Show Off your prop System!

I attempted to make them ( I have part of the DIY reef plug in my 75 gallon tank build thread), but took me too long and was time consuming. I bought these for $20 + shipping for a 100 pack.

I tried to PM you, but it wouldn't let me.
 
I feed my 20L frag tank with a Mag7 from the sump. A 5 would be better though. I have to crank the 7 down a bit.
 
I had a T on it to distribute the flow but it dropped the flow really bad. I would like more flow really but it is all the 1" bulkhead can handle apparently. I like to keep the water level in the 20L about 2" from the top.
 
Here's my 50 gallon rubbermaid. Its connected through a wall outlet into the other room where my main tank is. That way I didn't have to buy another skimmer. I've been having this brown hair algae growing on the side walls of the rubbermaid. It doesn't seem to grow on glass. The only place it grows in my display is on the top attached to the silicone bead.

any ideas on how to get rid of it?


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Well, mine is by no means a match for some of your setups - actually some of them are larger than some aquaculture centers I have seen, so hmm....

Anyways, the low down. 40gal tank (36x12x22). Skilter 400 (its better than nothing), two powerheads, magnum 350 canister filter, and Coralife Lunar Aqualight 2x 96W PC w/ moonlights. 20lbs of sand, soon to be 30lbs of live rock.

All of the equipment is from our reef setup that got upgraded to a 150, so we had this just sitting around wasting away, and decided, what the heck, instead of using the fuge on our 150 for propogating corals (mind you, we can only get around 20 frags down there before its going to be too crowded to add some macros and live rock rubble. Its about a 20gal partition of a 55gal sump.

Oh yeah, I also have about 130 of the frag plugs I made. I figured out I can get around 350 of the plugs in here.

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Like I said, nothing spectacular. Due to the lighting frags are going to consist of mostly softies (zoas, leathers, xenia, gsp, yellow polyps, etc) and LPS (galaxea, candy cane, and hopefully the new acan colony).
 
Like I said, nothing spectacular.

tekknoschtev, your setup looks pretty sweet to me. Very simple and effective. You plugs look a lot like mine. I like the simi-random shapes you get with a hand made plug!
 
hamburglar said:
tekknoschtev, your setup looks pretty sweet to me. Very simple and effective. You plugs look a lot like mine. I like the simi-random shapes you get with a hand made plug!

Thanks. It was more of a comparison to others, but I love it. My mom is jumping for joy, though I fear she is vastly over estimating how much money we can make with this. Personally I'd be happy if we made enough to cover the higher electrical bill with the 150 in operation. Or some sweet corals or fish for it. Trading is always good too.

And yes, I am a big fan of the hand made frag plugs. The little nubs pop off with an old pair of wire cutters or pliers, and they glue easily onto another rock seamlessly melding into the rocks. Very nice. I also put a hole in it with a toothpick while it was drying for toothpicking softies to the rocks. Works like a charm.
 
Good idea with the tooth pick hole. It's about time for me to make up another batch. I think I will try adding that feature.

In the past, I have stuck my thumb into the center of about 1/2 of my wet frag rocks, to make a little pocket for cuttings. That works good when you use fabrics to hold down cuttings.

As my South Down Sand stockpile is running out, I have also switched my mix to include more crushed oyster shell. I get it at a local feed store for about $10 per 50lbs. A little pricy, but it is only 1 mile from my house.

My current mix is 4 parts crushed oyster shell, 1 part South Down Sand, 1 part concrete. I'm still curing for 12 weeks which is probably overkill. The rocks have been very nice and chunky.
 
Alright...you guys all rock....I am finally going to sell some Xenia to the LFS and make a little feeder fish money and was curious how to go about making a larger operation....

But Now all I want to know is if any of you SELL your stuff through the mail and how to contact you to see if I could get some...I really would like to try and start some prop tanks and try to contribute to the industry.

But mainly just popin in to say keep up the good work.
 
Any of you guys have any websites that walks through the making of frag plugs? What are you making them in to, to get the shape?
 
I filled a styrofoam container with sand.
Then wetted the sand.
After the sand was wet enough to form I pushed holes in the sand with a dow rod (make sure the dow rod can fit in an egg crate hole).
Then i poured my mixture into the hole and "split" some over for the mounting part.
 
GARF has some nice how-to guides at http://www.garf.org

When I make my frag rocks, I just mold them in my hand and lay them on a plywood sheet to dry. This gives them a rather flat bottom, but it does not bother me since my frag rocks are all placed in sand.

For larger round rocks you will need to place them in a mold of some sort. Damp sand or oyster shell can be used to form a mold.

Here is another little trick I have been working on to make very large complex rocks.... Get yourself some pvc pipe, like 2 inch to 5 inch...whatever you have for scrap. Cut several rings about 1/2 inch width. Make a creative mold in damp sand or oyster shell. Now add your concrete mixture to the mold. Make sure that the top of the concrete mix is semi flat....you are only making the bottom half of the finished rock in this stage. Now, while the concrete mix is still wet, place some of the rings half way into the mix. Make sure that half of each ring is submerged in concrete, and the other half is hanging out. let this rock harden for a couple of days. Now make another mold, add fresh concrete using the same dry mix as before (for the same color), plop the first rock on top of the next batch. Let this harden for a couple days. Now you have something cool hopefully :)

The rings are used to fuse the two rocks together. Make sure that you make enough dry mix for both batches the first time. This will help with color matching.
 
I want to post pics of my greenhouse but I don't know how.
I have never posted anything in any forum before. I was able to put them in the gallery under greenhouse pics 1-5. if anyone can post them go ahead. Greenhouse is always under construction.
 
Nice setup loinphishy! I have my set up in my basement and have been considering sectioning it off with plastic to help keep moisture to one area. I would like to just build a room with plastic walls and vent this area to the outside.

I added a 4" vent to my basement but one 4" duct fact cant vent a 2300 Sq ft basement. My basement is currently unfinished and all open.

Here are a pics of mine.

http://ellisz.home.insightbb.com/basement/basement1.jpg

The electric has been fixed. :)
 
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