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Cultivated Reef

a Wisconsin Reef... my experiences in aquaculture


Alpha Aquaculture

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Alpha Aquaculture

Whatup Nano-Reef!

 

 

I'm fairly new here and I thought I'd start a thread to show everyone what I'm about. My passion for saltwater began when I was 18 in 2001 my first year out of the dorms and on my own in my first apartment I got a fish only 30g tank. After enjoying fish and taking a few heavy traveled years off from the hobby I returned with a new drive to learn about corals. I had a bunch of tanks but never a fish. At one point I had well over 10 tanks in a one bedroom apartment. I reduced the number of tanks and got one larger tank. I worked for a year and a half on that tank design before I completed it. It was a raceway setup with interior walls to direct and concentrate flow. Each raceway tank was connected to the next via gravity so many tanks could be ran off just one pump. After spending a year with this larger 120g raceway system and still having more tanks I decided I wanted to move the aquariums out of my home. After 8 months at a warehouse I moved into the larger double unit warehouse that I am currently in. My plans have been the same for a while. I want to help the ocean by not taking from it. I want to grow my corals and breed my fish instead of buy from wild wholesalers. I still haven't sold anything I'm currently trying to build up the infrastructure here and develop an aquaculture system that works. I have 5 people helping here in all different ways. Many other people that dont live close have also helped out a ton. Everyday there are new possibilities and we meet new people along the road. In January I rekindled my old passion for fish and decided to set up some larger fish holding, raising, hatching, and seperation systems, each over 700g. I am really happy I decided to keep fish again they are a pleasure to watch. There is so much I want to share but for now I'll just post some cool pics and we will go from there :)

 

Enjoy!!!!

 

 

Here is my first raceway system setup in October 2009

 

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This is the ATS thats part of it

 

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Here is my first coral reef nano from around 2006

 

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More pics coming...

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Alpha Aquaculture

Here's my design for the raceways v1.0 48"x18"x10" tall

 

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This is how it operated based on gravity.

 

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This is from when we moved into the new warehouse last month

 

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Here is my new design based on good ol trial and error lol 96"x24"x10"

 

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Here they are in person

 

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Still gotta set them up. Stand coming in a week or two :)

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Alpha Aquaculture

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Have you seen acans stretch like this?

 

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This Roswell Project is one of my all time favs

 

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Alpha Aquaculture

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800 gallon tank I'm thinkin about tryin to raise some black tang babies in :)

 

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This is what we were working on last week

 

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Almost done!!!

 

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To finish check out the anthocauli on my fungia :) They really are that sweet!!!

 

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Alpha Aquaculture
welcome to my hood.

yah baby blowin it up

i gots to get some of them acans. so sick

and only the best clowns omgomgomg

 

Thanks!!! I've got something like 750 pics in my photobucket didn't want to post all of them at once hahahaha. I was just thinking about how I owe you some acans. I've got some nice frags of the bananas acan that have been healed up for a bit. Plus some others. I think its about time I get them out to you :)

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Alpha Aquaculture
Me want acans!

 

Looks awesome!

 

 

Acans really are awesome! Finally a coral that doesn't mind dirty water and can withstand crashes and elevated nutrient levels :) Thanks! I liked your potm :) Nice tube anemone and camera skills!

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Alpha Aquaculture

Check out some chalice growth progressions since the raceways have been set up

 

Mengs ME

 

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It almost has gotten the red rim that some have seen, just a tint here and there so far

 

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Cornbred ME

 

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It almost died during one crash last October but came back around

 

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I love the race way idea. And the clean plumbing you got. Hope business works out for. You and dont forget to ship

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Alpha Aquaculture
I love the race way idea. And the clean plumbing you got. Hope business works out for. You and dont forget to ship

 

Thank you for checkin out my pics and for the compliments about the raceways. The plumbing is all my friends :) I hope it works out too otherwise im gonna have a lot of equipment lol. I'm only gonna ship and work online when I begin selling :)

 

 

I want your Acans :(

 

I'm gonna frag them down to individual polyps and then keep them at individual polyps to increase to maximum surface area. I'm only gonna concentrate on the nicest polyps. I have collected every awesome polyp I have seen and after hundreds I have only around 10 I will be heavily aquaculturing. As you know acans loose their colors and can change colors for years so having some nice pieces that are aquaucultured and proven to hold their colors is important. I would guess that after a year of fragging and growing in the new raceways I should have hundreds of polyps of every one of the nicest acans I have. Then everyone can enjoy them.

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What do you grow your acans out on? Do you let them grow over themselves or is there something you put the plug on? I will make it up to see your setup one day.

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Alpha Aquaculture
all good things to those who wait. now hurry up

 

hahahaha almost there. got some pics uploading now

 

 

Where in Wisconsin are you located?

 

I'm in Madison, WI. Your welcome to visit anytime your around. Just shoot me a pm and I'll give you my number.

 

 

What do you grow your acans out on? Do you let them grow over themselves or is there something you put the plug on? I will make it up to see your setup one day.

 

I like to grow them on acrylic because you can clean off any algae or pest very easily compared to rock rubble or ceramic disks. I've been using 1/8" thick but I might go a lil thicker next time. I usually glue the plug they come on on some acrylic and then over time they will overgrow the plug and grow onto the acrylic.

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Alpha Aquaculture

Here are the babies in the mangrove tank which only gets natural sunlight. Since moving the mangroves into this warehouse that gets more light they have multiple leavesets where before they would grow a leaf and then it would die before the next leaves came.

 

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I feel like its a great tank because the babies have plenty of places to hide.

 

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Here are the adults in a 75g

 

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Enjoy!!! :)

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Holy cow!!!

 

I'm in Madison too! I would love some baby clowns down the road. I would much rather buy locally than have to deal with shipping. Great set ups!

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Alpha Aquaculture
Holy cow!!!

 

I'm in Madison too! I would love some baby clowns down the road. I would much rather buy locally than have to deal with shipping. Great set ups!

 

Mad town what! Hit me up and we can plan a time for you to check everything out. Its always nicer to hand pick your fish I know :) Thanks for the kind words!

 

 

holy #### they are looking good.

 

now they got some room

 

They are getting big fast. Initially I tried feeding oto B2 but lately been stickin with the B1 the ones that are still lil can eat it easier. Thanks but thats all you Rich! Like you said its very easy to raise fish. Its getting them to lay eggs and hatchin those eggs thats tricky. Also keeping them from jumping out can be tricky with many tanks lol.

 

 

nice! I really like that natural look

 

Thanks! Me too. I wish I had some skylights or a greenhouse to really make it happen :)

 

 

 

 

Gave away the Tangerine Dream on top the other day :)

 

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that would be amazing haha. well like you said you've still got a year so why not right? Skylights definitely seem feasible. btw you said on your R2R thread that you had a feeding crash? what exactly did you mean? I'm spot feeding everyday now too so now I'm kinda worried :unsure: also sent you a pm on R2R. I'm working on a raceway tank too and wanted some feedback

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garrettparson

Your corals and fish look awesome. So are you planning on actually opening up a store or just a online shop?

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FishEyeAquaculture
They are getting big fast. Initially I tried feeding oto B2 but lately been stickin with the B1 the ones that are still lil can eat it easier. Thanks but thats all you Rich! Like you said its very easy to raise fish. Its getting them to lay eggs and hatchin those eggs thats tricky. Also keeping them from jumping out can be tricky with many tanks lol.

 

Show some pics of those parents with some shiny orange eggs! We want to see what is producing those little guys! :P

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