Super Ghetto Frag System

[biophase]

Great pics. I think it's gone from ghetto to very efficient. Do you think that the corraline is growing faster due to more light reflected within the tank. In a glass tank, light escapes through the glass. In the drum it just gets reflected everywhere.

[yardboy]

That's one possible explanation, and has a lot of validity. I haven't dosed any different than with any other tank, except right at first for a very short while, I experimented with calcium gluconate. I've started using it on the jetties nano to see what effects it has there, but I don't really think it is the thing. Some reports have it contributing to algae attacks, which I've not had any of at all in this tank, and the only CUC is a couple of astreas and one single blue legged hermit!

[biophase]

That's one possible explanation, and has a lot of validity. I haven't dosed any different than with any other tank, except right at first for a very short while, I experimented with calcium gluconate. I've started using it on the jetties nano to see what effects it has there, but I don't really think it is the thing. Some reports have it contributing to algae attacks, which I've not had any of at all in this tank, and the only CUC is a couple of astreas and one single blue legged hermit!

 

I should mention that I once bought a 6' diameter kids swimming pool in yellow with cartoon characters all over it. I hung a 400w MH about 5 feet over it and put in a single power head. I tossed in 2" of aragonite sand and piled live rock in the middle. It looked like a real reef in the middle of an ocean. I actually had the live rock jutting out above the waterline.

 

Anyway, the coralline grew like crazy on the sides of the pool so you couldn't tell it had cartoon characters on it. So maybe its either the plastic or the light reflectivity.

 

This reef pool was the easiest reef that I've ever had to take care of. Everything grew very well, no skimmer, one powerhead, one MH 5500k light and a heater. I was able to raise a moorish idol and a goniapora in this pool.

 

I think that it was successful due to the surface area vs. water volume and the amount of sand.

[yardboy]

From that story I'm leaning toward the plastic. As you are probably already aware, it seems as if PVC and acrylic plastic will attract corraline when nothing else in a tank will.

Oh, and notice that the refugium doesn't have any corraline, but then it doesn't have any light over it either.

[bruce922]

I agree that this is a nice thread, nice job. I enjoyed watching you put together this frag tank/whatever. Nice setup.

 

Bruce

[gunguy05]

Any updates on this? More pics of growth?

[nanoreefnate]

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!

hey if your still looking for a good sized frag of this i have some. 25 buck for like 1.5x1.5 piece.

[corallineadam]

I am honored Wm. I like nothing better than to make something out of not much of anything.

As for the light, if you can tolerate a story, I'll tell you how I got the light. Used Car lots use metal halides at the front of their lots to show true colors on their cars. One such lot happened to be located just a block off the beach here when Hurricane Ivan struck and wiped out all their light poles. Seeing them on the ground, I circled like a vulture, waiting for the chance. After a few days, I saw them in a dumpster on the lot so went and asked the salesman if I could do some diving, so I came out with two fixtures.

A little scraping and bending and spraypainting and it was "good enough for ghetto work".

 

The ballast was a bit trickier. A bare magnetic ballast is the cheapest MH ballast going, so I put it in a metal cracker can (due to heat), holes punched out for cords

 

 

Not as hard to wire as it looks

 

 

and installed. Good enough?

cutie

[hlander]

FTS?

[yardboy]

I think she's cute too!

 

Frags come and go in the Super Ghetto Frag system. Here's a tank shot right before I made a big sale to the local frag meet.

 

 

I've also been raising small flower anemones, mostly red and blue-tipped. To me as cool as mini-carpet anemones (Not better, as cool) Fancy holding tank in sump, overflow from refugium!

and in the refugium

 

 

I bought a nice table on a big base from a local reefer getting out, put the top part of the table in my 150 display

 

 

Put the base into the Ghetto frag system

 

 

And grown back over, the table just starting to form

[Seask]

Needs more diamonds...for it to be real ghetto, naw i'm just playing sick frag tank though

[yardboy]

Didn't you see the grill? :-#

[bluenassarius]

i'm inspired the setup is simple and the best part is not having to scrape the sides constantly like traditional frag tanks

[blibo]

That actually looks really nice. If you had posted only the pictures without the title and write-ups, I would have thought it as a commercial fragging system. Really creative

[yardboy]

Thanks guys!

I can't believe I missed the first anniversary of this setup. Many frags have gone through this system and a few have stayed around. I'll have to get pics to post of a green polyped Pocillipora that has grown huge from a small frag. About the only addition I've made to it is a 2-tube peristaltic pump I got off eBay for $20 that I use to dose 2-part from gallon orange juice jugs.

[Weetabix7]

[JohnOTS]

Change the name of this thread to "the world’s most innovative frag system, which costs less than a cheeseburger"

 

I love it!

[badfish816]

this is nothing short of amazing! i just scrapped my other plans for a custom frag tank. this is going in my house. i love it. you sir are a genious.

[vanisher]

Any updates?

[yardboy]

Well, it's just doing what it does. I've got some extra rock in the sump, holding it for a friend and using a 6500K CF flood light to keep the corals on it alive

 

It keeps me in salt, supplies frags for my local clubs frag swaps, I get trades for stuff at the local lfs, I paid for an LED lighting system off frags out of it, and it supplied livestock for my contest tank! And it still seems to always be full of frags. It's like a cornucopia!

 

[badfish816]

how about some pics of the frags you are growing out?

[yardboy]

I added a rubbermaid container temporarily to my system, to hold my anemones while I battled a majano outbreak in my large display. After I noticed some algae forming on the walls, I moved a longspine urchin out the refugium to work on it. Yesterday evening I came home to the whole system, frag tank, sump, refugium and anemone tank quite cloudy. I stuck my nose close to the surface of the water in the rubbermaid and sniffed but didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. Instead I came right up close to this, the urchin having sex in my anemone tank. I looked under it's spines but couldn't determine if it was male or female, so can't say if it was sperm or eggs that clouded the tank. Apparently the corals and anemones had a field day as within a few hours the tank was clear again and the urchin was smoking a cigarette.

 

[hlander]

Do you have any zoas/palys?

[nemmy]

the urchin was smoking a cigarette.

 

Lmao! Love this tank, glad i saw the update.

 

Looks like the frag tank isnt fully covered in coralline anymore. Is that due to the urchin or did corals out compete it?

[Apoptosis]

I think its time for the "safe sex" talk with the urchin....