if that action tapers off until a new organism is added and its new chemical information is detected. Caulastrea and Euphyllia are not kind to each other when touching. The euphyllia always wins from what Ive seen, but they can be 1/2 inch apart and not mind each other in the least... IMO a reefbowl is a neat way to observe allelopathy among coral species. When you have several different species competing for light and food in a one gallon container, yet each specimen extends and maintains its polyps for very long periods in the bowl, I think its safe to assume some kind of steady-state has developed.

there is no telling what would happen if the reefbowl was set up and stocked this densely right off the bat. I do feel that slow additions gives the ecosystem time to adjust before another is added...

 

[brandon4291]

notice the large brown mushroom corallimorph right next to the caulastrea on the glass... at any other time this would be lethal to the candy coral but for some reason there is no more problem here after about 4 months in this position. They arent actually touching yet, but in the past I observed caulastrea retracting even when the mushrooms were near-by.
The mushroom was lower down in the scaping, but has sinced moved up to get a better light position. If he starts to creep up the base of the caulastrea, Ill shoot him with a little kalk injection and scrape him out...

un-natural selection is cruel and swift in the reefbowl

I recently removed my hermits because they were walking over the corals too much, Ill let the various copepods do the reducing around here. The hermits were moved to another reef tank in my bedroom.

 

[brandon4291]

I have increased food pellet input into the system. After consistently low nitrate readings, I wanted to push the system for further performance by allowing for more copepods and worms. the population of microfauna in the bowl quickly adjusts to the increased food source, and the substrate is starting to hold many, if not hundreds, of tiny worms varying in classification/

This bowl is fed HBJ frog pellets, some are smashed, into the water column. Much lands on the LPS, much lands on the sand and is eaten by pods.

So far, I do not appear to be getting hydrogen sulfide production from this aging sand substrate. I haven't really pushed the system before--I fed sparingly. In fact, the substrate didnt even change color for many months until more food was added...
The darker patches in the sand are algae that developed back when the femtoreef used to sit next to it. That system was about as tall as the reefbowl's sand column, so the escaping light was always shining on the side of the reefbowl DSB. Several shades of red, green and purple are interspersed, and I think it all contributes to more micro-diversity.

 

[brandon4291]

another closeup. notice how the left side of the glass is blurry from deposits and the right side is very clean after being scraped/

 

[reefann]

WOW WOW WOW I love the reef bowl brandon! Its great thanks for sharing it with us. BTW would you be offended if Iever tried a similar project in the distant future. I mean distant enough projects brewing in my head like the seahorse tank and the octotank i want to start. Guess I have to add one more to the list. Im going broke one project at a time :x
_________________
PGP

 

[brandon4291]

hey sure appreciate it reefann!
wish you the best of luck if you set up a small reef aquarium.
Brandon