Super Ghetto Frag System

[pepper815]

wait.....moron of the month award..... i thought bush was 8 years ago?

 

excuse me (year)

[n0rk]

This is one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long time. Looks awesome

[coralcor]

sick. where there only 2 of the lights in the dumpster? if thee were more i woulda grabed em all set up a tun of tanks lol

[yardboy]

There were actually four. I've still got one in reserve (I still have the other half of the barrel!) I gave one to my son and traded one for an orchid for my wife (she's pretty embarassed about my dumpster diving, helped out her attitude )

Look around man. This society is pretty wasteful. Some of the richest people make their living off scavenging. You think junk yard owners are poor? Heck man,it's the new "green". Recycle, Reuse! For me it's one of the most enjoyable parts of DIY, figuring out how to make what you need, out of what you have.

I'm stil trying to figure out why corraline seems to grow so much better in this system. Is it the light, the tank itself, the water quality, or what? It's amazing, and no I do not use "Purple Up"

 

[jerzsky]

your setup just keeps gettin better n better!!! i love the simpleness of it, but its so advance in so many ways!!!

 

you should add some small eggcrate squares in there, let them get covered in your sweet coraline, and sell em!!!

[kenny1]

This is the best thread that I have read in a long time. That is awsome.I want one .

[PBUEHH]

Proud so say most of my tank gear has been reused refuse

 

you have outclassed me in that respect though, Yardboy, this is among the finest frag systems if not all out most ingenious tank ever.

[non-photosynt]

Good work!

Except that my whole home is more ghetto, then your frag rank . No room for it.

[yardboy]

I appreciate your kind words Guys, and hope that you can find something you can use in this thread.

When a Noob sets up a tank and tries to control costs you often hear someone who should know better say that it is an expensive hobby and if you can't afford it, get out. I find this sad and somewhat elitist.

Not to try and sound too intellectual or anything though, simple fact is I just love doing it.

I see three aspects to reefkeeping, and please chime in if you see it differently.

 

1. Setting up a tank.

2. Collecting livestock and new equipment

3. Actually viewing the tank.

Some people get off on one aspect more than the others, like the chick who sets up a simple tank and posts observations of it day by day, maintenance being a necessary evil to keep it looking nice, but the observation (including lots of photos) being the object of her interest.

Others are constantly setting up new tanks, changing out filtration, modifying arrangements, moving rock around. These guys feel guilty about how often they put their hands in the tank, but in the search for the perfect aquascape it's a necessary evil, and a tank set up for over a year makes them feel like "old salts".

A few poeple (well most of us in one degree or another), are like shopoholics, can't stay away from the lfs or online vendors, constantly searching for another specimen, that perfect fish or coral that will make their tanks complete, all in the name of "biological diversity".

 

Well, the truth is I have all these "problems", and the Ghetto Frag System helps me control them. I have my own lfs in the back, where I can "shop" all I want, give myself bad advice, admire how healthy the system is, and never complain about the prices!

I tinker with it as much as I want, fine tuning so it can be cheaper to operate and better and better for the inhabitants. And I can't walk by it without grabbing up the "periscope" and looking at how things are developing.

Darn, I've gone on too long, time to go work out an auto topoff system and supplement doser. I saw a great idea using a 2 liter coke bottle on another forum. I think I'll try it out

[jerzsky]

well the truth is I have all these "problems", and the Ghetto Frag System helps me control them.

 

[redfishsc]

How has that Chinese MH bulb held up? Are the corals growing well under it over the past 5 months, and has it appeared to change spectrum any?

[yardboy]

Well, I'd have to say that they do not hold up as well as I'd like, though it's still growing the corals nicely. I have two more over a 40L and they are quite different looking to the eye, with one being considerably dimmer. Definitely have to change that one out. Got to figure out how to make a Ghetto light meter.

 

Has anyone correlated the K Temp of bulbs to the growth of corraline in their tanks? I'm really liking the 20000K's, but only the Ghetto has that purple stuff, most of my other tanks the corraline is dark pink.

[The Propagator]

I've totally filled up all my frag tanks, but find a need for "just one more" temporarily to hold some stuff from a 70 gallon tank takedown I've done. Not wanting to commit any real money to the project, until the frags are ready to go, I decided to try and "make do" with what I could scrounge.

So what does a frag system consist of?

