My DIY/Ghetto/cheap build

[Darsh]

A DIY build wouldn't be complete without some homemade rocks
I read a few recipes online and went with mix of sand, white cement and expanded clay. Unfortunately I added too much water, panicked and then added more cement to dry it out and ended up with heavy and not very porous rocks.
I cured them and now they're in the kuring process, just recently the ph has dropped to about 12 from a constant 16.
I wasn't so happy with them so a few weeks ago I made some more rocks, following the recipe in the DIY section here.
1 part cement, 2 parts sand, 2 parts perlite and being really careful with adding water I made a much nicer batch. Probably in the future I'll make another batch because the first one isn't so good.

Anyway here are some pics, you can see the difference in the two batches.

First batch

Second

A small structure without the biggest, ugliest rock.

 

[cracker]

I love all the DIY You Guys have done . I used to have to make my own stuff & it did indeed give me satisfaction .

 

[Goodair]

Good use of the random material, the ghetto overflow box defintly suprised me, lol. You should name this your Frankenstein Tank!

 

[Darsh]

I love all the DIY You Guys have done . I used to have to make my own stuff & it did indeed give me satisfaction .

Thanks, yea for me the satisfaction is the best part. If it works at the end I'll be very proud haha

Good use of the random material, the ghetto overflow box defintly suprised me, lol. You should name this your Frankenstein Tank!

I think some people might see my overflow box as a disaster waiting to happen but it's only a 25g tank and will have a pretty slow return flow. This syphon is well able to handle it

 

[Darsh]

Quick update.
I bought some dolomite gravel and I'm pretty happy with how it looks although I think I'll mix in some sand to give more variety.

Some "customisation" to the plumbing as is always necessary

Skimmer drilled

"Donovan's Nitrate Destroyer" has been water tested and is leak free! Great news because now I can keep it outside the sump saving much needed space

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

So a quick back story… I’ve been out of the saltwater hobby and actually completely tankless for about 6 years. I sold my tanks when I left my home country of Ireland to live in Poland. The itch starting to come back and I finally decided I NEED A TANK!!

After spending a lot of money in the past on fish related stuff and the fact that I’m now living in a “poor country” going all out and buying the highest quality or most expensive gear were not options and I felt I had no interest in doing so either.

I started thinking about how to do it “on the cheap” and realised that it was much much more interesting to source parts and make as much as possible myself.



I expect some detractors here and I welcome them because before I put any life in here I want others opinions on what I should/shouldn’t do. I realise I’m not doing the ideal thing but I’m confident that everything will work out. However, if someone sees an important hole in my plan I really would like to hear from them.

The target was basically this:

I wanted it to be cheap, I wanted it to be safe, I wanted it to be fun and the missus wanted it to match the furniture.



Of course I wanted a big tank but I felt that because we will more than likely move in the future I wanted to start off small so I could do everything by myself, lifting the tank etc. It wouldn’t be too intimidating for my other half and maybe she would fall in love with it and want a bigger one when we move to our forever home in the next few years haha.

I decided on a small 100L tank, or 25G.

I bought a strange corner tank and had a nice idea to turn it around and make a half hex out of it but that idea was revoked and I had to remove it from my home and it now resides in the basement. Here it is along with my vision...

I was asked politely to "get a normal one"...

I bought the next aquarium second hand for basically nothing, ordered some chinese diamond hole saws and drilled 2 holes in the back. This was the first time I had drilled an aquarium and for anyone out there wondering about cheap hole saws I can really recommend them! I bought 2 in case the quality was so bad that I needed a second to drill the second hole but 1 did both holes no problem. They cost $6 including shipping haha! Then I painted the back with oil based gloss paint only because I needed it for the interior overflow and I’m trying to cut costs.

I don’t want to bore you with the stand building, but basically, I had never done this before.
I recycled our old IKEA bed plus some extra bits for the stand. Then I recycled my son’s old IKEA cot for the canopy and painted it all in waterproof paint made for bathrooms that I had already, unopened for another project that in the end wasn’t needed.

We bought our apartment almost 2 years ago to the day. It’s an old tenement house which was built in 1902 in very bad condition and we’ve been living here and renovating the whole time. The renovation is 90% finished and I had some leftovers so managed to make a “skin” to match the kitchen furniture.

So far so good

Welcome, comrade! !!
On youtube "Ghetto Reef Technologies" worth a look.
I'm like you, if I can build it at 1/4 it's worth, I'll do it. All tanks bought are used. No issues. With time and the budget, you'll know what's worth buying and needed.
Love the tank, keep us posted.

