New 1/2 Gallon Stony Coral Reef

[brandon4291]

This pico reef has been established since December 03. It has been encrusting and growing out, this is the first picture set done yesterday and last week. This reef is based on Mini .75 (3/4 gallon) design, but displaces more water (1/4 gallon more)
this tank however is brand new and so are all the corals and aquascape (4 different caves leading to the rear of the wall). There is a picture of the now dead Mini.75 which has just been moved to a black base without light retros.


Unique features of the pico reef aquarium design:

-This should be the only sealed reef aquarium in operation, never seen the design anywhere else. In my opinion, sealed reef design will evolve the world of pico reef setups more than anything--sg shifts are the number one stressor of nano and pico reef systems (temp a close second)
-Smallest stony coral focus reef, 1/2 gallon housing euphyllia, montipora, blastomussa, acropora frags (new) and caulastrea. Special consideration given to zoathids, ~10 varieties
-Runs three weeks in between water changes, requires daily alk and calcium (C-Balance) dosing, weekly topoffs for sg.
-Houses a stenopus boxer shrimp and a dense pod assortment.
-Has not been pruned in nearly 4 months-I still do not understand the growth patterns of stony corals in pico reefs. For some reason, mine grow slowly and do not require constant trimming. This has been attributed to nitrate accumulation, yet my NO3 hardly registers. I do peel back and cut GSP monthly when it gets near my montipora.
-Is set up as a scale model of a 120 gallon reef. The pictures can fool ya!
-Fully encrusted oyster shell plates (calcified rock, not shell) are cut and stacked closely together to make the reef face.
-There is 1/2 inch distance between the front pane of acrylic and the reef wall behind it. All corals were meticulously trimmed with cutting wire and clips to fit in the desired places. Zoanthids have multiplied tenfold with the bright lighting (13w total) and constant calcium/ alk support. the pictures:

 

[brandon4291]

This time, the required rear desk fan is eliminated and the system becomes temperature-balanced with these dual computer fans. The lighting was also scaled back to just one 13w bulb, there is some minor extension from zoanthids on the sides of the tank but it is well worth the heat loss. They are reproducing nicely and will require cutting soon.

 

[brandon4291]

Borrowed the Mini.75's baffle refugium design, this is where oxygen is made and CO2 is bound. Without a baffle refugium, a sealed reef could not exist without complicated injectors and mechanical hassles. Let nature do the work. Powerhead placement also turns this division of the tank into a detritus trap, notice I use no sand in the refugium. it gets a blanket of bio mud bi-weekly and I can remove it all, algae has been no problem in this tank even with my densest bioloading to date. Would you believe I am about to install a galaxea and more palythoa buttons?

 

[brandon4291]

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[brandon4291]

--This is a custom-made glass lid cut specifically for this tank. it has three holes, two for the powerhead/heater wires and one for a small cork-the dosing and feeding hole. Releasing the sealed lid is a hassle to I just pull out the cork and dose or feed as needed. The wires were cut, ran through grommets placed in the holes, and resoldered back to the unit. This forms a tight fit to keep the seal perfect even though two wires must run through it.

Look at the old picture of this reef back in December 03 to see some of the corals as tiny chip frags.

 

[Anonymous]

Sweeeeeeeeeeet.

Do you have a diagram that details the design? I'd be interested ...

 

[hillbilly]

That's just crazy wild! I love it ! I lot of thought went into that amazing little tank. Please keep us updated.

 

[brandon4291]

Here is a pic of the small boxer shrimp

 

[brandon4291]

This is the design the new 1/2 gallon reef is taken from. The only difference in the old design and the new is there is hardly any substrate (no ls at all, just a few chips) in the 1/2 because I want to keep the focus totally detritus-free.

Look at the diagram and then check out the reef with just freshwater testing the currents, it is set up exactly like the CAD MicrosoftART design

here's another shot of the cable/lid interface. This was a custom glass lid ~$50 that had to be carefully made at Crafton's glass here in Lubbock. This pic was from the first M75, that's why the date is so old. I purchased three extra glass lids of this cut for three other bare bones setups. My last pico reef/matching canopy setup is all white and will likely be a terrarium with a micro waterfall/vaporization system.

 

[Meloco14]

ridiculously amazing...thats the most appropriate term i can think of...
I can't even imagine a tank that small being so successful with that much in it! And you did a great job with the whole design. The pic of the two full tanks next to eachother really looks like two full size 90+ gallon tanks on the floor of a room. I couldn't even imagine the actual size without the pic with the pen for scale. Unless youre tricking us and you found a really big pen...

 

[giro]

I thought my 3 month old 8G Jebo side fuged to 5.5AGA was too small and I was dreaming of a future 'big' 16-18G nano, but brandon your pico is incredible! It really is unbelievable to see a stable pico where the challenges of top off and dosing are minimized. Looking at the full tank shot appears as a true miniaturization of a big reef. The only sealed 'aquariums' if you can call them that are those 'EcoSpheres' which is just some algae and a shrimp. Your fantastic work is inspiring, thank you.

 

[Anonymous]

Amazing...
If you take a picture of youself next to it you'll look like Godzilla!

 

[Anonymous]

.5 gallons..wow man, i do say you have a natural talent...where is that shmuck that said a 10gal was disgrace to reefs?

 

[brandon4291]

I do appreciate it crew- no one else but aquarists would take any notice in this branch of the hobby, so it is very nice to have friends ready to share interests. Giro that was just what I was hoping for! Take a look at this bottom shot of the side-by-side after you glance at the top one again...
Sharkky has agreed to even help me work some digital photography magic if I'll quit being lazy and send him some pics to work with.