Tank - I have access to some 55 gallon plastic drums. I've used them for fresh water and salt water reservoirs on my water treatment plant, as sumps for liverock and refugium systems, and after seeing dtfleming's tub, realized I could make a shallow "tub" out of a barrel.

Stand - I am such a terrible scavenger, I really embarass my wife. If I see a 2X4 on the side of the road, I stop and get it. Neighbors moving and don't want to carry a bunch of scrap lumber, I'll dumpster dive for it! So all the wood for the stand was free, but of course you end up making do with what you have, so here, is the first couple of steps in the project.

 

One of the bungs had a 3/4" threaded section available, so I ran a male adaptor through it and added a female threaded ell to the inside, then a 3/4" to 2" adaptor with a short piece of 2" pipe notched as an overflow. Where did I get the 2" pipe"? Well, I ordered some T5 bulbs from DIYreef.com and they shipped the bulbs in the PVC pipe!

Outside the tank I pulled some stuff from my PVC parts bucket, a 3/4" to 1" adaptor to 1" tee with pipe and 45d ells to run it into a plastic sump under the stand.

Light.

Redoing a road in town, they closed a used car lot. For the longest time I'd noticed some metal halde fixtures dangling from poles in the car lot, and when they ended up in a dumpster I dove in. I had to go it alone as Genie was totally aghast that I'd do such a thing.

More of the 2" pipe from the T5 purchase and a $2.50 2" electrical conduit sweep ell from Lowe's (amazing how cheap that was and some 2X4's made me pendant light stand.

A magnetic ballast mounted in a metal saltine cracker can and a cheap 250W chinese 20K bulb complete the ensemble.

 

The light seems to be satisfactory.

 

Here's the setup in the Backyard reef lab

 

 

If I wasn't married and I was gay..... you would be my beech !

I think I E-love you for your DIY skillz !!

 

EDIT: Wait a minute ! If thats you in the pics then make my above statement read only.. " If I wasn't married "

I don't know how I posted in this thread once already with out viewing the pics but DAMN ! I LOVE IT !!

This is the best use of spare parts lying around I have seen yet !

And I thought I was the master of recycling garbage !

 

 

Not exactly what you are talking about but....... It worked great, but was a major biatch to clean. I'm working on a PVC larger version

 

If you haven't made it already I can definitely help with that.

[yardboy]

Too funny, Prop. Thanks for the compliments, but I prefer young and tender 18 yr. old girls. I guess I'm a pedophile.

Thanks for the offer of skimmer ideas, but you'e already helped and I apologize for not mentioning it. The maxijet mods you told someone about I've used. I need to get stock in the freaking company I've modded so many now. I've always liked them, and thought I was doing pretty good with stream mods, but fishing line on the impeller and the air suction on the volute itself, really made my urchin take off. I have several PVC versions sitting around but haven't taken the time to use those mods on them. And the simpIe mod where you cut the nozzle off and drill holes in the volute is freaking unbelievable. I did that to a 900 in the Ghetto and it started blowing things around. I had to take it out and put it in my 40L and it's just right.

I keep visiting your eBay site, I'll probably drag my feet too long and you'll have sold all the porites frags. That one would be great for my jetties nano, which is my Gulf of Mexico semi-biotope.

KEEP FRAGGING!

[Kool-cat]

Awesome frag tank and nice pictures!

[The Propagator]

Too funny, Prop. Thanks for the compliments, but I prefer young and tender 18 yr. old girls. I guess I'm a pedophile.

Thanks for the offer of skimmer ideas, but you'e already helped and I apologize for not mentioning it. The maxijet mods you told someone about I've used. I need to get stock in the freaking company I've modded so many now. I've always liked them, and thought I was doing pretty good with stream mods, but fishing line on the impeller and the air suction on the volute itself, really made my urchin take off. I have several PVC versions sitting around but haven't taken the time to use those mods on them. And the simpIe mod where you cut the nozzle off and drill holes in the volute is freaking unbelievable. I did that to a 900 in the Ghetto and it started blowing things around. I had to take it out and put it in my 40L and it's just right.

I keep visiting your eBay site, I'll probably drag my feet too long and you'll have sold all the porites frags. That one would be great for my jetties nano, which is my Gulf of Mexico semi-biotope.

KEEP FRAGGING!

