Garage Frag System.

[LeBon]

So I introduced myself with some big ambitions. Im wise enough to know that ambition and actually puting things into action and making a success of them don't always marry and over the years Ive met fifty reefkeepers who would like to go "a bit commerical" but never had. In most of my buiness ventures I have had team members that understand thier niche better than I ever coudld understand it, ten different people all with better knowledge than me on a particular subject and all invaluable.

Myself, I tend to be the one with the bigger picture and getting those ten people to work together. PocesSing a little bit of knowledge on each of the ten subjects; which depending upon the situation can be either insightful or dangerous

This thread is literally what it says, my small garage build at home. After a few years not playing, I need to refamilarise myself with a few things, get my routines and protocols down, master the equipment, hang the lights etc etc.
I suppose I willneed to upgrade my camera skills once I am properly stocking corals. Until then its likley to be on my Chinese 80 quid phone (dont knock it, its great lol). I will take some pics and figure out how to best display them on here. I suppose I best invest in a tape measureetc too as most of my thinking is based around "about this much" which prob wont go down too well with the pedantics

But for now, off the topof my head..

Just over 5 foot long frag tank approx 12 inches deep, water is perhaps just 10 inches. and is just over 2 feet breadth, Gallons us,? uk? litres? 'about 75 gallons 300 litres.
Sump is square approx 2 x 2 x 2 foot, open . "about" 40 gallon, 160 litres
Return tank just 'about' 10 gallon 50 litres,but only 1/3 full.
So 'around 500litres of water :~)

Equipment a mix of new and used.
BubbleMagusCurve 7
Icasa Filter Roller
Generic return pump, actually too powerful so added a valve to the soft plumbing side.
ATI sunpower.... non dimmable.With over 5 foot tank length the size is a bit awkward but made sense to go with 5 foot tubes. The negative being 80w tubes might be overkill so I went with ust 6 tubesand wilhang it high, at least initiallyas im just DIY ing a stand currently... I do have the hanger kit for later.

Some pics to follow later

 

[Peace River]

Good luck with your new adventure!

 

[LeBon]

Thanks.. better half came home so pics had to wait

Welcome to my world for a while...

Used to actually keep a car in here :/

Hmmm.

It is a garage remember!

tent squished against other tent to create 'my fish room' for the rest of this year. Small tent will probably get removed in a months time.

little desk space to work

about 250l tank that may be used for various things yet and might as well start cycling it. May breed seahorses again or it might be a QT or hospiital depending on my flow,no pjn intended.

The frag tank. Water has been in a few weeks just getting wet as I say. I dont really think about the cycle straight away to be honest OR I just see maturing water itself a part of the cycle, drawing in any elements from the envionment and adjusting itself to the air quality etc. (another of my scientifically unfounded thoughts based on nurture haha. We need to look after this water, make it relaxed and happy before we ask it to do anything)

basic return tank, soft plumbed cos I was adding a valve and basically just sorting flow etc and soft is ok here.

Will continue in next post as geting long way to scroll to add a pic

 

[LeBon]

Sump. Will have live rock in here in the main, I dont feel theneed to be say "1ib gallon" for the low bioload frags as they will be going in slowly and be part of the cycle themselves. (more non scientific thoughts). I will add live rock as I add live coral.Its always 6+ months ahead for me to cycle, even if we can complete a nitrogen cycle on the numbers inside a month, I think theres simply far more to a real cycle than de-nitrifying, (something about that biome environment and how it initially creates itself?) so yeah I would rarely throw water into a new tank and add BACs and Ammonia source on the same day. I just like to wait a while.

Theres a curve 7 in the sump, more than enough for this and I may end up running other tanks of one sump eventually, you know how it is. It isnt running yet. I bought this second hand and also a roller filter to go alongside it. Again both overkill early doors but can epxand with the bioloads. I paid like 140 euro sfr the pair.

