Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > General Interest Forums > Do It Yourself
Blogs FAQ Calendar Mark Forums Read

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 04/13/2019, 03:33 AM   #26
Tastee
Registered Member
 
Tastee's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 277
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astyanax View Post
I have four components (upper light, lower attracting light, heater, pump) for this build, but only three holes for switches. I had planned not to need one for the heater, but as I gave it more thought, I realized that I need to be able to easily turn off the heater as well.



So I put another switch hole next to the others. That one went very poorly, probably due to the fact that my thick paint finish would rather be broken off than cut through. But the hole is intact!

Firstly I want to say this thread is great and your build quality is exceptional.

For your drilling issue you may find a dowel bit will cut through the paint more cleanly. Here is an example - an Australian one, but I’m sure you will have no issues finding the US equivalents.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/haron-10...l-bit_p6322979

Well done and keep the updates coming!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Tastee is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/13/2019, 07:32 AM   #27
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tastee View Post
Firstly I want to say this thread is great and your build quality is exceptional.

For your drilling issue you may find a dowel bit will cut through the paint more cleanly. Here is an example - an Australian one, but I’m sure you will have no issues finding the US equivalents.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/haron-10...l-bit_p6322979

Well done and keep the updates coming!
Ah yes, in the U.S. those are called brad-point bits. I have a set, but not at the 1/2" diameter I needed for those holes. I'll keep those in mind for future projects!

And thank you for the compliments!

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/13/2019, 09:04 AM   #28
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
Earlier in this build, I cut a piece of clear acrylic to serve as a splash guard:



However, it needed to be further cut in order to allow the air tubing and heater cord to get out of the bottle. So I marked and drilled two 1/4" holes in the acrylic:



Then I cut slots out with my bandsaw:



This piece is supported by the horizontal pieces of wood just above the water bottle, and the front vertical posts help hold it in place. It goes in from the side and holds the airline tubing and heater cord in place. The posts prevent it from sliding forward.



That's it for the splash cover! Next, I want to vertically stabilize the bottle a little bit.

Thanks for reading,

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/13/2019, 12:10 PM   #29
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
The space that holds the bottle is a little larger than the actual width of the bottle; so it's prone to lean to one side.

To make padding to hold it vertical, I cut some ~3" strips of 6mm craft foam.



Then I used spray adhesive to glue the strips to the horizontal wood bars.



There, no more leaning! I can remove the foam and replace it as needed.



Short and sweet. I'm in the home stretch!

Finally, I wanted to make the entire rig more stable. This involved using the same anti-vibration padding that I used for the air pump.

I started with a piece that was bigger than I needed, and glued it on the bottom using spray adhesive.



After a few minutes, I trimmed off the excess with a very sharp blade.



And that gives me a huge area that will help it grip any surface it's placed on, and further deaden any vibrations caused by the air pump.



And that is a completed hatchery! But I'm not done posting here. Time to test it out and work out the kinks. Let's see it in action!

Thanks for reading,

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/13/2019, 06:23 PM   #30
reelredfish
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: DFW,Area
Posts: 798
Still following along


reelredfish is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 01:23 AM   #31
laverda
Registered Member
 
laverda's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Anaheim, CA
Posts: 6,902
Very nice build.


__________________
240G mixed reef, 29G SPS/LPS clam tank, 50G mixed reef

Current Tank Info: 300g mixed reef, 50g cube
laverda is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 11:10 AM   #32
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
Yesterday I set it up in my kitchen, and started a batch of brine shrimp eggs. My recipe:
  • 800mL of water
  • 4 teaspoons of aquarium salt (shooting for a specific gravity of 1.017)
  • A pinch of baking soda (to stabilize pH)
  • 2 drops of bleach (to stave off bacteria)
  • 1/4 teaspoon of Grade A brine shrimp eggs



I adjusted the heater a little over the next few hours, and found it to swing between 82-85 degrees Fahrenheit. I might raise it a tiny bit in the next batch.

Looks good in the kitchen, and very quiet!



Today I will check the hatching, take some more pictures, and think about a small thing or two I would like to add for convenience' sake!

Thanks for reading,

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 01:56 PM   #33
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
It's been 24 hours, and I have a sizable hatched batch!



I turned off the air pump but left the overhead light on for 15 minutes. This allowed the unhatched eggs to settle to the bottom.



I then ran those out of the bottle using my new "faucet." There were very few shrimp caught up in this step, so I discarded these.



Then I turned off the heater and the overhead light, turned on the LED light on the bottom, and left it for 10 minutes in the dark with the panels closed. The shrimp were drawn to the bottom!



A closer look shows how they were attracted to my light.



But even more interesting, they were attracted even more to the opposite wall. I think this is the LED light shining through the bottle and reflecting off the opposite wall.



I then decanted the rest of the shrimp into my tray, rinsed them in RO water, and gave them a fresh supply of salt water for storage in the refrigerator

That's a decent supply, considering I only used 1/4 teaspoon (that's 1.23 mL) of eggs!



