Shred5's Invert, fish and coral propagation and aquaculture system

[norfolkgarden]

Looking great!

 

[shred5]

Looking great!

Thank you.
I still am on track to move the stuff out of the 100 gallon tubs this weekend.
I will be using the frag tank and the 5 other tanks to hold most of the 120 gallon display tank liverock and fish temporarily till I get the 120 filled with water and aquascape it.

I am getting tired of having 4 tanks to hold the stuff till this was done.

I am so far behind this year. I should have had the second phase done by now.
The second phase depending on how long winter is may be Pushed off till the end of summer now so i can focus on phase 1.
The second phase is now broken into two parts and their might be a 3rd depending on need.
So far one part to grow out different algae, the other will be a breeding and grow out system for fish and inverts.
I decided to break out the algae by itself so I can run much higher nutrients for it.

The next phase might be two more frag tanks if I need them..

Then I am out of room..

I would love to discuss considerations for breeding and propagation systems.
I would also like to go into more detail on my equipment and review it as I have used it longer.

 

[shred5]

Well I moved the water, fish, sponges corals, live rock etc. out of my temporary holding systems.
My 100 gallon tub which was holding rock and sponges and most of my fish and had this growing in it.

It is Sargassum and it was the main filtration for the tubs. I ran no skimmer or any other filtration.
Basically it was a huge tub with live rock and this Sargassum... I did measure nutrients from time to time and were almost undetectable.
Matter of fact I add some nitrates for the various plants growing in there. I also fed very heavily for the fish in there and sponges.
I ended up actually breaking off about 1/3 of the plant above trying to move it. picture does not show the scale of that plant.
It grew from a little nub in the live rock. I have another Sargassum that is getting huge in another tank.
Fast grower but really does not spread much.. I was removing hand fulls every week.

 

[shred5]

120 is about 1/2 full... hopefully done by this weekend.
Ordered a few things to finish up the build.
Temps in the basement are allot cooler because of the cold and the heaters were having a hard time keeping up. Ordered some heaters and a few larger ones.
I am going to heat each tank individually now. I want to be able to isolate them anyway.
I ended up putting some foam board insulation on the backs of the aquariums. I put some on the sides temporarily that can be removed and attached when necessary.

 

[shred5]

oops. Must have had 2 windows open and posted to the wrong thread.

 

[shred5]

Well not to much has happened the last two weeks.
I did fill up the 120 with saltwater and worked on the wire management.
I also moved some rock into the 120 and letting in cycle a bit.

I have been planting seeds for are garden to plant once we get past last frost..

Next I on the list is aquascaping the 120.

I picked up some Marco cement to try.
I have always used the Nyos stuff but this is supposed to be better.
I will give a review of it once I have used it.
I need to make some frag racks.

Fun begins trying to fill the tanks up.

 

[shred5]

Well not to much has happened on the build lately.
I took a little time off because I been working on it so much,. I needed to get a few things done in life that have been put off.
I have tinkered around a little with it.
I had one my Wyoming whites jump because I had not got my lids built yet. The smaller one has been harassed by the other for sometime now. So I figure the one forced it out of the tank.
Sad because they were probably close to maturity and now I need to start over. I was at the point though where I did not think they would bond. Only the second time I have not been able to pair my clowns.

I am going to try working on the aquascape some this weekend for the 120 so I can get the rock out of the frag tanks. I will be building some frag racks and fraging some of the corals..

 

[shred5]

Well it has been a slow go. I need lots of pictures and I also have been working on reviews for some of the equipment.
It is spring and the garden is priority now. We had a very warm weekend so I got allot done in the garden.
I am also leaving on a short vacation soon so I do not want to mess with anything so close to leaving.
That said I did aquascape the 120. Yea I know I need pics or it didn't happen. I am just not sure I am happy with what I did.

One thing that became a priority is covers for the aquariums because my other Wyoming white jumped too.
I now need to look at pairs quickly.

 

[shred5]

Well not much to report really.
I was out of town for a while and focus has shifted to the garden for a few weeks.

I ordered supplies to make a frag rack.
I am also in the process of filling the other 3 tanks.
I am going to order a few other lights.
I want a little more blue for the anemone tank.
I am also looking at the High octane UV light by either Reef breeders or OR2 Blue plus from Orphek for the frag tank.

