$84 Frag tank update

maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
The tank finished cycling a few days ago. Only a few modifications were needed in order to make a functional tank, the main one was scrapping my entire plumbing design and going with a used canister filter LOL, still stayed within my $84 budget, even had to use nylon cord to hang the light fixture because chain wasn't in the budget...LOL
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There are 35 frags, mostly zoo' (5 frags of some awesome blues)s, some starburst, yellow polyps etc. basic stuff. The photos are are really washed out,
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I'm going to give it 2 more weeks and then add about 25 more frags, some shrooms, zenia, etc, I'm kinda limited due to the compact fixture. The goal is to have about 60frags and see how they multiple over several months and then sell them off and buy a real frag tank...My other half pitched a fit at all the cash I'm spending and this whole project is a bet, I say I can make it work and if I do, then I can get what ever tank and lighting I want.
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I've documented each frag according to type and number of polyps and will track growth and post results every week or so.




 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
The frag tank itself cost a total of $84. The tank ($9) is a sweater storage plastic tub (16.8gallons) from Wallmart, the kind that slides under your bed, hence the red wheels visible on the tank (frag tank on wheels) there is about 40lbs of LS on the bottom of the tank which was scavaged from other tanks, along with about 20lbs of busted up LR. Grid work is eggcrate lighting grid from Home-Depot, it's elevated 1.5" off the bottom of the tank. Filter is a used canister filter and is simply to move water around, spray bar on one end and overflow on the other end of tank. Lighting is a power compact dual actinic that cost me $100 (lighting wasn't included in the cost) This is an experiment to show that you don't have to have $$$$ to build a frag tank and I tried to build it as cheap as possible. Tomorrow i'm installing $2.00 auto topoff system made out of airline tubing and a 2 gallon water jug, I post pics on this tomorrow.
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The blue zoo's are electric and neon blue, the frags you see are going to get broken down into 4-5 polyp frags over the next few days. I scored on those 5 blue frags for $15 and each frag has about 25-35 polyps. The pink ones are awesome and I'm going to frag them onto some fiji branch.
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
Just made a surface skimmer out of $1.95 brand new soap dish holder for a shower. This thing is perfect, already had suction cups and holes for skimming. All I had to do was silicone (sp) the opening on the bottom and a few of the holes on the front. I'm using this with my canister filter.
The other project was a $2.00 topoff system, used a gallon bottle, drilled out a small hole at the base, inserted an airline connector then siliconed it in place, attach airline tubing, run the bottom of the tube to where I want the water level, fill the jug with water and replace cap on top (very important) this type system works just like the auto water systems for pets that use a 2 liter soda bottle turned upside down.


 
kzoo

kzoo

Member
Man you have alot of time on your hands, but the hole thing is cool. I want frags when there ready.
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
LOL,...Yeah I do have a little too much time, if there is such a thing.
I've run into one problem with heating the tank, because of the 16g volume and huge surface area it stays at a perfect 80 during the day (lights and heater together keep the temp at 80) but dips to 77 at night or when I turn the lights off. Can't increase the temp setting on the lone heater or it will raise the temp during the day, so I'm installing another heater that will be on a timer to come on during lights off, should be just enough to stop the 3 degree drop at night. It's a used heater and looks like I'm going to have to dig thru the x-mas lights for a timer LOL...Man I can't wait to prove this experiment works so that I can go buy all new equipment and have a real frag tank custom made...
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
Here are the latest updates on the frag tank. Installed a HOT overflow along with a 10g sump, got the overflow for $10.
The frags are actually strting to multiply
Several of the gloves I started with have produced 3-4 new polyps, one rock was actually touching a good sized frag of cloves and I got one polyps that fragged himself (1st photo branch LR with green zoo, to the right you can see the gloves). The starburst are doing really well, hard to tell if they are spreading but they are open and looking good. I'm getting ready to frag the green and orange colony of zoo's along with the blues. Just got some awesome and rare colors in today, can't wait for them to open, I'll post pics a little later




 
moby

moby

Member
Hey Max this is really neat!
Thanks for sharing the info and photos.
Do you mind if I steal some of your ideas? Too late!

I've been tossing around doing something like this for awhile, but unlike you time is something I lack right now. I use the 3rd bay of my garage as my fish room and have a spare corner that is in need of being cluttered.

Nice design on a shoe string budget though.
Moby
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
The goal was to prove you don't need $$$$, custom built tanks, complicated plumbing systems etc in order to have a frag tank. I just finsished fraging another set of glove polyps. Total is now at 71 frags
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
In order to prove this works, here are some frags that I created today. These will be test frags to document any positive/negative growth, I will post followup photos of each frag over a period of time indicating any new growth
1st frag is really hard to see and figured this would be a good one to start with. It's a single polyp of the most incredible blue zoo's i've ever seen, I selected the smallest possible polyp to start with, used superglue gel
2nd frag is 3 polyps of pale blue and orange zoo
3rd frag is 5 polyps from the same blue and orange colony
4th frag is 4 polyps of clove's
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I will frag about 15 more zoo's tomorrow, each with 3-5 polyps per frag. I've selected very distinct shaped LR for each frag so the pics will match over a period of time, just in case there are those who doubt the results



 
pyro

pyro

Active Member
Just out of curiousity... because this is a frag only tank, would it help to use the oystereggs/phyto and other food type supplements really heavily and just do frequent large water changes? Might be a good expiriment to see how much it helps later on :thinking:
 
pyro

pyro

Active Member
I'd say wait until everythign is established for a bit and try it. Or, if you for some reason get a sum of money (haha, like $250 more than expected on tax returns =P) just set up another one and keep that one as a control. Would be interesting to finally proove all them for good or bad and get it in writing.
Also, considering this is primarily about budget, I have seen several threads about using natural sunlight in their tanks. I personally beleive natural sunlight just attracts algae, but might be an idea to save money on the light fixture.
Looks good so far, let us know how it goes =)
 
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