(Kinda Long) Growout Room, Feedback Appreciated...

[addict]

Well, here goes...

The wife and I have been getting 'Big Tank' syndrome for some time now, and not having the room in our house for anything over the 55g we currently have, we opted for the next best thing... to start a fragging/growout room.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we figure we can alleviate our Big Tank jones and maybe make a little money on the side growing out frags for sale (and to trade with fellow reefers of course ).

Here's a schematic of the room itself... we're going to split my workshop in two (that half usually is just filled with junk anyway), which gives us around 8'x9' of workspace... not a whole lot, but we want to start small.


I plan on running (4) 250w halides (2 over each raceway), though I haven't decided whether to use 10k or 6500k... which would be best for growth? I'm thinking 6500k, but I really like the 10k Ushio I'm using over my current reef so I may lean that direction. The combined gallonage should be just a hair over 210g, with ~80g in each raceway and ~50g in the sump.
Ventilation will be handled during the winter with a tempstat on a ventilation fan, and during the summer will be handled by a wall-mount A/C (our summers get really hot).
I'll probably look into getting a chiller too, depending on how cool I can keep the room with the A/C. The skimmer I'll be using is a DIY Venturi I built for my current reef, which was extreme overkill (about 45" tall 4" ABS, driven by a Mag9.5). Filtration will also be handled by live rock in the sump, and I may also add a remote DSB or caulerpa fuge should nitrates prove to be a problem.
I plan on adding a calcium reactor also, since we'd like to grow out SPS once we get it up and running well.

The next shot is a detail of the raceways:


Each raceway will be constructed of plywood (3/4"), reinforced with crossbraces, and painted inside with water tower paint. I'll also have 3 glass windows in the front of each raceway for side-on viewing. I thought about using a Mag18 to do the duty of pumping water to the top raceway, which will then gravity-feed to the bottom raceway, in turn which will gravity-feed back into the sump. Each raceway will have a closed loop spraybar powered by a Mag 5, which I believe will provide plenty of current for whatever I wish to place in the raceway. The raceways will also contain sections of eggcrate suspended off the bottom so frags can be grown out on frag plugs. The arrows in the picture show the direction the water travels through each raceway.

The little ladder-looking parts at the water inlet on each raceway are bubble traps.

I haven't decided on the final height of the lighting over each raceway, but I was figuring on about 16" so I get plenty of elbow room.

Am I missing anything? If you started a growout room, what hurdles did you run up against that you didn't plan for?

I'd like to start on this in late February to mid-March, when we'll be getting some extra cash, so I have plenty of time to play around with the design aspects.

One other thing... where can I find the paint I need to do this project? I did a couple searches on the internet, but only came up with a white-paper on the paint (the Benjamin-Moore kind)... of course it was headed with large letters 'Not for Residential Use! Contractor Use Only!' (yeah, right. ).

I'd appreciate any feedback you're able to provide... I'd like to turn this into a business in the future should it prove to be successful (since I'm majoring in Environmental Economics and minoring in Business Administration I think this would be right up my alley)... I guess I've got 'Walt Smith' aspirations...

Thanks.

[Travis]

Wow. I think I'm going to steal this for my frag room.

Sorry I'm not much of a DIY-er, but what can I say, sounds like a whole lot of fun!

T

[addict]

Heheh... you're more than welcome to steal anything you like (would that make it actually 'stealing' if you have permission?)...
I'm the classic DIY-er... because I'm a cheap bast*rd...
One quick change that I've made... rather than using a Mag18, I'm currently looking at a Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC, an external pump with 1" in/out. The Mag18 only has 3/4" in/out, and I think I'd rather run an external pump.

[wooddood]

looks great good luck with the project and keep us posted.i say go for it.

[mps9506]

Yeah, make sure to go with the external pumps, the Mag's are nice, and I've run them externally, but they will add heat to your tank, and I'm not a big fan of the plactic housing when it is plumbed in line.
Use a pump designed to be run inline, make sure to use ball valves and unions before and after the pump so you can maintence it.
What type of corals are you going to be growing out? SPS, LPS, or softies?
With SPS, I'd be considering even more flow than that, although at some point you have to worry about blowing frags over.
Maybe a Velocity T3 with an actuated ball valve so you can switch the current? Sea Swirl or ReefRat might be cheaper.
With LPS and softies the Little Giant would be plenty though, plus those sometimes grow faster (esp) Softies so you would have higher turnover...
Mike

[Pro_builder]

looking good. I would run it the way that you have it, then if you decided to grow out SPS in one tank then you could up the amount of flow in just that tank with a bigger Closed loop system.

