I think you hit the nail on the head. It's cool that keeping a micro reef is working, but I guess I can't see the appeal unless you are looking for a hard to establish, fragile, difficult to maintain decoration. It is pretty, but a lot of work for a pretty vase.
Reef Tank In A Flower Vase
- Thread starter mr.bigglesworth
- Start date
I think you hit the nail on the head. It's cool that keeping a micro reef is working, but I guess I can't see the appeal unless you are looking for a hard to establish, fragile, difficult to maintain decoration. It is pretty, but a lot of work for a pretty vase.
I am impressed by what you have pulled out of the vase. I don't think the average person could accomplish that.
I know how this looks to large tank keepers it was the same in 01 these are totally acceptable assumptions. Thats why I wrote earlier the only way to know these are easier than any other reef is to set one up. Once you are free of water testing, topoff, questionable chemistry practices etc you'll see a whole new side of reefing, but only if fish aren't your thing
they never interested me because anyone can keep them, it was corals I had my eye on.
Its totally for new sw tank keepers, check my youtube comments to see how many new keepers and teachers we set these up in classrooms. Tons of them, maybe hundreds I can't recall now
The whole point is being easier and more stable than any other reef a new keeper could try, but we've been ingrained by the dynamics of large tank keeping it just seems impossible I can totally understand. The key was stopping the topoff hassle of small tanks and removing all water testing, once you do that, anyone can grow coral. They usually upgrade to larger tanks anyway I know of only two people with the patience to keep a reefbowl growing at its full potential until its filled up lol
most people want the fish!!
Old reeftank rules meant for large reefs weren't designed by pico reefers...they get to break all the rules. One of the old adages is that the larger the tank, the more stable, its not the case. As soon as you get up to 3, 5 and 10+ gallon nano reefs you are already dealing with wider salinity swings in any time frame and the need for all the failure points listed above. Since you do partial water changes in those tanks, you get to test for the 6 params mentioned above all the time with test kits that cost big bucks collectively if you want to do it right/and usually its not done right.
I found that to be the biggest prohibition in getting people into saltwater, the myriad techniques abound to simply grow a piece of coral. once I wrote a method to show how anyone could do it in a fishbowl, all kinds of pico reefs sprang up
they never interested me because anyone can keep them, it was corals I had my eye on.
Its totally for new sw tank keepers, check my youtube comments to see how many new keepers and teachers we set these up in classrooms. Tons of them, maybe hundreds I can't recall now
The whole point is being easier and more stable than any other reef a new keeper could try, but we've been ingrained by the dynamics of large tank keeping it just seems impossible I can totally understand. The key was stopping the topoff hassle of small tanks and removing all water testing, once you do that, anyone can grow coral. They usually upgrade to larger tanks anyway I know of only two people with the patience to keep a reefbowl growing at its full potential until its filled up lol
most people want the fish!!
Old reeftank rules meant for large reefs weren't designed by pico reefers...they get to break all the rules. One of the old adages is that the larger the tank, the more stable, its not the case. As soon as you get up to 3, 5 and 10+ gallon nano reefs you are already dealing with wider salinity swings in any time frame and the need for all the failure points listed above. Since you do partial water changes in those tanks, you get to test for the 6 params mentioned above all the time with test kits that cost big bucks collectively if you want to do it right/and usually its not done right.
I found that to be the biggest prohibition in getting people into saltwater, the myriad techniques abound to simply grow a piece of coral. once I wrote a method to show how anyone could do it in a fishbowl, all kinds of pico reefs sprang up
The only reason to do one of these is when someone wants the cheapest and easiest way to grow coral and keep shrimp or crab inverts in a mini ecosystem that will involve less cost and technicality than any other size tank. If you have goals beyond that a square box is a better horizon!@
I know how this looks to large tank keepers it was the same in 01 these are totally acceptable assumptions. Thats why I wrote earlier the only way to know these are easier than any other reef is to set one up. Once you are free of water testing, topoff, questionable chemistry practices etc you'll see a whole new side of reefing, but only if fish aren't your thing
they never interested me because anyone can keep them, it was corals I had my eye on.
Its totally for new sw tank keepers, check my youtube comments to see how many new keepers and teachers we set these up in classrooms. Tons of them, maybe hundreds I can't recall now
The whole point is being easier and more stable than any other reef a new keeper could try, but we've been ingrained by the dynamics of large tank keeping it just seems impossible I can totally understand. The key was stopping the topoff hassle of small tanks and removing all water testing, once you do that, anyone can grow coral. They usually upgrade to larger tanks anyway I know of only two people with the patience to keep a reefbowl growing at its full potential until its filled up lol
most people want the fish!!
Yep I know.. it's cool that you have gotten a lot of return on your investment. Thats certainly not true on my hobbies.. lol
Cool money-making vase then.
hey if anyone here is into rc planes then you know of a much more savage time consuming and dollar consuming hobby-video piloting causes me to neglect the bowl severely lol
Haha I understand, I'm into rc trucks not planes though.
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Very interesting thread(s). Thanks for sharing Brandon; you have taught me a bunch. I've attempted smaller tanks and took care of them like big tanks. I'll be applying the lessons you have taught here, and hopefully I'll have better results with my corals soon. Thanks again.
