Why so complicated or expensive?

[Paul B]

DIY is great and part of my hobby. My skimmer and just about everything else including my rock is home made except for the rock I collected so I never bought rock. My ATO was ripped out of a condensate pump for an air condenser and it is gravity fed, there is no maintenance except for changing the resins a couple of times a year. My LEDs are also DIY but that is also part of my hobby.
The round temp guage on the wall is from an old basement in Manhattan. I have the copper bulb encased in an acrylic tube in the tank.

This old HOB filter is the manifold for my reverse UG filter.



LEDs are on a counterweight system so they rise up out of the way.
None of this stuff costs anything.



Rocks are one of the most expensive items, but these hollow home made rocks cost almost nothing.
Notice the old screen door closer, that cushions the front top door so if I drop it, it slowly closes, the tank is behind a wall.



The surface skimmer feeds the protein skimmer, it ain't pretty, but it works great and no maintenance.



And all maintenance and feeding is done with a home made one of these.

[usmc121581]

Originally Posted by johnike

My biggest cost is a bag of Mrs. Wages once in a while

That's my biggest cost because I buy all in stock at the time I see it.

[Aston Gal]

Thanks for the welcome! It's amazing how many times I've heard "I'd love to try saltwater but it's SO expensive!". Admittedly, it most certainly can be (especially for the new and/or uninitiated). I have found many good deals on Craig's List (a fortunate/unfortunate result of so many frustrated beginners jumping in and then back out of the hobby). The key (in my opinion) is doing the research to decide where your money should be spent and then having the patience and/or self-control to make it happen.

[rsaha]

How did you make these? They look about perfect...

[borderreef]

Originally Posted by rsaha

How did you make these? They look about perfect...

I saw these on Paul's other thread. I ordered six of the bulbs (they have a $10 minimum order), and made my first one today. Spot fed all my corals. They've never eaten so well.

[Saltydrip]

I made something similar but have a syringe at the end of the tube. It was great inspiration.

[Paul B]

How did you make these? They look about perfect...

As was said, I order the bulbs and buy the acrylic tubing and put them together. Everything in my tank is fed with these and I would never just throw food in my tank. All the animals get target fed as I want to feed some of them more than others. The copperband hogs all the food so I feed him on one side and while he is busy pulling the worms out from in between the rocks, I can go to the other side and feed the Shrimp/ gobi combination that never ventures far from his hole, then I feed the copperband some more and switch to the clown gobi that also doesn't leave his acro coral. The fireclowns are spawning in a bottle so I shoot some food in there. Some gobi's live under the rocks in the back so I have to shoot some food to them and I also want to target feed the giant mushrooms and bubble corals. How on earth would you feed these things with out one of these feeders?
I also use them to remove things like bristle worms or blow detritus off of something.

Shrimp/gobi


These guys like to eat in the back of the tank.


Spawning in the bottle


He likes to stay put but loves worms, so I shoot some at him



Giant mushrooms get clams





Bubble corals also get clams

[erock68]

Being still semi-new to all this (tank is almost at the 1 year anniversary) there is only 1 thing, I would change. I would have gone bigger, than 75g.

I was putting it in a wall and was nervous about the unknowns. I had friends give me a rough estimate, on the cost of the tank and upkeep side. I hit the mark pretty close.

I did not skimp on equipment. I would say that 99% I bought new. I just wanted to start out right and not with someone's problem. My only used purchase were lighting fixtures (T5's)

It's quite mind-boggling, to someone who has no experience, in saltwater. I had read everything I could, asked as many questions as I could, but actually doing it (with the right guidance) is the best teacher.

I feel more comfortable in what I am doing but, still have questions, especially with new stuff popping up in my reef, almost daily. I enjoy taking care of it, the husbandry and everything.... good and bad that it brings.

I am hooked!

[Dr Colliebreath]

I agree with keeping it simple and as failsafe as possible. One thing influencing how much you spend is where you have your tank. Mine is standalone in the main floor family room, so I need a sump and most of the equipment has to be kept in the stand. The sump doesn't really complicate it other than requiring a return pump that must be cleaned once or twice a year.

[Paul B]

I am hooked!

That is the most important aspect of reefkeeping because if your wishy washy about it, it won't last long.

so I need a sump and most of the equipment has to be kept in the stand.

