Your advice on building a dream coral farm

[jmatt]

It's been ten years since I kept my reef tank; my memory is hazy and I'm sure there is plenty of new technology out there.

My question: If you had a healthy budget to do so, what equipment and design would you choose for a coral farm? I'm thinking of a rack system (as seen on the GARF site) with mutiple tiers of specimens attached to plugs.

I'd like to draw upon the wisdom and experience of the community; taking into account all of the practical advice of veterans regarding the plumbing, accessibility, lighting, filtration, skimming, etc -- so that I can benefit from all of your "if I had it to do all over again..." insight.

My experience, limited as it is, taught me that ease of setup and maintenance is a key element. I also know that the two rules of this hobby are 1) start small and go slow and 2) don't screw with it too much.

Although I'm not interested in purchasing every unproven "gee-whiz" gizmo, assume money is no object. What would you buy and how would you design it?

My main goal during the planning stage is to Do It Right, the first time. Once I have a single rack up and running, I'll expand to three or four.

Also, if anyone has recommendations for articles, books and "how-to" websites regarding such, I'd appreciate them as well.

Thanks John

 

[dwall174]

Welcome To Reef Sanctuary

Here's a LINK that should give you some ideas!

 

[mps9506]

A plane ticket to Fiji would be my first purchase

Actually, if you are talking about growing frags, good flow through style raceways, design something that makes effcient use of light, stable calcium reactor, monster skimmer.

 

[jmatt]

Welcome To Reef Sanctuary

Here's a LINK that should give you some ideas!

Whoa! Just read all 16 pages of the thread and it's quite a bit more than I have in mind. I'm just looking for a few racks I can set up in my basement.

Although I have to wonder if the immense expenditure for a greenhouse and equipment actually yields better results than a traditional indoors setup. I mean, he spends a fortune building a greenhouse, then has to jump through all manner of hoops to block the amount of sunlight that actually reaches the corals.

Plus, did I miss something or was the plan to place regular old glass tanks on top of his large vats all along? He spent a lot of energy and cash on the reverse carlson water motion equipment in the vats, then blocked his access to them by placing the tanks on top of them. Since he declared that he was done posting updates about the system once he added the display tanks up top, I'm wondering if he spent a small fortune building the most elaborate sump money can buy, effectively.

None of that is meant in a derogatory way, it just seems like he spent $50,000 and 2 years time building what amounts to 500 gallons of usefull space.

My goal is somewhat the reverse: compacting the maxiumum amount of propagation space in the smallest footprint possible with a reasonable hobbyists budget, say $5,000.

Again, no disrespect is intended. I learned a lot from his experience but it's not what I have in mind.

Any specific suggestions on a setup that doesn't entail a greenhouse, 2 years and spending my kids college money?

 

[mps9506]

I suggest small. Me and a guy in town researched setting up a coral farm, did about two months of research and buisness plan and everything. We came to the conclusion it would be very difficult to break even or make a profit sellingonly coral frags that we grew out.
It is a great way however to offset the cost of running your main display. Espcially if you have a few specimens that aren't as common.

Either Dave or JB or perhaps it was someone else on RC built what I though was an ingenoius frag growout tank. It was something along the lines of 4foot by 4 foot by 10inches high. Then it was baffled like a maze the water had to run along the maze. It created like 10 feet of length for the water to travel and made effcient use of water flow and was lit by a single 400 watt DE pendant.
If I can come across the link I'll post it, unfortunately RC's search button never works, so it might take a while

 

[jmatt]

We came to the conclusion it would be very difficult to break even or make a profit

Funny as it may seem, profit figures nowhere in plan. I want to grow them simply for the enjoyment of watching them thrive (hopefully) and get large. I guess I'd sell some to the LFS once they get bigger.

But it's great that you did the math first; many people launch themselves into ventures without first realistically determining if the numbers will line up -- and even fewer resist the urge to just plow ahead anyway even if the venture looks marginal.

It was something along the lines of 4foot by 4 foot by 10inches high. Then it was baffled like a maze ... lit by a single 400 watt DE pendant.

I'm not looking to re-invent the wheel. Just wanna do something efficient.

Okay, time for an acronym check. Who is RC and what's a DE light? DE to me is diatomaceous earth filter.

Thanks for the response.
John

 

[jmatt]

monster skimmer.

I would have thought so too, but I've read in a few places that skiiming removes nutrients that the corals can utilize. I've seen a few posts on the net by phishmon that seem to suggest a "less is more" mindset.

What's the consensus? Is skimming necessary for soft corals, SPS and shrooms? I plan on using a deep sand bed with plenty o' critters.

 

[dwall174]

Okay, time for an acronym check. Who is RC and what's a DE light?

