Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 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 also sent you a pm on R2R. I'm working on a raceway tank too and wanted some feedback I've also been thinking of replacing some of the bay door sections with clear greenhouse material. It would let light in but there would be less privacy. I haven't checked my pms in a min lol. I might as well just answer here So my friend Rusty has been helping here for over a year. On 6-7 he told me he was gonna feed the corals heavily because we hadn't fed them in a while. I was out of the shop and when I got back the tanks was very very cloudy with our feeding concoction. I asked him about it and he said he was target feeding as usual. No problem. Until the next day. I was planning on dosing interceptor as part of a regularly scheduled preventative measure and as Rusty and I were preparing it (crushing it up) I noticed that many of the chalices were heavily receeded. I decided not to dose the interceptor out of fear it would further exasserbate the problem. The middle portions of some of the most hardy pieces, like miami hurricane and bgm had necrotic patches on the middle of the body. Many other pieces were affected but all to different degrees. A few newer frags that weren't completely accclimated died. Pieces that were stressed got more stressed. I asked him what happened and he said he wasn't sure. Immediately I thought about the feeding and I asked him more about it. Appartently they were fed quite a bit more than usual and the food was left in the raceways without recirculation for 3 hours. When we target feed the food is placed directly on top of the coral. That explains the necrosis in the middle of the chalices. Usually in the past you see it on the edges first with other issues. So basically, I believe that 3 hours is too long to have the food sit on top of the corals during target feeding. The problems were probably due to an ammonia spike between the food sitting on the corals flesh and the corals flesh. With no pumps on this area, this food sat there and there was ammonia sandwiched to the corals flesh. Mmmmmmm sandwich, so hungry. But unlike me, corals can't sit and eat their food for 3 hours lol. Hope that helps you brotha! My bad about taking forever to explain it all We haven't been target feeding since but when we do start again I will make sure its only for 30 min at a time. I believe the chalices will learn to eat faster in time. Your corals and fish look awesome. So are you planning on actually opening up a store or just a online shop? Thank you so much! Challenges everyday but we keep on chuggin I will accomodate local customers but not to walk in's, appointment only. Might have a few days a week that are open but haven't decided yet. Def gonna be working online Show some pics of those parents with some shiny orange eggs! We want to see what is producing those little guys! Whatup! No eggs right now, we have been moving all the fish into the new system yesterday and today. They are all getting settled into their new homes Hopefully this will be a good move in the long term. Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Got some berghia in yesterday from Daniel. Thanks Daniel!!!! They came in very healthy but I had no time to take them out of their bag until 8pm. I set up a system similar to what I read about in advanced aquarist. The berghia were finally acclimated at 10pm and aiptasias were added at 10:15pm. They were eating the aiptasia within minutes it was awesome! I put two berghia in each jar along with two aiptasias. I tried to get the smaller aiptasias. When I came in today at noon I noticed egg strands in every one of the jars. 10 berghia in 5 jars. 5 jars had egg strands, some had multiple strands. This has got me so excited. I can't wait to see where we can take this. We have nothing but time and space. We did small water changes today and also just set up an aiptasia culturing tank. I used a tank that had a pair of fish in it, when they got moved into the big system today, their tank became the aiptasia home. Who would have thought we'd be having a blast feeding aiptasias lol. Enjoy the pics Link to comment
rrcg50 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 That is so cool. I love seeing things reproduce. That right there is a small gold mine. Link to comment
HVani Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 OMG awesome! I will have to get some of those berghia from you as well Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 That is so cool. I love seeing things reproduce. That right there is a small gold mine. I know! I feel right at home here in the aquaculture forum. I am telling all my friends that even though I like to study and learn I never considered myself a nerd. Now that I am culturing sea slugs I am officially nerd status lol. OMG awesome! I will have to get some of those berghia from you as well I have a feeling I'm gonna be giving away tons of these lil buggers. Everyone has aiptasias lol. Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Dumb question what is a berghan? Link to comment
xxbrianxx Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 a type of nudibranch that eats aiptasia Link to comment
Gigaah Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I'm about 1/2 hr from madison here in janesville. Nice setup you got. Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Dumb question what is a berghan? Small 1cm sea slugs that eat problematic anemones called aiptasia that will sting corals if left to grow and reproduce. They are one of the biggest problems facing people with reef aquariums. a type of nudibranch that eats aiptasia I enjoyed looking at your drawings yesterday hopefully we can exchange more ideas and get more people interested in raceway style tanks with walls to direct and concentrate flow. I also am a huge fan of using gravity to my advantage. I named my first raceway system the compartmentalized waterfall raceway system. This is one of my first pics of the compartmentalized waterfall raceway system I took years ago. Water is pumped from the lowest tank to the ATS where it flows over the ATS textured glass plates and then continues on to the first coral tank, the second coral tank, the live rock tank and then back to the sump where it is pumped back to the ATS. The two coral tanks and the live rock tank do not require any pumps at all. Thats around 100g that has flow, free of active pumping. When the water passively flows to each of these three tanks interior walls direct and concentrate the flow along the channels and then into the next raceway. I never liked the idea of growing corals on live rock. If there is a pest its nearly impossible to remove it. Thats why I decided to compartmentalize my system. I seperated every aspect of the system. Pumps and filters in the sump, live rock in a dedicated tank, algae both turf and macro seperated and corals all by themselves growing on clear acrylic. I can inspect my corals from any angle and removing them in 8" of water is no problem for even closer inspections. I can see any worms under the acrylic by looking through the glass bottom and then target those exact places for worm removal. I still have much experimenting to go and a ton to learn. Hopefully more people will get on board and build a knowledge base about these types of tanks. I believe this concept of compartmentalizing each aspect of a reef and providing water movement for each section by gravity with interior walls to direct and concentrate flow is one of the most efficient tank designs. I'm about 1/2 hr from madison here in janesville. Nice setup you got. Whatup! Thanks for the compliment I've been spending some time in Janesville the last few months. I visited Brad and bought his 800g acrylic tank and also have stopped by Adams crib a bunch of times. Do you know those guys? I've also been trying to get down there to see Travis' fish breeding setup. Your def invited to stop by the warehouse and see everything in person anytime! Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Hey on the raceway how many gpm is flowing thre? Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Hey on the raceway how many gpm is flowing thre? Whatup! I figure about 1000-1200 gph depending on how clogged the ATS spray bars get. I use two pumps for redundancy just in case one breaks there is still some recirculation. I also have some tunzes in there because I poorly designed the first set of raceways with only one overflow hole per tank. I can't add more recirculation flow without overflowing the tanks. So the next set of raceways have three holes per tank to correct this. I plan on doing BeanAnimal Style overflow and experimenting with much more flow. I also believe this is enough overflow ability with three 1.5 inch holes to be able to experiment with some surge action. Can't wait the stand for the first set of raceways will be back from the welders and powder coating any day now!!! I only ordered one set of steel stands off the bat even though I have tanks for two new seperate raceway systems just in case I designed it wrong. I will be updating the build every step of the way. Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Ahh didnt even think about it getting clogged. Hey 2nd qustion. How does the coral in tank 4 i think it is get any light? Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 Ahh didnt even think about it getting clogged. Hey 2nd qustion. How does the coral in tank 4 i think it is get any light? We slide a credit card through the ATS spray bar every once and a while and then water comes out much faster By tank 4 I think you mean the live rock raceway. It gets light that shines through the top coral raceway. The rocks have a good amount of coralline so it must be enough for some photosynthesis. I didn't plan on this area getting any light. Its a cryptic zone where I grow sponges, filter feeders, and well aiptasias lol (not on purpose). Feel free to ask as many questions as come to your mind. I don't mind! Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Good i ask alot of question. Even more when i know some one will answer. Did you build or buy the raceway tanks. Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 Good i ask alot of question. Even more when i know some one will answer. Did you build or buy the raceway tanks. No problem! I'm sure i'll be firing some questions your way eventually I thought about trying to make the glass tanks myself but I decided that learning how to make glass tanks was quite an undertaking and I wanted to spend my time learning how to breed fish and grow corals instead. Im sure I could have saved a ton of money but I must say these tanks look absolutely beautiful. I can't take it back now lol. I did design the tanks just didn't cut the glass and put it together Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 I just noticed these drawings of some other concepts I had in my photobucket and I thought Id share This one is really cool. The pumps alternate and the flow will reverse directions through the raceway in intervals. This one is very similar just less compartmentalized, everything on one level This is the most basic the concept could be, pumps #1 and pumps #2 would alternate. By using tunze style prop pumps when they turn off water can still easily flow in the reverse direction through the pumps This is how I compartmentalized my v1 raceway This was my fish breeding system when it was only some ink This is how I designed the stand for it Not the best drawings but I get it done! Feel free to ask any questions Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 Check out these screens. No more fish jumping out of the tank ever!!! Link to comment
oceancube Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Check out these screens. No more fish jumping out of the tank ever!!! SWEET!!!! Link to comment
Squared Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 are you going to be a sponsor? Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 screens are smart. A fish on the grown isnt worth anything. Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 SWEET!!!! Thanks Rudy! I knew you would like them are you going to be a sponsor? I'm not selling anything right now but when I do I would definitely like to help support Nano. I've only been a part of your community for around a week now and already I can tell that this community is doing great things for aquaculture. Since joining I've met a bunch of new people and even had a few old friends contact me randomly after seeing some of my posts. I still need to formally introduce myself to the owner here (not sure who that is right now lol) and tell him about my intentions. If I am invited to sponsor I will most definitely gladly sponsor In addition to a future sponsorship I want to share my aquaculture experience and I hope to learn much more from all the very talented aquaculturists here. Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 screens are smart. A fish on the grown isnt worth anything. We lost one of our favorite fish last week from jumping out and it was a hard week. Everyday we would go over to her tank and she was not there. It bummed everyone out majorly around here. We all loved her, her name was Ghostface Killa. Here was Ghostface on the bottom left. RIP Ghostface We can't have weeks like last week anymore. We had to get those screens done. We get really attached to our clowns. Each one is special and has its own personality. Ghostface was one badass clown! Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Ahh man that fish looks sweet. Sorry for ur lost. Yay for the net. Link to comment
rrcg50 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 ah man that sucks that it was ghostface. you were right tho she was a beatiful fish on a side note next time you come down you will definately have to bring rusty. i can use some of his skills with making screens for my setup Link to comment
Alpha Aquaculture Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 on a side note next time you come down you will definately have to bring rusty. i can use some of his skills with making screens for my setup We are both down. He said he would help you out with the screen making no prob. I was just telling him not to worry me and Chad did the party spot scouting. When we go we will be prepared! Link to comment
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