How could I ever forget the snakes nest that seems to acompany us. Been jiggling about, remember I had 2 horticulture tents here too.. Basic power strips, but at least drip looped haha

Still not on the LED ride after 20 years, tho they are getting better. Grow not show is the ideal here so its ATI sunpower. Not really dificult to choose ATI , its just a classic thats been spoke of enough. Altho ever geting one quickly can be near impossible to be honest and their sales approach , to me, seems just silly. Im very patient with my 'stuff' but when I decide I want to buy something, I want it now. it took me 2 days to track a supplier in Holland that had one in stock and sent it me just this last week. The other 358 stores that I appproached around Europe told me anything from 3 weeks to 6 months to get stock. Not even a guaranteed date etc, an absolute farce. Im just resourceful and got used to using different languages to find stuff .

Over the last 2 weeks ive ordered bulbs that arrived in soft packging and was broken to bits and another store just tell me they had no stock of the blue+***. So tomorrow I will be out looking for tubes as ive only got 4 and cant even check the ficture works all week haha.. tho the 2 circuit one works.

A fish in here and now part of the slow gentle cycle. Earlier than anticipated and not ideal as hes a 6 line and it 'may' make it difficult to intoduce anything else Tho there would be minimal fish in here anyway.

Is this gonna be a boring thread? Cos been in two minds about doing it. Im used to be quite informative if I can and I dont have any real insights forthis partof the journey.

I am planning to do some outdoor/greenhouse growing eventually, I have greenhouses to call upon with friends etcbut I do have maybe 25m x 6 m space outside this garage space that may actually be a practical step. Even if to cure a tonne or two of liverock

And finally.. heres a totally irrelevant picture of my pig lol Cs she was here at that moment. and hey Im sure (presumptive) that many reef keepers just dig nature and livestock in general

 

[LeBon]

Have the filter roller installed. The old roll is too stuck togther but was ok for 'tuning; it. When I add a new roll I will not stick it around the outside roller, it seems a bit too taught that way.

Skimmer tested and in place tho these mechanicals wont be in operation for a while.

Been giving a lot of thought to the cycling and rock situation in general and think theres a gap or two in the mrket still..... Newbies seem confused in some ways over live rock, dry rock, dead rock? alive? and its quite pricey to buy clean cured rock thats ready to go, lfs's seem to have it intermittently in drums.

My iidea is to cure lots of rock so that it can get through quick cycles, a basic right? But what about actually building the aquascapes for various sized tanks and then properly curing that for month on end in big outdoor vats? Again, the space and energy costs are where we have an advantage commercially at scale.

The risk in this part of the business are pretty much neglibale nd stress free compared to 'livestock'

I imagine that it could actually be bucketed with water for transport too, to a certain size..

Sounds like a proposition to consider for new tanks to me, ready made shapes that you like, that is actually alive and clean.

It would require this efficient space and energy and time to actually make it affordable to newbies but that keeps it very similar to my sustainable plants stuff so thats right up my street in theory. I like to imagine I could price 'living' aquascapes at the prices I see dry aquascapes for sale locally, tho of course thinking further ahead it would be sensible to have trade options and be profitable on that side. We could ship as I mentioned in buckets to order, then the lfs would have to have a display tank for rocks esentially.

With these thoughts in mind during my rock searching etc I dont have any rock in the sump yet as I may well likley look to bulk buy some.

So we are old skool combined with new in the sump with a tub of sand, crate for rock/rubble and tub of bioballs just to create surface area for bacteria, then I will add some live rock and pull the bioballs for example further down the line.

 

[LeBon]

Still in cycle and generally tidying the space, sorting out the sump and adding bacteria weekly.

Filter roller is now running. Not the bioload for the skimmer but its ready for when and if. I like an open sump, dont think the modern compartmental sumps are a good idea personally. Work needs to be easy in my experience

2 small frags added, just for a guide.

lol, took me years to use a camera under growlights all those years ago.Now need to learn underwater and bluelight stuff . Things look bluer on cam in my situation, I actually wanted and thought id have a slightly deeper blue look wih the 3 blue + bulbs. Tips welcomed.

The lights are on now, Just 2 bulbs for 2 hours then 6 bulbs for 6 hours and then 2 bulbs for 2 hours.
I just added some alluminium loop things to the rails and will hang from those, just awaiting an extra pair of hands to hook it in.
After ending up with one or two broken t5ho bulbs I'm currently running, 3 blue + 1 actinic (blue and actinic are the ramps) 1 coral + and 1 aquablue.
With my plants and animals etc I like to provide a little of everything (how our own diets should be no doubt, a little bit of every possible colour of food) and athough im technically clueless, for my own peace of mind, I like the very slight variations in the spectrum that each bulb proivides.. as opposed to going full spectrum as it were.

I have framed the tank in blue led for if we need to work in there at night time tho

Busy networking somewhat and the seeds of the reefscape stuff have begun.

Sorting rock into various boxes of similar sizes/weights.

Collecting this rockdust which will be used as the initial cement in the superglue, ala Jager style?

Even working on basics like weight, its best to be accurate. Its just natural for me nowadays to be thinking of bottom lines. For this type of project Im pretty much working on a cost per kg, be it labour, glue, rock, salt, power...

Will be building a few small scapes which will initially just go in my spare tanks and sump and start curing.
I will slowly create them ongoing for a few months with a view to them all being laid out in finished scapes to cure outdoors for the summer as it will be cost effective.

Priced up some large shallow tanks but jesuz im outta touch sometimes, pricey. I just went a bought a 10 foot rigid paddling pool which I think will make a very useful and convenient temporary solution.

 

[LeBon]

Ugly stage. diatoms. Love the shallow tanks for ease of cleaning, Im actually using a selection of paintbrushes to generally dust things, including the few frags that are in for this cycle.. I realise most wont add any coral at all during cycle but a few hardy types I think cant hurt the maturing of the tank, even if its not primed for them to thrive.Lots to learn about 'seeding'

 

[LeBon]

Did attach the 2 light bars during this cycle, I used nice perforated sheets.

Also the lid of course, mainly to keep Roger from jumping out.

Cycle pretty much done but still cleaning diatoms a bit now the lights are ramped up.

A few easy sps frags as i mentioned tho will be a little while before adding stock

Filled the first 10 foot by 9 foot pool outdoors, added half the salt only for us to get a major sandstorm from the Sahara and its given us half an inch of sand all over the plot (whole area), so just a brown pool right now ,swimming pool the same but gonna be easier to clean that.

So it might well be that this free sand stays in that system now,its really for curing the aquasacpes,not a covered area for corals.

Small 50 gallon tank in the house that has no sump or space saw its first anenome split. Is basically a fowlr and nems

 

[LeBon]

So the frag system simply has to go on hold somewhat,

I added like 8 SPS birdsnest n similar frags instantly and they are actually thriving and showing growth... However, I've simply ran out of money right now and it's obviously unviable to keep running the hybrid lighting for a few corals.

I am about to invest my last few euros on some seahorses with the intention of breeding them and it's taken me months to find specimens. It was that or add about 40 frags to grow out for 9months. The seahorses are expensive and scarce right now over here. Seahorses are what originally got me into the marine hobby many years ago.

I have a tall 55-gallon fowlr tank in my living room. I am currently ramping up its cleanliness and converting it to a mixed reef. I'm not sure if I can get the flow right in these 55 gallons tho to suit sps, never mind the lighting. But we can try.

The frag system can continue to run if I can move the SPS , just without full lighting, then the 6 line wrasse can stay in there,

How do clowns do in a shallow tank?

I was going to run some outside saltwater tubs etc but again finances dictate so its actually being turned into a freshwater/perhaps brackish pond.

.

 

[LeBon]

Never got any traction on this thread so will shut it down, at least in this form.