"H2O + Something" - EU Coral Farm (400 gallon / 1500L)

[Ricardo Pinto]

Hi,

My name is Ricardo Pinto and I'm from Portugal (Europe).
I would like to share with you our latest setup (this project is shared with my reef buddy Pedro Torres), which we developed in a outhouse over the backyard of my house.
Some time ago, in 2016, we have decided to build a reef system exclusively for breeding corals and eventually breeding fish (clownfish).
Until now, it has been a valuable learning experience, we have now more than 600 frags. Whenever we need more space or corals are just too big, we spread a good amount of frags for local reef stores. This is a private project and it wasn't our main goal when we started this project just to sell corals online.
Future plans include continue expanding aquariums all over the room, in order to increase the number of corals and more important increase the number of species we currenty own, especially with more high-end rare sps.

Here are some details from our system

Coral Farm setup date: November 2016
System Dimensions: 1500L divided in 8 aquariums
System parameters:
Temp 25-26ºC
Salinity 1026-1208
Kh – 7,0
Ca 440
Mg 1370
PO4 0.022
NO3 0.0

Lightning
8x Ocean Revive Led
2x Marsqua Led 320w + 1 Marsaqua Led 160w
1x ATI Sunpower 6x80w

Photoperiod: 2pm to 0 am

Equipment:
Skimmer Bubble-King Double cone 250
Return pump: JEBAO DC 12000
Circulation pumps: 10x JEBAO WP4 and WP8
120L aquarium - refugium with chaetomporha
Deltec Calcium Reactor PF601S
Neptune Apex aquarium controller system


Maintenance, Husbandry & Additives:
Triton traces supplements (K; Br; B; Sr; I; Zn; Mn; V) in a mixed R/O solution and dosed daily through a dosing pump. The solution is prepared every 15 days
Triton testing every 2 months and dosing adjustments based on test results
10-20% water changes with Atlantic Natural Seawater every 2-weeks / every month

Our friend Pedro Gomes, well-known in this forum by his aquarium the "Island Reef", he made this top-quality video:



Hope you enjoy and more photos will come over the next days / weeks.
We would appreciate your comments / suggestions and we will be delighted to answer your questions.

Cheers,
Ricardo

 

[DSC reef]

Thanks for sharing

 

[teller]

Just Beautiful.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Very nice setup!

 

[andrewkw]

Very impressive setup. What was this "outhouse" used for previously or did you build it just to house the corals?

 

[chefjpaul]

Seriously impressive!

Nice to see a successful grow out system with sand as well.

Can we see some of the filtration setup etc..?

Thanks for sharing

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

Thank you for your comments.

Very impressive setup. What was this "outhouse" used for previously or did you build it just to house the corals?

It was like a garden shed where we used to store wood for the fireplace and some gardening tools. One day I just remember... well I can give a different use to this place

This was the previous and all dirty place where no one wanted to go

And after a 3-week of construction works .... Here is the final result

It took us a few more weeks to insert all the aquariums but back in Nov 2016 it was like this....

This was how we started our project

Seriously impressive!

Nice to see a successful grow out system with sand as well.

Can we see some of the filtration setup etc..?

Thanks for sharing

Thanks. For me it is very difficult to see an aquarium without sand. The aquariums don't have a lot of sand though, max height 3cm (1 inch). We use a lot of strombus snail to keep the sand clean - never had to clean it until now.
I have no detail pictures of the filtration. You can see it in this last picture, in the right corner.... it's a regular sump, just with the skimmer inside it. One of the aquariums is used with only purpose of growing chaetomorpha, in order to reduce nutrients.

 

[Fudsey]

Very impressive setup

 

[NY_Caveman]

Thank you for your comments.



It was like a garden shed where we used to store wood for the fireplace and some gardening tools. One day I just remember... well I can give a different use to this place

This was the previous and all dirty place where no one wanted to go

And after a 3-week of construction works .... Here is the final result

It took us a few more weeks to insert all the aquariums but back in Nov 2016 it was like this....

This was how we started our project



Thanks. For me it is very difficult to see an aquarium without sand. The aquariums don't have a lot of sand though, max height 3cm (1 inch). We use a lot of strombus snail to keep the sand clean - never had to clean it until now.
I have no detail pictures of the filtration. You can see it in this last picture, in the right corner.... it's a regular sump, just with the skimmer inside it. One of the aquariums is used with only purpose of growing chaetomorpha, in order to reduce nutrients.

Nice progression shots of the build. I would love to see the filtration. Someday

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

A few photos...

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

More photos... [emoji4]

 

[NY_Caveman]

More photos... [emoji4]

Beautiful!

 

[Fudsey]

All I can say is WOW ! ! ! !

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

And....

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

Last weekend I went to one of the largest distributors of fish and corals in Europe

Hand-picking a few large colonies...

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

Hi,

Updated photos from this week....

 

[Ricardo Pinto]

New camera (Fiji x-pro 2 & 60mm macro lens) and our first photos with it....
Amazing colors and detail with this setup. I'm loving it.... I will probably spam the thread with photos over the next few days.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions