Temperature control for a breeding system?

[Castaway6]

Interested in setting up something like this. Would I need individual heaters or would the light/room temp keep the tanks stable?
Not sure if these are all plumbed together or if those are just air tubes. If any of you have a setup I'd love to see it.
Its for clownfish so I'll be raising new fry every couple weeks. Would love to hear any tips/experience.

Thanks

 

[Peace River]

If you do not have the tanks/containers plumbed together then managing the ambient temperature in the room is preferable to 25 tiny heaters. If the system is plumbed together then a having a couple redundant heaters in the sump is okay. Although I don't think that he is still breeding clowns (based on what he told me at MACNA 2019), Reef Stew has an interesting series of YouTube videos that you may find helpful.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Judging by the presence of sponge filters, I'm assuming that they are not all plumbed together. There are two options here though:

1) Heat the entire room. If you get enough insulation, at some point it becomes cheaper to just heat the room to 80 F as opposed to individually heating each tank. That probably works in the picture you've posted.

2) Heat each individual tank. Amongst other things, a BAD idea if only due to the fact that the fry are phototactic, and will swim towards the light (don't go towards the light little clownfish larvae!!). You could do it. I just don't see why when there's options 1 and 3.

3) Plumb all the tanks to a centralized sump, and heat from the sump. You get 1-2 big heaters, and poof! The only issues with this are if you go for a "cascade/waterfall" style setup, where the top tanks drain to the mid tanks which drain to the sump - heat loss will occur between the top/sump and the middle tanks. Or if you cannot figure out plumbing (good thing there's a handy DIY forum on R2R, right??).

Option 3 is the best option IMHO, especially if you can't afford to heat/insulate a small space. While you can get a heater malfunction, chances are low it will happen, and you can figure the problem out by buying two heaters that are rated for half the tank capacity as opposed to one heater that's rated for the full tank capacity.

Check out Wittenrich's "Breeder's Guide to Marine Fishes". It goes fairly into detail about how to setup a breeder's space/room.

 

[mrpizzaface]

Definitely preferable to heat the room. Upper tanks will be warmer. Have you raised clownfish before?

 

[Mike N]

I think going the sump route is best.
Imaging doing maintenance in 80+ degree room. I don't know how you people with garage tanks in the south(w/o ambient cooling) do it.

 

[Castaway6]

I'm liking option 3. Just will require a little more plumbing and whatnot. I'll check out those videos series.

Lol I agree with the 80 degree room maintenence problem. I think I would insulate my garage if I went that route, which isn't a bad idea either.
I just have a few 2.5, 5 and 10 gallon tanks already so I was hoping for a simple setup. Will definitely be easier in the long run to have a sump system. Time to research.

I'm on my 4th successful batch so far and running out of extra tanks lol, so not an expert but things have been working so far and I'm enjoying it so it will be nice to get something going with a local shop/club.

Thanks everyone for the input. Any of you currently breeding a fish, or any pet for that matter? (Curious)

 

[ichthyogeek]

I just finished culling some saltwater molly fry! And Diver's den is selling a pair of banggais today so in about 40 minutes, I'm going to be black friday-ing my way into liveaquaria....other fish I'm working with include firefish (not spawned yet), randall's shrimp gobies (need to replace a male), and maybe bluestripe pipefish and possum wrasses; I have to wait until I'm employed to get the last two....

 

[ichthyogeek]

...scratch that. Some person literally beat me to the checkout sooooo...no banggai cardinalfish yet...

 

[Castaway6]

I just finished culling some saltwater molly fry! And Diver's den is selling a pair of banggais today so in about 40 minutes, I'm going to be black friday-ing my way into liveaquaria....other fish I'm working with include firefish (not spawned yet), randall's shrimp gobies (need to replace a male), and maybe bluestripe pipefish and possum wrasses; I have to wait until I'm employed to get the last two....

So cool!

 

[Castaway6]

...scratch that. Some person literally beat me to the checkout sooooo...no banggai cardinalfish yet...

This is the story of my life.. some fish are on divers den for so long, yet others I put in my cart are sold instantly ..better luck on the next pair available! Hopefully I can have more success but this was a random occurrence with clowns I've had for years lol. Cardinalfish hold the eggs in the mouth right? So fascinating

 

[shred5]

Depends on room temps.

In most cases it is best to heat the room and cheaper if you can stand those temps. I like my room temp cooler.

Central heating a sump can work also depending on room temps.
Problem is allot of people like me who do aquaculture or breeding keep their systems in the basement which can be a lot cooler especially in the winter. I keep my house at 68 in winter and my basement can be allot cooler than that. I had to add heaters for the tanks farther away from the sump because I was having a issues with them being much cooler than the rest of the tanks. Water can cool pretty fast in piping. I actually added styro insulation around my tanks in the winter. I have talked to others too with the same issue. Heating allot of tanks can get expensive too.

One nice thing too about adding additional heaters in some tanks is if the main pump blows you have a way of keeping the individual tanks heated and you do not risk loosing everything.


There are some breeders who do not use a central sump to help prevent diseases or what ever from spreading.

You also need to have a way do remove moister from the air because it will get humid. It is easy to get black mold in the room.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I guess there's also an alternative, which is to hybridize options 1 and 3. You can heat the room to something more comfortable, while not sweltering, and your heaters don't have to do as much work. For example, I thrive at 76-78 F, and it's only a small amount of energy afterwards to heat the tanks up to the 78-80 range for breeding fish.