Pieni on kaunista

[Aqualung]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3lhEeOCpao

[Pallokala]

Samaa kokoluokkaa oleva "allas" oli yhdessä akvaariokaupassa Hongkongissa, siellä vain oli korallien lisäksi jotain rapuja ja pari pientä kalaa myös... Purkki oli isomman altaan kyljessä ja muistutti kooltaan hammaskarpeilla käytettävää synnytys/poikaslaatikkoa. Hieno oli.

[MrAFCMagic]

Jo on jättimäinenkäsi!

[brandon429]

google translator.

Thank you for noticing my reefs, there are no others like them or as old. Enjoy these as well!



video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThIuQcBp ... re=related

[brandon429]

more:

[brandon429]

I am sorry I cannot communicate, this appears to be a finnish website? I wish I could visit there!

If anyone can translate:

These micro reef tanks demonstrate the simplest way to run a coral reef aquarium. They have been alive for over three years and are the oldest sub-gallon reefs you will see anywhere. There are no water pumps, only air circulation. The square one is totally sealed and does not evaporate fresh water, this can't be said for any other reef tank in the world, and these fit in the palm of your hand! I hope my work helps the progression of the reef aquarium hobby.
These tiny tanks violate nearly all "laws" of reef tank keeping, yet they are years old and are not wrecked by algae? When set up correctly a reef tank does not require expensive equipment to keep the same corals, anything that can fit in the bowl will thrive in the bowl.

Thank you
Brandon from Texas, US

[brandon429]

These are the smallest saltwater reef aquariums in the world, the first micro tanks to take hold in the hobby and they are still alive today.

[cmmd]

I think a moderator should move your posts into its own thread. People might have a lot of question about your tank setups. We all have a lot to learn from you! I'm glad you registered into our forum. Sure you can use English here (I don't know if it's against the rules but couldn't we make an exception?) and someone here will translate both ways if necessary.

Your youtube link was posted on here a little time ago and I was like "WOW!" You could tell us more about your tank setups. Here some question to help you going:

How often do you change water? Or do you?
Do you add any minerals? How's the calcium?
What living creatures do they hold? (though it comes up in your videos)
Have you ever got any problems? Crashes etc?
How do you keep temperature steady?
How's the lighting?

[brandon429]

Thank you for your response I will answer with google translator.

By the way it is not always right! It tries to change my word aquarium into "microwave" ha ha!

Calcium- I add two part doser C-Balance, 1 milliliter per day of part A, then one milliliter of part B the next day, only in the mornings. If you added that amount at the end of the day, after photosynthesis has removed all the acids (carbonic), it would strip the flesh off of all the corals. Yes I have had crashes before, but not from overcrowding, it was from someone who was taking care of my reefs thought they could add the ions in the afternoon and that the morning was not so important.

In the mornings pH is lowest in any aquarium due to respiration at night, and a buildup of Co2 in the water. The water is ready to receive ions at this point only in the micro tank.

Room temperature is also important, one summer day my air conditioner went out and the room got to 95 degrees, which also killed a tank.

Thankfully I've been lucky with these tanks, no disasters.

The animals:
-coral banded shrimp stenopus hispidus
-boxer crab lybbia tesselatta
-15-20 asterina starfish. these are not harmful as many people say.
-10 micro ophiuriod stars
-lots of gammarid shrimp as the video shows

Water changes are interesting, the tank is flexible. it can go two weeks without a water change just like a big tank if you do not feed it, but since I feed mine everyday to puff up the corals and make them reproduce I like to change it two times per week. The water is only one gallon so a complete change takes only 2 minutes!

the lighting is simple power compacts. The temperature is easy as long as the room has a good air conditioner. Since there is a heater, the tank cannot freeze in the winter

[-Alix-]

Hi Brandon and nice that you found our forum! You say "sealed aquarium", but it's not biosphere-sealed as in never opened, I assume since you feed the corals and add calcium? The sealing is just to prevent evaporation? How does the aeration work, the air is taken from outside the tank (I assume again), but doesn't it have to come out as well? Keeping a small tank sealed could be an easier way to keep them in a low-tech way, as long as the heat is managed. Very interesting.

[brandon429]

Thank you for your inquiry!

Thats right, the square reef in the video is sealed until you break the seal open to scrape coralline or re position corals. THere is a little cork where feed and water samples are taken if needed, yes the point is to restrict evaporation in between water changes and it works well.

In the measurement picture showing the working area of the reef at two inches, notice the crappy silicone seal around the perimeter of the tank. The mini canopy covers this up during display. I made the seal by gluing the lid onto the tank, letting it dry, then using a razor blade to make a single cut around the tank. With the weight of the canopy, the seal is pressed back into place after I have to remove it from time to time for water changes.

THe lighting is is two 13 watt 50 50 bulbs, so in the scale I am working in this does not add too much heat to the tank. I think that to seal a large reef one would have to use a chiller.

The vase reef is semi-sealed, since it is airstone driven there has to be a postive pressure escape. A full size reef has the total surface area of the upper water column liberating fresh water, but the vase reef uses a plastic lid that seats around the inner diameter of the vase. The escape hole for the positive air pressure is the inlet cut for the lines that run the heater and airstone. Since the lid rests on the inner diameter of the vase, all the splatter from the airstone is redirected back into the tank, so the only evaporation is the portion that is carried out through the inlet cuts in the lid, a very small portion compared to the total surface area of the water at the top of the vase. This results in a three day topoff requirement, much like a larger tank. If the pico reef rank without this lid, the topoff would be twice daily!