They'll last like this for a few days, but they're at their most nutritious for only the next 12-24 hours at most.

For feeding the fish, I scooped out a small supply with a shrimp net and rinsed in fresh water. Ready for feeding.



Fat and happy baby swordtails!



To clean up, I removed the bottle and rinsed it out. The heater needed to be wiped off with a wet rag, and I also removed and rinsed the airstone. Cleanup and assembly took about five minutes. I then started another batch. Total turnaround was under ten minutes.

And that's about it! I hope you've enjoyed this build. I'll be monitoring this thread, so if there are any questions or comments, feel free.

Thank you for following along, and thank you all who left nice comments as well. I appreciate it!

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 02:04 PM   #34
JaihWill
Registered Member
 
JaihWill's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 166
This is great, if you ever decide to sell this design let me know lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


JaihWill is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 02:25 PM   #35
Sharpimage
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 324
Where do you get the eggs?


Sharpimage is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 04:14 PM   #36
Vinny Kreyling
Registered Member
 
Vinny Kreyling's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Miller Place, NY
Posts: 7,206
Nice Job Bill!


__________________
250 gallon mixed reef, 2 Reefbreeder's Photon V 2, Deepwater BLDC 12, DAS EX-3 Skimmer, MTC mini cal, 2-3/4" Sea Swirls, Aquacontroller & 6 Tunze pumps.
Vinny Kreyling is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 04:50 PM   #37
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaihWill View Post
This is great, if you ever decide to sell this design let me know lol
Thank you! I would never sell the design, I'm a believer in open source innovation (suck it, Apple!). In fact, for whoever wants it, I will post the design as a Google SketchUp file. If anyone would like exact measurements, just let me know and I'll give you precise dimensions on every piece, if you like. All I ask is that you post pics of what you accomplish in this thread!

Here's the SketchUp file:

Bill's Brine Shrimp Hatchery v2 (409 KB)

Enjoy!

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/14/2019, 04:51 PM   #38
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharpimage View Post
Where do you get the eggs?
I got them on Amazon, selected after some research:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012IKVMFG

I'm very happy with the results!

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/25/2019, 09:43 AM   #39
Astyanax
Registered Member
 
Astyanax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 34
Hey guys!

I've been using this hatchery for almost two weeks ago, running a fresh batch every day. In that time I've learned a few things and made a few small updates, so I thought I would close out this project by sharing them here.

1. Replaced the bottle. The Fiji bottle turned out not to be the best choice for this project. The slope of bottle to the neck is not long enough, so eggs want to settle along the walls. Instead, I'm trying out a "Brisk Tea" bottle, but I may look for something wider in the near future.



2. Removed the bottle spacers. The craft foam spacers made the cavity too small for the Brisk bottle, and they make it harder to slide the bottle in and out. Turns out the weight of the water the in the bottle holds it vertical just fine, so I ripped those out.



3. Removed the airstone. The smaller bubbles of the airstone do not circulate the water as well as just a bare tube. I found that salt mix and shrimp eggs were wanting to settle under it. Once I removed it and extended it with a 1" length of airline tubing on the end, the bigger bubbles moved much more water and kept everything from settling.



4. Used the lower chamber for storage. I didn't plan this, but the lower area serves to hold my baking soda, bleach, and a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon. I just put the baking soda in an old spice can and the bleach in an eyedrops bottle. Convenient!



5. Decorated the front. It seemed like the whole unit need some sort of decoration, so I found a picture I liked via Google search, and then traced it onto some red craft foam and cut it out. I think this looks a little better.



6. Added a timer. Since I need to time 15 minutes for the shrimp to rise to the top (for draining unhatched eggs) and then another 15 to come to the bottom (for collection), a dedicated timer made things much easier.



So there we have it, nothing too major to change. I'm otherwise pretty happy with it!

Thanks for reading!

Bill


Astyanax is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 04/25/2019, 11:58 AM   #40
Vinny Kreyling
Registered Member
 
Vinny Kreyling's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Miller Place, NY
Posts: 7,206
It's nice when a plan comes together.
Good Job!


__________________
250 gallon mixed reef, 2 Reefbreeder's Photon V 2, Deepwater BLDC 12, DAS EX-3 Skimmer, MTC mini cal, 2-3/4" Sea Swirls, Aquacontroller & 6 Tunze pumps.
Vinny Kreyling is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 05/03/2019, 03:20 PM   #41
SciGuy2
10 & Over Club
 
SciGuy2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Mustang, OK
Posts: 944
Impressive, but will this airplane fly?


__________________
Lee

Current Tank Info: 46 gal system
SciGuy2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 05/09/2019, 07:13 AM   #42
mr9iron
15& Over Club
 
mr9iron's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Missouri
Posts: 2,552
Blog Entries: 1
Fantastic job!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


__________________
Vince
______________________________

Current Tank Info: Frag tank at the moment, planning another
mr9iron is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:59 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.