1/2 gal tide pool nursery tank

[mrcolbeck]

I started this just to hold baby mollies from my 12 gal office tank until my admin asst could take them home. It's just an upside down display box. I added a couple rocks and chaeto for food and appearance. But this was just temporary, right?! And I added a small LED unit I wasn't using. Suddenly I had another reef tank going in my office. Okay, so I don't have any corals in it, but it does have active sand and live rock with sponges and coraline algae and who knows what else. It grows food for the fish and has been stable for over a month with only 1/3 water changes weekly.

I raised 15 mollies to 1/2" - 3/4" in 5 weeks. This is the second batch of babies less than a week old. I intend to keep this going as a natural system. I don't need a heater yet because my office stays at 72-74. Not sure what's next.

 

[user 26995]

Thats too cool. Great job on raising them.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Peppie]

I started this just to hold baby mollies from my 12 gal office tank until my admin asst could take them home. It's just an upside down display box. I added a couple rocks and chaeto for food and appearance. But this was just temporary, right?! And I added a small LED unit I wasn't using. Suddenly I had another reef tank going in my office. Okay, so I don't have any corals in it, but it does have active sand and live rock with sponges and coraline algae and who knows what else. It grows food for the fish and has been stable for over a month with only 1/3 water changes weekly.
View attachment 43386
I raised 15 mollies to 1/2" - 3/4" in 5 weeks. This is the second batch of babies less than a week old. I intend to keep this going as a natural system. I don't need a heater yet because my office stays at 72-74. Not sure what's next.

Whats next??
A trip to the shrink. You know this is a sickness??? it can be treated. LOL
Coll little set up.
Whats next??

 

[chickenofthesea]

Awesome, love this tiny setup! wouldn't mind some more pic's and maybe taken next to something else to get a better idea of the size.

 

[mrcolbeck]

I think next step will be to get a microscope so what's in the tank. Seriously, the cloudiness in the picture is organisms in the water (rotifers? pods?) I often see the fish chasing something too small for me to see.

I'd like to keep this as simple as possible ( in contrast to the upgrades I'm doing on my 12 gal.) The water quality would probably be good enough for lagoon corals if I only added one or two polyps. The problem is that right now it has no water circulation. I could add a small airstone. And I have to check the spectrum of my LED unit, probably add some UV leds. But for now I just want keep it stable and figure out what I did right (by accident).

 

[user 26995]

and figure out what I did right (by accident).

LOL good luck with that. Problem might be when you figure it out, you try to make it better and mess it up! Just keep doing what your doing.

 

[mrcolbeck]

I'm definitely going to take it slow, ready to say "I meant to do that" as long as it keeps working out.

 

[Peppie]

The tank will get oxygen starved quickly if there is no surface agitation or an air stone. You may want to add a small air pump or a little powerhead.

 

[mrcolbeck]

I'll probably add an airstone soon, but powerhead would be too much for 1/2 gal I think. This is supposed to be a protected tide pool, not the open reef. Any thoughts on smallest, quietest air pump?

 

[chickenofthesea]

Hydor makes a really small powerhead "pico evolution" that i got for my 4g pico and it is very lights flow and it is adjustable to almost nothing and its cheap.

 

[mrcolbeck]

Final pics:
Shelf view for scale

close up, fish 1 week older

first batch (6 weeks old) returned to 12 gal