 

[User1]

Well I moved the water, fish, sponges corals, live rock etc. out of my temporary holding systems.
My 100 gallon tub which was holding rock and sponges and most of my fish and had this growing in it.

It is Sargassum and it was the main filtration for the tubs. I ran no skimmer or any other filtration.
Basically it was a huge tub with live rock and this Sargassum... I did measure nutrients from time to time and were almost undetectable.
Matter of fact I add some nitrates for the various plants growing in there. I also fed very heavily for the fish in there and sponges.
I ended up actually breaking off about 1/3 of the plant above trying to move it. picture does not show the scale of that plant.
It grew from a little nub in the live rock. I have another Sargassum that is getting huge in another tank.
Fast grower but really does not spread much.. I was removing hand fulls every week.

Back in 2000 when I received some live rock from Fiji (before the ban) it came with Sargassum. I loved the stuff because it reminded me of bull kelp in Monterey. Diving through the kelp forests really amazing especially when you are at 100 feet and it is growing from the rocks reaching the surface. So it reminded me a lot of that. I didn't enjoy it much at the time because my tank was only 20" tall I recall but now wish I had it in my 30" tall tank It lasted about a year then slowly stalled in growth and poof. Was gone. My guess is nutrients or lack of.

Nice system. Caught your build thread from another thread you posted in. Finishing up reading it and wanted to say great job and thanks for sharing.

 

[shred5]

Back in 2000 when I received some live rock from Fiji (before the ban) it came with Sargassum. I loved the stuff because it reminded me of bull kelp in Monterey. Diving through the kelp forests really amazing especially when you are at 100 feet and it is growing from the rocks reaching the surface. So it reminded me a lot of that. I didn't enjoy it much at the time because my tank was only 20" tall I recall but now wish I had it in my 30" tall tank It lasted about a year then slowly stalled in growth and poof. Was gone. My guess is nutrients or lack of.

Nice system. Caught your build thread from another thread you posted in. Finishing up reading it and wanted to say great job and thanks for sharing.

Thank you..
I been planting the garden and everything has been on hold for a bit
I should be getting back to it in a few weeks.

I have been trying to clean the system up some whenever I get a chance..

I really need to do some cable management and mount most of the equipment.
I also am building a system to grow out different algae next.

I am also trying to decide on a pair of clowns I want to breed. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[shred5]

Hopefully start rolling on this build again..
Right now it is a mess though. Tanks are dirty and need to be cleaned up.
I want to install UV on the aquaculture system.
I am not happy with some of the lighting so I picked up two Zetlight ZT-6500A QMAVEN led lights but they did not work out because I wanted to put them on the two cubes but the tanks are to close together for the legs and hanging them puts them to close to the water so they are going up for sale. They really put out a nice color light.

 

[shred5]

I was able to test out the CoralVue HYDROS WaveEngine on this system and put a short review at this thread:

Quick review of the Coralvue HYDROS WaveEngine

I will say I was excited when I heard about the Coralvue HYDROS WaveEngine and even more excited when I was asked if I wanted to beta test one. My system has 7 aquariums and two sumps. Each tank has one or more circulation pumps so I have a lot of cords and pump controllers. It is a mess and I...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[shred5]

Added a new Coral quarantine system..
Waterbox all in one.

I am trying to figure out a better way for fish quarantine also..

 

[tripdad]

Very cool program you have going , wishing you the best of luck with it all. Major undertaking for sure.

 

[shred5]

Very cool program you have going , wishing you the best of luck with it all. Major undertaking for sure.

Thank you...

 

[shred5]

I have added a light reactor to the system and removed a fuge.

More details here:

New Reef Octopus Light\Macro Algae Reactor

I have been wanting to try a Chaetomorpha reactor for a while and recently got the RO Light Reactor. I have been running a refugium with Chaetomorpha and it has become a mess. It really is just a detritus trap and the detritus settles on the bottom of the fuge. It is really hard to clean or...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[drawman]

Following!

 

[Colin_S]

incredible.. looks amazing

 

[shred5]

incredible.. looks amazing

Thank you..

I probably need to do some updates...
It is getting colder out now so I will have more time for the system.