yardboy Posted January 27, 2010 Author Share Posted January 27, 2010 While the frag tank isn't as fully covered with corraline as it used to be, the reason is a combination of expanding coral populations, urchin munching, and poor maintenance of calcium and alkalinity levels. The pic above is in a recent addition to the whole ghetto frag system, where I put another tank (a rubbermaid storage bin) on the sump with the ghetto frag tank, to make the whole system practically third world ghetto! The urchin lived in the refugium (a salvaged 20H) but moved to the rubbermaid when the algae began growing on the sides. I'll try and get a shot of it tomorrow morning to show how it all goes together. Link to comment
hlander Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Do you have any zoas/palys? Link to comment
yardboy Posted January 27, 2010 Author Share Posted January 27, 2010 Why yes, I do. Pics in the morning. Sorry I missed the question earlier. Link to comment
hlander Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Why yes, I do. Pics in the morning. Sorry I missed the question earlier. No problem Link to comment
yardboy Posted January 27, 2010 Author Share Posted January 27, 2010 I took some pics this morning, but then got sidetracked on my contest tank. I've never been a big zoanthid collector. I have about 7 that have done well for me over the years, and all the rest are just lame. Not to say they aren't pretty, they just don't like my systems. And the real exptic ones are just too expensive for me to watch them languish. I'll get them up soon. Link to comment
hlander Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Your Zoas have really long skirts! Im jealous! Link to comment
badfish816 Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 thats pretty funny about the urchin. can i see a pic of how the fuge and sump are ran inline. i am really considering building this. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 I really like these, wanna get a frag of them from you sometime down the road. Link to comment
yardboy Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 Have.......uncontrollable.........urge.........to...........send Weetie...........zoanthid.............frag......... I wonder if she has frag of long green-tentacled Sarco? Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Do eet!!!!!!!!!! And yes. Link to comment
Neya Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 Awesome bucket tank. I actually like the look of it! Not display worthy for the guests I suppose but awesome! One thing to watch for. I used to use these food grade buckets for freshwater rearing(inverts,snails, fish I didn't need to fish out) and it used to get horrible slimy sides very fast even with constant cleaning. Never hurt anything though- and obviously fw is very different from sw. I have an electrician friend who said to me recently a lot of companies throw out MHs, he's on the lookout for what I need/want/might never use in the meantime lol. Such a great idea getting it from the car lot. I mean, they were throwing em out anyways! I hope you grabbed more than one as far as the clown, we got two "percula" tank bred clowns from two different places. They never saw a nem for sure. I can't tell if one or both are really percs or not. But we later added a BTA(purpley rose base, green tentacles, pink tips) and they both took to the nem within 24-48 hrs. It was amazing. Keep up with the cool DIYs!! Link to comment
yardboy Posted February 17, 2010 Author Share Posted February 17, 2010 Thanks Neya. Timely information. The barrel has never had a problem with cyano, though it grows corraline fster than anything I've ever seen, but the Sterilite storage container I temporarily hooked up to the system to hold the anemones while I reworked their tank has been a constant source of aggrevation. I cleaned the whole system, removing rocks from the sump and cleaning the detritus out of the bottom, removing every single coral from the tank and vacuuming the sand and scrubbing the cyano off the racks, major water change, and the only place the cyano grows is on the walls of that sterilite container. Didn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that the plastic was the likely culprit, but good to hear someone else with the same experience. Link to comment
rbrusletto Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 pretty awesome about the urchin lookin good man! Link to comment
yeast Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 A little scraping and bending and spraypainting and it was "good enough for ghetto work". Nothing says ghetto and class quite like a camaro parked on the lawn ha ha ha. It even has a few nice foot long weeds growing around the wheels Link to comment
yardboy Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Don't ignore the oil stain on the driveway! Link to comment
moto826 Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 nice set up i like it nice set up i like it Link to comment
straydog Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 grate frag tank any new updates (have you started on the container lab yet) Link to comment
Eznet2u Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 Don't ignore the oil stain on the driveway! You have a Harley too? Link to comment
yardboy Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 There's been some questions about my Ghetto frag system lately, thought I better update. The system has worked very well for me, and was certainly cheap to build, but it was kinda wide for the room it was sitting in, plus a bit small. I began adding to it, first a half barrel sump, then a left over tank for refugium, and finally a sterilite container for another frag tank, experimenting with the acrylic frag setup published in Reef Hobbyist magazine. It got a bit too complex and I had several overflows of water from the sterilite container, which damaged the sheetrock wall next to the system. Wanting to simplify, repair the wall and get possibly a narrower setup, a friend offered me, for free, this huge frag tank! It's 96"X14"by 12" high, around 50 gallons. It's actually 2 tanks sharing an overflow, with 3 (soon to be 4) overflows, so I can tap seperate overflows and direct them to the sump, refugium and another frag tank below the big one, reducing the pump needs. It's acrylic, somewhat scratched, but no problem since it's a frag tank. I've got one side cycling with water from the ghetto system now. I'm going to try a light rail with a 250W 12K MH on the track, trying to reduce my electrical load. I'm waiting on it's arrival now. If it takes too long a light cycle, I may shorten up the track and use LED's at the ends. Here's a shot of one of the racks for my acrylic system. As I dismantle the old system and transfer it, I'll show pics of how well the acrylic works. There are some eggcrate racks I'll still use, as several different monti's are grown onto them, source for frags. After the transfer, I'll repair the wall then move the new system into the olds place, hopefully with as much success as the ghetto system. Thanks to everyone who expressed their like of the ghetto frag system. It served me very well and I'm glad you enjoyed seeing it at work. Link to comment
twister23 Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 that new setup looks sick! Link to comment
yardboy Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 I'm very excited about it. I think it will work as well on a bigger scale as the ghetto system. I've got my first test frags in place. The Pocillipora had been in the ghetto system for a month, and has encrusted the acrylic plug, the monti cap and digitata were freshly mounted. We'll see how they do for a week or so then start moving other stuff in Link to comment
got2envy Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Hi Roger! That is a great frag tank and I love that you will be getting plenty of natural sunlight Link to comment
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