 

Got plenty of the Florida porties homey

It pisses people off some times when I list it because they think I harvested it from the reefs in Florida. ( HIGHLY illegal to do so ) But in reality it came to me in less then 1/4" and thick as a finger nail on a snails shell. The snail died and it took over after that.

I had one guy actually call fish and game on me and he told them I was diving and collecting my own with out a license LOL! I had to call fish and game and explain to them I live in Ohio.

I can't run out my back door and fill an order straight from the sea LOL!

[yardboy]

That's too funny. You know, I got a Siderastrea the same way, and I just left it on the shell and it totally covered it. Then placed it on a flat rock and it covered that. I got my first frag off it recently when I moved the tank and where it'd attached to a piece of live rock broke it off.

I will definitely be yelling at you soon. I'm leaving next week for the Philippines to go diving but when I get back that will definitely enhance my jetties nano.

So what's the word of the secrets of Echinophyllia? I was perusing Vivd Aquariums this morning and found a rather expensive piece (1"=$100) that I have an exact pic of from one of my favorite dive sites. I've always wanted colony like it in my tank but I have very little luck with them, maybe I'm too sps heavy?

[The Propagator]

Medium to low light and a lot of nutrients.

People make the mistake of thinking all things bright and colorful get that way from the light alone.

Not true with most LPS actually. They get a little from light and a LOT from nutrient content in the the water column and in food you give them. Most chalice/oxypora/enchinophillia do no tlike bright lighting and will loose color under them.

[bzphotog]

Macgruber! Nice work, love the how you came across all the stuff.

[yardboy]

Prop, here's why I'm asking. I found this at Mactan on my last trip and I'm going to try and find it or its brother again. Don't know why, but I really like this colony. It's for sale at Vivid Aquariums for $50/1" frag!

[The Propagator]

Thats nice stuff

[yardboy]

Hey Ya'll!

Thought I'd post what's been going on with the Ghetto frag system. I didn't post how I set up my topoff system so thought I'd post that first.

The topoff tank with bulkhead and shutoff valve Guest fittings and 1/4" poly tubing.

 

Controlled by a Kent float valve added to the side of the sump

 

I decided to use kalk water as the topoff, figuring that it would satisfy the need for Ca and Alk for the tank. Works great too, until yesterday when the only fish in the system, a Beaugregory banished from the jetties nano decided to go into the overflow and clog the pipe. Fortunately it happened right before I left for work, so I caught if before it got real bad. Lost about 3 gallons of water, which was made up by the kalk. I came in and the tank water was white! Quickly cleared the overflow and did a 15 gallon water change. That afternoon after work everything was back to normal and no losses, though there was a white dust all over the pumps,racks and rocks. Guess the kalk precipitated calcium carbonate all in the tank and sump.

I did notice that the refugium water was clear, but when I did the water change and the pump started moving water into the refugium there was quite a layered effect, indicating to me that there wasn't much mixing of water in the tank. So, after reading JohnMaloney's thread about his aquaculture setup, I decided to add a airlift pump to the refugium to mix water. Using an old air pump from a FW tank and a piece of 3/4" pipe and elbow, I've got mixing now!

 

There are several other "experiments" in the refugium that if anyone is interested I will show in better detail.

[smashbeat]

There are several other "experiments" in the refugium that if anyone is interested I will show in better detail.

 

Interested!

[yardboy]

Doesn't take but one!

 

First the aqualifter. Simplicity itself, using a regular ol' air pump

 

 

 

Here it is in place, pulling water off the bottom and pushing it across the surface.

 

Some experimentation showed that with the lower volume of air in the pump, a 1/2" piece of pipe worked best. Time will tell if salt creep is a problem. The small black plastic piece came from the bag of stuff you get when you buy Maxi-jet pump. I never use most of them, but I keep looking for uses!

 

Ghetto frag rack

Piece of thin plexiglass from Lowe's, bent with a torch into shape, drilled out holes that a plastic anchor (the little things you put in a wall to accept a screw) fits into. Then just glue frags to them and stick in holes. Here I've got a bunch of trimmings from a couple of gorgonians I pruned in my jetties tank,

 

 

Here's the back side of the tank. showing the rack in place, the rubble basket with mangroves and overflow, and the little shelf added to hold chaeto off the bottom. So far this tank is lit only by the sun coming in the window.

[gulfsurfer101]

You always have the coolest $%^# set up and everything looks like it is really comfortable. Also I'll give some props on some originality and some reef genious but still keeping it simple.