mixixe
Mar 8th 2007, 01:31 AM
I've been struggling for a while on what to do with a spare 8 gallon tall tank I have. And a couple of days ago I made a final decision to do a sw propagation tank. I realized that the corals in my 5g were starting to get out of hand and even if I tried to frag them, I'd have no room for them where they are now. I was excited to take the opportunity to learn about fragging.
So.. these were the steps I took in making my prop tank:
1) I designed a tank: this is a staircase design with holes in the plastic for better flow. Under the staircase would be rocks. Every level had a wall around it so the frags couldn't get knocked over by a snail or something. I just added the fish for fun.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/proptank.jpg
2) Then I asked some friends what they thought, and someone gave me a better idea :) Less plastic, more flow and I'd only need to use PVC piping and acrylic.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/tada.jpg
3) So then I got to work, went to home depot, got a plastic cutter??? it's like an xacto knife. The guy at home depot told me I score the plastic a couple of times and then I can break it off. So I did just as he said and it worked! yay! :) I glued the peices together with some silicone and glued the PVC pipe stands to it.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/CIMG0427.jpg
I could have saved some money by cutting the pvc myself, but I didn't want to use too many tools... so I bought them at home depot for 45 cents each!
4) I put some pucks on it to see how many frags it would hold:
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/CIMG0430.jpg
5) waited a day and put the shelving into the tank, and put the rock under the shelving... the heater, water and filter were running for several days already.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/CIMG0431.jpg
6) So far I have about 6.5 pounds of rock in there. Now i just have to wait for it to cycle and I have a frag tank. I might add more rock, and I am getting more lighting. It was a fun project and didn't take too long!
-just to add, cost wise: the pvc piping 18 x .45 = roughly 9 dollars. I used 2 small sheets of plastic = 6 dollars. Silicone was 8 dollars. Heater was roughly 30 dollars. Live rock around 30 dollars. I had the filter and tank before hand. That light is just temporary. Total, around 80 bucks.
Oh and I also wanted to add an idea Fugu offered to me for lighting b/c i was consider DIY MH lighting.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/MH.jpg
Maybe one day!!! But I decided I'm too afraid to do DIY lighting right now. Don't want to get electrocuted. :)
So.. these were the steps I took in making my prop tank:
1) I designed a tank: this is a staircase design with holes in the plastic for better flow. Under the staircase would be rocks. Every level had a wall around it so the frags couldn't get knocked over by a snail or something. I just added the fish for fun.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/proptank.jpg
2) Then I asked some friends what they thought, and someone gave me a better idea :) Less plastic, more flow and I'd only need to use PVC piping and acrylic.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/tada.jpg
3) So then I got to work, went to home depot, got a plastic cutter??? it's like an xacto knife. The guy at home depot told me I score the plastic a couple of times and then I can break it off. So I did just as he said and it worked! yay! :) I glued the peices together with some silicone and glued the PVC pipe stands to it.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/CIMG0427.jpg
I could have saved some money by cutting the pvc myself, but I didn't want to use too many tools... so I bought them at home depot for 45 cents each!
4) I put some pucks on it to see how many frags it would hold:
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/CIMG0430.jpg
5) waited a day and put the shelving into the tank, and put the rock under the shelving... the heater, water and filter were running for several days already.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/CIMG0431.jpg
6) So far I have about 6.5 pounds of rock in there. Now i just have to wait for it to cycle and I have a frag tank. I might add more rock, and I am getting more lighting. It was a fun project and didn't take too long!
-just to add, cost wise: the pvc piping 18 x .45 = roughly 9 dollars. I used 2 small sheets of plastic = 6 dollars. Silicone was 8 dollars. Heater was roughly 30 dollars. Live rock around 30 dollars. I had the filter and tank before hand. That light is just temporary. Total, around 80 bucks.
Oh and I also wanted to add an idea Fugu offered to me for lighting b/c i was consider DIY MH lighting.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/mixixe/MH.jpg
Maybe one day!!! But I decided I'm too afraid to do DIY lighting right now. Don't want to get electrocuted. :)