a Wisconsin Reef... my raceway dream come true

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 4, 2010

ficklefins said:
That flourescent algae is super cool! You keep any fish in your system?

Thank you very much! Not one fish in any of my 6 saltwater tanks (the multi-gradient counts as one tank) :) Makes feeding realistic... but I'm constantly dreaming of a fowlr.

This one is for Frank, thanks! Its coming along nicely :wink:

whyzee429 · Apr 4, 2010

the picture on the wall though? lol, priceless.

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 4, 2010

whyzee429 said:
the picture on the wall though? lol, priceless.

Haha. Who do I trust with my reef, ME!

How about some acan growth shots?? 76 days of growth

1-17-2010

4-3-2010

Quinn · Apr 4, 2010

Lookin good bud!

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 5, 2010

Quinn said:
Lookin good bud!

Thank you :bigsmile: <-----just went to the dentist today, lol

Get in my belly!!!

johnanddawn · Apr 6, 2010

can you get a FTS pic or sketch of one of the coral raceway tanks with dimensions and the baffel system - i'm curious about the flow pattern through these tanks

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 6, 2010

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 13, 2010

Same acan, side polyp

nayrgaijin · Apr 13, 2010

You might bring back acans :D haha

Sweet shots man!

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 13, 2010

nayrgaijin said:
You might bring back acans :D haha

Sweet shots man!

Thanks! Acans are awesome :)

I'm lovin' this one. Thanks Pierre!

Blackhawk Fan · Apr 13, 2010

Nice Kris! Great collection of acans.

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 13, 2010

Blackhawk Fan said:
Nice Kris! Great collection of acans.

Thanks Mike! I also have a lot of chalices but they take sooooo long for me to grow out. My acans grow much faster so I have more to show off :)

I-K@ndY · Apr 13, 2010

The last pic is Sick!... I envy your acan collection

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 13, 2010

johnanddawn said:
can you get a FTS pic or sketch of one of the coral raceway tanks with dimensions and the baffel system - i'm curious about the flow pattern through these tanks

Here's the sketch of the tanks I have now. Also, my new sketchup of my future tanks?? I can't decide if I should do raceways again or just shallow tanks and raceways only for the live rock. I always have a hard time pulling the trigger. The first one, the drawing, is far from perfect, but there came a time when I just had to do it. I made it like I did so you could look from the front pane and see all the corals. If I made multiple longer raceways in each tank I would not be able to see from the front pane. The way I did it creates dead spots with less than optimal flow. I added tunzes to these coral tanks but I kinda wished I'd left it alone. The solution would be to just add stronger pumps for the main tank to tank flow but as you see I only included one overflow drain which was a mistake, lol. Thats why next time I'm going to have 3 drains so I can experiment with stronger flows for my waterfall effect. I have a lot more that I would like to explain about what I've learned but all in good time :xd:

I-K@ndY said:
The last pic is Sick!... I envy your acan collection

Thank you Steve! I want to start more people naming them and following lineages :xd:

My current Raceways

Future Raceways??

All constructive criticism is appreciated 1smile1

roshi719 · Apr 13, 2010

Me Likes Kris!! I will definitely have to follow this one.

subielover · Apr 13, 2010

Your acans are amazing. I have never seen a tank set-up like this, you are giving me lots of ideas :)

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 13, 2010

roshi719 said:
Me Likes Kris!! I will definitely have to follow this one.

Thank you Morgan! I have bad news tho:sad::cry::ooh:

I have never seen anything like this before. After only a few days of health it went downhill and stopped expanding regularly. It only ate once or twice. I moved it to a bit higher flow thinking that might be it and then this happened within a day. It was alive for two to three weeks before it died. It was always amongst other acans that were doing very well. I have no idea why it happened. What do you think? I have had acans die but never like this before. I didn't see any white bacterial infection or any signs except for the lack of expansion. I actually thought it was going to come back but then this happened. I have only seen this happen to yumas

MarvinsReef · Apr 13, 2010

so sorry to hear about the last acan... :(

but man, you've been collecting some nice stuff... looking forward to seeing some progress shots of the collection... :)

Demonic · Apr 13, 2010

I have some acans that are doing that right now but it was because they fell behind a rock and I am guessing it was because of no light. It was there maybe 2 weeks or so and it still survived. I dont have any as awesome as yours but my passion for them is growing more everyday.

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 14, 2010

subielover said:
Your acans are amazing. I have never seen a tank set-up like this, you are giving me lots of ideas :)

I really appreciate that Ed. I built the system to be functional and I did the raceways because I thought it was a good idea to add efficiency. The raceways do make adding different types of flow and flow patterns more difficult. I have to do more experimentation tho. Optimally, I will be able to run my top two coral tanks in this system without any pumps in them. Thats how I ran this system for the first 4 or so months.