Shred5's large coral propagation/frag system.

[shred5]

This is the beginning of my new frag system. It will have a 120 for my colonies that will be fragged. It will have a future 40 gallon breeder also for growout and colonies to be fraged. It will also have 3 frag aquariums and two future. I also have space for one very large frag system if I take it that far. I also Have a reefer 250 which is going to house colonies that will be fraged when necessary.

But in the picture below you can see 2 walls. The first section houses the 120 for colonies and the sump below.

The next section houses a frag tank with quarantine for fish and frags below, The quarantine systems will be moved to the right wall in the future once I need more frag systems if I ever do need it. Once moved that section will be used for equipment. There will be wall rocker switches to turn on/off all equipment. als it is not shown but another storage shelf above the frag tank.

The next section shows two more frag tanks and a shelf for miscellaneous items below.

The right shows two frag tanks but one will be a grow-out/propagation colonies and the other a drag tank . The quarantine system will be moved here. This is future.

There is also room in the middle of the room for a large trough.

 

[shred5]

I do not know how far this is going to go. The big wall unit is for sure a go right now I have bought the tanks and the wood to build all this.

It will be really cool it is going to be done in high gloss white and have white gloss laminate on the front. it will look like a built in.

 

[shred5]

The 120 is a Aqueon and I am going to drill it and add a Synergy reef Shadow overflow. The first frag tank is a Deep Blue 36x24x12 frag tank. The coral quarantine is a 15 gallon aquarium. The fish quarantine is going to be a 28 gallon Deep Blue rimless. Maybe a little to nice for a quarantine, I may have too think that through. Also thinking of maybe doing some breeding again too. Those blank spots may end up with brood stock tanks.

 

[shred5]

The remaining tanks I might go with 30 breeders because they are cheap but I may make them myself out of acrylic. I will be making frag racks myself out of acrylic.

 

[shred5]

First three aquariums. 120 gallon, 28 gallon quarantine, 45W Frag Tank.

 

[shred5]

Shadow over flow: Next drilling.

 

[shred5]

This stuff is really good. It stays on but come off really easy if need be. It goes on like window tinting.

I chose black because The shadow is black but I wanted blue this time.

 

[shred5]

Not much to post this week. I am trying to get the conduit to finish the electrical. Menards handed me the wrong size and I didn't realize it till I went to install it, So now back to Menards. I did pick up the lumber for the built in. I also picked up a overflow to install on the frag tank, just waiting for it to arrive..
Once the electrical is done I can start to roll, it also would help if I could get some warm weather so I can paint the wood.
This will be a slow build though because I am taking my time and also trying to spread out the cost since it is a big project. Plus I like to wait for sales. A frag system should be done as cheap as possible even though I am trying to make this one look really nice. Lumber has already cost around 250.00, I could have just did a open 2x4 stands like I originally planned for under 100.00. I just want it to look nice.

 

[shred5]

Anyone interested in my carpentry skills this is the last stand I built for my 125.

 

[shred5]

Well this has been going slow.. Weather has not allowed me outside in the garage to start on the stand. We got about 10" of snow this past week but we are headed into the 50 and 60 this next week. This should get me going again.. I did pick up a Icecap 36xl sump this past week.. Pics to are coming soon. I am pretty impressed with this sump.

 

[5altkreep]

Very cool, looking forward to seeing this come together. This last storm we got dumped about 18" at my place, near Wausau, and over 2' east of us! Putting a damper on my upgrade. I'm in Texas now, so I'll try bring us some warm weather back to Wisconsin!

 

[shred5]

Oh another update, I returned the shadow overflow. I have installed and loved the older style several times but this one seemed to sit to low for a rimmed tank and I did not want the water to be below the rim. The covers are different and snap off and it seemed to require more clearance from the rim.. It would be fine for someone that has rimless tank.

I ended up with a modular marine 1600 gph over flow. I also bought one of their 1000 lagoon per hour overflow box for the frag tank and will be using the same on the other frag tanks if I like them once installed.

 

[shred5]

Pictures of the ice cap sump 36XL.. Thing is huge and pretty impressed. For the price it is way better built than I thought it would be

 

[shred5]

Purchased some rock for the system from liverocknreef... what a bunch of garbage they sell..

 

[shred5]

Not much has happened. Life has got in the way.. I had to take down 6 trees and build new beds for our garden. I also need to redo the trim on the garage before getting back to this. I have picked up some stuff. I picked up a small AIO frag tank which I am am going to use for quarantine.

I also decided not to do as many frag tanks and devote part of the system to raising other things like snails, algae, phyto, copepods, shrimp, possibly fish etc. So I have been redesigning the system. Trying to figure out the best way to do those. Heating all this in a open basement is going to be tuff. I do not want stuff crawling from system to system or contamination.

Open to suggestions.. Frag tanks will be tied to the main system so worries there.

It will have to be individual tanks for different copepods.

Algae other than phyto might be able to be tied together. This way I can feed nutrients without effecting frag main system.

Phytos will have to be individual.

I am guessing snails should be separate.

I have done fish and shrimp broodstock before both individual and tied together. Depends on the amount. Could be tied to the main system just being able to isolate them when hatching occurs.

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[shred5]

Well lucky I have not built much yet I keep changing what I am doing. This system is going away from corals since so many are people doing coral. I am still doing corals but it has become a smaller part. I am also going to focus on fish, shrimp, algae, pods and snails.

I used to breed fish so I want to try something different even thought his will have some pairs. Some will be mixed in with other stuff and not necessarily in dedicated tanks.

This is one wall:

So far the left section includes a 120 gallon system and large main sump.

The middle holds a quarantine system for fish and coral. I do not like them next to each other in case copper e tank to another. I will most likely put a divider them. Above that is a frag system tied to the main sump. On top of the middle is my electronic equipment and switches.

The farthest right section will house phyto cultures.
It will also house macro algae cultures and fish prop system.



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Next wall so far:

This wall will house shrimp and snail propagation.
It will also hold cultures for brine shrimp, copepod, amphipod and rotifers.




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Nothing is set in stone yet so any suggestions would be great.


I have other areas to work with also. I will be adding more frag tanks as need be for coral or other things.

I will be culturing mini brittle stars too...

I am changing main post too with new pictures.



.

 

[shred5]

Well we decided to add another 4 feet on so now two walls in my fish room.

Concerns:

Everything in green is isolated.
Everything in purple is on north wall sump.
Everything in yellow in on the east wall sump.

All tanks can be isolated by themselves if need be.

Example the algae propagation tank my need fertilizer added and I do not that getting into the main system so I want to be able to isolate them if need be.

Main concern is making sure nothing gets into the fish/snail and shrimp aquaculture tanks from the coral system. I do not want any parasites or organisms jumping from my coral system in ton the fish/shrimp/snail.
Everything gong into fish/snail/shrimp system will be quarantined for a long time and treated.

Everything will be strictly quarantined for the reef system too I just do not want something from the rock to get into the other system.

Even some larval shrimp can do damage in a larval fish aquarium because they can hold on to a fish and eat them.

I do not want anything to contaminate my cultures either.

I have decided to use reeds vs culturing phyto even though I might still do a little. It requires more time and takes up valuable real estate.


I have added electrical circuits but now with the additional 4 feet I might add another circuit.

I am thinking of also adding a large Rubbermaid tub for grow out if need be.

I need to watch how much I do because this is mainly to do some research on propagation of different things for the hobby.
If it takes up to much time it wont happen. I also need to somehow fund what I am doing so their will be trading and selling of some of the livestock.
At this point I am not sure it will be a business, I just do not have time for a business.

Since I have not done aquaculture for a while. I will start with clowns, peppermint shrimp, trochus snails, mini stars for practice..
I want then to move into other cleaner shrimp and sexy shrimp. For fish I would then naturally progress to gobies, blennies and so on.
For snails probably will try cerith snails next.
I then want to try some new species of s fish but I have to experiment with enriching copepods and produce them in large enough numbers first.
The key is going to have food that is nutritious enough, small enough and in enough numbers. At this point I will probably have to up the size of my culturing station. I will probably have to start raising different phytos.
At this point a few tanks will most likely come down and some of the easier fish gone since I wont have time for them anyway and i will need the space to culture the extra food required.

After that I want to move into harder things.

I may change some of the right side of the north wall to the other system too..


I am not building anything much till I have all the planning done. I keep changing and adding but I am getting close.

 

[shred5]

Well I may change the whole plan again.. I might change walls and move the coral prop section to the small wall since it will focus less on coral and more in inverts and fish.

That said I picked up a few Banggai and a pair of Wyoming white clownfish to start with. I figured I would start pairing them off till I get the system built.

By August I should be starting the build.

 

[shred5]

I completely redesigned this again..
This is the north wall.