Oxygenation in the sealed reef is accomplished by the internal refugium. It is counter-lit to the main lights, so at night when there is an oxygen demand photosynthesis of the macro algae is handling that.

In the reefbowl vase, oxygenation occurs at the air/water interface just like it does in a normal size tank. THe air stone causes enough turnover to refresh old water at the surface and oxygen is picked up in that way. Remember that air bubbles don't oxygenate water in any tank, it's the turnover at the water's surface that does the majority of the work.



Thank you for the discussions.

[brandon429]

Here is a new video with several different ecosystems set up in ways you have never seen before! Enjoy my friends from Finland.

Brandon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOsitYhihc

[brandon429]

this picture shows the scale length. the size of corals is shaped with a dremel grinder tool, then carefully allowed to grow into place. the entire tank weighs 5 pounds completely full

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOsitYhihc

reefmeasure.2.jpg (36.2 KiB) Katsottu 30381 kertaa

[Mikko V]

Quite impressive picoreef! It's nice that you share it to us.

[-Alix-]

I'm really starting to get interested in this "covered pico reef" -idea... The whole topoff thing is what mainly has deterred me, since an automated topoff system would be very ugly in such a small system and manual topoff would be too much hassel for me. Hmm. Weekly water changes could be done at the same time and with the same effort as for my main tank... Also the simplicity of it all intreagues me. Water changes, some "additives" and that's about it.

How often do you have to clean or wipe down the cover/lid? I imagine especially the vase gets quite some spatter due to the air bubbles? How do you avoid a build-up of bacteria on the surface, as this usually is avoided by generous surface movement?

How well has the tank travelled when you have taken it to shows/exhibits? Right now there is a pet exhibit going on in Finland and instantly I thought that a pico reef could be fun and easy to show, that is if it is possible to move without disturbing its balance..? Any changes in the reef after a show? Algae, coral losses?

[brandon429]

thank you for stopping by!

I do a full water change often, this prevents the bacteria buildup you mentioned. Most large tanks can't do such water changes so they constantly support high bacterial loads, which are feeding on stored up wastes, so algae battles are common. in this pico that gets water changes often, both the bacteria and the waste they feed on are limited.

nothing has died in a transport. i drove one hour with it unplugged in my car and did a water change when I got there to remove pollutants and influx fresh oxygebated water.

the vase has a high humidity inside. the lid fits perfectly inside the neck, so there is no saltcreep. inside it looks like rain, droplets, never dry so it is pretty. this is a constant recycling of both evaporated fresh water, and splattered salt water, so the result is a 3 day topoff requirement, just like large tanks! the vase is the easier model to build and it's more stable, the micro SPS tank must be fanned and is temperature sensitive.

[brandon429]

these pics show some design aspects

RB2.jpg (52.13 KiB) Katsottu 29819 kertaa

[brandon429]

I would like to thank the thread author who brought this discussion alive, thank you.

These additional pictures will help other builders with ideas

AA1.jpg (30.33 KiB) Katsottu 29756 kertaa

AA2.jpg (51.28 KiB) Katsottu 29756 kertaa

AA4.jpg (20.56 KiB) Katsottu 29756 kertaa

AA5.jpg (21.38 KiB) Katsottu 29756 kertaa

[-Alix-]

Cute little cubes, Brandon, I assume the one on the right is a refugium?

A question about cooling. As the pico is sealed, one can't cool down via evaporating. How well does a fan cool down the tank just by blowing on the side of it? Can it cool the tank to be cooler than room temperature (as can be achieved via evaporation). Can you give an example on how you cool your tanks and what degrees you achieve? This is still a thing I'm trying to figure out before unleashing the nano-demon within (as I have a pretty little 5 g tank with light just sitting empty on a shelf).

[brandon429]

thank you for stopping in! yes cooling is a serious problem for the sealed one. With the fan blowing directly on the lights, it runs one or two degrees above ambient temp, never below! It's life is tied to the reliability of the fan, but they don't really go out so that's just a down side of the design. So on a summer day when the house is 75 it runs about 78, and I have never let the internal temp of the sealed tank/refugium get over 81 degrees as an *absolute* maximum. I try to keep all reefs at 78 degrees all the time.

The vase has no temp issues, it runs right at ambient room temperature. I have evolved to prefer my house be at 75 degrees year round!

[-Alix-]

So temp really would be an issue since we don't have air conditioning (the days in the summer when one would need it are very few ). But even a few days of teps over 82 degrees (28 celsius) ambient temp could prove fatal in a small system. Hmm. This issue needs some attention.

[brandon429]

im thinking if your house gets into 82 degrees though it would fry a normal sized reef? most normal sized reefs also run 1 or 2 degrees above ambient...pumps and lights. the square micro tank for sure would overheat! that's pretty hot but a larger reef can last a few days before it matches the ambient temps, or you could just use a chiller.

[-Alix-]

Using fans (I use computer fans) directed at the surface to maximize evaporation keeps the reef at a tolerable temperature trough our not-too-tropical summers. As long as the temperature doesn't rise above 83 degrees a larger tank can survive (this seems to be the limit even for hardy species). My tank has survived like this so far (knock on wood), but a really small system, specially one that aims at minimizing evaporation would be in big trouble. A cooler feels like overkill, very few use them over here because they're insanely expensive.

[brandon429]

oh yea without sealing you can evaporative cool, makes sense. 83 is dang high, but if its managed slowly I can totally see corals and animals adapting to it. So someone needs to design a nano chiller that runs on butane or freon for a car!

[-Alix-]

And it needs to be tiny, cheap and ecological!