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

[drawman]

It is just some conduit from Home depot bent and painted black. I then used some conduit mounts to mount to the back of the stand.

I figured. Maybe I just haven't found the right mounts.

 

[shred5]

They look like these, conduit clamps.

They make them in metal or nonmetallic.

Just get the size for the conduit you used.

Mounting the fixture I just drilled holes through the conduit.

Home Depot even bent it for me. They just grabbed a conduit bender right off the shelf.

 

[shred5]

I got his this Algae turf scrubber in the mail to try out. I have been wanting to try a algae scrubber for a while. I will be installing this on the 120 gallon. I will be doing a short review on this.

 

[shred5]

Hey two updates in one day. Things are really starting to move now that beta for the Control has slowed at least for a bit here during launch.

Here is my frag work station I built. I still need to add knobs.
The top is black cutting board. Should hold up well to cutting frags and water.
The quarantine aquarium sit right there now so I can just drop the corals in.
I have my frag saw right there. In the drawer will be my frag tools and testing equipment.
behind the right door sits the sump for the quarantine aquarium and also sits the ATO container for the quarantine tank and the rack system.

I know those wood workers are going to see the blemishes in the wood. It was mostly built with left over wood from other projects. It is in my basement and is going to get wet so I was not going to use furniture grade lumber and such.

Also do not mind the cords. They will be gone soon. I am setting up another Hydros Control 2 on this system and cord management will be done when I am done with that.

 

[shred5]

Plumbed the algae scrubber this weekend.

I had to build a acrylic stand to get it into my stand.

 

[shred5]

The lights are massive:

 

[shred5]

Couple of quick pics of the frag tank and frags.

 

[shred5]

Hard to see but there are 10 varieties of gorgonia right there.

 

[andrewkw]

Everything is looking good! and clean!

 

[shred5]

Again the purple is not cyano it is from the violet lights. They look good in person but are worse than blue for photographing it seems.

First pick above was with a yellow filter and this is without any filter.

Also realized there is a drip of water on the glass.

 

[fishlover1478]

looks good any updates on the non coral invertebrate side of things?

 

[shred5]

Also a couple weeks ago I picked up a H. Magnifica or sometimes called ritteri for the 120 gallon. It look fantastic so I put it in the 120 gallon.

Well after a few days it was deflating but I could not get it out of the reef for treatment. A few days later it let loose and then I put it in quarantine. After about a week of Cipro it seems to be doing better and seems close to being out of the woods.. I should have known better with these anemones, they all seem to be coming in with bacteria infection.

 

[shred5]

looks good any updates on the non coral invertebrate side of things?

I picked up a pair of onyx clowns (C-quest line) this week and they are in quarantine at the moment, pics coming.

I am looking at a few pairs of fish to breed now. I do want to start with some peppermint shrimp and start breeding them too. As far as fish breeding I am pulling back some on the scale. It just requires allot of time that I do not have at the moment.
I am going to focus a little more on some of the harder corals and some classics. The fish and inverts like shrimp will be more likely when I am closer to retiring or scale back at my current job and have more time.

I will be doing some of the easier stuff though soon just to get back in the swing.

 

[andrewkw]

Corals you can walk away from for a day or a week even. Not that I am any kind of expert as I've just been breeding fish for a few months and 99% of the time it has not been a problem but it's not something you can walk away from for a day. Gotta feed my rotifers twice a day and my fish 3x or more. Gotta harvest phyto when it's ready or it will cost me. If it's time for a water change it's time for a water change ect.

Actually the pandemic has made me realize I would be happy doing this everyday but even still there are going to be days where it's too much.

 

[shred5]

Corals you can walk away from for a day or a week even. Not that I am any kind of expert as I've just been breeding fish for a few months and 99% of the time it has not been a problem but it's not something you can walk away from for a day. Gotta feed my rotifers twice a day and my fish 3x or more. Gotta harvest phyto when it's ready or it will cost me. If it's time for a water change it's time for a water change ect.

Actually the pandemic has made me realize I would be happy doing this everyday but even still there are going to be days where it's too much.

Yea I hate raising phyto and I always used Reeds algae paste it called instant algae now. https://reedmariculture.com/product_instant_algae.php

It can be frozen and stuff which makes it a little easier and tons of hatcheries use it. Problem is you do need to watch it a little closer because it is not alive and can break down faster. For more sensitive species of fish live phyto will be a must. Also some of the new copepods are making more sensitive species easier to raise now because of the size of copepods available. Copepods are changing the game but are still way harder than rots or BBS to get quantities of for the average hobbyist.. Rots are great for clownfish and so easy to raise and gut stuff but are not enough nutrition or the right size for allot of fish. I highly suggest raising some Copepods even for clowns and partially supplementing their food with them. I think it helps prevent sudden fright syndrome from just feeding BBS.

My issue with getting into clownfish to deep is what do I do with them? There are so many people doing them and LFS around me already have people they buy from. I have always done what others don't do. Clowns are a good way to get my hands wet again and get back into practice.

I also am not into designer clownfish which right now seem to be all the rage but does seem to be switching back to a classic clownfish. I want to keep pure strains alive before they disappear completely from the hobby.

I still need to establish pairs. I had a pair of clowns ready but in a temporary tank they jumped. I also tried pairing some Cardinals and that went bad. I purchased pretty many and removed the ones that seemed to be pairing. All the pairs stuck together for about a year and with in a week my 3 pairs killed each other. I am guessing I had all males. I had a pair of neon gobies too and over night one disappeared. I was sad because they are one I really want to try. I want to do more gobies this time around.

Yea corals you can walk away from for a bit but it also is something everyone is doing. My focus on that will be harder corals to propagate like goniopora and maybe NPS coral. I have allot of gorgonia because they are a favorite and most have been with me for years and some like over 10 years. i will have some easier corals because they allow me to trade for what I need. Plus I do have several reef aquariums so some frags will come from them over time.

I also would like to focus on some anemones in the future. Magnificas mainly because they split so I am looking for a bunch of different ones.

Like I said I would like to do stuff others are not doing but sometimes you have to do the other stuff to get there.

 

[shred5]

 

[shred5]

 

[shred5]

 

[shred5]

 

[fishlover1478]

how do you propagate is it similar to FW stem plants?