RC = Reefcentral.com
DE = Double Ended Light

Here's a LIST of abbreviations that may help you out!

 

[mps9506]

IMO you want to grow your softies and mushrroms rics etc in a seperate system from your sps.
IMO if you want to grow sps you want them ina LOW nutrient environment, meaning now DSB heavy skimming, high current and intense light. SPS grow very well in nutrient poor conditions.
For your rics, softies etc, you don't need that heavy skimming and strong light.
In fact in my experience mushrooms and rics grow larger and are easier to frag under low light, like normal output florescent bulbs.
If you are looking to sell locally try to figure out what there is a demand for. That was one of the factors for us. We are into SPS corals and that is what we really wanted to grow, but the local demand for sps consists of about 15 people. Where as I can sell mushrooms and softies all week long in my store.

 

[jmatt]

Here's a LIST of abbreviations that may help you out!

Thanks! I'm sure I'll be refering to it quite often!

 

[jmatt]

IMO you want to grow your softies and mushrroms rics etc in a seperate system from your sps.

Rics? Sorry, it's not on the abreviation list. Yes, I'm that much out of the loop.

DSB heavy skimming

By that, do you mean a DSB with a powerful skimmer; or is dsb skimming something altogether different?

In fact in my experience mushrooms and rics grow larger and are easier to frag under low light, like normal output florescent bulbs.

Interesting. Just plain old flourescent tubes, then?

John

 

[jmatt]

Here's the general design I have in mind. Although, I may tweak their design somewhat.

I think I'd like to have several shallow (4") tanks without the rack tiers in each tank, with the cuttings all at the same depth so as to maximize the number of specimens in close proximity to the lights. The multiple tiers within the a single tank design seen in the link doesn't seem as efficient to me, although it would display better than having everything at the same depth as my design would.

I'm thinking that I'd also have a few 6" and 8" tanks in another rack to move specimens to as they outgrow the 4" cutting tanks.

Comments or suggestions?

 

[big t]

Here is my frag system. It is 73x29.5x10H and currently lit by 2x250w radiums. I have a ampmaster 3600 closed loop pump on it and it is full of sps, some lps lots of zoo's and a couple rics. I connected it to my exhisting system which is on the opposite wall in my basement. So far I have spent about a grand on the venture not including corals and it hasn't paid back a penny It has only been about 3 weeks tho.

 

[Woodstock]

Nice frag tank BigT!

 

[mps9506]

Rics? Sorry, it's not on the abreviation list. Yes, I'm that much out of the loop.



By that, do you mean a DSB with a powerful skimmer; or is dsb skimming something altogether different?



Interesting. Just plain old flourescent tubes, then?

John

Ricordia
Sorry, meant to say NO deep Sand Bed with a powerful skimmer.
Yep, first corals I kept were mushrooms under plain ole 40 watt daylight bulbs. They got HUGE.

 

[jmatt]

Here is my frag system.

That's nice! The more pics I see of other people's rigs, the more excited I get about building mine.

Did you build the tank yourself? Is working with acrylic tricky?

I have a ampmaster 3600 closed loop pump on it

I've been reading quite a bit about closed loop circulation recently. Are you happy with it? What was the layout? The tank appears to be drilled with returns coming from underneath, or am I mistaken.

 

[big t]

TY for the compliment. Yes I built the tank myself. Is building w/ acrylic tricky? You bet. It takes practice and precision. It also takes a decent table saw, with a good blade. I have found that a $30 40tooth combo freud blade from homedepot does a pretty good job w/ no chips. A jointer is handy but not necessary. A router table and a straight cut bit w/ the fences setup properly can suffice.

Onto closed loop. With what I paid for uniseals, unions, ball valves fittings pipe and the pump (about $500) I could have bought a couple tunze's and called it a day. I don't know if that would have been better or worse as far as flow goes, but I have 6 outputs on my closed loop that are all done thru the bottom of the tank along with 3 intakes. It has very good flow with many different flow zones. Once I get my seaswirls going on it, it should have some good alternating flow. Here are a couple more pix of my tank.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Wow big t that is a very nice setup. Let us know when your ready to do business!

 

[big t]

I am ready.

 

[jmatt]

That's an awesome plumbing job, BigT. I see the 9 associated holes for the closed loop, what are the other three at the back? I assume one runs out to the sump. What are the other two for? One back from the sump? The other?

A question for the community at large regarding closed loop systems: What's the benefit gained by having the loop closed when it could also involve the sump and the skimmer? And if you're not involving the sump in all of that plumbing, why not simply use powerheads to increase the tank flow? Is it that a closed loop system allows for greater circulation and customization?