[mwrager]

I like it, you are thinking about how you want it. That is very smart.

[Cougra]

It's looking good so far! I can't wait to see the actual construction of the setup!

[addict]

Thanks everybody for the feedback.

Wooddood: I'll definitely make sure to take a lot of pictures as I progress... the fun part is going to be the construction of the room. It'll be in an unfinished/uninsulated workshop, so we'll be doin' just about everything construction-wise.

mps9506: Our goal is to primarily grow out SPS, Zoas and some of the Orange-Tip Rose BTA's that are slowly overrunning our display tank.
But at this time we're pretty much open to anything (as long as it's not sinularia).
I also agree about the Mag pumps... they work great but dissipate a lot of heat into the water... I made the mistake of adding a Mag9.5 to my display tank (on the overbuilt skimmer) right before the summer hot season hit and I had a heckuva time keeping the tank temps down. The Mag5 I currently use as a sump return seems to not dissipate as much heat since it's half the wattage of the Mag9.5. I've also heard of people having trouble with the impellar cap seal when using Mags externally, so I opted to go for a 'real' external pump.

Pro_builder: I had thought about the possibility of building some DIY eductors on the closed loop system... they supposedly will take the flow up a few notches. What do you think? Either that, or I can do an eductor/SCWD combo if I decide to change-up the flow.

mwrager: Thanks... I'll have to get the wife over here to read your post... I need backup.

Cougra: Thank you also. I'll definitely keep this thread updated as I make progress.


I also found the source of the paint I need, Aquatic Ecosystems
It's a 2-part epoxy paint, and costs about the same as good house paint... about $46.50 a gallon (of course it's hard to ignore the huge letters 'MSDS' on the page ). I figure I can get by with 2 gallons of the stuff, and figured I'd go with white so I get maximum reflectivity.

I also had another revelation... now that I'm going with an external pump, I can move the sump. It's going to go underneath both raceways on the floor, that way I open up the corner for other stuff. I previously had left that space open to add another raceway in the future, but figure it would be interesting to engineer should I go that route, being that it would be lower than the sump... if we go bigger we'll just have to build a bigger place to do it.
I'll draw up the revised plans and post them later on. The sump will also be the same size as the other two raceways, ~80 gallons.
This will also give me more room for the couple-hundred pounds of live rock that I'll eventually need in this beast.

Keep that feedback comin'.

[mps9506]

One thing to think about "growing" out also is macro algae.
Makes nice use of you sump space, throw some decent 6500k or so bulbs over them and give them some nutrients. Makes for good trade material at frag swaps or you can even sell it to people starting up fuges.
Chaetomorpha grows pretty fast in my experience. You can also try growing some other less available algaes like Ulva or some of the gracillaria.
Just some other stuff to think about doing if you are thinking about making this into a buisness in the future.
Mike

[addict]

Thanks mps9506,
that's something I hadn't thought of, plus it serves double duty by reducing the nitrates in the system.
Might be something I'll look into.
Thanks again.

I'll post some updated plan pix here in a little bit... I went and priced stuff out today so I can refine the plans (i.e. 'make cheaper').

[NaH2O]

Wow! Nice....can't wait to see the progression.

[addict]

Well, here's the revised room schematic.

The sump's been moved underneath the raceways, and the counter is just a single 30"x96" countertop down the one wall... I would have to pay double to do a corner countertop, so the cheap bast*rd in me decided to change it.
Lighting on the frag counter will be handled by a dual 40w fluorescent fixture under the shelf, and also another dual 40w fixture overhead.
The sink I found is a small 6" deep stainless steel bar sink. We'd pretty much only be using it to wash off our hands and maybe rinse things out, so I don't think anything larger will be needed.
Now I just gotta sit down and do the math on this to see if we can swing it... I'm hoping I can come in with the low bid...
I'll post a revised schematic of the raceways and sump later on as well... hopefully they'll be the last revisions.

[addict]

Well, here's the raceways and sump revised schematic:

The sump is split down the middle and the water is directed down one side through a live rock well, over a spillway into the macroalgae fuge, then over another spillway into the second live rock well where it then will be pumped back up to the top raceway.
I think that'll give me plenty of room to play with.

[Playa]

Great thread!
Awesome work reefer addict. Thanx for sharing your expertise with us:-)