 

[Darsh]

Welcome, comrade! !!
On youtube "Ghetto Reef Technologies" worth a look.
I'm like you, if I can build it at 1/4 it's worth, I'll do it. All tanks bought are used. No issues. With time and the budget, you'll know what's worth buying and needed.
Love the tank, keep us posted.

Thanks, I'll check it out!
Same here, I buy used or make it myself, it's more fun that way

 

[Darsh]

It's been a while but things have been moving along.

As of today I've been cycling for 2 weeks, I used Aquaforest Bio S and a big ol frozen shrimp!
Then put in some live rock after a week.

Some pics:

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Tak

It's been a while but things have been moving along.

As of today I've been cycling for 2 weeks, I used Aquaforest Bio S and a big ol frozen shrimp!
Then put in some live rock after a week.

Some pics:

Take it slow. And you'll succeeded, comrade

 

[Darsh]

Take it slow. And you'll succeeded, comrade

Slow and steady wins the race lol

 

[Darsh]

Here's my idea for a safe and removable dsb. Basically it's just 3 bottles filled a little more than halfway with sand with a few holes in the sides. I hope it's a good environment for anaerobic bacteria to live and I plan to replace one every year to avoid any negative effects from excess buildup.

This is my sump area
Yes it's plastic but I cut a scrap piece of glass to fit the bottom so everything in sitting on this glass bottom.
I hope it makes sense. The white pvc pipe is my emergency, the tube with the ball valve is my siphon and the other is my open, making a bean animal style overflow. Simple skimmer in that section, then the water flows through my dsb section, then onto/into a small container with some rock inside and some floss on top (not pictured here). Then into the last section with my heater, return pump and carbon reactor (also not pictured).

This picture shows better how my Donovan'sNitrate Destroyer in installed. It's powered by gravity and water is siphoned from the display with an airline tube that's beside the output from the return pump. It's completely sealed but it's sitting in a container along with my skimmer "collection bottle" in case of any accidents.

I know it looks strange, but it's working so far

 

[Hermie]

not even close to enough flow over the sand surface to make an impact in your tank, just IMO, and not trying to sound negative. the bottles need "Access" to the water in the tank in order to "process" it, little tiny holes on the side give a flow of what... less than 1 GPH ? Probably not even that

 

[JumboShrimp]

You should be proud of your work. And now that at (future) bigger tank is your wife's idea (wink-wink), I guess you'll be in the clear!

 

[Darsh]

not even close to enough flow over the sand surface to make an impact in your tank, just IMO, and not trying to sound negative. the bottles need "Access" to the water in the tank in order to "process" it, little tiny holes on the side give a flow of what... less than 1 GPH ? Probably not even that

No problem, I appreciate the critique. To be honest I don't know how effective it will be but I have limited space so I'm giving it a go
Would it be a good idea to make the holes bigger? There's 2 layers of about 20 3mm holes in each bottle.

 

[Darsh]

You should be proud of your work. And now that at (future) bigger tank is your wife's idea (wink-wink), I guess you'll be in the clear!

Thanks very much!
Yes my plan is working haha.

 

[Darsh]

2 clowns added about a month ago and zoas a week ago. Slowly, slowly.

 

[El_Guapo13]

Hmm... I have been thinking that I need another tank, but was worries about the cost of having to set one up. So this gives me some ideas. Especially if it can save me money.

 

[Darsh]

Hmm... I have been thinking that I need another tank, but was worries about the cost of having to set one up. So this gives me some ideas. Especially if it can save me money.

It can be done cheap. I've also added a WiFi power strip and sonoff temp controller to give more controllability.
I've spent less than $300

 

[El_Guapo13]

It can be done cheap. I've also added a WiFi power strip and sonoff temp controller to give more controllability.
I've spent less than $300

Nice. I .might still go even smaller than you though, partially because I have an unused 10 gallon sitting in my bedroom closet right now. And if it wasn't for my attachment to my freshwater fish (2 of which are about 15 to 16 years old), I might go and convert my 29gallon into a reef tank. But I like my freshies too much to just get rid of them.

 

[Twitchy]

No problem, I appreciate the critique. To be honest I don't know how effective it will be but I have limited space so I'm giving it a go
Would it be a good idea to make the holes bigger? There's 2 layers of about 20 3mm holes in each bottle.

You might want to cut the tops off of the bottles slightly below the water line of the sump to allow the sump water to drift over the surface of your DSB bottles, or maybe use the entirety of that milk jug for your removable DSB. giving you a lot more surface area. Also you should make sure any holes in the sides of the bottles are not in the bottom half, as that will allow oxygen exchange down at the bottom, preventing anaerobic conditions.