Outdoor frag tank

Hi, I was bored today and got to thinking about building a plywood tank to be used as a growout tank for corals as well as being a frag tank, Obviously the inside of the wood would be coated in either epoxy OR something like a rubber pond liner

I was thinking of keeping it on the back patio at my house, it gets sunlight obviously but not to the point that I would need a chiller as long as the tank is of large enough size...I was thinking of somewhere in the 200-300 gallon range, I have an olf hot tub that we no longer use so I was going to repurpose the pump from the hot tub in order to provide circulation for the tank, for filtration I would build another wooden tank in the 50 gallon range that will be used as a refugium

I know that the pump from the hot tub works fine as it was just replaced about 2 years ago but it has only been turned on 2 times since I installed it 2 years ago "it's obvious we never use the hot tub LOL"

I didnt plan on doing any type of supplemental lighting since it would get sunlight obviously

This would be the first time I have done something like this so I would really appreciate any and ALL advice as to how to go about this and any potential problems that you guys may forsee either right away or in the future...

My main reason for wanting to do this is 3 fold

1) I am going to be resetting up my 65 gallon reef and I dont want to stock it with tiny frags so I figured I would let them grow out in this setup

2) I would like to help other local reefers as well as trade other locals for frags that I dont have

3) I want to add some more corals to m main reef tank which at the momen is a RSM130D

Once again any help and or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

1. Keep the tank in lower sunlight and use Halides, T5HO, or LED to supplement the sunlight or shade the tank completely.
2. I would recommend some really trustworthy heaters/fans/chillers depending on weather.
3. If you want to use the moon and LEDs to make a luner cycle, some corals will spawn under the light ( a.k.a. using the full, new, half, etc)

 

sounds like an interesting project to me tinctorus

in terms of using plywood for creating the tank - here is a good thread by3 reef member Horkn that should prove interesting and helpful

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/193-gallon-plywood-build-thread-66645.html

Things to consider from my experience with aquariums located outside

a cover of some sort is a good idea, I have a couple of small freshwater set ups on my balcony, Guppies in 1 and red eared terrapins in another, and even though we are a couple of floor up, objects occasionally float up on the winds etc and drift into the tanks

with saltwater the thing that would concern me is any run off from the structure, which could introduce polutants / heavy metals etc into your frag tank so again ensuring nothing can enter the tank would be idea IMO

 

I would also recommend not using the hot tub pump. Most pumps are not rated for saltwater. Saltwater is extremely corrosive to most metals. Check with the manufacturer to ensure that it will work long term. Also, if they are using copper bearings, then that is a sure way to contaminate your tank.

Where do you live? If not far enough south, even in the summer, you still may not get enough strong sunlight to do it successfully.

Love the idea, and hope you can pull it off. Would make a great, cheap way to run a very large frag tank.

 

"The area it will be in is a screened in patio but it doesnt get blasted with sun all day, maybe full sun for 4-5 hours a day and the rest of the day is indirect daylight, I had previously had 4 75 gallon freshwater tanks in this spot when I was breeding african cichlids and never had a problem with heat "The tanks actually never got above 80...However I will be placing a large piece of eggcrate over the tank with possibly sone screening on top of that
I dont want to do any sort of supplemental lighting at all"

I dont have to run the hot tub pump as I can get a large commercial pump for free from a buddy since he bought to many when he setup his store and he said he would give me whichever pump I wanted for free in exchange for doing some work around his reef shop

I live in South Florida in the Ft Lauderdale area so I know I will get enough light, plus I think with the area that it is in heat wont be an issue, I know that the hot tub even in the middle of summer never gets about 75 deg LOL so heat is probably the least of my concerns

Worst case scenario if it doesnt work out for growing frags succesfully the way I want it to I will turn it into a shark/stingray look down type tank

I will update this thread as I start to make progress, although it wont be very soon...Most likely a minimum of 5 months before I can get started

 

really cool idea! Sadly I live in the snow belt, so I couldn't do this :'(. Following!

 

I'm curious, why wood? Might make it more difficult for light to to spread evenly in the tank and certainly more difficult to see what's going on.

I'll be following this thread, sounds like a neat idea.

 

It will be getting sunlight so I dont think light spread is going to be an issue, As far as seeing what is going on in the tank I can either shut off the pump for a minute to look into the tank or I was planning on building a large acrylic floating box, similar to those round acrylic look down view ports they sell online

 

Is the reason you're going with wood because of the cost of acrylic? I just fear the wooden sides will limit the sunlight entering the system, especially if it's under an overhang and only getting 4-5 hours of direct sunlight. The ambient light may be reduces due to wooden sides.

 

Paint inside white I think would help too.