glass jar reef: the project.

Hello all so in my house we have many large glass jars, I have decided to put some coral in one...

the jar i will be using is five liters (about 1.32 gal) with a latching flip top and .

this will be a coral and invert only set up

challenges:

heating/cooling: I am open to suggestions on this as this will be the biggest challenge. is there a tiny heater out there or possibly the combination of placement, light and powerhead motor. will keep it at the right temp
lighting: I figured this would be one of the easier things to solve as im thinking a sub 10w LED will be fine for some soft corals.
livestock: this will be mostly "hardy" soft corals such as zoa's, stars, maybe some mushrooms. as for inverts some algea grazers and maybe some pest control but not much else.
evap./salinity/chemistry: since im only dealing with a gallon and some change of water, there will be very little room for error. I figure the lid with the rubber seal will help with evaporation, filtration will be all biological with liverock and of course a (very) small powerhead.

thats the plan so far keep in mind i havent started this yet. im looking for equipment/livestock suggestions, and feel free to tell me im crazy and it wont work.

 

The lid will not allow gas exchange.

 

Drill the jar and run it inline with your main system.

 

I'm not sure how to accomplish this but I know it has been done. A lot of ppl are doing vase reefs. Try googling vase reefs, you may find some info.

There are small heaters, usually sold under beta heaters for beta fish. They are flat and round, meant for tanks 5g and under.

The smallest powerhead I can think of is the Hydor Nano.

The lid on the jar will pose a problem for gas exchange, you may need to drill holes in it or not use the lid at all.

 

I like the idea of running inline with your main setup. You could, however, take it old school. Rather than a power head (it's gonna be hard getting one small enough that doesn't detract from the view and isn't over powered) you could use an air stone. That would more than likely be totally sufficient for water movement and air exchange in such a small environment.

As was suggested earlier, Hydor makes some really slim and small heaters for betta bowls.

 

So I just pulled up a blog from advancedaquarist.com on the Maritza The Vase Reef. I'm sure you've seen pictures. It's the coolest pico I've ever seen. Check out http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/the-amazing-lil-1.5-gallon-vase-aquarium-called-maritza

The reason I point this out is because this pico has a sealed lid to prevent evap and control parameters just like you want to do. It uses an air pump with filters wrapped around the output to diffuse the air. But that air pump is all that is used for air exchange and water movement and it's gorgeous. I don't know what it uses for heat as the blog doesn't say so I'm inclined to think that all of the heat comes from the pump and the 27W LED.

Check out this post on nano-reef http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/image/41867-maritza-the-vase-reef/. Brandon, the creator, answers some questions you may have, like how to keep the lid closed against building air pressure.

 

Sorry, correction. The creator of that gem is Mary Arroyo. Gotta give credit to the right person.

 

cool thank for the info guys

 

Well, you'll need a stand that will hold it, and leave room for the sump underneath, etc.

J/K!

Looks like a great project! Nice and simple. It would seem that if the room temperature it were in is in the mid to high 70's, that should be enough heat too.

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