TSA's New Farm Build; 10,000 Gallons of Aquacultured Awesomeness

[TopShelfAquatics]

As most of you who follow our threads know, nearly 100% of the corals we offer online are propagated in house in our current farm. Well, we're going BIG with our new build and we want you to follow along! The current farm is producing corals like these and we hope to expand our capacity for housing and growing some AMAZING corals for you all!

Equipment breakdown:
Tanks
4x 72 x 48 x 19

2x 72 x 48 x 26

12 x 96 x 48 x 24

4x 96 x 40 x 17

Lighting
325x Radion XR30 PRO Gen 4

2x Kessil AP700

T5 Retrofits

10x Halide Pendants

Flow
16x Vectra L1

50x Vortech MP60

50x Vortech Mp40

(more to come soon!)​

 

[pluikens]

Excited! Is this the follow-up to the Great MN Adventure thread?

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Excited! Is this the follow-up to the Great MN Adventure thread?

The Minnesota trip will be added in here I think between the transition things got a little hectic but I have all the photos and video and I think you all will enjoy it

 

[KrisReef]

Busy growing frags

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Over the years we've done a couple modest expansions at Top Shelf Aquatics. Most of them were additions to the already existing retail store. In fact, this was TSA circa 2012

We had just finished putting a couple coats of paint on the walls and finishing up the flooring.

Slowly but surely we continued adding to the retail store, taking over most of the remaining units to add a larger dedicated fish system and an invertebrate system able to handle the variety our local customers wanted.

When we built the first TSA Aquaculture farm we thought that we would have space for years to come. Within no time however, the growth we were getting out of these systems quickly filled the tanks up.

(The SPS system)

A year and a half into the first farm being in use we began plans for Phase 1 of the TSA Aquaculture facility. This would be separate from the retail store and would be purely dedicated to farming corals using the highest quality equipment we could possibly get our hands on.

We would still have dedicated QT systems, and now more room for bulk frags, high end frags and space for the colonies to breathe.
​

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

The arrival of the tanks and sumps

Tanking being filled

Canopies being mounted

Adding in lighting

 

[AngryMike2016]

Holy smokes. Congratulations on the growth; it is well deserved.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

More lighting shots

 

[tripdad]

Any chance you will be posting PAR readings later? I would like to see what some of those rigs hit the tank with.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Any chance you will be posting PAR readings later? I would like to see what some of those rigs hit the tank with.

I'll check for you, we measured PAR in all of these at set up I do know that the Halide/ Radion tanks max out at around 1200 PAR at the surface and 750 on the sandbed at full blast LOL
We wont be running them nearly that high at any point but they can pack quite the punch

 

[BigRich]

Hi,
Is it possible to get/for you to post your Radion schedule? Thanks!

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Hi,
Is it possible to get/for you to post your Radion schedule? Thanks!

We will be testing out different schedules we dont mind sharing some of our SPS schedules(just send us a PM with your email)

 

[GK3]

Haha haha all I can think right now is: “wow, all the money I spent with them over the years is really going to good use.”

 

[Mal11224]

Wow. Very impressive. That lighting setup is awesome.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Haha haha all I can think right now is: “wow, all the money I spent with them over the years is really going to good use.”

We definitely appreciate every dollar spent with us if it wasn't for our customers this could have never happened

Wow. Very impressive. That lighting setup is awesome.

Thank you! We might be making some small changes( we're debating including diffusers) but for the most part lighting is almost done

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Congrats on such an awesome expansion! LRS is happy and proud to have been able to tag along over the years while you have grown. TSA has always treated us like family.

 

[Deziluphotography]

I am so happy you guys are doing this and documenting it for all of us to see. I know I just bought my Red Sea Reefer 750xxl and four Raidon pros I just got from you but I just couldn't imagine 150 of them. You guys rock.

 

[Deziluphotography]

I am so happy you guys are doing this and documenting it for all of us to see. I know I just bought my Red Sea Reefer 750xxl and four Raidon pros I just got from you but I just couldn't imagine 150 of them. You guys rock.

 

[samnaz]

Wow, impressive indeed. How am I just now discovering you guys? I know who I'll be getting my next batch of corals from, that's for sure. Any upcoming live sales? Don't want to miss out. ;-)

Keep up the great work. Aquaculture = the future of reef keeping.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Spectacular! Can't wait to visit your store in June!

 

[siggy]

Congratulations on your new farm, how long will it take to Cycle and start producing frags? Also anything Crazy in the pipes waiting to be released? any teasers???????
Say hello to Steve & Claudia