New frag tank almost done!
 

For those of you who have been to my place and saw the free frags post, I am sure you know that I broke down my old frag system due to uncontrolable heat issues. I have now almost completed me new frag tank setup! This setup should be able to beat the heat! I am running TEK T5's over the acrylic tank. I will also be running a small refugium with this setup in order to keep the nutrients down. I only need one more piece from home Depot to finish the job. Excuse the mess in the pictures, it is work in progress!


Here are the new pictures! More frags coming soon!!:mrgreen:

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...kusbmw/040.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...kusbmw/041.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...kusbmw/042.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...kusbmw/043.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...kusbmw/044.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...kusbmw/045.jpg

Looks nicer than any of my tanks... :lol:

:lol:

How come you're only running T5's?

That tank is looking good, nice work.

Really nice... wanna build my next tank? ;)

Well done.

nice light.

My old frag tank had two metal halides over it, because this tank is in a garage with no windows the heat built up to lethal levels. With the T5's I should be able to keep this problem under control. the tank is shallow enough to get lots of light to all of the coral.

Looking good there Ian.
Let me know when you need new stock.:wink:

Nice I like T5's

Tank is looking sweet guy.

Nice looking tank. The OM should generate some nice random water movement.

I would consider using some hot water or a torch to heat the fibre re-enforced plastic tubing on your drain - that tubing, while clamped, looks too close to the end of that barb fitting for my liking (specially in the absence of a 90 degree elbow). Better still, consider using all PVC until you direct the flow downwards.

Good pointers, I think I will take your advice! I don't want any leaks. The tank is now up an running, I will make the adjustments tomorrow.


Thanks!!:mrgreen:

Yup, putting the tubes on the grey things, I always run them under the tap for a little bit. Doesn't need much, about a minute and it will be soft enough to easily push on.

I heated up all the tubes as per your advice and they just slid right onto the fittings like butter, thanks for the advice, I still need some Cheato and some live sand if anyone has any extra. The tank is fully cycled now and I have got a few pretty happy frags in the tank.:mrgreen: I still have to move over another 25 or so frags from the main display.

Apparently I am now considered a "business" because I am offering frags for sale from this 20G garage frag tank, I think I have given more frags away free than I have actually taken money for :neutral:. I am not allowed to post any sale adds for the frags. My posts are being actively removed.

I cannot justify the fee to be a sponsor yet as I work far to much at my real job to make any money at this. I guess all of this is to be fair with the paying sponsors that really do make this a for profit business. I will not be "posting" any more frags here for sale until I sign on as a vendor. Thanks to those that did get some frags from me free or not!:wink:

I will still update how my frags are coming along in this new tank! Here are a few pics so far!

Sorry for the crappy colors, this camera sucks!

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...sbmw/002-1.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...sbmw/004-1.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...sbmw/007-1.jpg

Looks great nice work.:biggrin:

nice work! too bad you've crossed the threshold into sponsorville. well rules are rules right?

I feel I have to comment on the stand though. Is it really very sturdy? it just seems a bit flimsy to me.

edit: lol I have the same anniversary dremel kit as you (first pic)

Are you sunning a skimmer on this tank? Or just Live rock and Cheato?

Kind of a BS position to be put in IMO, think most hobbyists recognize selling frags is not really a business, but more of a requirement once you graduate to a large system and have corals that grow quite quickly. I have left my "business" to grow out since the start of the summer........hence I have not updated the site.

I just quit my sponsorship on another site which was a complete waste of time.........

Looks great! Doesn't look like a commercial setup to me! :lol: That's kinda silly really.

I am wondering however, why you chose to use crushed coral as a substrate over BB or sand?

Ditto. :confused:

Just a note on sponsor status. If someone is selling frags full time, has a banner signature with a company name linked to a companyname.com website setup to sell said frags, it's a business.
We have several of these businesses that find sponsoring here is a good direction for their advertising dollars, and it isn't fair to allow "hobbyist businesses" to do the same for free.

:biggrin:

I wasn't sure about the stand either until I put it together, the thing is actually really strong! The bottome of the legs actualy have screw out levelers built into them. The stand is actually very sturdy because of the water and sand volume in the sump on the bottom shelf.

In regards to the dremel, I love the dremel but the aniversary case sucks! :wink:

I have a deep sand bed in the sump and room for a skimmer, I have not bought the skimmer for this setup yet. I am actually looking at the small Bubble Magus skimmer as the ratings are pretty decent considering the price.

Right now the tank gets about a 30% water change a week just from bagging frags. :idea:

Ya I was worried about the stand too! It looks as if it's bending under the weight of the tank...or is the photo playing tricks? That would awfully bad for the tank! :eek:

I went with crushed coral in the display in order to prevent a sandstorm when I up the flow. I didn't want to go bare bottom in this little tank because I need all of the surface area I can get due to the non existance of live rock. I hope I made the right choice.

Coulda put live rock in the sump...? You wouldn't need much to make up for filtration since there are few (none?) critters in your frag tank. I bet you could get away with 1/4 lb per gallon. Unless you're gravel vac'ing that CC regularly, you're gonna get nitrate buildup.

I am not selling frags full time, I never have been. I have a goal to do this in the future but as I said before I have given away far more free frags than I have actually collected payment for.

I agree that a website in progress may look like a business but the website is going to be a showcase for my display tank, a blog, and also no doubt an avenue to sell some frags. Am I still a "business" if over half the deals are also trades for something I don't have?

I think that one has to properly discern a "business" for profit, or flipside a small setup like this that helps one pay for the insane amount of money that this hobby can cost an individual. I also enjoy offering my frags for free on occasion in order to help people with crashed tanks, new setups etc. I work more than 70 hours a week at my full time job and hardly consider this a business at this point. If I were a brick and mortar business with 100's of Gallons of frag tanks I could see your position.

It is easy to understand that it is only fair to the other sponsors paying $960.00 a year to not allow "established" businesses free advertising rights here. If I were them I would be upset too; however, in this case I hardly agree.

I would love to sponsor Canreef as it has been a valuable source of information and a great place to meet great people. When I can justify the almost 1K a year I will hop on board no doubt! Until that point, people that want nice frags know where to find me, word of mouth is a good thing. It is nice to have someone like Wicked Frags chime in in regards to this gray area.

One of the funny things is that the person helping me with the website is another Canreef member that I pay in frags to help me, great guy too! :lol:

Still need chaeto and sand?

edit: Whoops langley not langdon sorry.

:surprise: I actually saw that in the picture when I posted it and had to check for myself, it is definetly a camera trick, the stand is not bending at all. The stand is actually solid steel. the shelves are all actually straight when measured with my level.

Thanks for the heads up though! :lol:

^ Whew!!!

Yeah I suppose I will need to gravel vac the crushed coral, The tank should be pretty low nutrient due to no fish etc. I hope I can keep the nitrate in check!

I think I will also try to squeeze some live rock into the refugium part of the sump.

Thanks much for the advice.

:biggrin:

Hello,

Nice neat setup for a small system.
Keep at it!

Titus

Thanks for the kind words, I am pretty happy with it!

:mrgreen: