Making Money With Your Reef Aquarium (Continued)
Part 3 - Equipment Savings by Building It Yourselfby Stan Hauter
Page > 1, 2
Lights are easy to make as well. Some people are hesitant to work with "electrical stuff" because of the fear of getting electrocuted or starting an electrical fire, but the wiring diagrams are easy to follow and almost fool proof. A quick note, here: Don't buy "cheap" electronic components. There are good buys on name brand equipment that will last a long time. The stuff you buy from "fly by night electronics recyclers" undoubtedly doesn't come with a guarantee, and may not even work once you get it home. There is a full array of lighting parts and accessories made by top brand name manufacturers such as IceCap, Triton and Coralife, and many others to buy all the parts you need to assemble your own lighting fixtures. By buying through a reputable dealer you can expect to pay less than $400.00 for a 4 bulb set up for a tank, if you spend the hour to assemble the parts. Compare that to what you would have to pay to buy a set up already assembled. If you use a couple of Visi-Lux electronic ballasts instead of the IceCaps, you can save about $30.00 - $40.00 per setup. You might want to consider using PC DIY Kits, MH Retrofit Kits or other types of retrofit kits to save some money as well. There are a large number of lighting choices and hood designs to choose from, but you can easily build and save another $20.00 per tank by making them yourself.
Skimming is a mechanical function of water, DOC's and bubbles. No real big mystery about them once you understand the basic principles. Take time to read Don Carner's article series about Protein Skimmers to learn more about them, how they work, and the various types and choices for setting one up. There are a number of very good commercially made units, but you can save some really big bucks here if you make your own. You won't be interested in a nice acrylic reaction chamber so you can see the bubbles coming up or a fancy stand. All you want is something that works and is inexpensive to install. You can buy a Berlin Hang-On for about $170.00, and any other number of brand name pre-made skimmers for more, or you can build your own skimmer for $30.00 or less.
Making your own reef plugs (these are what you attach your coral frags to and put in the Plug Racks to grow out), aragonite base rock, or other forms of do-it-yourself live rock base and coral propagation tools is easy and fun. If you have a couple of kids around the house, this would be a fun project for the whole family to take part in. You can make the plugs using a plug mold, or you can just use small Dixie Cups.
As you can see, if you built a majority of your own equipment you will save, at the very least, several hundred dollars per tank set up. Multiply that figure times the number of anticipated tanks. It can add up to quite a tidy sum saved! To help you get started with building your equipment, go to the DIY Projects Corner resources page on this site for aquarium, stand, light/hood, protein skimmer, live rock base, and many other types of do-it-yourself plans I discussed in this article.
Happy Fish & Reef Keeping,
Stan Hauter
Your About Guide to Saltwater
Aquariums
Read
Making Money With Your Reef Tank - Part 1:
Creating
a Business Plan for Propagating & Selling Corals
Read
Making Money With Your Reef Tank - Part 2:
Equipment
Buying Choices
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