Hey guys I wanted to get a discussion going about Pico reefs.. I know in the past I have talked about Nano reefs and the challenges of running them such as water quality and equipment constraints due to the size of these tanks but after getting my feet wet and becoming experienced in the hobby I moved up from small tanks to a slightly larger tank and continued on to doing a satellite larger project for a friend. A while back I came across a youtube video of "Maritza the vase reef" if you haven't seen it or don't know what I am talking about take a second to watch it and be amazed at its beauty and simplicity.
Maritza as ill call her from here on out is a beautiful reef of both softies SPS and LPS housed in a 1.5 gallon glass vase, the equipment used to keep Maritza thriving is extremely simple it consists of a small air pump with about 2 ft of airline tubing and a small ball shaped air stone this is used to provide the oxygenation and circulation of the water in Maritza's vase. The next piece of equipment is a small desk lamp containing a Chinese LED Reef bulb (standard light bulb style), and a digital temp probe.
That's it 3 pieces of simple equipment .. nothing fancy nothing high tech just a light a air stone and digital temp probe. when you guys look at this reef you'll see coral growth that people strive for in large scale tanks but struggle to keep going and in the process spend hundreds of dollars on fancy equipment such as skimmers, reef keepers, circulators, dosing pumps, and light systems. It can be said that the simplicity of the vase reef is the night and day opposite of a tank such as a 150 gallon how ever they both can achieve the same thing.
Now unfortunately I haven't been able to track down Maritza's owner to ask questions about how long the reef has been going and what kind of upkeep they do but I remember reading awhile back that its around 12 years old and that the main upkeep is a water change schedule every few days using a high quality salt mix. there are several other youtube videos out there of people doing similar reefs some even containing inverts and one even containing a small gobby in these videos the reef keepers go into details of upkeep and equipment and setting up but the common theme is simplicity the designs don't require much more then the occasional water change to keep them going. In one video they reef keeper even stated he has so much growth that his problem is becoming fragging the coral down in such a tight space.
Any ways to open a discussion, id love to here your thoughts on this, has anyone ever tried to make one? any success or failure stories? I have always wanted to try and set one up just never had the confidence at the time but im starting to lean further into the idea cause I am so amazed by it
Maritza as ill call her from here on out is a beautiful reef of both softies SPS and LPS housed in a 1.5 gallon glass vase, the equipment used to keep Maritza thriving is extremely simple it consists of a small air pump with about 2 ft of airline tubing and a small ball shaped air stone this is used to provide the oxygenation and circulation of the water in Maritza's vase. The next piece of equipment is a small desk lamp containing a Chinese LED Reef bulb (standard light bulb style), and a digital temp probe.
That's it 3 pieces of simple equipment .. nothing fancy nothing high tech just a light a air stone and digital temp probe. when you guys look at this reef you'll see coral growth that people strive for in large scale tanks but struggle to keep going and in the process spend hundreds of dollars on fancy equipment such as skimmers, reef keepers, circulators, dosing pumps, and light systems. It can be said that the simplicity of the vase reef is the night and day opposite of a tank such as a 150 gallon how ever they both can achieve the same thing.
Now unfortunately I haven't been able to track down Maritza's owner to ask questions about how long the reef has been going and what kind of upkeep they do but I remember reading awhile back that its around 12 years old and that the main upkeep is a water change schedule every few days using a high quality salt mix. there are several other youtube videos out there of people doing similar reefs some even containing inverts and one even containing a small gobby in these videos the reef keepers go into details of upkeep and equipment and setting up but the common theme is simplicity the designs don't require much more then the occasional water change to keep them going. In one video they reef keeper even stated he has so much growth that his problem is becoming fragging the coral down in such a tight space.
Any ways to open a discussion, id love to here your thoughts on this, has anyone ever tried to make one? any success or failure stories? I have always wanted to try and set one up just never had the confidence at the time but im starting to lean further into the idea cause I am so amazed by it
