Salt Water Aquarium Tips and Tutorials

1 Gallon Saltwater Aquarium and Globe Ecosystems

1 Gallon Pico Reef, 1/2 gallon sealed SPS reef tank, 19 gallon bog terrarium globe, 75 gallon planted tank with Co2 injection. These are the ecosystems and their inhabitants I have watched grow over the years. Keeping ecosystems in odd containers changes the chemistry and dynamics interestingly across these tanks. All are years old and self-stabilize in time

Duration : 0:11:0


Salt water Aquarium 33g

Technorati Tags: 1 Gallon Pico Reef

February 11th, 2009 at 9:25 pm


23 Responses to “1 Gallon Saltwater Aquarium and Globe Ecosystems”

  1. higheddy89 Says:

    Biology is so not …
    Biology is so not my thing, but let me say your collection is amazing. Very inspiring. . . even to those who have other studies!

  2. vardesigns Says:

    very very nice …
    very very nice tanks you got there. wow!!

  3. brandon429 Says:

    I can’t wait to see …
    I can’t wait to see how it turns out I’m glad you are replicating the setup. You will also see the natural skimming effect of the bubbles, they will deposit scum on the inside of the neck above the water, when you wipe it off you are exporting. crabs and snails are fine, I’ve used both. crabs tend to close up corals though

  4. KevinStan3 Says:

    Thank you Brandon …
    Thank you Brandon for all of your help. I have been keeping reefs for about 6 years but am now getting more into the tiny pico tanks. I started my own reef vase 4 days ago and have it running now. I was wondering if you have snails / hermits in your tank? I have one of each to clean the rock right now but didn’t see any in your vase… What is your take on snails and crabs in the pico aquariums?

  5. brandon429 Says:

    Im finding through …
    Im finding through years of trial and error that it’s my opinion the doughs and fillers/binders used in pelleted feed cause sandbed accumulations in my tank. When I cease all prepared foods and go only frozen/ the bed will clear itself of deposits after a few months and the microfauna selection weighs against gammarus and more in favor of sponges and calcareous worms. In a larger tank this likely wouldn’t matter, but it’s funny what you see in a one gallon after 4 years now…

  6. brandon429 Says:

    thanks for stopping …
    thanks for stopping in ipsf!
    the music was just a freeware track I got off a “soothing music” search from a massage training site about 5 years ago
    called relaxing waves i think

  7. ipsfdotcom Says:

    Great work, Brandon …
    Great work, Brandon. The future of reefkeeping, imho. BTW, what is the music on your other vid, with the crashing waves? Thx!

  8. brandon429 Says:

    I will add …
    I will add something that may be very important, the cycling. I have never added inverts before it was aged, to make sure the chemical and physical cycles have balanced. It may work in a shorter period, but I feel it’s important to make sure you can age one before putting those higher life forms inside. the way you control salinity is mark the water line with a marker, and fill up with freshwater anytime water is lower than that line, it will always go back to the original specific gravity

  9. KevinStan3 Says:

    I am starting mine …
    I am starting mine up tomorrow.

    My list:

    Vase
    Vase cover
    air pump and air stone
    heater
    light
    live sand
    r/o water and salt mix

    If I am leaving anything out please let me know.
    I plan on keeping a pom pom crab and maybe a scarlet cleaner shrimp.
    I was wondering if you put hermits and snails in yours?
    Any other information that would help me please let me know… I am really excited about this project….

  10. brandon429 Says:

    yes its just a …
    yes its just a regular heater, but its the small preset ones from tetra. Jerks won’t even let me on their forum and I’m promoting their stuff heh
    there is just an airstone, so run it heavy with an oversized pump to get good flow and the lid will keep your topoff to every two days or so. don’t feed the tank too heavily when new and chg wtr weekly 100%, you’ll do fine

  11. KevinStan3 Says:

    I noticed in the …
    I noticed in the vase pico you are running an airstone for water movement.

    What is the other black thing in the back of it? is that a heater?

    What other equipment are you running on the vase?

    I am about to start one of these and am trying to get everything together.

  12. brandon429 Says:

    thank you both for …
    thank you both for stopping in!
    The light is a coralife minimight 50/50 and one extra 13watt 50 50
    yes it’s a vase from walmart, about two gallons, with displacement it’s one.
    The lid is a plastic lid meant to set potted plants in, again from wal mart. it’s just inverted and a slit is cut for heater and air lines.

  13. KevinStan3 Says:

    Few questions for …
    Few questions for you.

    What kind of light is that over top of the vase?

    Is that a standard glass vase you are using?

    What are you using for the lid over the vase to prevent evap ?

    Thanks for sharing… very inspiring….

  14. brandon429 Says:

    I just noticed some …
    I just noticed some of the dating in the still pics is out of order, especially on the construction ones of the half gallon reef. This is because my cam would reset it’s clock randomly, usually when batteries died, and I would not always take time to fix it

  15. TropicalFishHobbyist Says:

    Thanks for sharing …
    Thanks for sharing with us. Very interesting stuff!

  16. brandon429 Says:

    I had to retrofit …
    I had to retrofit it heavily to make it work as a reef. I paid a glass cutter 50 bucks to make custom lids with holes premade in them for the line passes, then I had to mod the canopy to hold to 13 wattx2 50/50 lights…ever seen 52 watts per gallon on a tank before ha lol!

  17. brandon429 Says:

    hey I really …
    hey I really appreciate you all stopping by. Unfortunately the square tanks can’t be found, anywhere. My lfs had only three in 2001 and I bought em all! I’ve looked all over, think the company went out of biz. He told me they were called “R” aquariums, that’s the only lead I ever had for them!

  18. mwpfishbreeder Says:

    The 1/2 gallon is …
    The 1/2 gallon is inspiring – I want one. Where’d you get the tank? I could see entire club events where folks bring their 1/2 gallon reefs to the event for setup and judging – the saltwater “bowl show”…

  19. royObingham Says:

    Wow! I really like …
    Wow! I really like what you have done. Quite an accomplishment. Which of the PicoReefs do you still have active?

    I am keeping a 6 gallon Pico Reef. Can be a lot of work but since I am still looking for work it is keeping my mind busy.

  20. cheryl4967 Says:

    really beautiful .. …
    really beautiful … you have a gift :o )

  21. aprilxanimals Says:

    i thought that pic …
    i thought that pic tank was a 75 when you showed it up close xD

  22. brandon429 Says:

    The terrarium bowl …
    The terrarium bowl does not use circulation and I do not ever prune it or touch the inside, it’s true stand alone 99%
    I have to add distilled water, some fertilizer but degraders in the system take down leaves and lost fish (wild type guppies)

  23. brandon429 Says:

    the point of every …
    the point of every ecosystem in this video is pure biology and less technology. These systems are as bare bones as you can get across the aquatic spectrum. There is no cheaper or easier way to run a reef or a terrarium than pure stand-alone. I cheated a bit in using CO2 for the big tank but I just had to!

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