My DIY acrylic frag tank w/ pics

K

keithrett

Member
About a month ago I purchased two 55" x 99" sheets of acrylic off of Craigslist for $200.00 (one sheet is 3/4" thick and the other sheet is 1/4" thick) Shortly after purchasing the acrylic sheets I began constructing the frag tank out of the 3/4" thick sheet. I used weldon 3 to bond the acrylic together. There are a few small bubbles in the joints but none of the bubbles will leak, just in case I siliconed all the joints. Next I had to build the table for tank, I made the table as sturdy as I possible could to eliminate the chance of it colapsing. The sump is just a 40 gallon breeder tank from petco with glass baffles siliconed into place. This was a great DIY project and I am very happy with the end results. The frag tank is 45 gallons with the 40 gallon sump, the light that is on the top of the frag tank is not the one I will be using (LOL) I have a light fixture with two 250 watt metal halide lights and two 64 watt atenic power compacts. I would also like to thanks Frankie for helping me out in the early stages of my project, as promised I have posted pictures of the final project. Enjoy the pictures and please share your thoughts/comments. Power strip and cords wont be out like in the 1st picture and I am currently working on finishing the doors to cover the inside of the table

the live rock scattered on the bottom is just temporary. Once cycled the tank will have many shelves made of egg crate to hold frag plugs and the big pieces of rock will be removed

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whole set up picture

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overflow area

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the two drains with on/off valves

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overflow area with the two 1" drains. Once again I just needed more light for the pictures thats why theres a PC light on the tank

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this pic shows the return. sorry this pic is so bight, I needed to mess with the camera's settings.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Great looking project.

I do have one question . . . why would you cycle with the Live Rock then take it out ?
 
K

keithrett

Member
The large piece of rock on the right in the first picture is huge so I was just planning on taking it out, but now that I've thought about it more I will probably just break it up into small pieces and use the pieces to put frags on. Thats a good point thanks for bringing that up. As for what kind of stuff I will grow in this tank I am really unsure, I'm more of a soft coral kind of guy but I might try some hard corals if I see something I can't live without. I love zoanthids so there will probably be a good amount of zoas in this tank other than that its kind of just what ever I can find that will thrive in the tank. Also after seeing a picture of "rainbow montipora" I will definitely have to try and get my hands on a small frag of that.
 
K

keithrett

Member
Few quick questions about setting up a fuge, Is there any specific lighting requirements? Anyone have any experience with mineral mud? Should I invest in some maco algae? I have never set up a refugium before so any/all info is greatly appreciated. Or a link to some good info is just as good, thanks.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
I have a "Curly Que" light over my fuge and grow Chaeto (Macro-Algae) like crazy.

Mineral Mud is a total waste of time and money as well as most likely created the biggest algae bloom I've had to date.

That's my
My2cents.gif
 
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