So I have this group I started in Central Florida called AFAC, basic premis is we pool our money, buy a very expensive frag, grow it out, frag and distribute. I am putting together this frag tank that was donated to the cause by one of the participants. I want to do a bonsaii style tank with base rock and foam.
Here is the tank

And Modified PC light system




Here are some of the materials, think I may substitute base rock for the beach pebbles, cause I'm not sure what they might leach into the water, but I need something heavy to try to keep the foam down.




Cut out basic shapes



Time to trace and cut




Test placement


More to come..

Your pebble rock has h1n1 watch out.

What's the egg crate for?

Thanks I wont use it. The crate is to put the base rock rubble down and fill the channels with foam, create a platform of sorts.

lol.

What do you mean by "very expensive frags"? If you are getting into sps, you are killing yourself right from the start with the PCs.

Yea, since you're all pooling money to get particular coral to grow enough to be fraggable, you'll want more intense lighting. The better the growth, the more effective the system you've all set up will be.

So, are you going to be the guy handling all the coral, or is it spread out between the members of the wonder team? I'm kind of curious about the specifics, it sounds like it would be something I could get involved with.

The tank also seems like its going to be preety sweet.

Hey if your going to ghetto style on this tank and need a cheap mh fixture I have a very used sunpod I can sell your for cheap.

I'm curious to see how this turns out...

"pooling money" hmmmm......

Are those "wood" dowel pins? If so, what are you using those for?

This sounds like a great way to get LE frags for a great price!!!

As of now, not all of us can grow sps, so we are only doing lps, mostly chalices, but have gotton acans, dendro and favia.

I know we should get more lighting, but this is what we got right now, this is still in its infancy, I would get people to help me buy the lighting, but there are different people in every buy. I would like to get people to chip in one month for lighting instead of a coral.
I have been the one taking care of the coral, nerve racking to be sure. Its the main reason to set up the frag tank, so i can get them out of my tank and I can concentrate on the frags.

I don't think it will be a problem if you want to join up. Follow our progress on afac.webnode.com. I need to update the site, but will do it in a few days. If after a while you feel comfortable with the setup, we would love to have this movement spread.


Thank you for the offer. How much are you selling it for?
Do you ever go wake surfing?


The wood dowel pins are to make indentions in the foam when its drying to put frag plugs in nice and securely. It is a great way to get le stuff cheap, there is a downside though..some of these can take up to a year to grow out enough to frag for 6 or 7 people. I started it also as a way to meet more reefers.

Nice. How often do you organize purchases?

Try to do one a month

i have a great frag of G.A.R.F. purple bonsai inder just 4 t-5's with crap bulbs on a 75. Its beautiful and growing well. the G.A.R.F. frags are "acclimated" to mild intensity lighting that covers the full spectrum so their growth is good under varying lighting conditions. Put them high and you should be alright with the pc's. but i am sure a MH would probally grow them faster.

I wouldn't be as concerned about lighting if you're staying away from most SPS for now. PC can handle the LPS you seem to be focusing on, no problem. I'd just be concerned that the colors would fade a little before shipping the frags to other members of the group buy. Still, no biggie.

I'll be sure to follow that along.

Soo spent another $85 bucks and got some more stuff, water, live rock and base rock, oh and new filters for our filters.
Here is one of the pieces of base rock

both ready to get smashed

After


This is kinda what I wanted as far as design



Time to Place rock

And apply foam


Finished! (got to let harden for a couple days before putting into tank.)


BTW, the wooden dowels ended up being useless as this stuff is Super sticky when soft, nothing gets inserted without getting stuck ( kinda like some situations I've been in before....) Will just end up using a drill to drill holes for plugs

Looks cool... I also like the idea of pooling money to purchase expensive corals... Although in my case I honestly don't know if I could wait that long to see the return on my investment... I would probably just front the money and maybe have some buyers lined up (maybe a small deposit?) for when it's fraggable.

Lastly, I'll try to find it, but be sure to seal the foam up... A lot of people have done a similar thing with back walls & such, but it seems that in every build I've seen they seal the foam with something, maybe an epoxy paint? Anyways, good luck.

Thats not a bad deal either. It can be a long time to wait, and the coral will have come down in price by the time its fraggable, but it doesn't have to take more than 6 months for some of the quicker growing frags. i was told that the foam does not need to be sealed, but am strongly thinking about doing it. The only thing I'm concerned about is sealing the inside walls of the holes I drill.
I know now not to use a fiberglass resin.

Bryan, I know you let me be part of AFAC, although i haven't bought anything. I need to check the site and see what the next thing you guys want to buy is. Also, if you want a mh I have fixture that I sold then it got damaged in shipping only thing wrong is acintics don't work but the halide is fine except it needs a new bulb. if your interested pm and we can work something out.