Matt remember when I had mentioned setting up a cryptic zone pico? Well this was it, and it was originally designed with additional acrylic panels to block out all light from the baffle refugium to let the cryptics get a start... well I just couldn't do without the O2 production and it seemed to stress the corals at night and in the morning before lights on. I thought leaving a lower water level and a larger space above the water column would hold enough carryover 02 for a cycle, but corals went days without opening do I redid it as a basic baffle refugium like the first time around. I suppose we could directly inject pure O into the reef but how much of a pain would that be! Defeats the purpose of a nano being self sufficient...there's still no cryptic model in my near future

I am going to change the water tomorrow, Ill get some pics up to show the total drained water volume

 

[tinyreef]

that last pic is great! "Brandon Almighty!" :lol: gorgeous designs, as always! 8)

regarding the cryptic pico, i had been tossing around a dark cryptic fuge idea (reading tyree, of course), and about caves and overhangs. the original thought came from a post last year about suspended LR. while i couldn't find the right LR for this Asgardian reef the concept sparked some other dark reef ideas.

you could extend this thought line to an aquascape that creates a viewable overhang with a reef crest setting on top. this creates a significant amount of dark space while also having the typical lit space above. the main thing would be designing the rockscape to be functional and aesthetic but some flat tonga or custom shaped (with bracings) may be a good start. that could allow you to address the O2 issue (with photosynthetics) but still give good viewing area for the targeted cryptic organisms.

 

[Anonymous]

wow sweeeeeeet.

*looks at his 5.5 and his 2.5*

i wonder ... hmmm ....

*saves diagram and pix*

 

[Fozza]

I have to admit, makes me wanna make a few .5 - 1 gal reefs

 

[Anonymous]

Brandon did you make those custom tanks/stands/canopies yourself.? outta glass?

 

[Fozza]

For lighting on such a small reef, one of these bulbs would be adequate right?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... 004+113179

 

[brandon4291]

I see what you are saying rcsheng, great idea! Never thought of that. I suppose that type of suspension work would be ideally suited to a nano because we could engineer small support structures for very small live rock pieces--yes the sizing is a hassle but for a nano things would weigh much less and if you are used to tweezing things into place this wouldn't be much different. maybe for mini#3! Hey ps, I was browsing the net last week and I think I came upon your site. Rcsheng, do you have a little nano that is divided into 3 sections, using a V-shape acrylic setup? I thought it looked great, if this was yours shoot us a pic and I'll set it up for a week-or-so focus. :wink: if not sorry I got you guys mixed up

Fozza those lights will work just fine if you can retrofit them into a small setup. One reason I don't use them is they are rather large (the base housing and internal ballast) compared to a standard 13w pc and remote ballast. Sub gallon reef experimentation is best done in a sub-gallon tank/vase/anything and started out just as LR and saltwater. From there one should mainly watch the evap and get a hold of topoff amounts and times, bioloading the tank with various shrimps and heavy coral loads should come way down the line and in small increments.

I have set up picos where this much coral was bought and installed all at once--needless to say several corals never opened up and the tanks looked generally poor. One of the horizons in pico reef design will be to shed light on alternate workings of coral allelopathy (chemical warfare) in small environments. Why is it these typically unstable coral mixtures (GSP, softs, LPS in same tank) work just fine in a 1/2 gallon reef if each specimen is added slowly, but if they are bought and installed all at once things go awry and no one ever does as well>? I say it has to do with sensitization but I've used no scientific method to discern this. I'll leave that up to someone who is less lazy than myself

I just added pulsing xenia three days ago and it is royally p'd. All closed up blue and such, if I know my corals this rascal will open up and pulse within a week and they'll be a flood of pics to show it! After that, it will no longer show any unnatural behaviors vs. what it would show in a 180 gallon reef. That is what I have seen in my pico experience, and it's just as predictable now as it was last year with the M75 and its first xenia...

didn't build the actual tanks and stands/canopies, but did completely retrofit them to work with saltwater--they were meant to be betta homes @ 1 gallon empty volume. By the time one makes a baffle, stacks LR as close as possible and fills the system up with macroalgae and heavy coral loads, its easy to displace roughly ~1/2 g out of the original setup. Thats how we got down to .5.... I got these tanks from a LFS when they had them and now they have been 'out' for over a year. I bought three at once and had the three special lids made because I wondered if I would ever see them again. Not sure what they are called, 'R' aquariums I think. Cannot find them anywhere on the net but I know they are there somewhere. See in the pics how the working reef has a taller canopy to accomodate the lighting? The black one to the right would need this retrofit before it could house a lighting setup. They were originally just lids so the betta wouldnt jump out.


Hwarang, I see no reason why a 5 or larger wouldn't do well with a baffle refugium. I think sealing a reef of that size will cause major heat issues, so that wouldn't be the main benefit...with the baffle refugium you could still get nice pod farming and great N fixation from the macro. Also, lighting a baffle refugium is usually more efficient because I am hitting almost all of the macro with even lighting. Conventional refugiums require strong lighting to get down to the bottom, and even this is limited by a thick macro forest. With the light coming in from the side (or back of tank) simply more of the refugium is covered and this reduces shaded spots. I appreciate the interest guys, really enjoy talking reefs with you all.

This is a picture of a tiny shark algae magnet I built out of rare-earth magnets from radioshack. They are encased in a candy-drop epoxy case and the scrubbing surface is a thin felt circle. It helps to remove algae and prevent coralline coating when used regularly.

B