houser
Past President
Hey all,
First off thanks to all that make BAR possible. I'm really digging the club
Last November 2009 I set up a new system after a long hiatus. I've had a few setups in years past (few years on/few years off, repeat) so I'm pretty comfortable with how it all goes together. I have a loooonnnng term plan for a dream tank. A big one. But space in my current little house is at a premium. So in comes the garage. I almost started up with twin 80 gallon DIY tanks out there in 2006, but honestly with one newborn it was hectic. Since then we've added another one (remember the 2 little ones at the Jan BAR meeting?). Anyway enough was enough so time to get back into the game.
One thing in the last few years I really started considering was a system of shallow tanks for growout purposes. I was originally thinking of the traditional multiple tank setups with frag growout areas in the sump (hell I built it!) but creating a growout system right from the start would allow me to populate my future (larger) tank. I considered building a new set of shallow tanks but I had something perfect sitting there in my garage.
A hydroponic tray!
It was 4'x2'x7". Easy fit into my rack system. Easy to drill, UV stabilized, and pretty strong. I cleaned it out, plumbed it to my sump, and added water. Voila - instant setup in just 2 nights. After 4 yrs of dicking around just 3 hours of work. I think I had reorganized my damn equipment in boxes dozens of times in that span!
I have a single 250W MH (old-school 6500K Iwasaki) set slightly off-center over it. Plenty of photons! A single tunze sits in one corner and pulses away. I'm getting fantastic water movement and i've screwed around with the rockwork enough to channelize flow in some areas, make calm(er) spots in others. It really is quite dynamic. I think I've got about 65 gallons of water in the trough and sump. Not sure exactly. It's been very stable thermally and chemically, and despite the young age of the system what I've put in there is doing quite well. The stocking process was slightly accelerated once I won a little chalice piece at the December raffle. That was the first item in the tray!
There is only one thing I don't like about the hydro tray - detritus. I have some rocks in there and the detritus collects in the drainage channels. I siphon it out periodically. Nothing much I can do there. Other than that it's pretty cool. Only other weird thing is the tops of my rocks are fairly pale, but the shaded bottoms are fully coated in the traditional psychedelic shades of coralline. That is new growth, since when I set it up I put the existing coralline sides up and the plain bottoms down. Go figure!
Now I've got some acros, crazy shaped big birdsnest (thanks Sendo), a monti "frag" (freaking 5"x6" - thanks cookiejar), some stylo's, heliopora, some galaxea (old favorite) and one flaming green and yellow DBTC slimer. I've got a Q-tank running, and about 20 mangroves roughly one year old growing in sand but still FW.
Oh yeah the other thing I don't like about the tray is it's barely deep enough to handle the aforementioned monti so I'm already planning revision 2!!! Rev 2 will probably come online some time in April.
Big thanks to BAR and the cool people I've met so far. Although I still don't have much I'll bring some frags and am looking forward to the upcoming February swap.
Here you go...
(or if my intended embedded video did not work try)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfQKTdUlf6k
First off thanks to all that make BAR possible. I'm really digging the club
Last November 2009 I set up a new system after a long hiatus. I've had a few setups in years past (few years on/few years off, repeat) so I'm pretty comfortable with how it all goes together. I have a loooonnnng term plan for a dream tank. A big one. But space in my current little house is at a premium. So in comes the garage. I almost started up with twin 80 gallon DIY tanks out there in 2006, but honestly with one newborn it was hectic. Since then we've added another one (remember the 2 little ones at the Jan BAR meeting?). Anyway enough was enough so time to get back into the game.
One thing in the last few years I really started considering was a system of shallow tanks for growout purposes. I was originally thinking of the traditional multiple tank setups with frag growout areas in the sump (hell I built it!) but creating a growout system right from the start would allow me to populate my future (larger) tank. I considered building a new set of shallow tanks but I had something perfect sitting there in my garage.
A hydroponic tray!
It was 4'x2'x7". Easy fit into my rack system. Easy to drill, UV stabilized, and pretty strong. I cleaned it out, plumbed it to my sump, and added water. Voila - instant setup in just 2 nights. After 4 yrs of dicking around just 3 hours of work. I think I had reorganized my damn equipment in boxes dozens of times in that span!
I have a single 250W MH (old-school 6500K Iwasaki) set slightly off-center over it. Plenty of photons! A single tunze sits in one corner and pulses away. I'm getting fantastic water movement and i've screwed around with the rockwork enough to channelize flow in some areas, make calm(er) spots in others. It really is quite dynamic. I think I've got about 65 gallons of water in the trough and sump. Not sure exactly. It's been very stable thermally and chemically, and despite the young age of the system what I've put in there is doing quite well. The stocking process was slightly accelerated once I won a little chalice piece at the December raffle. That was the first item in the tray!
There is only one thing I don't like about the hydro tray
- detritus. I have some rocks in there and the detritus collects in the drainage channels. I siphon it out periodically. Nothing much I can do there. Other than that it's pretty cool. Only other weird thing is the tops of my rocks are fairly pale, but the shaded bottoms are fully coated in the traditional psychedelic shades of coralline. That is new growth, since when I set it up I put the existing coralline sides up and the plain bottoms down. Go figure!Now I've got some acros, crazy shaped big birdsnest (thanks Sendo), a monti "frag" (freaking 5"x6" - thanks cookiejar), some stylo's, heliopora, some galaxea (old favorite) and one flaming green and yellow DBTC slimer. I've got a Q-tank running, and about 20 mangroves roughly one year old growing in sand but still FW.
Oh yeah the other thing I don't like about the tray is it's barely deep enough to handle the aforementioned monti so I'm already planning revision 2!!! Rev 2 will probably come online some time in April.
Big thanks to BAR and the cool people I've met so far. Although I still don't have much I'll bring some frags and am looking forward to the upcoming February swap.
Here you go...
(or if my intended embedded video did not work try)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfQKTdUlf6k