Hey Nick, long time no speak to! Glad you came, I got 3 things..
I ended up paying 2 for two people on this last buy to keep the costs down for others, so if you want in you can use this page to send me $22. It will be for a piece of Tyrees Superman Chalice.
Second, do I need to seal the foam with epoxy, and if so, what should I use.
Third, I will send you a pm on the MH.
I will check up on your tank in a sec.

OK.. In all seriousness - I'm not sure I'm getting your design with the egg crate.

Thats cool, I presume you've seen my updated pics and are still confused. the design was to serve two purposes, one, I wanted two levels to try to accommodate the light needs of different corals, and making them thinner in the middle allows for the two levels with minimal shading, the second was aesthetic reasons, i guess getting it is secondary .

Epoxy is needed, and if it's not to late don't do the wall, mine eff'd up my water and caused algae. Right now I'm not adding corals, waiting til' I get everythign fixed then get my sps collection back up to par sicne I klilled everythign during the tank switch.

Sorry to hear about that. I wont be foaming the wall, just the shelves. What kind of epoxy should I use? Where can i get it?

either z-poxy or I used bondo fiberglass resin. I think home depot has both.

right on thanks!

So I have used epoxy to seal the foam up, I might use another coat. I am a little concerned as I will only have 10 or so lbs of live rock, but will have much more surface area for coralline growth which is important right?

So I got the tank finished, there are a few things I need to work out, but you get the idea. I think it will look cool once the coralline grows over the foam.

how sturdy is that? u should just buy a f**k load of sand and push the rock deep into it to help keep it from going "TIIIIIIIMMMBEEERRRR" and possibly losing corals in the process

just a thought i plan on following this btw haha

This is the worst scape I have ever seen...

The beginning of THUNDER-DOME. Two fish enter one survives!!!!

interesting concepts, I wonder how this will turn out

I like the idea and all but why bother with all the work if your just using the tank to grow frags? A frag rack above live rock would do the same function. From what I see you are losing a lot of space that could hold more frags. Also, you'll have less light penetration on a few spots because of the structure. How are you going to hold the frags in place, especially ones with the plug?

Good luck though, this could be very interesting indeed!

It's pretty well balanced but am nervous of the bouyancy of the foam. I have the base rock epoxied to the bottom of the tank. I might think about the dsb though thanks.


You are now up to 241 posts. Congrats.


Lol



Thanks, i must admit it looked a lot better in my head. It was my first attempt at a diy.

Thanks man! you bring up some good points, I had originally planned on drilling hole on the foam, but panicked cause I couldn't figure out how to epoxy the holes so light did not get in them. Mistake one. The plan does take up quite a bit of real estate, I'm actually thinking of doing something a little more "traditional" if I redo it, which I just might. Something with acrylic sheets perhaps.

I stole this pic from the gallery - (thanks Brian92)

But something like this would be much more functional:



Rocks UNDER the egg crate - gives you all kinds of room for frags at all different levels in the tank and no worries of an avalanche or some other unfortunate accident.

Yes This is what I will do next if I redo it, its functional and looks nice as hell

It's tucked away in a corner of my office, and I'm probably gonna keep it that way until I change it a bit or redo it completely.

+1

wow this looks like crap really.

You should have picked out some nice choice table live rock pieces and got a drill. Drill many holes in the rock and acrylic rod them to desired shape. Use remaining holes to put plugs in. You can also use the sides of rocks for plugs also. HTH

Errrr... I would be concerned about that foam leaching back into the water mate. Frankly you may want to pull that setup and ditch the rock or dremmel off the foam then go get some egg crate and start over using the style in the photo above. Just chalk this one up to experience. If you are dead bang on doing bonsai then acrylic rod and a masonry bit are what you will want to do.

+1

go traditional man. this looks like a completely unstable structure. just go eggcrate and you won't even have to worry about drilling holes in foam to mount frags.

Worst scape ever! God thank you for bringing this to my attention, I would have been so embarrassed if no one had told me. Thank you for letting me know. I can now go about my life in a more peaceful state of mind. I think I might take this mentoring technique to heart and approach parenting the same way. I mean how else will my son know hes a loser unless I tell him I think so.

I thought it was pretty epic looking - something probably a lot better in your mind than in function. But points for creativity.

Thanks man for the kind words, this threads got me depressed, I went ahead and took it down

why do you care what people on nano reef think? you will never see them in person...

ya i was actually really interested in how it turned out.

might even be able to turn a few people into doing one themselves...all it takes is a finished product

Hey laj stfu he was being polite. Kinda being a douche dude.

Eh constructive criticism is one thing, enough people taking the time out of their day to tell you its the worst thing they've seen is another. It was something I was proud of, even though it was pretty ugly. I am not a diy'er, so this was fun for me to do. I took it down and maybe I will try something else. Thinking something with acrylic. This forum needs more people like JLwaves

Please do not get me wrong. I too would say you get an A for effort and innovation. My only concern is that the foam you used might leach things into the tank...