Yowsa! 1/2 gallon reef tank.

[wombat2]

This guy continues to amaze me. Brandon429 at RDO. It's a 0.5 gallon tank, running for a year now.

 

[FunGuy]

Wow, very nice. Everything is tossed in there! I'm surprised there are no major wars between corals.

 

[yoshiod9]

i figure that as long as he has a quality ATO, he should be fine. the reason i tore down my pico was because the daily evap. rate was too much for me to deal with (if i left for more than two days, the specific gravity would jump from .025 to .030). it evaporated about .5 cup per day.

that guy is my hero for making a pico work so well (and grow!).

 

[Unarce]

Yeah, Brandon is very creative. He's put out some amazing picos over the years.

 

[xia]

Very cool and inspiring! Is that salt creep or silicone? Does he have a sump? I think it's amazing you can have that much stuff in there, but looks kinda crammed and unnatural. Very sweet setup!

 

[Undergrad]

Wow, thats great news to hear its doing so well! Though I'd have to say I wouldn't be as brave as him putting a Euphylia sp. in there with it being so cramped. That just makes this accomplishment so much sweeter .

 

[Justin74]

Go ahead and flame me, but I think that is just pure rediculousness

-Justin

 

[Elite]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8373033#post8373033 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Justin74
Go ahead and flame me, but I think that is just pure rediculousness

-Justin

I guess I'm not the only one.

 

[Unarce]

Is 'rediculousness' slang for artistic? :lol:

I do find it be a similar expression as bonsai. It's an extreme challenge, though. Best reserved for the most experienced hobbyists.

 

[Wee-Reef Master]

I think that it's an incredible effort. Job well done! It IS the bonsai of the new century. Guys are doing incredible things with nanos. It definitely plays a role in our hobby.

 

[Undergrad]

I'd have to agree with Wee-Reef Master on this. I'll admit this is leaning towards "extreme" reefing, however I would reserve the phrase "pure rediculousness" for stuff such as this: stuff on my cat .

 

[Justin74]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8373324#post8373324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Unarce
Is 'rediculousness' slang for artistic? :lol:

I do find it be a similar expression as bonsai. It's an extreme challenge, though. Best reserved for the most experienced hobbyists.

Artistic? Um maybe. :/
I appreciate pico’s as well for that simplistic, mini look; like the bonsai. The difference and major one at that, is it’s a solitary specimen that’s being manipulated. Not something where there all piled onto each other. To me its just totally disregard to the care and needs of the coral. Disregard due to ignorance, lack of money is one thing but this is just insensitive to me. The soly or efflo is just ridiculous and sooo impractical to have in that tank, let alone the ceiling effect its creating which will eventually shut the lights out for the rest of the tank. Those things get HUGE, ya, ya, he may trim it, but what about the other 30 corals he has stacked up on each other? No room to grow, etc. Just goes against my ideology is all. I just try to make the best home I can for all my stuff, sometimes Im successful sometimes Im not. The fact that everything is still alive doesn’t constitute success, but only IMO, of course ultimately to each is own.

-Justin

 

[Jacob D]

What's the difference of cramming a bunch of small corals into a small tank or bunch of bigger corals into a bigger tank? All corals get huge, there's no difference. This is an extreme challenge that most people could not pull off if they wanted to, if anything it shows superb husbandy skills.

 

[Justin74]

>delete< Other irratations fueled my comments so I'll retract and sit back on this one..

-Justin

 

[dots]

It appears to push the limits of the hobby and I am all for that.....but from the pics it looks like he just throws the stuff in....I think care planning and organization, which not only comes into play with the hardware comes into play with aquascaping......I may be on the other extreme of things and grouped all my frags last night by color so that I made sure not to put all the greens or purples next to each other and have it all equally spread out and and "appear randomized".........Yes I am an Engineer....and yes I need a plan for everything!!!!!

But thats his tank, and thats how he likes it and Im jiggy wit dat.....

 

[raymond4133]

Hey look at it this way...

He does not have to pay $100 a month in elctric bills to power his reef tank...

I wonder how much wattage does this system use...Perhaps 50 cents a day $1 at the most...Whatever it is...Nice tank...

 

[dots]

new tank definition: hobo stew......or goulash tank......

However, looks more natural than my "fruitstand"......I cringe when I try to make believe my tank looks "natural"

 

[wombat2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8373983#post8373983 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Justin74
Artistic? Um maybe. :/
I appreciate pico’s as well for that simplistic, mini look; like the bonsai. The difference and major one at that, is it’s a solitary specimen that’s being manipulated. Not something where there all piled onto each other. To me its just totally disregard to the care and needs of the coral. Disregard due to ignorance, lack of money is one thing but this is just insensitive to me. The soly or efflo is just ridiculous and sooo impractical to have in that tank, let alone the ceiling effect its creating which will eventually shut the lights out for the rest of the tank. Those things get HUGE, ya, ya, he may trim it, but what about the other 30 corals he has stacked up on each other? No room to grow, etc. Just goes against my ideology is all. I just try to make the best home I can for all my stuff, sometimes Im successful sometimes Im not. The fact that everything is still alive doesn’t constitute success, but only IMO, of course ultimately to each is own.

-Justin

Talk about ridiculous.

This post struck me as funny because, well, I know Brandon. Brandon is probably more attuned and concerned to the needs of single coral polyps and water parameters than any person I've ever met, and that includes coral farmers and aquarists at public aquariums. He cares about cubic inch sized portions of his tank more than any sane man should. If any coral in that tank was stressed in any way, he'd remove it. Do any of the polyps look damaged? Do any of them look unhealthy, bleached, stung, receding? Does the Acropora NOT look like it has grown a tremendous amount in just a few months?

Most importantly, how exactly does a coral know it's in such a small tank? See with its eyes? Feel with its paws? I suppose you feel comfortable keeping an active cogniscent vertebrate like a copper banded butterfly in a tank a millionth the size of its natural habitat, but this guy is not giving his corals enough room? Give me a break.

 

[wombat2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8375852#post8375852 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sacramentodots
It appears to push the limits of the hobby and I am all for that.....but from the pics it looks like he just throws the stuff in....I think care planning and organization, which not only comes into play with the hardware comes into play with aquascaping......I may be on the other extreme of things and grouped all my frags last night by color so that I made sure not to put all the greens or purples next to each other and have it all equally spread out and and "appear randomized".........Yes I am an Engineer....and yes I need a plan for everything!!!!!

But thats his tank, and thats how he likes it and Im jiggy wit dat.....

I can assure you every coral in there is very meticulously placed, rather than thrown in.

 

[wombat2]

Here's another of his older tanks at a year old. The corals only look good because he threw in a quarter and wished for good luck. It has nothing to do with his skills as an aquarist.