$45 portable frag swap nano tube

[SeymourDuncan]

So you want to take your stuff to a frag swap but do not have a way to show off your awesome corals?! With some ingenuity and a little glue you can take a tea dispenser and turn it into a reef capable portable display tank...with a storage spot for the frags you get!

Here's what I used:
$7 acrylic tea dispenser w/ dispensing tap
$1 sterilite CD case box
$12 aqualifter
$20 powerhead
$1 glue
$1 rigid airline
$1 hose (about 1/2 inch OD should work)
$2 full spectrum 3w led head lamp (Chinese eBay)
Free: one larger diameter HOB intake tube and one smaller one


This will take some rigging and availability of containers will vary.

So the main cylinder will display frags for sale...
The square "sump" will hold frags i recieved....
The display is fed via aqualifter just to keep the frags below from getting stagnant and its going to help with temps as well.

In the display is a powerhea mounted to the lid pointing straight down. This seems to create a more suitable flow. When it was mounted on the side it just made a whirlpool. Now its random.


The light is charged with AAA rechargeables that last 3 hours. More than enough time for a frag swap around here.

 

[LOVETHISHOBBY]

DIY is awesome...very cool!

 

[pickupman66]

ssssooo...., with that little box underneath the cylinder, how do you put frags in it? a 10 gallon tank from the $1/ gallon sale would also work pretty well.

 

[SeymourDuncan]

1 gallon of water is pretty easy to lift, so for now its just a little inconvenient. I can pick up the tank and open the box with no help but I think I'm going to make a small stand that allows for the "sump" to be offset for easier access.

The 2 reasons I'm not using a 10g:
1) I actually spent $9 on this project and had all the other stuff on hand, which is the case for most of us who are at frag swap level.
2) I have extreme Diy syndrome

 

[SeymourDuncan]

Here's the light I am using: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006BM65BE
Guess its 5w not 3w

I'm gonna charge the batteries again and plumb the tube up to my frag tank and see how it does on some zoas. If it doesn't open the corals its plan b: a par 30 bulb should be more than enough for a gallon