SPS Propagation

[House of Laughter]

I wanted to post a thread that might prove educational to the MR community as well as show off a little DIY - this will come in the way we are going to propagate sps. Special thanks to Tristan for the idea - I am sure it will prove to be an interesting project.

The basic premise revolves around understanding cycles of harvest and growing coral frags at timed intervals. Each cycle will have some common and rare sps and will be plugged and mounted to the rack that I am about to illustrate. Each rack contains 100 plugs which I believe have enough room to not compete and cause combat issues - we will have a total of 4 cycles and anticipate a good yeild from each rack cycle.

Each cycle will start under T5 lighting (325 watts) using a combination of grow out and flouresce bulbs to allow maximum growth and color - after the last cycle enters the trough, the first rack will enter into the "coloring up" phase under a 250w metal halide pendant (likely to house the new IWASAKI 14k bulb)

I will post periodically to this thread to show the cycles starting and cycling through each interval.

Onto the frag rack build . . . . . . . . .

House

 

[House of Laughter]

Building the Frag rack

As I mentioned earlier, the frag rack is composed completely of PVC.

We used PVC rods and perforated PVC sheets to make the rack itself. The second set of rods are being used for frag plugs - each plug sits on top of one of the smaller PVC rods that is fixed onto the perforated PVC rack itself.

A few pictures to show you the PVC sheet and the rods.

House

 

[House of Laughter]

Cutting the Rack and Plugs

Since the rack is made of PVC, it is quite easy to cut - the rods were also eacy to cut, but when you cut them to a 1" size, they become difficult to work with.

Pictures of the rack cutting and the rods cut to size.

House

 

[House of Laughter]

Making the PLugs

The plugs themselves are not easy to make - I highly recommend using a drill press when counter boring this piece. The 1" frag plugs are counter bored to be able to mount onto the rack - a picture of them side by side to show how they'll insert and pictures of the rack with a few rods in it . .

House

 

[House of Laughter]

Plug Detail

Here are some pics of the plugs and also how they will attach to the rack plug. The plug rod holder is 1/4" and the counter bore is 5/16th - allowing a little "wiggle" room to take the plugs on and off.

The smaller rod is slightly beveled and then lightly hammered into the PVC rack - since PVC is a little softer, the PVC rods pressure fits into the rack - ensuring a nice snug fit.

House

 

[House of Laughter]

Rack Detail

The rack is then cut down to a size to fit 100 plugs comfortably and the insertion of the holding rods begins. the first picture shows most of the rods in with a handful of plugs on it, the last 2 pictures shows the rack completely finished sans all the plugs - since I don't have a drill press, drilling 100 of those litttle buggers is a pain - I am at 70 and should have 100 by the end of the week and the first cycle inline and in the system.

Look for those pictures with corals mounted and the rack lifted to maximize lighting and allow for flow underneath the stir any detrius that might settle.

More pics coming soon . . . . . . .

House

 

[kimoyo]

That is a nice idea! Are you going to give away the rod that the coral is mounted on when you sell the frag? Why not just go with regular plugs?

I know its done now, but couldn't you've gotten hollow rods, mount those to pvc boards and then use the solid rods to hold the corals? Maybe save you the work of drilling.

 

[masterswimmer]

Paul, using 100's of aragocrete disks/plugs simultaneously is not good for a system. It even says it on the bag of plugs.

Yes, we'll be including the rod with the purchase of the frag. Makes mounting extremely easy. These rods encrust very quickly.

 

[SIReefer]

Very nice & well thought out. Can't wait to view this projects progress & pick up a few frags come the Fall Frag Swap. :thrash:

 

[meschaefer]

I saw this yeasterday, it is really a very ingenious method of mounting frags. The piece of pvc that the frag is mounted too is smaller than a frag plug, and should be easier to mount to a piece of live rock.

 

[fritz]

WOW. That seems very labor intensive and well worth the effort by the looks of it. Can't wait to see more. Great job guys!

 

[reefman]

this reminds me of Lite-Brite :smile:

 

[tripstank]

You should get a machinist.... wink wink... to help you with that.....

 

[House of Laughter]

Matt, thanks for the note - the best thing about using the PVC rods is they won't crumble when you try to mount them.

Tell you what Trips - you drill those plugs for me and you got first choice on frags from this system

Lite Brite - :bigeyes: - now that's funny!@

House

You should get a machinist.... wink wink... to help you with that.....

 

[masterswimmer]

You should get a machinist.... wink wink... to help you with that.....

T, I'm trying to keep this guy working, earning an honest days wage, and here you come along and try to give him free time :banghead:

Go back to your Bellum's :approve:

R

 

[tripstank]

I will also work for LR.... How many, just say under 1,000 and I will be happy...

 

[House of Laughter]

nah, I only need a hundred or so to start - although the image of you cranking out 1,000 at a drill press has me in hysteria ;-)

Let's take this to PM - and drop me a price on 500.

Swimmer, start fraggin :Starwars:

House

 

[jhale]

cool idea. the amount of work put into it makes it very labor intensive.

what about using the ceramic fired plugs? would that make life easier?

 

[House of Laughter]

J,

I am not sure the ceramic plugs are set right for this system - you have a link to them? I like the rods because they are softer (and not brittle) than the cement or ceramic ones - this way if you push it into a hole in the rockwork - it'll stay.

House

 

[jhale]

this is one place that had them, looks like they might fit.
http://www.thefilterguys.biz/frag_supplies.htm
I like what you are doing but the work... you are the energizer :bunny:

maybe you and Russ need some portraits like the filter guys :scratchch