They didn't use sumps when I started but if I were to start now, I would probably add a sump. My tank is not drilled and is tempered all around. If I ever used a sump, I would not drill as I design for being failsafe and a hole in the tank is not in my design but I have designed some over the side sumps feeders that worked very well.
My tank is in a closet so my equipment is not seen but if it were freestanding, like yours, I would need a sump.

[Paul B]

Here are a few designs of bristleworm traps that cost nothing to build and building them takes less than 5 minutes. Each one of these devices fills up with worms in my tank at night. I bait them with a piece of clam and the tube on top adds water to the device from a small pump or in my case, the algae trough.
They work great without the water flow but when the clam rots, it robe the container of oxygen and the worms inside die and no more worms will enter. So the tube keeps it working all night but it is not needed.

[uny2bld]

Paul, I just found one of your threads and then followed it to this one... I thought to myself "wow, thi sguy has a lot to offer... I'm going to have to read ALL of his posts"

Then, I saw that you have 13,000 posts! ha!

[Kawi9_cf]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Paul,

Your tank and your designs are an inspiration to me. I love how practical all of your stuff is. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[Paul B]

Thank you guys. I am honored. Now start reading those 13,000 posts.

[Ron Reefman]

Paul, I've been around RC for a while now, and fairly active, but I don't think I've run into one of your threads before. This is a pretty good one and you have lots of very cool, inexpensive diy ideas. I'm really glad to have 'bumpped' into you here.

I've only been in the hobby for about 8 years. I didn't know about RC and we had no local club when I started. I had about $1500 into a 30g DT after getting the tank and stand for $30 at a garge sale.

Now I have a 180g DT mixed reef (more lps & sps than anything) sitting next to a 70g anemone tank on an 11ft stand with a $100 8' x 2' x 18" deep sump/refugium. I added up all my hardware costs and found I have less than $3500 in a 350g system. Until I just bought new led lights (SW Florida, 1350w of MH over 2 tanks and a frag rack in the sump is just too much heat), the only thing I bought new was a 1hp chiller for $1100. Pull that out of my $3500 total and you see I haven't spent much money.

Building things yourself can be great fun, if you are into that kind of thing. I just made a 24g rimless frag tank and like it alot. I may build a 4' x 18" x 18" rimless QT to replace the old 55g unit I have now. I don't need to, but I enjoy the diy part and a cool new rimless QT to match the frag tank next to it would be nice. BTW, we have a big QT because we live near the Gulf of Mexico and snorkel the Florida Keys alot. So it's a QT and a local/Caribbean tank.

I spend time looking for deals (new and used) and almost never buy on a whim... well, corals sometimes, but rarely hardware. There is so much used equipment for sale these days. It's hard to justify new when you can find 1 or 2 year old stuff for 50-75% off retail. And for the most part, I'm in the less is better club. I have a reactor plumbed into my system and I have GFO & carbon sitting in a closet, but in 3 years with this system each has only been used 1 time and only for a few weeks due to specific problems. I only just started using dosing pumps after more than 2 years of manually dripping in about 275ml of calcium and alk every day.

And I'm the same way with chemicals. Calcium is Dowflake, soda ash comes from a pool supply, mag is Mag Flake and bulk epsom salt, coral dip is Bayer Advanced House Pest & Germ Killer. No, they aren't pharmaceutical grade chemicals, but then neither the ocean. I've used these for 18 monthes now and everything seems just fine.

Thanks again for the thread and the cool diy ideas.

[NiTr0x911]

Paul,I noticed you said you feed live black worms.I've been reading alot of good things about feeding these to fish.Is their somewhere online you order yours or do you collect them yourself?

[Nanighan]

I am a firm believer in more biology and less technology. I have a 55g tank with no skimmer or sump and no chemical filtration. It is mostly an sps tank in which I dose kalk using the Calfo slurry method by hand or drip method. Every single sps was grown from 1-2 inch frags. For precaution I do have polyfilter and some carbon just in case. I also collect detritus and crap from the sides of the tank after I blow out the rock from the water changes.

My secret is water changes. I change about 3-5 gallons a week. If you can get your kids involved (think $$$) it gets even easier. Here is a blurry video (watch in hd it helps) I made for a friend to show off my new powder blue tang.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPz4_XeF4M

[d2mini]

It's no different than any other hobby. My only response to the OP is "it depends".
Goals, wants, needs, skills... it all depends.

[Paul B]

I buy the worms in a petr shop and keep them in a worm keeper that I devised.