u/pwhelpley

I have basically no experience and I just started a saltwater reef in a cookie jar. Day 2 update inside.

I saw a pico reef build on Instagram and thought “how hard can it be.” Two weeks later I’m standing in my Amsterdam apartment watching a 7.5L cookie jar cycle on my desk.

Live rock and sand straight from my local reef shop, pre-mixed saltwater, a clip-on LED, a nano air pump, and a tiny heater. That’s it.

Day 1 the water turned completely white and my pH crashed to 7.6. Turned out I had the lid on with no surface agitation — air pump fixed it overnight and pH is back to 8.2.

Ammonia just hit 0.50 ppm this week so the cycle is officially doing its thing. Plan is soft corals and LPS once it’s done — zoanthids, mushrooms, maybe a duncan.